Pleasant Greetings to you.
Hope your week is going well.
I'm revisiting my old 1926 book for my homemaking lesson to
learn something new about something old concerning the details of running a HOME.
'How To Plan Your Meals'
is covered in Chapter IV of
The
ART OF COOKING and SERVING
by Sarah Field Splint
DON'T you sometimes wonder what you have to show for the time and thought you spend on the family meals? Three meals a day, seven days a week - on and on, year after year! No business man cares to "plod away" unless his work gains significance, and why should you, you may have thought resentfully. Yet yours more than any other occupation has compensations to offer.
Look at your children's rosy cheeks and happy dispositions; your husband's good health, the general feeling of content and happiness that pervades your home. All these are a result of your thought and planning, and surely they are worth all the energy they cost.
And you have accomplished all this in spite of the bewildering technical information hurled at your devoted head when all you needed to know were a few large embracing facts.
Here they are, then!
The body needs food for these purposes:
(1) To build new bone and tissue,
(2) to supply energy,
(3) to regulate the processes of digestion, elimination, respiration and so forth.
Just which foods are best equipped to do this work are shown in the following table:
WHAT FOODS DO FOR YOU
These build Bone and Tissue
PROTEINS
Eggs
Milk
Cheese
Meat
Fish
Poultry
Legumes (peas, beans, and lentils)
Nuts
MINERALS
Fruits
Vegetables
Meats
Milk
Eggs
Cereals
These supply Energy
FATS
Crisco
Salad oil
Cream and Butter
Nuts
Fatty meats, bacon, sausage, etc.
CARBOHYDRATES (Starch and Sugar)
Cereal foods- breakfast cereal,
rice, hominy, macaroni, potatoes
Sweets- sugar, candy, sweet desserts, molasses, syrups, honey
These regulate Your Body's Processes
ROUGHAGE
Coarse breads and cereals
Vegetables
Fruit
Nuts
MINERAL MATTER
Fruits
Vegetables
Meats
Milk
Eggs
VITAMINS
Milk and eggs
Cooked green leafy vegetables (chard, spinach, beet tops, etc.)
Raw vegetables (celery, tomatoes, cabbage, etc.)
Fruits
WATER
Do you see how simple this chart makes menu planning?
Be sure to give your family a food from each of these classifications at least once a day if you want them to have a well balanced diet.
An even easier guide to complete nutrition is what is known as the "protective diet." Leading physiological chemists have proven beyond a doubt that a quart of milk, a cooked leafy vegetable and some raw vegetable food in each person's diet each day are a complete protection against under-nourishment.
To make this statement a more practical guide to the planning of meals let's say that everyone should eat twice each day a salad of some uncooked fruits or vegetables, once each day a liberal serving of a cooked green vegetable, and in addition not less than a pint (if possible, a quart) of milk or its equivalent.
The reasons for this choice of foods are several. In the first place, salads contain vitamins in considerable amounts. Most of them also encourage chewing, which helps to keep the teeth in good condition.
The cooked leafy vegetables contain important vitamins, as well as necessary mineral elements.
The milk supplies lime and calcium and other minerals constituents of the body and is rich in the
health-producing vitamin A. There are also proteins of high quality. Milk is the only food which can adequately supply certain building material for the growing child.
And, so, if this protective scheme is followed, you can serve whatever other foods you choose. It does not deprive your family of their favorite dishes.
The "protective diet" is not expensive because the most nutritious vegetables are often quite low priced. Green cabbage, for instance, contains all three vitamins and the important mineral salts. It is also valuable for its "roughage" qualities, which keep the intestines scoured out and in healthy condition.
Other cheap but nutritious vegetables are spinach, kale, tomatoes, yellow turnips, yellow squash and carrots. These are all within the scope of every family's budget and one or another of them should not fail to appear on the menu every day.
If you have raw fruit for breakfast or serve it as dessert for luncheon or dinner you need not have two salads that day; one will be sufficient. The point is to get some raw food into your diet, and salads seem a safe and popular way of getting it.
In some localities salad greens, such as lettuce and romaine, may not be obtainable at all seasons, but fortunately cabbage, one of the most nutritious and economical salad plants, can always be had. It is delicious shredded and served very crisp and cold with cooked or mayonnaise dressing. Or it can be used as the foundation for other more hearty salads.
It may sound more difficult to carry out the "quart of milk" schedule, but when you consider the many ways other than drinking that milk can be included in the diet, it is not so formidable as it sounds. Cereals use lots of milk, as do cream soups. Vegetables, meat, and fish served in white sauce are a means of getting a little into the diet and there are many desserts such as baked custards, blanc mange, ice creams, tapioca, rice and bread puddings, which are made almost entirely of milk.
Evaporated milk, diluted with water, or milk powder may be substituted for fresh milk in cooking if desired, but will not take the place of whole milk as a beverage for children.
Besides providing proper nourishment the ideal meal should furnish variety in flavor, texture, form and color. Eye appeal is almost synonymous with appetite appeal, and a meal consisting of cream of celery soup, creamed chicken, mashed potatoes, cauliflower and baked custard might fulfill all nutrition requirements but would be so monotonous in appearance that it would completely fail in its mission. Some sharp contrast in flavor, like currant jelly, and in texture, like crisp, green lettuce, would add much to the interest of this meal.
When there are left-overs to be used up, plan to disguise them. Souffles and croquettes are not recognizable as Sunday's roast, and crisp fritters with cheese sauce will be spurned by no one even if they are the survivors of last night's vegetables. And whenever your ingenuity fails look into this little book for friendly help.
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I liked this chapter. Wish it had been one of the earlier ones, but then I suppose Sarah had a very good reason to place the chapters in the order she desired.
Blessings to you and may you have a great week-end!
O HaPpY Day the week-end is on the way!
God bless you,
~Deanna~
