Planning Meals for the Family BETH BAILEY MCLEAN OU do not have to be a scien- fact, to eating smaller meals at shorter V_ tist to serve good meals, but you intervals if the total amount of food J_ cannot trust to chance or a satisfies the body's needs. The mid- spur-of-the-moment selection of foods. morning crackers and milk or apples A plan is needed. It can be flexible at school, the fruit juice or doughnut to take advantage of lower prices of and coffee at work, and the cookies at seasonal foods and to meet the chang- the neighborhood kaffeeklatsch are ing needs and desires of your family, part of the overall meal plan. Counted, but it has to be a plan. Any job or too, must be the afterschool milk and undertaking needs planning, foresight, sandwich and the refreshments at tea. and schedules, which are especially What the refrigerator yields in the necessary in a task as important as evening also is to be considered. feeding a family. Planning for these extra items—or The first step is to decide which foods at least awareness of them—makes it and amounts of foods are needed to easier for the family lo pick the foods make a nutritionally adequate and that are best for them. For example, a pleasant diet for each person. cupboard and a section of the refrig- The basis of the plan is the selection erator might be labeled '*snacks," and of the amount of food needed from stocked with fruit, crackers, cheese, each of the food groups: Milk and milk milk, and a surprise or special for the products; meat and poultry, fish, eggs, day. and dried legumes; vegetables and A general plan for all the meals for fruit; and bread and cereals. The plan a week can save you time, work, and should include all the meals and the money. It will help you avoid hum- between-mcal items eaten at home and drum meals. elsewhere. I know of no physiological reason A GOOD BREAKFAST is a good Way to for the convention of three meals a start the day. day. There may be some advantage, in In many homes, the family can eat qro PLANNING MEALS FOR THE FAMILY 511 breakfast together, and minor adjust- butter, or one of many other fillings— ments to suit an individual can be open faced or closed, hot or cold, with made by serving more of some food or milk, a vegetable, and fruit is popular by adding a food. To a breakfast of for many noon meals. orange juice, whole-grain cereal, milk, A substantial soup with toast, a fruit toast, and jam can be added bacon salad, and a beverage make a good and eggs for those who will have the lunch. Meat, fish, poultry, or cheese noon meal away from home. salad with bread or crackers and fruit Breakfast is the time to serve foods is another suggestion. A vegetable or that awaken the appetite and appeal fruit salad with cottage cheese, bread to the sight, smell, and taste. Colorful and butter, and a beverage may be foods and table settings and fragrant, appetizing on a warm day. A com- tart foods and a change from day to bination of two or three vegetables day in the menu help start the day served with a cheese sauce needs a tart right. fruit and a bit of sweet to complete a A basic breakfast plan of fruit, cereal, good menu. A big serving of straw- milk, bread, and eggs can be varied by berry shortcake with whipped cream using a different kind or form of fruit, or hot mincemeat pie with hard sauce cereal, and bread and by changing could be the main feature of the lunch. the method of cooking the eggs or by If a lunch is packed to be eaten at adding a breakfast meat to the eggs. school, work, or play, the meal planner Although a variety in the breakfast can select the packed foods to fit into menu is desirable, the family may not the total scheme. like a radical change in foods or the If the packed lunch contains an egg- introduction of a strange flavor. At this salad sandwich, slices of carrot, milk, first meal, most of us want familiar a cupcake, and an apple, the lunch foods that do not require too great an served at home could be creamed eggs adjustment in our eating habits. on toast, carrot and apple salad, milk, Foods for breakfast should be quick and cupcakes. and easy to prepare and serve. Or, if eggs are served at breakfast, The rising hour of different members the packed lunch can include a meat of the family may make one breakfast sandwich and a peanut butter and time impractical. In a family of four jelly sandwich, milk, celery stalks, and children 4 to 15 years old, the father an orange. The home lunch may be left for work at 7 o'clock. The children baked beans, brown bread and jelly, had to leave for school at 8 and 9 milk, and an orange and celery salad. o'clock. The mother solved her prob- When a member of the family selects lem by serving breakfast informally a meal away from home, the problem from 6:30 to 8 o'clock and so adjusted of carrying out the food plan requires the basic breakfast menu to suit each family consultation and agreement in one, including herself. She had time, the selection of food for the meal. too, as they worked together to prepare The adult who buys a meal away the food, to chat with each one about from home can choose a light or sub- plans for the day. stantial meal according to his need to Sunday breakfast may be a special supplement the meals served at home. occasion for which the weekday plan This is not too difficult if everyone in is changed, the method of service is the family takes an interest in the plan different, and the hour is fitted in with for meals and understands the place of the day's schedule. Sunday breakfast food in a good health program. may retain the traditional foods with modifications to make less work. DINNER TIME is family time. The hour of service for dinner may be SOME KIND OF SANDWICH—with ham- adjusted to suit the family schedule. burger, frankfurter, cheese, peanut Perhaps a television program calls for ^^12 TEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1959 a dinner 15 minutes earlier or later more than an hour for preparation. than usual. Perhaps an early eve- Many cuts of meat, fish, and poultry ning meeting suggests an easy-to-serve require less than an hour or perhaps buffet or tray meal. no time at all for preparation. The social custom of eating with When planning a main dish, con- others has an important psychological sider the desirability of leftovers for effect on the enjoyment of food. The another meal. With a roast, serve emotional stimulation of pleasant com- oven-browned potatoes, scalloped to- panions influences the appetite and matoes, a green salad, hot rolls, and may improve the physiological utili- apple pudding. For a busy second-day zation of food. The person who eats dinner, plan a meat pie with biscuit alone may develop poor eating habits. topping, buttered peas, carrot salad, The dinner menu often is planned biscuits, and a fruit gelatin dessert. around a main dish. A special dessert Dinner is the time for vegetables. or salad may be the focal point, how- The great variety of fresh, canned, ever, and the other foods can be dried, and frozen vegetables suggests selected to complement this choice. two or more of these foods for the If planning begins with the main dish, dinner meal. The many methods of the vegetables, bread, salad, and preparing vegetables suggest a rule dessert should make a harmonious to serve a difl'erent vegetable and com- combination that rounds out the bination of vegetables every day for nutrients needed for the day. a week or two. When seasonal vege- Sameness in the breakfast and lunch- tables, such as asparagus, corn on eon menus may be all right, but the cob, tomatoes, and other semi- variety and change in the dinner perishable vegetables are plentiful in foods is desirable. Monotony often garden or market, considerable repe- causes discontent and lack of appetite. tition for a short period may be all Some of us, however, are victims of right. our prejudices: We are reluctant to Salad greens we can ^(tt at all sea- try something different and cling to sons. A green salad may be served as a a dinner of meat, gravy, potatoes, first course for dinner. A salad of bread, and pie. A repetition of a greens, with or without other vege- limited number of foods may result tables, often is served with the main in an omission of some of the essential course. The salad should fit the meal. nutrients. A light salad of greens or citrus fruit To break a habit of narrow choice with a tart, light dressing makes a good requires ingenuity in introducing a appetizer. A hearty salad of meat, slight change to create a desire to poultry, fish, egg, or cheese with may- explore the pleasures of new flavors. onnaise or cooked salad dressing be- Many kinds and forms of meat, comes a good main course for a dinner poultry, and fish at the markets make or supper. A fruit salad with cream it easy to serve a different main dish dressing may be right for dessert.