A good cook will always have a menu on hand. That is just good time management and kitchen planning. Generally, you won't plan your three course meal for the night you get home at 5pm and have to leave at 6pm to catch a meeting.
Most of us stand in front of the refrigerator and decide each evening what we'll have for supper. Most times, we'll end up giving up and ordering out, or grabbing something from a box. Not the healthiest way to eat. With obesity becoming a bigger and bigger problem, we need to watch what we eat. I believe that the biggest part of the problem is the lack of good menu planning skills.
Certainly exercise is important. Watching what you eat is important. The easiest way to know that you are eating sensibly though is to prepare a menu and generally stick to it. Then eat as planned and get a bit of exercise in every day. I'm sure that if everyone took 30 minutes per week to do this simple task, we would be a healthier and wealthier nation. Oh, yeah! Didn't I tell you? Sticking to a menu and not wasting food is good for the budget too.
Is menu planning a difficult task? Not unless you make it so. Here are some simple guidelines for menu planning.
Material required:
- Have your weekly agenda on hand - just to know which nights have outings, which days have been more demanding, which evenings you get home late from work or school...
- Have a sheet of paper with the days of the week written in the margin with a minimum of 2 lignes between days.
- A good pencil and eraser is handy too.
Up to this point, everything sounds simple enough. Now comes the planning.
- On each day, write down a meat. I'm not talking "chicken cordon bleu". I'm just talking chicken. For variety, try not to have the same meat or even similar meat two days in a row... ex: chicken/turkey or sole/haddock...
- On each day, write down a grain. Here we can be more specific. Instead of just saying wheat, we would say pasta. No names though. This is just the basic guideline.
- On each day, write down at least two vegetables/fruit. Preferrably one will be bright green, and the others have vibrant colours.
- On each day, write down a dairy product. Milk, cheese, yogurt.
Doing this first step allows you more freedom to switch things around as you are planning your meals.
Keep in mind when doing this to look over your agenda. Do you have a meeting on Tuesday night? Then I wouldn't recommend planning a three course meal with chicken for Tuesday. Actually, I'd likely avoid chicken for Tuesday. I would probably plan a stew so that it could simmer slowly all day while I was at work, or a quick stir-fry - where all the prep work is done the night before.
You may have noticed that we've hit the 4 food groups. This will help us to follow the food guide, and help us to get everything we need in our diet. Now, let's put a little bit more meat on this menu.
Some people don't need to go much further than this. They can see this and create a shopping list and know what they will have for supper every night of the week. Others, they need a bit more substance. They need to know that on Monday, the chicken will be "shaked and baked"(tm) with a side of rice pilaf, spinach, cucumber and tomato, served with a glass of milk. So let's start talking substance.
You know how busy you are. You know if your family is only ever home 2 nights a week, or if you have picky eaters, or even if you have growing teenage boys. You know if you have to watch your salt intake... At this point this is where you plan your menu. I will give you a peek at mine.
- Monday - Chicken, potato (very starchy vegtable so in this case will likely replace a grain), salad, zucchini, carrots, yogurt - (OUT)
- Tuesday - Pork, polenta, spinach, celery, tomatoes, cheese - (OUT)
- Wednesday - Chicken, rice, carrots, cabbage, onions, milk - (OUT)
- Thursday - Beef, pasta, tomatoes, bell peppers, spinach, cheese
- Friday - Fish, potato, string beans, carrots, milk
- Saturday - Beans, ploye (that's a local pancake), vegetable sticks, yogurt
- Sunday - Roast, couscous, salad, carrots and brocolli, ice cream
For me this is enough of a guideline to follow. This coming week, I happen to be out of town for 2-3 days due to surgery in the family. This means that someone else needs to cook for the rest of the family. When I get back, the rest of the week will be busy caring for the recovering child. My menu will need to be light and quick to prepare. So let's plan:
- Oven baked spicy chicken thighs with baked potatoes, salad, sautéed zucchini & carrots. Yogurt for dessert.
- Pan fried marinated italian pork chops with cheesy polenta & tomato sauce, wilted garlic spinach & braised celery.
- Oven baked shaked chicken, rice pilaf, coleslaw
- Green & beefy tomato sauce with pasta. Cheese
- Fish & chips, sautéed string beans and mashed carrots.
- Homemade baked beans, ployes, vegetable sticks & yogurt base dip.
- Roast (on special), couscous salad, chef salad, honey-ginger carrots and garlic brocolli.
From here I pull out my recipes, make sure I have everything that I need, and plan my grocery list. I also plan my cooking week. Since some of this can be made ahead of time, I plan to save myself a bit of a logistical headache and break down my week as such:
- Do days ahead: Polenta, tomato sauce, green and beefy tomato sauce.
- Do night before: Prepare vegetables (dice, slice, cut...) and store in water in the refrigerator to cook tomorrow, wash & dry leafy greens and wrap in paper towel to store in the refrigerator, rince beans, season roast.
- Do morning of: Season chicken, prepare breading mix for chicken, start beans, marinade the pork chops in italian salad dressing.
This way, as a working mom, when I get home at night, too exhausted to look at the refrigerator, I know that supper is ready, or at least nearly so. The work that I have left to do is minimal and I can relax, knowing that we'll have a good and healthy meal.
Admittedly, this takes a bit of time. However, with this 30-45 minutes of work, I've saved myself 3 suppers out, 2 chicken nugget suppers & 1 from a box dinner. I've saved money because I haven't gone out for supper. I've saved money because I don't waste fresh food bought from a guilty "we should be eating fresh vegetables" conscience. I'm eating healthier because I'm eating those seasonal fresh vegetables and reasonable portions.
Hmmm... This could well be the new diet revolution... Menu planning! ;)
Now. What's for lunch?
