Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Time Saving Strategies Given For Eating Meals At Home

Do you feel that you and your family constantly eat on the run? Finding time for grocery shopping, food preparation and eating is frequently very limited for working families.

More meals are eaten away from the home now than ever before. Busy lifestyles demand meals and foods that are speedy, convenient and economical. The other challenge is making sure that your food choices measure up nutritionally.

If you find yourself in this dilemma, Easter Tucker, family and consumer sciences specialist, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, offers some time-saving strategies for making family meals at home:

Delegate tasks. Assign specific duties to all family members. Everyone can help in some way to prepare and serve meals.

Use low-cost convenience foods or make your own mixes.

Try unattended cooking methods, such as the slow cooker or preparing meals for the oven with a timer.

Cook with the quick appliances: microwave oven, wok, pressure cooker, electric skillet.

Prepare and freeze ahead whole meals, breads and desserts.

Brown-bag lunches are another option to feeding your family nutritious meals. Many people find that eating at restaurants or fast food establishments during the day can become expensive, can add calories to daily food intake or is simply repetitious or boring. Try getting up a little early to prepare the noon meal before you leave home.

For variety in lunches carried from home, mix and match some of the following ideas:

Fruits: Pack foods frozen and allow them to thaw by lunchtime. Try fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, cherries, grapefruit sections or pineapple tidbits.

Soups: Make homemade soups such as beef-potato or vegetable soup or buy no-salt added or reduced sodium soups. Carry soup in a Thermos if you do not have a way to heat it up at school or work.

Chef's salad: Choose carefully a combination of raw vegetables, kidney beans, low-fat low-sodium cheese and chicken or canned fish. Try some of the low-fat dressings to hold down the calories.

Cookies and crackers: Choose lower fat cookies and crackers, such as Melba toast, fig bars, graham crackers, ginger snaps or unsalted pretzels. Another option would be to make your own cookies, quick breads, muffins, cupcakes with less sugar and fat. Freeze them and use when variety is desired.

When you make school lunches let the children help. Be sure to include them in the planning. Always include one of your child's favorite foods even if it is not the most nutritious. Balance the meal with better choices during other meals.

For more ideas on how to prepare fast nutritious family meals contact the Clark County Cooperative Extension office at 501 Clay Street in Arkadelphia, or call 246-2281.