Cooking a balanced meal can be rather challenging, especially if you are not used to doing it. For my family, I have simplified the process to something that is easy to follow and gets healthy meals on the table, most of the time. You can use this method to get your family meals a lot closer to balanced and healthy.
How to Plan a Balanced Meal, the easy way…
To plan a healthy meal, you can dive in and can go crazy over portions, macro, and micronutrients, etc. You can put so much thought into it that it can make meals stressful, not enjoyable. However, I don’t have that much spare brain space. So, I’ve simplified it as much as possible to get closer to healthy without taking the fun out of it.
So, I take a very simplified approach to meal planning: 1 protein, 1 starch, unlimited vegetables. In the year I have been cooking with this, the only meals that have been unsatisfying were the meals missing a section. If I can hit the mark, the meals are filling but healthy and everyone leaves happy
Protein: Main Event or Side Act?
When I say protein I mean food which protein is the majority of the macronutrient make up. Chicken, beef, pork, tofu, beans, etc. One of these is critical to crafting a satisfying meal. The protein provides a large amount of satiety, or how full you feel after eating. You can make smaller meals overall with protein included since you don’t need to eat as much food to feel full.
Bacon doesn’t count… It’s mostly fat unless you’ve made your own bacon from a different slice of meat, like European bacon. I plan to try making my own in the future, but for now, bacon is more of a flavor enhancer than a source of protein.
Protein is also essential to body health, muscle maintenance, and growth. However, it does not need to be the main ingredient every night. Chicken in a stir fry along with multiple veggies is great and doesn’t need more chicken on top. Shrimp in Gumbo, bratwurst in stir fry, ground beef in spaghetti sauce, the list goes on. Simply make sure to include a protein source somewhere in the meal to make it more satisfying.
Vegetables: Bring on the Nutrients
Simply put, vegetables are where the good stuff lives. Vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber, which is why I have a minimum for vegetables, not a set number. The fiber helps fill people up and keep them full, so adding vegetables is a good way to stretch a meal.
Oh, and for the record, I do not consider the classical definition of fruit/vegetable to be useful. I don’t care if it has seeds or not. In our house, if it’s a plant part and it’s sweet, it’s a fruit. All other plants are vegetables. This covers almost every situation I’ve come across so far and guides the way to lower sugar meals.
Normally in my planned meals, vegetables are cooked and included either as a side or as part of the main course. My gumbo has 5 different vegetables in it. Stir fry usually has at least two vegetables.
Carbs and Starches
The final component of our balanced meals is some sort of bread or starch. This rounds out the satisfaction of the meal and makes it even more filling. There is nothing better than a warm biscuit to go with dinner. Side of potatoes to go with a meal, or stir fry over rice. It’s a great way to stretch the dollars
Bread can be biscuits, sliced bread and butter, Irish soda bread, etc. Potatoes, rice, barley, couscous, pasta, etc. also make good carb options. Any sort of filling starchy goodness to round out the meal.
In many countries, adding starches to a meal is so ingrained into the food culture, it’s a force of habit. Starches are a great way to stretch a meal. Take a stir fry and it can feed 2 people, serve it over rice and it can serve 6 people. The same amount of chicken. Taco night without the tortilla won’t get very far, but fill up a tortilla and add some veggies and that same amount of taco meat can feed 6. The list goes on!
Now, one word of caution. Avoid adding excess fat to your carbs. Pasta is a great filler, but pasta covered in cream sauce is a huge amount of calories for the size of it. Potatoes are a great starch and very filling, but if you cover it in sour cream, bacon, and butter; the number of calories you are putting in will add up quickly.
Meal Examples
So now we have our three categories, what do we do with them? Get creative! Here’s a list of ideas for when you get stuck, but hopefully this just gives you a starting point for your own adventure.
- Baked chicken breast, side of asparagus, with biscuits
- Gumbo over rice (Sausage, shrimp, 5 vegetables, rice)
- Bratwurst stir fry (sausage, 3 vegetables, over grains)
- Beans & Barley Salad (beans, barley, and 4+ vegetables)
- Pork Tenderloin, Green Peas, and Mac & Cheese
- Turkey Sandwich (turkey, cheese, tomato, lettuce, on bread)
The list goes on. As you practice planning meals like this, it gets easier. Try to plan each meal this way and it’ll become second nature over time. The overall health of each meal will improve and you’ll be on a whole new health trajectory!
What About Dairy, and Fruit?
These two “food groups” are omitted on purpose, they are just too dang delicious to set parameters on. Now, delicious obviously does not equal nutritious, so let’s do a bit deeper discussion on each group
Dairy
Dairy consists of milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. I am talking about the healthy versions, so leave out the obvious desserts like ice cream. Dairy is a necessary part of every meal plan, but not in large enough quantities to warrant planning a meal around it. In most of the meals I have planned using the above thought process, we are aiming for a satisfying meal that is not overly energy-filled (high in calories). Dairy is very high in energy in the form of sugars and fats, so adding it to each meal intentionally would really jack up the calorie load.
Now, I don’t avoid adding dairy. But, like bacon, I use it as a cooking ingredient as opposed to a food group. Add cheese to a meal to add a creamy, salty note to the dish. Make gravy with milk instead of broth. Add cream cheese to sushi. In small quantities, dairy can really round out a meal. But overdoing it can really take a good meal to a terrible one from a nutrition standpoint.
Fruit
Fruit is the other “food group” not addressed above. There are a few reasons I avoid intentionally adding a fruit component to meals. Fruit, like dairy, is very calorie-dense for the amount you are eating. however, fruit calories are almost always 90%+ from sugar. Adding fruit can bring a nutritious meal to unhealthy levels without much thought. I do recommend eating it as an ingredient though. Apple braised pork, mango chutney, etc. fruit as an ingredient is a great way to include the flavors and nutrients.
Children are another reason to avoid fruit in a meal. Let’s set up a scenario: You make a meal with pork chops, asparagus, potatoes, and applesauce. You put all of those on a plate and let your family go to town. The two children scarf through the applesauce in record time and ask for seconds, not touching the other items. An argument ensues when no more applesauce is made available. You are probably familiar. Not serving applesauce, or fruit, with the meal will make everything else taste better.
But Then When Do We Eat Fruit & Dairy?
Easy, breakfast and dessert. Breakfast is very difficult to fit meat and veggies into a meal consistently. Especially in the U.S., we mostly like sweet breakfasts. So, let’s fit fruit into that slot. Healthy cereal with cut fruit over it, beautiful. Homemade apple cinnamon oatmeal, tasty. Toast with butter and preserves, heaven. All of these, in moderation, give us the health benefits of dairy and fruit without overloading an already great meal.
Fruit after a meal makes a wonderful alternative to candy or ice cream. We work dessert into every meal, that way there is a set time to eating sweets so nobody is asking at other times. And if it’s fruit, and everybody has eaten the rest of their meal, all is well.
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