How do you structure or plan your family's meals for optimal nutrition?

[eastkygal]

I come from a background where my mother didn't cook a whole lot, and when she did she cooked what we had available with no real plan. My grandmother's cooked a lot, and in thinking of how they served food, I try to plan my meals similarly.
With our tight food budget, I want to make sure we are getting the biggest bang for our buck nutrition wise. So, I'm wondering how you would plan your meals for optimal nutrition. We all take vitamins, minerals, fish oil, and probiotics to help us some.

Here is what we ate yesterday:
- Oatmeal with whole milk, sorghum, and butter, Bacon, Banana, Raisins
- Grilled Ham and Cheese with Ezekiel bread and Lifeway Blueberry Keifer
- Baked rabbit (Corn flour) nuggets, fried potatoes and onions (coconut oil), green peas with pee wee vidalias warmed in bacon grease and butter

Does that seem decently well rounded? See, what my body really wanted for supper was corn instead of the peas. My mind said to make the peas because my meal needed a green vegetable (my grandmother's voices there). I'm really trying to listen to my body about what to eat and when, yet I'm wanting to make sure that the vitamin supplements we take isn't what is carrying our nutrition.

[FairyRae]

I like the set up of meals in The Garden Of Eating. For each meal they recommend 1 serving of animal protein (eggs or dairy would work here), 1 serving of greens or other non starchy veggies, 1 serving of starchy veggies or fruit (here is where I would put grains if we were eating them) plus 'condiments'. I like to additionally include something fermented or at least raw at each meal for digestion (maybe 1/8-1/4 cup) along w/ lots of good fats. We loosely follow this 'plan' (except at lunch--I don't usually have animal protein then--somedays eggs or leftovers but not daily--I will use seeds/nuts at these times or legumes and think of them as the protein part of the meal. Also, I might break up a 'meal' over 3 hours and have brocolli at 5 (w/ ghee and kraut), salmon at 6 (w/ juice kefir--yum!), and an apple w/ peanut butter at 7:30. We are often snackers over here! We've been adding in more fatty snacks throughout the day too, yummy treats made w/ coconut oil and nut butters or chocolate and honey...mmmmm...

Your meals sound balanced to me! And I've been questioning some of my thinking on how much of each aspect of the 'meal' is needed (including my beloved veggies), although I do feel quite good atm keeping my meals balanced in this manner...

HTH!

[eastkygal]

That sounds reasonable and much how my grandmothers do it. I too question though 'meal' aspect. I would snack here and there, but right now 3 squares works for our schedule. The girls love a "full" breakfast and DH loves his "full" dinner.

So, where does most of our good nutrition come from? Is it variety? Or is it fat and protein?

[FairyRae]

I'm no expert, although I've been trying to do these whole food supps for a while for added nutrition and healing (dealing w/ food sensitivity/leaky gut issues here). Although I've been questioning *everything* reading more stuff on paleo nutrition, and learning more about the importance of fats. This thread has my head spinning about all this stuff.

[lil_earthmomma]

I try to make sure each meal is cooked in a healthy fat, that there is plenty of protein, and veggies of some sort, usually raw, but we're working on cooking with more veggies too.

[durafemina]

for me, a nice balanced dinner is 1 part protein to at least 3 parts veg, 1 part starch and 1 part fat. . .

so dinner tonight was green curry
- 1 part shrimp
- 3 parts veg - spinach, peppers, kale, swisschard, cauliflower, broccoli, celery
- 1 part starchy veg - peas, green beans, coconut flour (and rice for the boys)
- 1 part fat - coconut milk, olive oil

snacks I try to make fats, fruit or veg - fruit with nut butter, raw veg with hummus etc I do make baked goods but try and use coconut flour and very little sugar, lots of butter, shredded coconut, nuts and seeds

breakfast and lunch are usually smaller simpler meals - oatmeal with raw yoghurt & berries, eggs and potatoes, a cream-veg soup, etc

I try to eat 2 servings of grains a day because I'm tandem feeding and just can't cope without the easy carbs right now!
I think it's about finding a good balance for your family as well . . . .