Image source: Renáta-Adrienn (Unsplash)
Having some basic cooking skills is known to improve diet quality and variety. Recent research has revealed that food skills, "the wider components in meal preparation such as planning, shopping and budgeting", may be of equal or greater importance.
Thinking ahead and meal planning is a simple way to increase your food skills. Planning meals and snacks a few days or a week in advance is a simple strategy to help you and your family consume healthier options, increase dietary variety, reduce food waste and even maintain a healthier body weight.
Top tips to improve your food skills:
Decide how many meals you want to plan for. Think about what you have coming up and decide how many nights you need dinner at home.
Check your fridge and pantry to see what needs using up.
Skim through the supermarket catalogues (or check online) to see what is on special that week.
Choose your recipes. Skim though your favourite cookbooks, blogs, Pinterest or recipe websites.
Consider weekly themes eg Meatless Monday, Mexican Wednesdays, Friday = eat out!
Try using a meal planning template. You can use pen and paper, Excel or try one like this:
Try a meal planning app. I love https://www.paprikaapp.com/ . It allows me to save recipes from the web, organise my recipes, make meal plans, and create grocery lists.
image source: paprikaapp.com
Challenge yourself to try a new food or a new meal once per week or fortnight.
Write a shopping list and stick to it!
Get your partner or family involved. Ask them what foods and/or meals they would like to eat
Plan for leftovers. Cook a double batch and use the leftovers for lunches during the week.
Save time by cooking in advance. Put aside 1-2 hours over the weekend to bulk-cook items such as curry, soup or roast vegetables.
Don't forget the fruit and veggies! Aim for 50% of your lunch and dinner to be vegetables or salad. Snack on fruit and veggies. Add them to a breakfast smoothie!
In short:
Planning your meals can improve the quality of your diet and thus your health. It will save you time and money and help reduce waste. There is no "right or wrong" way to plan your meals. Experiment and see what works best for you!
References
Ducrot, P., (2017). Meal planning is associated with food variety, diet quality and body weight status in a large sample of French adults. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 14 (1), 12.
Lavelle, F., (2020). Diet quality is more strongly related to food skills rather than cooking skills confidence: Results from a national cross-sectional survey. Nutrition & dietetics: the journal of the Dietitians Association of Australia, 77 (1), 112–120.
Romani, S. (2018). Domestic food practices: A study of food management behaviours and the role of food preparation planning in reducing waste. Appetite, 121, 215–227.
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