Meal Planning Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-24-2022

The secret to great meals is in the planning. The truth is, many people think they hate to cook when they just haven’t figured out how to plan what to cook. When you plan your dinner menus ahead of time, you eat healthier, save money, reduce stress, and enjoy delicious meals. This Cheat Sheet provides a quick reference to the benefits and basics of meal planning.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-22-2021

When you’re on top of meal prep, you need to know how to keep your veggies fresh — having to run out to the store at the last minute is the opposite of prepared. Meal prep is all about making meals in advance, so you need to know how to use the freezer to your advantage. If you want to be a meal-prep pro, you need expert hacks that’ll make your life simpler, as well as advice on how to shop successfully. Read on for tips on all these subjects! Photo by S'well on Unsplash

Article / Updated 06-03-2016

Grocery shopping for the ingredients for healthful meals for your baby or toddler isn’t the easiest task. The following list contains perishable and nonperishable foods you’ll want to have on hand, so you can take care of the essentials in one fell swoop. Don’t serve the foods with stars to kids under age 1. For two stars, wait until age 2. Nonperishable foods Nonperishable foods Perishable foods Perishable foods Broth, reduced sodium, chicken or beef Oil, olive and vegetable American cheese, slices Milk, whole (for children age 1 or older) Cheerios Pasta, assorted Bread, whole wheat Mozzarella cheese sticks (string cheese) Cinnamon Peanut butter** Butter, not margarine Mozzarella cheese, shredded Flour, all purpose and whole wheat Pepper Cheddar cheese, shredded Parmesan cheese, grated Fruit, dried (chewy fruits are best, such as dried apricots) Pizza sauce Eggs Soy sauce Honey* Raisins English muffins Tortillas, wheat or flour Jelly or jam, low sugar Rice cakes Fruits, assorted and fresh, including apples, avocados, bananas, pears, strawberries*, tomatoes Vegetables, assorted and fresh, including broccoli, carrots, lettuce, and squash (summer or winter varieties) Maple syrup Rice, brown Ketchup Yogurt, full fat and varied flavors Mustard, dry ground Rolled oats Mayonnaise, full fat Nonstick cooking spray Salt Nuts, assorted* (For peanuts, wait until age 2.) Sunflower seeds

Cheat Sheet / Updated 06-03-2016

You can tap into many resources when it comes to planning meals for your baby or toddler. Babies younger than 2 years old have some special dietary don’ts you need to know about. For recommendations on the types of foods young children should eat, you can consult the food pyramid compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. You can make use of suggested shopping lists of perishable and non-perishable foods to keep on hand. And, when your young one is sick, what you feed them can help cure them.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Many food items go on sale at regular times from year to year. Throughout the year, various food items are seasonally offered at discounts. For example, March is National Frozen Food Month in the United States, and to celebrate this prestigious event, most grocery stores offer significant discounts on frozen foods during the month. The following list includes food items you can find on sale or at the lowest prices each month of the year. January: Turkey, apples, grapefruit, oranges, and pears February: Post–Valentine’s Day candy and chocolates March: Frozen vegetables, meats, breakfast items, and TV dinners April: Eggs, broccoli, and cauliflower May: Soda, hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, asparagus, and pineapple June: Dairy products and tomatoes July: Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, corn, cherries, squash, watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, plums, peaches, and nectarines August: Squash, green peppers, salad fixings, berries, apples, melons, peaches, apricots, and fresh fish September: Apples, broccoli, cauliflower, and canned goods October: Pumpkins, cranberries, grapes, oranges, sweet potatoes, and yams November: Turkey, sweet potatoes, yams, and post-Halloween bags of candy December: Oranges, apples, and grapefruit

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

If you only know Imperial measurements (like cups and quarts), but your recipe is in metric, don’t panic. These tables show you a variety of metric conversations: volume, weight, size, and temperature. Use these metric-conversion tables if you need to convert a recipe. These conversions are approximate, so results could vary. Metric Conversations for Volume U.S Units Canadian Metric Australian Metric 1/4 teaspoon 1 mL 1 ml 1/2 teaspoon 2 mL 2 ml 1 teaspoon 5 mL 5 ml 1 tablespoon 15 mL 20 ml 1/4 cup 50 mL 60 ml 1/3 cup 75 mL 80 ml 1/2 cup 125 mL 125 ml 2/3 cup 150 mL 170 ml 3/4 cup 175 mL 190 ml 1 cup 250 mL 250 ml 1 quart 1 liter 1 liter 1 1/2 quarts 1.5 liters 1.5 liters 2 quarts 2 liters 2 liters 2 1/2 quarts 2.5 liters 2.5 liters 3 quarts 3 liters 3 liters 4 quarts 4 liters 4 liters Metric Conversations for Weight U.S. Units Canadian Metric Australian Metric 1 ounce 30 grams 30 grams 2 ounces 55 grams 60 grams 3 ounces 85 grams 90 grams 4 ounces (1/4 pound) 115 grams 125 grams 8 ounces (1/2 pound) 225 grams 225 grams 16 ounces (1 pound) 455 grams 500 grams 1 pound 455 grams 1/2 kilogram Metric Conversations for Size Inches Centimeters 1/2 1.5 1 2.5 2 5.0 3 7.5 4 10.0 5 12.5 6 15.0 7 17.5 8 20.5 9 23.0 10 25.5 11 28.0 12 30.5 13 33.0 Metric Conversations for Temperature (Degrees) Fahrenheit Celsius 32 0 212 100 250 120 275 140 300 150 325 160 350 180 375 190 400 200 425 220 450 230 475 240 500 260

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Depending on the food you’re serving, you may find one wine suits better than another. Pairing foods with wines the right way can make a meal wonderful or a waste. Here are a few ideas about which wines complement particular foods: Easy-to-drink, lighter red wines: Go well with meat, poultry, and oily fish like salmon. Examples include Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah (called Shiraz in Australia), Beaujolais, and those small-winery offerings labeled simply “red table wine.” Richer, more fully-flavored red wine: Can accompany rich meats and sauces, heavy casseroles, and other strongly-flavored foods. Swirl and sip some Cabernet Sauvignon, red Zinfandel, and red Bordeaux. Easy-to-drink, light white wines: Match light dishes, such as delicate fish, salads, and broth-based soups that aren’t too highly spiced. Try dry Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chablis, and Pinot Grigio. Rich, oaky, buttery California Chardonnay: Pairs with more strongly flavored fish, poultry, salads, and soups. A gutsy Chardonnay can also taste good with the leaner cuts of pork and beef. Sweet wines: Suitable for serving with dessert (or as dessert). Try Riesling, Gewürztraminer, White Zinfandel, Vouvray, and fortified dessert wines such as sherry and Port. Champagne or other sparkling wines: Good to keep on hand because you never know when you might have cause for celebration! Champagne goes with just about any food.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Dinner can often be a bit of a challenge for children who are 18-months to 2-years-old. Kids that tend to eat an afternoon snack are often uninterested in dinner, but the delicious recipes below help alleviate that problem. Naturally, dinner is the last meal of the day, providing balanced nutrition for your child before he goes off to sleep, so it's important to work with your child to establish a pattern of healthy meals and healthy snacks. Just remember that some children are often uninterested in dinner. If you're having this problem, watch out for oversnacking or milk or juice intake before dinner. Work to establish a pattern that keeps your child from eating or drinking milk or juice for at least an hour and a half before dinner. This standard chicken "bake" recipe works well for dinner, and you can freeze the leftovers for use later. Mushroom Chicken Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 25 minutes Yield: Four 1-cup servings 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 10-1/2 ounce can of condensed cream of mushroom soup 1/4 cup whole milk 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 2. Place the chicken in a 9-x-12-inch baking dish. 3. Mix the soup and milk together in a bowl, then pour the soup evenly over the chicken. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Serve warm. If your child is a bit unhappy about broccoli, and let's face it — sometimes kids scrunch their noses at veggies — this cheesy rice mix should change those attitudes from grim to glad. If you don't serve this dish by itself, it also makes a great side dish. Cheesy Rice and Broccoli Preparation time: 15 minutes Yield: Six 1/2-cup servings 10-ounce package frozen broccoli florets 1 cup instant rice 1 cup water 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1. In a medium saucepan, combine broccoli, rice, and water. 2. Bring to a boil, and then remove from the heat and cover for 5 minutes. The water should absorb into the rice and broccoli. 3. Stir in the cheese until it's melted. Serve warm. Here's a quick chili dish with a twist: It uses turkey meat, which is less fatty than hamburger or other chili meat. Chili can be a bit spicy, which kids aren't acclimated to, but most toddlers will love this version because it's blander than typical chili. Quick and Easy Turkey Chili Preparation time: 15 minutes Yield: Three 1-cup servings 1/2 pound ground turkey 14-ounce can pinto beans, undrained 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained 10-1/2-ounce can of condensed tomato soup 1 soup can water (10-1/2 ounces) 1 teaspoon chili powder Salt to taste 1. Over medium heat, fry the turkey in a large frying pan until brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain extra grease if necessary. 2. Stir in all remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat, stirring occasionally. Serve warm with crackers, carrot sticks, and ranch dressing.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Naturally, you may get a lot of conflicting advice, such as Aunt Wanda's persistent instructions to start feeding your baby table food at 2 months old, but the age actually differs. You may wonder when you should begin introducing solid foods and what you should serve. Healthcare professionals overwhelmingly recommend that your baby's first food be rice cereal, which you can start serving around your baby's fourth month. (If you're breastfeeding exclusively, you can wait until your child is 6 months old.) Rice cereal contains a starting nutritional base of carbohydrates and, like other infant cereals, is fortified with iron, which is important for your baby's brain development. Additionally, rice cereal is easy to digest, which is very important during these early months. As your baby adjusts to the new taste and texture of rice cereal, slowly introduce other cereals (such as barley and oatmeal after several weeks of rice cereal) and basic veggie purees. It's okay to begin feeding some fruit purees before your baby reaches her seventh month, but you may find that your child starts to love the sweet taste of the fruit and won't want anything else. With that addiction in mind, try to hold off on the fruit until the latter part of the sixth month. What are the signs that your baby is ready to begin eating cereal? Watch for these three signs: Your baby puts things in his mouth. Your baby can easily hold his head up on his own. Your baby seems interested in food when someone else is eating. If you're saying "Yes, yes, yes" to the preceding bullets, then your baby can begin rice cereal during month four. However, what if your baby doesn't have these signs? In this case, wait a bit longer while your infant grows and develops. The fourth month is just an average benchmark and doesn't mean that there's a problem if your baby isn't quite ready for solids. Naturally, if you have questions or concerns about your baby's development, you should check with your pediatrician. If your baby was born prematurely, he may develop more slowly, so check with your baby's doctor instead of spending time worrying and biting your nails. If your baby seems to have all the readiness signs, but she seems only to push the cereal back out of her mouth instead of swallowing any, she may have a normal tongue-thrust reflex. This thrusting reflex is a normal condition that helps a baby to nurse. Test your infant's reflex by touching your baby's lips with a spoon or your finger. If her tongue comes out of her mouth every time, she still has the reflex. Wait a week or so and try again. She'll outgrow this reflex in time and begin swallowing as you feed her. Don't think that if your baby pushes the spoon out of her mouth on the first try that you should give up. Infants know only about suckling and have to learn to use the tongue to move solids from the front to the back of the mouth. This process takes time, and your first few tries of feeding cereal may end with most of the food down the front of your baby's bib, so don't get discouraged.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

When you’re ready to create your own menu plans, start small and plan 14 days’ worth of meals. After you get the hang of menu planning, you can plan more weeks at once. To start, call a family meeting. When everyone is settled in, pass out notebooks and pencils. Explain the goal — to plan menus as a family for the next two weeks, taking schedules and food likes and dislikes into account. Next, establish a dinnertime. To determine a time that works best for everyone, give each person a blank two-week grid. Fill in your family’s social, school, church, and other activities (and their times and duration) on the grid. Now it’s on to food preferences. Allow each person to state two or three dislikes, with the stipulation that the dislikes can’t be all of anything. Instead, make your kids (or spouse) pick the worst of the offending category. You can’t rule out all vegetables, but you can rule out a vegetable that no one likes. After everyone has written down their dislikes, call for a vote. Majority rules. Now it’s time to choose what you will eat. Decide what entree (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, no-meat, and so on) you’ll have for each of the 14 days. Write those on your master grid. Then round out each meal with foods to go with the main course. Those dishes may require recipes, or they may be as simple as a salad you have to assemble or a vegetable that requires microwaving. After you’ve planned each meal, find a recipe for each entree and side dish. Now the only things left to do are to shop for any ingredients you don’t have on hand, prepare each night’s meal, and enjoy it with your family.