Between varying ages, taste preferences and nutritional needs, cooking for a family can be challenging. Although children need fewer calories than adults, their nutrient requirements are similar. Your entire family should eat foods from the recommended groups on the USDA's MyPyramid, from meats and beans to vegetables. Plan meals that include raw and cooked food to expose your family to new tastes and improve the nutritional value of meals you prepare at home.
Benefits
Both raw and cooked foods offer your family nutritional value, although some foods have more nutrients raw than cooked. Vegetables and fruits lose some of their nutrients between harvest and purchase due to moisture loss, notes a review written by Diane M. Barrett of the University of California, Davis. Additionally, fresh produce loses vitamin C and B during the blanching and preserving process, and vitamins A and E from thermal or other high-pressure techniques used by manufacturers to preserve food. The benefit to frozen or canned foods is the year-round availability and the variety of frozen or canned foods. If you have a busy family, it's faster to prepare a meal with canned vegetables and fruits than cutting up several apples, steaming fresh green beans or making a large salad.
Strategies
Eat as many foods in their raw or natural state as possible, allowing for your family's schedule and time constraints. Grocery shop or visit your local farmer's market once a week and purchase the fresh vegetables and fruits you will use during the week. Spend a few minutes chopping onions, green peppers, carrots and celery to make meal preparation quicker. Precook ground turkey or chicken for use in fajitas or casseroles. Purchase washed greens to enable your children to easily help you prepare salads.
Sample Breakfast and Lunches
Combine fresh and cooked foods at breakfast by serving hot or cold cereal with 1/2 cup of berries, or half a sliced banana. Make pancakes for special occasions and serve with a fruit salad and strawberry yogurt. Let your children help with lunch preparation by filling sandwiches with prewashed vegetables and cooked, sliced turkey. Pack lunches for office and school that include soup, raw carrot sticks and a piece of whole fruit. Save restaurant lunches for special occasions.
Sample Dinner Meals
Designate one night a week as raw food night in your house. Let every person choose a raw food to prepare, such as fruit kabobs for dessert, and a large green salad for the main dish. If you make a cooked main dish of grilled salmon and pasta, top the pasta with colorful raw, shredded cucumbers, carrots and chopped broccoli florets. Make a raw food salsa using tomatoes, green peppers, onions and cucumber. Mix with canola oil, honey and cilantro. Serve over chicken or as a dip with baked tortilla chips.
Considerations
Balance the nutrient content of all your family meals. Regularly review your menus to ensure you are serving enough vegetables, fruits, meats, milk and grains. Pair raw fruits and vegetables with cooked soups, homemade casseroles and 3 to 4 oz. of grilled or baked meat and whole-wheat grains or pasta. Keep raw vegetables away from meat preparation area, and wash all fresh produce before eating.
References
- MyPyramid.gov: Inside the Pyramid
- University of California, Davis: Maximizing the Nutritional Value of Fruits and Vegetables
- New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services: Fruits and Veggies on a Budget
- MayoClinic.com: Seared Salmon with Cilantro-Cucumber Salsa
- USDA: Basics for Handling Food Safety
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