Comments on: Family Meal Planning Series (Part 1): Top 5 Barriers to Making Meals Happen

By: Family Meal Planning Series (Part 3): 5 Secrets to the Perfect Weekly Meal Plan

Family Meal Planning Series (Part 3): 5 Secrets to the Perfect Weekly Meal Plan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:51:45 +0000

[...] so far in this series we’ve covered meal planning barriers and how to collect easy & healthy family meals. But now we are getting to the most exciting [...]

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:52:32 +0000

Reading the first two paragraphs of this post was like looking into a mirror and I realize that I’m going to have to change my attitude toward feeding my family. My barrier is an incredibly picky son (which squashes all excitement in meal preparation) and a 9 month old howling daughter that requires holding or a Bjorn during the dinner prep hour. I think of these things as I’m trying to pull together an imaginative grocery list and I frequently decide to chuck the whole idea…which sends me to the grocery store for panicked mini-shops over and over again throughout the week. Getting organized, changing my attitude and disciplining myself…guess that’s why I’m here.

By: Family Meal Planning Series (Part 2): How to Uncover Easy & Healthy Meals

Family Meal Planning Series (Part 2): How to Uncover Easy & Healthy Meals — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:20:24 +0000

[...] part one of Raise Healthy Eaters’ family meal planning series, we talked about overcoming barriers to getting healthy meals on the table. In part 2, we are [...]

By: Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD

Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:36:12 +0000

Alexis,

I totally understand where you are coming from. I never learned to cook and have a picky 3-year old. I have found the crock-pot to be the best thing. It got me started cooking and is really easy. I’ve gradually added new dishes to my meals and like cooking more now that I make food that tastes really good.

As for the picky eating. I usually make two meals a week I know my daughter will eat. So one week that might be burritos and spaghetti. Other nights I make sure there are at last 2 things I’ll know she’ll eat. And after doing this for a while I see her trying more and more foods. Yes, some nights she doesn’t eat anything — even foods I KNOW she likes. I have let it not bother me and I think she can sense that. I’ll talk more about strategies in my “getting kids to eat” series. You can always have them help with preparation and find fun ways to have the try foods. Let me know if you have any questions

By: Alexis

Alexis — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:58:29 +0000

I will be honest, I do not like to cook and my husband is fully aware of this but if I am going to stay home with my boys, I have to cooks for us. Going out to dinner is much more enjoyable for me but it does get expensive and going out to dinner with children isn’t always enjoyable! My issue is how picky my children are…my oldest doesn’t like to eat meat and would much rather eat his carbs…he loves pasta, just pasta. My youngest doesn’t like to eat much either….pizza, pb/j, mashed potatoes. They do like to eat bread when we have it for dinner but we have them eat some of their dinner before eating bread, which most time doesn’t happen so they eat nothing. There are many meals where they just don’t eat and meals just become frustrating and seem futile!

By: Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD

Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:52:54 +0000

Have you thought about having family dinners where everyone eats the same thing? I started them when my daughter was just under 2.

By: Sheena

Sheena — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:11:43 +0000

I love menu planning and grocery shopping and I do both weekly. My problem is that some nights if I’m leaning toward not cooking, usually my husband says he’ll just find something (usually cereal), so instead of actually cooking a good meal (already planned and shopped for), we just eat what we can find. Our little 2 year old monkey gets a balanced meal, but we don’t. How silly is that!

By: Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD

Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, MS, RD — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:54:33 +0000

Pauline, I know what you mean. If I don’t plan ahead the week just doesn’t go well. Hopefully this series will give you some ideas on how to plan meals without taking too much time.

By: Pauline

Pauline — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:27:55 +0000

My biggest barrier to getting healthy meals on the table is having a busy schedule and not planning ahead. If I prepped dinner the night before, or earlier in the day, I would be much more successful.