Meal Planning Mondays

Planning food ensures a balanced diet and saves time and money. Last week, I blogged about reasons why you should meal plan. This week, I thought that I would share with you some of the things that you need to take into consideration when meal planning for the week (although some of these things you won’t always need to worry about).Take into consideration Nutritional needs – children, teenagers and elderly people have different dietary needs and thus require special diets. Nutritional needs vary with age, gender, size, lifestyle habits, occupation and health.

Consider the Appeal – when planning a meal, it is good to include a variety of colours, shapes, flavours and textures. Using a range of ingredients and cooking methods will make the food more appealing.

Examine your Time constraints – When planning what dishes to cook, we should consider how much time we can afford to spend in preparing and cooking the dishes.

Watch the Budget – We don’t need to spend a fortune to have a tasty and nutritious meal.

Take your cooking skills into account – Not all of us are master chefs, so we should cook dishes we can easily manage on our own. If we try to cook a dish that is too difficult, we may become livid when we are unable to follow the recipe. As such, the dish may not turn out right. Note if the meal is for an

Occasion – choosing dishes to suit an occasion is important. There are also practical reasons for considering the occasion. Preparing food that cannot stay fresh is not ideal for a picnic. Choosing the wrong food can even be dangerous to health if it is not packed properly. It may turn bad and cause stomach upsets.

Know the number of Guests – Factors such as age or occupation influence the types of food that a person needs. It is also important to take note of any special diet that our guests have.

Consider the availability of ingredients – Some ingredients are difficult to obtain in certain countries. When planning meals, choose dishes with ingredients that are easily obtainable. In addition, ensure that the ingredients are in seasons. Not only will they be easier to find, they will also be cheaper and tastier. If a particular recipe uses ingredients that are rare or unavailable, we can substitute them with commonly available ones.

Consider any of your guests food allergies or meal requirements – can they eat what you plan to cook, are they allergic to something, are they vegetarian or can they not eat something because of their religion

Does you menu have repetition – do you have similar things in you menu or does you menu explore a wide rang of flavours and techniques.

Do your dishes complement each other – do they go together without being too similar?

MONDAY – Mexican Spiced Pork Cutlet