Meal
and Menu Planning
When
it comes to dinnertime, PLANNING is the key to less or no stress!
---The
Food Nanny
1. Dinner
is About The Family!
Nothing can replace family dinner. The most
important thing you will do each day is cook dinner for your family and sit
down together to eat. The smells and chemistry that permeate the home
throughout the dinner hour are without substitute. Research has shown that kids
who eat dinner with their parents are healthier, more advanced in literacy, and
less likely to get involved in drugs and alcohol. You can make a more unified,
happier family in just one hour a day.
2. Dinner is About Planning!
The key to a successful family dinner all
comes down to planning. If you plan in advance, it liberates you from the hassle
of last-minute meal planning. Never again will you be faced with inventing a
meal at 5pm! Your family will have
something to look forward to if you choose consistent weekly themes. As you
plan it will also simplify your shopping efforts and reduce trips to the store. This helps keep you within your financial
budget and opens up time for other things when you would have been cruising the
grocery store aisles!
In the time it takes to go to a drive thru
restaurant or order take out, you can make a healthy and satisfying
dinner. Really. It just takes planning and practice.
Only go to the grocery store ONCE a
week. This saves time and money.
3. Dinner is About Good Food!
The proof is in the pudding. Or in the
cinnamon rolls. Or in the pot roast. Whatever foods your family loves, learn
and use the recipes to put smiles on the faces of even the pickiest eaters. Find
cookbooks you test and love. Often the
best bet is going through your mother's and grandmother's or aunties recipe
boxes/files and finding the dishes you have loved growing up. Almost all recipes can be adjusted for 1, 2,
or a family. Be creative and don't be
afraid to try new things. You don't know
when something you thought you would never like just might become your
favorite!
**Keep a list taped to the inside of a
designated cupboard door. Keep a pencil
there too. Get in the habit of writing
down when you run out of something and GET IT ON THAT LIST. In my home, if it doesn't get on that list,
it doesn't get purchased. My family has
learned to write it down! (toothpaste,
shampoo, deoderant, floss, etc.)
**Pick a day of the week that will be your
grocery shopping day. Keep it
consistent. Only change it if you see a
pattern change in your weekly schedule.
This way you know what you will be doing on that day.
**Take your list down from the cupboard door,
turn it over and write down the days of the week. Look at your calendar for the week. Does one night need a crockpot meal? A fast dinner? You might want to organize the
days by theme: comfort food night,
Italian night, Mexican night, etc. This
gives you a variety of recipes to try and a diverse menu. It is hard to get tired of the 'same old
thing' this way! Check the weather
too: if it's going to be a rainy day
there is nothing better than a pot of hearty soup simmering away on the stove
and some rolls or biscuits in the oven!
Or if it's hot, a nice main dish salad could be just the light dinner
you were looking for.
**When you make your weekly menu, list all the
ingredients you will need for each recipe.
Check it against what you already have in the pantry. This avoids duplicates and unnecessary
buying. Write down what you need on the
list.
**Before you start: get all your ingredients and kitchen tools
out. BIG TIP: Clean up as you go. Nothing is worse after you have spent your
time cooking than to look at the messy kitchen and feel overwhelmed. Put things away and wipe down counters as you
go along. It is a small thing that
doesn't take that much time. It is
merely a habit. Make it your habit!
**Set the table, even if only for 1. It makes whoever sits down at your table feel
special and important.
A
Home is More Than A House It is A Sanctuary
It has been a long day for everyone. The family has been
scattered in all different directions throughout the day, but at last, the time
has come for all to converge on the sacred refuge, separated from the challenges of the outside
world, called home.
"Actually, a home is much more than a house. A house is
built of lumber, brick, and stone. A home is made of love, sacrifice, and
respect. A house can be a home, and a home can be a heaven when it shelters a
family" stated,Thomas S. Monson,
prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons.
There are many fixtures that are found in this sanctuary, but
none that are quite as important as the dinner table. It is a
multi-functional magic place. It is here we are fed, nourished, and replenished
from the demands of the day.
The dinner table is a multi-faceted
location.
It is the gathering place or the "Hub" of the house. It is here that we
exchange ideas with one another, tell stories and jokes, and just plain
chat. There are times when we will sit for hours after the meal is
actually finished just chewing the fat and hashing over business.
It functions as our board room table where we discuss matters that affect us as a family
unit. It is a school
room table where we learn and grow in many areas, including gospel topics. Sometimes we just clear off all the
dishes and break out the games and enjoy a television free night, making it a game
table, too. Another of our favorite "table" activities is putting
together an old fashioned jig-saw puzzle.
The table is a place of celebration,
many a birthday candle are blown out on it, while choruses of Happy Birthday
ring through the house. Whatever the activity we choose, we find that as we
gather around the table, the bonding and building starts to take place.
The
Eternal Family
·
The
Eternal Family
The home is where we are nurtured and where we prepare ourselves for living in
mortality. It is also where we prepare ourselves for death and for immortality
because of our belief and understanding that there is life after death.
Families
Are Forever, A Traditional Mormon Belief
As members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), we believe in
the continuation of the family unit for all eternity.
Practicing to live together now, in love, and
finding joy with one another, is what we are trying to do. Spending time
together is part of that process. We are so thankful for that scratched up,
second hand, wooden fixture we call a table because it acts as a
gathering place of love for our family.
"It is vital that frequent family dinners become a
permanent fixture for children, not only when they are young, but throughout
their teenage years," said Dr. Wade F. Horn, Assistant Secretary for
Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"The frequency of family dinners decreases significantly as children enter
and go through high school– and that's just when the benefits of family dinners
may be needed most."
·
Compared
to teens who have family dinners twice a week or less, teens who have dinner
with their families five or more nights in a week are:
·
32
percent likelier never to have tried cigarettes (86 percent vs. 65 percent).
·
45
percent likelier never to have tried alcohol (68 percent vs. 47 percent).
·
24
percent likelier never to have smoked pot (88 percent vs. 71 percent).
Teens
who have family dinners twice a week or less are three times likelier than
teens who have dinner with their families five or more times a week to say all
of their friends use marijuana (9 percent vs. 3 percent).
Teens
who have dinner with their families five or more times a week are almost twice
as likely to receive A's in school compared to teens who have dinner with their
families two or fewer times a week (20 percent vs. 12 percent). Teens who receive
A's and B's are at half the risk of substance abuse as those who receive grades
of C or lower.
(some quotes and material
taken from The Food Nanny, Thomas S. Monson, In The Doghouse, Center of
Addiction and Substance Abuse: Columbia University.)
The two worksheets I gave them were these:
BEEF CHICKEN PORK OTHER
(on one side)
SOUPS SALADS BREAKFASTS SIDES/VEGETABLES
(on the other side)
This is where they wrote down under each category what they liked, knew how to make, or wanted to learn. I have it on landscape in my documents and it is what I use. Mine used to be handwritten, but now it is all nicely typed and I keep it in a sheet protector in a drawer in my kitchen so it is at my ready. (see above handout)
And then this handout from Real Simple:
