Hello and Welcome to Lesson 9 of
Our Free "Meal Planning 101" eCourse

Hello, and welcome to your ninth lesson!  This week we focus on health some more.  Read over your past meal plans and see how well you are fulfilling the requirements of Canada's food guide - for dairy.

Lesson Nine;  A Healthy Review - Dairy

This week, take a peek at your previous meal plans to see if everyone is getting enough dairy.  Click here to visit Health Canada or here to visit the USDA's site to see the recommended number of servings for your family members - you'll see that the recommended number varies by age and gender.

Now for some, getting enough dairy is easy - especially if you have little ones still breast or bottle feeding.  Many toddlers are also still very happy to drink milk.  On the flip side you may have school aged kids who prefer soda or juice to drink; some adults don't fit in enough water let alone milk, so what can you do to get dairy into people like this??

Well, I live this adventure - though my daughter drinks her milk no problem, my son, myself and my husband were very low on dairy.  Here are some changes that we made to get more dairy in our diets - perhaps one will work for your family too:

• yogurt or milk based smoothies are great for snacks and breakfast drinks.  Call them milkshakes and your kids may gobble them up even faster.

• homemade pudding.  Even the kind that comes in a box that you add milk to is tasty.  Beware of the pre-made packets sold in individual containers though.  I've seen some that have very little dairy in them even though they show a picture of a milk jug right on the package.

• frozen yogurt and ice cream for snacks and dessert - again, read the label and find a healthy one

• eat more milk based soups.  Canned soups can be high in sodium but many offer reduced-sodium options.  Home made soups are also great and you can add lots of veggies too - and they don't have to be made with cream - skim milk will thicken up nicely with cornstarch added (search online for recipes).

• soy or rice milk - read the labels but many of these are great sources of calcium too.

Whatever changes you make and new things you try, keep in mind that some sources of dairy can be high in fat - like cheese.  If your doctor has recommended a diet lower in fat, there are many, many low fat dairy choices - yes, even fat-reduced cheeses, that your family might love just as much :)

Crystal

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Again, all the sheets are in PDF format which means you need to have Adobe Acrobat to see it.  If you don't have Adobe, click here to download it – it's fast and free.

The Blank Shopping list is available online here. 

The Blank Meal Plan comes in two sizes:
 

1. Letter paper size - you'll also find this version online here.
   
    
2. Legal paper size - you'll find this version online here.

 

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