Foods

Lesson Questions

• Describe the planning, time management and budgeting needed to create nutritious meals.

Lesson

 "For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned."Benjamin Franklin

Since it seems the main reason people give for not creating their own meals at home is time, our first consideration needs to be time management. Organizing saves time and one strategy for organizing is to create a menu plan.

Time Management

A menu plan saves time. No dash to the store for a missing ingredient, no frantic searches through the freezer for something, anything to thaw for dinner. Knowing ahead of time what you're going to prepare really takes the pressure off if you already have a plan, there's so much less to think about that day.

Budget

A menu plan saves money. Reducing trips to the supermarket, a menu plan reduces impulse spending. Using leftovers efficiently cuts food waste, while planned buying in bulk makes it easy to stockpile freezer products at reduced prices.When you plan a weekly menu, you can then make sure you actually will have everything needed to make the meals. Grocery shopping becomes less of a burden because before leaving for the store you can do a quick inventory of what you already have that will be used for the meals you've planned.

One strategy is to keep two grocery lists posted on the fridge:

• regular weekly list, which is mostly for perishable items and add to the perishable grocery list as you plan menus
• pantry list for bulk items and staples and add as you start to get to the bottom of staples such as flour and brown rice

The freezer is your friend. You can store freezables as they go on sale, as well as produce from the garden. When you cook items that freeze well, like soup, chili, spaghetti sauce, and pizza dough, make a double, or even a triple batch, then freeze a meal's worth. Having some homemade meals in the freezer for the really busy days really helps save time!

Taking lunches also saves a lot of money, and tends to be a healthier option. Fill containers with leftovers every night after dinner. Then, come morning, you can take the container, add a piece of fruit, and go.

Nutrition

A menu plan improves nutrition. There's time to prepare side dishes and salads to complement the main dish, increasing the family's consumption of fruits and vegetables. Knowing what to serve each day and having the ingredients already on hand makes cooking enjoyable. Creating a menu can be a tremendous help. You can lay out a plan for the week (or two weeks) for what you would like to prepare for dinner. This also helps you to determine how many times you've prepared certain dishes, thus helping you aim for a varied diet.