How to Feed a Family

Your family needs their bodies to be nourished with the best foods available. This takes planning and creativity.

1)   Make a list of all the meals you can serve for supper, then breakfast, then lunch. For example, you would list hamburgers, pizza, tacos, steak, roast, pork chops, lasagna, pasta cheese casserole, etc. 

Then you list each bread item you would serve (potatoes, rice, fresh bread, pasta salad, etc.), each veggie and fruit you can serve. List cold cereal, oatmeal, eggs and toast, pancakes, etc. for breakfast.

2)   Sort the lists into categories (all the ground beef in one group, slabs of meat in another, casserole type dishes in another)

3)   Assign meals to days on a calendar. Look out for days you need faster meals (such as Bible study night when you must be out of the house by 6:15) and nights you often are too tired to cook (Sunday night, for example is a good night for roast and fresh bread if you own a crockpot and bread machine. Fifteen minute prep time, tops). 

Do no more than a month at a time. Things can change too much if you plan too far ahead. The master list of meals doesn’t have to be done over, though, just the actual assigning of days.

Include a

·        protein, whole grain, and fruit with every breakfast;

·        protein, whole grain, and veggie with every lunch;

·        protein, whole grain, veggie and fruit with every supper;

·        plus a snack or two per day of a fruit or veggie (carrot sticks, raisins, fresh peaches).

4)   Make a shopping list for everything you need for each meal, including spices. Put these in a file or notebook for the future.

5)   Make a master inventory list for the house. Go from one room to the next writing down everything you might run out of and need to pick up at the store.

a.   Bathroom- shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, toothbrushes, vitamins, etc,

b.   Bedroom- diapers, wipes, batteries, etc.

c.   School room- lined paper, white paper, printer ink, pencils, pens, staples, tape, glue sticks, etc.

d.   Pets- dog food, cat litter, fish food, training treats, etc.

e.   Car- oil, power steering fluid, granola bars, Kleenex, etc.

Go through each cupboard in the kitchen and pantry too. Arrange the items on the list according to room.

6)   Once a week, take a copy of your master inventory list and go to each room checking each item to make sure you have enough to last at least a week. Check your menu and make sure you have all you need for each meal. Make a shopping list from this. Be sure to include snacks such as apples, grapes, and cheese sticks.

7)   Eat a snack or meal and then go to the store (Studies have shown people spend much less money if they eat before they shop).

a.   Buy things with no ingredients label: oranges, carrots, raw spinach, etc.

b.   Buy things with only a few ingredients that are things you recognize: frozen mixed vegetables (broccoli, beans, carrots, corn), canned tuna (tuna, water, vegetable broth, salt), etc.

c.   As much as possible, avoid things with white flour (all-purpose flour, flour, wheat flour, enriched flour), sugar (sucrose, dextrose, maltose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc), hydrogenated fats, nitrates, and MSG on the label.

8)   When you get home put everything up. Divide things bought in bulk into single meal sized containers (I use Ziploc bags).

9)   Every night before bed, look over your menu and see what you are making the next day. Do everything you can for breakfast and lunch (i.e. take things out of the freezer. Load and start the bread machine).

10)       After breakfast clean up, start supper (and lunch if you can). Fifteen minutes of work in the morning can save you an hour of work in the evening.

11)       Check again after lunch for anything you can do for supper (or breakfast the next day).

12)       An hour before supper, do what ever needs to be done to finish dinner, timing it so everything will be completely finished by five minutes before you want to serve the meal (life being what it is, something will always take longer than you think it will or a child will have an emergency at the last minute. That extra five minutes allows you to have supper on the table on time.)

13)       Keep a few healthy-ish and quick meals handy for emergencies (good and bad). For example, whole wheat crackers of some kind, cheese sticks, and a bag of fruit can make a great lunch while driving to the mountains to play in a surprise snow. Whole-wheat hamburger buns (stored in the freezer for up to a month) with pre-made patties can make a quick meal if the dog sneaks into the kitchen and eats your roast you just finished.

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”