Simple meal planning

The goal is to maintain your health, as well as to ensure that dietary intakes aid the individual in meeting their daily nutritional requirements. Today’s article focuses on simple meal planning to assist individuals and families in planning balanced meals.

Principles of meal planning Some of the basic principles include that of: using the Caribbean Food Groups as the guide in meal planning, choose the foods you want to serve, you should note that availability, accessibility, and available storage and equipment are significant factors, the nutritional needs of family members taking into consideration stage of the life cycle, food preferences, therapeutic diets if needed for people diagnosed with diseases, the number of meals and snacks served, the amount of food needed in the household, first take an inventory in the pantry; then make your grocery shopping list, members of the household should get the right amount of food based on their needs, the multimix principle is used in meal planning; this is a guideline used to combine foods and ensure that meals are nutritionally balanced, based on mixing and matching foods from the Caribbean Food Groups.

When combining foods, the meal manager should select a variety of foods from the food groups such as staples which contain carbohydrate which provides the body with energy; legumes and foods from animals as these are good sources of protein; vegetables and fruits –they contain vitamins and minerals; and fats and oils (best sources of fat).

In using the multimix principle, two-mix combinations can comprise of staples and legumes for example rice and peas, crackers and peanut butter, dhalpourri roti; or staples and food from animals –green banana porridge, coconut bake and salt fish buljol, whole wheat bread and cheese spread, cassava pieces and fried fish with gravy.

The three-mix combinations can consist of staples and legumes or food from animals and vegetables –seasoned rice, stew kidney beans and callaloo, sweet potato slices, baked chicken with gravy, and chunky vegetables, bake and vegetable omelet. You can consume fresh fruits and water between meals.

For four-mix combinations –staples, legumes, food from animals and vegetables: ground provision pie, stew pigeon peas, baked chicken with gravy, and tossed salad; or staples, legumes, vegetables and fruits eg seasoned rice, stew pink beans, tossed salad, and tropical fruit cup.

From this brief overview, you can conclude just having for breakfast only a glass of fruit juice in the morning or a few crackers is not a balanced meal.

Therefore, it is important to make wise food choices, and in some cases make necessary changes to the menu, ensuring good nutrition at mealtimes (Caribbean Home Economics in Action). In addition, you should note that though some people desire to improve their dietary practices, keep in mind that there are several influencing factors which may probably impact meal planning.

Such factors include, but should not be limited to the number of people within the household, the availability of cooking equipment, media messaging and marketing trends, cooking skills, cultural practices, and the amount of money available to purchase food or the lack thereof are causes for concern.

Also, for people who might be unemployed or unfortunately had a change in their job status from full-time to part-time, buying an adequate quantity of food monthly, fortnightly or weekly can sometimes be challenging. What can you do? Be practical, making changes to the meal plan to include local produce in season can help with lowering cost and savings. For example, meal managers may consider serving watermelon in several ways –watermelon cooler (beverage), cubes and slices (serve for breakfast, dessert or snack), mango used in the preparation of muffins, beverage, fruit bread, cake, ice cream, chutney or in other sweet and savoury dishes; legumes - a variety of peas and beans can be used in the preparation of burgers, fritters, spreads, casseroles, pelau, porridge, and so on. Staples such as green bananas, breadfruit, cassava, plantains, moko (bluggoe), sweet potato, dasheen, eddoes and tannia are used to prepare tasty dishes including cold and hot salads, muffins, bread, and a variety of savoury dishes and desserts.

Recipe to try

Sweet Potato Fish Balls

1 lb minced fish

1-2 cups cooked mashed sweet potato

1 beaten egg

1 tsp lemon juice

3 tbsp chopped herbs

1 cup bread crumbs

? tsp salt

Oil for frying

Fresh seasonings (chopped onion, grated garlic, chopped celery, chadon beni, pimentos and green pepper) optional

Combine minced fish, mashed sweet potato, egg, lemon juice, fresh seasonings and chopped herbs. Mix well. Shape into balls, coat with breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil or bake in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes.

Note: minced meat or mashed peas and beans can be substituted for fish.

Claudette Mitchell, PhD, RD is an Assistant Professor, University of the Southern Caribbean, School of Science, Technology, and Allied Health