Meal Planning Basics

Meal planning begins before you go shopping at the grocery store. Gather your recipes and store ads and plan out your menus for the week before you shop.

One of the most important skills that one has to have when starting a family or just living alone is meal planning. Meal planning is necessary for you to organize what recipes you are going to cook during the week. It also helps a lot if you have children in the family, since they can often times be quite picky about food and you'll need to plan meals carefully in order to satisfy them. If you figure out what to start out with in meal planning, soon it will become a routine for you and it'll be no sweat.
Planning meals in advance also saves money. If you know what to buy and how much to buy, you won't have any leftovers and you won't spend excess. You can also buy in bulk to save money, if you know that you are going to use all of it in your meals before it goes bad. It also saves money when you plan, so that you can cook right away without worrying and meals will always be served on time.
When you plan meals, you should make sure that the meals satisfy your family's nutritional needs every day. The USDA created a Food Pyramid which helps people plan meals that incorporate all of the important food groups into it. Before, meals would consist of a viand, a carbohydrate or starch like potatoes and rice, a vegetable dish, and milk. Nowadays, meat should be considered as a side dish, not the whole meal. Meals should mostly be centered on grains, fruits and vegetables.
In order to have a variety of different recipes and to keep mealtimes fun and enjoyable, you should keep in mind the color, texture, and temperature of your foods. Different colors please the eyes and stimulate the appetite. Color is one of the most important factors since It is been proven that the more colorful your plate is, the healthier it is as well, but this only applies to natural colors, not food coloring. Different temperatures range from hot and cold meals can be interesting, and textures from crunchy to chewy provide a wonderful eating experience.
First, when meal planning, select a number of recipes that you have made before and that you know your family likes. Then start thinking of the meals and their color, temperature and texture. This way, you can choose which meals to cook on each day so that you will have a variety of meals. Make sure that you balance healthy and delicious meals. It is alright to have a bit of junk food or snacks sometimes, but only in moderation.
You can make a meal planning calendar so that you can keep track of what you are going to cook and when. This also helps with meals that require a lot of beforehand preparation, so that you know what you need to do and you can make a check-list.
Some things that can help you plan meals are the ads you see in the grocery store. If you see some good items on sale, you can choose to get those and use them in recipes for that week. Try to introduce new ingredients and recipes to your family slowly and alternate them with foods that you know they will like. Seasonal foods and recipes are great, since seasonal produce tastes great.

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