- Hi, my name is Katie Maxy,
and I'm a registered dietician with Brenner FIT.
At Brenner FIT we are commonly asked questions
about how to cook at home more often
or how to plan ahead for meals for families.
And so I'm gonna spend a little bit of time
talking about meal planning and the different strategies
that we have found work for families.
Every family is different,
so the strategy and the method
that works for one family may not work for another.
So, you wanna start by actually looking to see
how many times do you eat at home right now,
because if you eat at home only once or twice
to try and eat at home seven times a week
is probably going to be really challenging for your family.
So, be realistic and just gradually increase your goal
to get to where you wanna be at the long term.
If you're used to eating one time a week
maybe you try for twice or three times a week at the most.
So, so some strategies that work for families.
One way is to start with kind of
what we call meals to remember.
As a family sitting down and writing down
what are all of the meals we know already works.
So, don't add new recipes on here or new ideas.
These are things that you know worked,
that you've done in the past,
that other family members can cook.
And then you save the sheet.
Some families will hang this inside of a cabinet
or put it somewhere where it's not
going to get lost or spill anything on,
so a countertop's probably not the best idea.
Hanging it up on a fridge
or inside of a cabinet may work better.
So, once you have this sheet you can then
actually plan meals from this meals to remember,
it just happens much quicker
and you can think of meals much faster.
Another strategy that's very similar
is to use cards to do the same thing.
So, instead of listing just foods
you actually list an entire meal that works.
So, one card may say spaghetti with salad,
and so you know that meal works.
And once you get several cards together
your family can go in and pick the two
that you wanna cook for that week.
Again, it's just a fast way to take the thinking out of it
because you've already sat down and written
all of the meals that you know works for your family.
Once you have a list of meals that work
you can gradually add to those
once you get new recipes that you like.
Just add them to your list of meals, of ideas.
Then once you have your list of ideas
you can actually start meal planning,
whether you're meal planning all seven days
or whether you're meal planning just one or two days.
So, this is an example of someone
that planned for an entire week.
And then you could also do it on sheets of paper,
you could just do it on notebook paper and hang it up,
it doesn't have to be on anything fancy.
This is planning for each day of the week.
You'll notice that this family
is cooking a couple of times a week.
They're actually planning to have leftovers,
and here at Brenner FIT we call these planovers.
So, we're purposely trying to have leftovers
so that we don't have to cook one of those nights.
And so maybe you make more grilled chicken
than you normally would or some extra spaghetti
so that you have enough to last
and have on your planover night.
And then you can also plan when you go out to eat.
I think that's important for families to know.
Just because you're meal planning
doesn't mean you actually have to plan to cook.
You can plan for when you're not going to cook as well.
The first step is to plan,
the second step is to cook at home more often.
And so you can actually plan for when you go out to eat.
Sometimes some families are going out
to eat five times a week,
that's okay, you're planning for it at least
and you're deciding where you're going,
and then you can gradually add
to the nights you cook at home.
Again, sheets, whiteboard, chalkboard,
whatever you write it on,
whatever works for your family is the best method.
One thing that families will also do is
decide who's going to be the cook that night.
So, it's again taking it to the next level.
So if you've planned for spaghetti,
you know that maybe one of your children's
going to be at home early,
so they can actually get the stuff started
and get the ingredients out.
These are just some different strategies to meal plan.
Find what works for your family.