Healthy Menu Planning

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Please save paper and print the pages of this resource back-to-back!

Feel free to copy or distribute this resource, adapted from the NACCRRA online Initial Training course © 2011 National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies

To learn more and enroll, please visit www.naccrra.smarthorizons.org

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Table of Contents

Considerations for Planning Menus .............................................................................................................. 3

Menu Planning Principles ......................................................................................................................... 3

Menu Cycling............................................................................................................................................. 5

Guidelines for Healthy Meals and Snacks ..................................................................................................... 6

Limit Salt and Sugar................................................................................................................................... 6

Limit Fat .................................................................................................................................................... 7

Avoid Processed Foods ............................................................................................................................. 7

Making Meal Times Pleasant ........................................................................................................................ 8

Serving meals ............................................................................................................................................ 8

Introducing New Foods ............................................................................................................................. 8

Age Considerations and Nutrition................................................................................................................. 9

Infants ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

Toddlers .................................................................................................................................................... 9

Preschoolers ............................................................................................................................................ 10

School-agers ............................................................................................................................................ 10

Serving Sizes and Regulations ................................................................................................................. 10

Sample Menu Forms……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………..11

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Considerations for Planning Menus

Menus for young children should:

Meet the nutritional needs of children

Comply with any funding or licensing requirements

Help children feel comfortable by serving familiar foods

Encourage healthy food habits by introducing new foods

Provide safe food prepared and served in clean surroundings

Stay within budgetary limits

Provide alternatives for children with food allergies

Consider children’s opinions about food they like

Consider the preferences of the families in your program

Menu Planning Principles

Menu planning for young children can be exciting as well as challenging. Keep in mind basic menu-planning principles as well as your children’s preferences. The five basic menu-planning principles explained on the following pages are:

1. Strive for balance

2. Emphasize variety

3. Add contrast

4. Think about color

5. Consider eye appeal

Basic Food Groups

Grains

Meats

Fruits and Vegetables

Dairy

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There are a number of ways to achieve these menu-planning goals:

Flavors

Be sure the meal is neither too bland nor too strongly flavored. Remember that young children’s taste buds can be more sensitive than yours. Think about whether the flavors of the foods you are serving together make a good combination. Fat

Balance higher-fat foods with foods that have less fat. Avoid serving too many higher-fat foods within the same week. For example, if you already have hot dogs and sausage pizza on the weekly menu, do not include another higher-fat entrée. You should also use low-fat side dishes to balance the meal. For example, serve raw vegetable sticks like carrots or fresh fruit with the hot dogs.

Variety

No one food or group of foods can give children everything they need. Avoid planning the same form of food on consecutive days. To add variety, you could serve a casserole one day, soup and sandwiches the next. Periodically introduce new items by adding a small amount to the meal. For example, if you are serving raw carrot sticks, add some raw cauliflower too. Try preparing familiar foods in a different way or in a new recipe. Contrast

Provide contrasts in textures, flavors and methods of preparation. Serve a crisp salad with spaghetti or crunchy apple slices with yogurt. You can also use a combination of different shapes and sizes of food. For example, an appealing meal to a young child might consist of cubed peaches, a slice of meatloaf and a small mound of mashed potatoes. Color

A variety of color not only makes a meal more appealing to look at, it also ensures that you are getting a variety of nutrients. For example, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables like apricots and sweet potatoes are high in vitamin A whereas green vegetables are rich in minerals such as calcium, potassium and iron.

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Menu Cycling

Cycling menus may be a good option for your program. “Menu Cycles” are planned for a period of time and then repeated. Some of the benefits of Menu Cycles are:

They offer variety, are flexible and allow for substitutions

They can save you time from doing repetitive tasks such as gathering information, planning menus and selecting and pricing foods

It is easy to include seasonal fruits and vegetable and plan for special events

You can plan for special activities and events well in advance because you know what your menu will be several weeks before the event occurs

If you choose to use Menu Cycles consider:

Planning four cycles - Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall - to take advantage of seasonal foods

Planning 4- 6 weeks of menus for a cycle and then repeating. Make sure you compare the first and last menus of the cycles so that you are not repeating foods too closely together. For example, if you are serving spaghetti on Friday of the last week of one Cycle Menu, make sure you do not have spaghetti on Monday of the first week of your next Cycle Menu.

Noting substitution of foods on menus

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Guidelines for Healthy Meals and Snacks

Providing healthy meals and snacks provides children with the nutrition they need and helps to develop good eating habits that will increase the likelihood that they will eat healthily throughout their lives. Some ideas to consider:

Offer fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables

Provide simple foods. Most children prefer foods that are unmixed and easy to recognize.

Limit unhealthy foods such as foods high in salt, sugar or fat.

Find healthy recipes that are child-friendly by searching the internet or checking out books at your local library

Limit Salt and Sugar

Avoid adding salt when cooking meals

Check nutrition labels and choose foods with the lowest sodium content

Read labels to find “hidden” sugars in food

Limit sugar by avoiding processed desserts, candy, canned fruits with syrup, soft drinks or punch

Use fresh fruit and fruit juice to add sweetness to food. For example, offer bananas instead of sugar with hot cereal or applesauce instead of syrup with pancakes.

Serve oatmeal cookies, preferably home- made, instead of pre-made cookies that are frosted, contain chocolate or a sweet, processed filling

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Limit Fat

Instead of frying foods like french fries, bake them in the oven

Limit the amount of butter or margarine when preparing foods. For example, do not add butter or margarine to cooked vegetables.

When serving toast or bread, use only a very small amount of butter or margarine for taste

Avoid putting butter on pancakes or waffles. Instead, offer applesauce or other fruit to put on them to enhance the flavor.

Avoid Processed Foods

Processed foods are often high in sugar, fat and salt and low in nutrition. Some thoughts to remember are:

If the cooking directions are “heat and eat,” it is probably a processed food

When selecting cheese, avoid American cheese foods that are labeled “processed cheese food”. Instead, choose mild cheeses or American cheese made with milk.

Make your own chicken nuggets ahead of time. Start by looking for simple recipes on the internet or in cook books in your local library.

Start a fruit or vegetable garden in your program and let the children eat the foods they harvest.

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Making Meal Times Pleasant

Meal times should be a pleasant experience for young children. It is a great time for friendly conversation, community-building, experiencing new foods and modeling habits of healthy eating and social etiquette (“please” and “thank you”). Serving meals

Young children should not go more than three hours without being offered something to eat

Serve meals “family style”, sitting with the children and eating your food

Allow children to help with the meals whenever possible. Young children can snap beans, tear lettuce for salads and serve themselves. They could spread cream cheese on a bagel or mix a yogurt-based fruit dip.

Always offer water with snacks that do not include a drink.

Introducing New Foods

Serve new foods along with familiar foods

Serve as a model by tasting the food yourself

Talk about the taste and texture of the food

Offer new foods slowly and gradually, introducing only one new food at a time

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Age Considerations and Nutrition

Children of different ages have different nutritional needs. Depending on their age, they may prefer different types of foods as well. Consider the ages of the children in your program when planning menus. Infants

Work closely with parents to make sure you are meeting the needs of each infant. Many infants are on an individualized plan for introducing new foods that families coordinate with their child’s health care provider.

Hold infants when feeding them a bottle

Support mothers who choose to breastfeed

Infants should be fed on demand instead of feeding them according to a clock schedule. Get to know the infants in your care so that you can recognize when they are hungry.

Toddlers

Toddlers are increasingly independent and often love the word “no.” They may refuse to try new foods, making it difficult to ensure that they are receiving an adequate diet.

Toddlers need to have meals and snacks often because of their small stomachs

Offer foods to toddlers from all food groups at each meal

Toddler serving sizes are approximately ¼ that of an adult serving for each food (the exception is the milk group)

Toddlers’ slower rate of growth causes a decrease in appetite. Keep in mind that children will eat when they are hungry.

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Preschoolers

Preschoolers grow in spurts. During active growth periods, their appetites are usually good, but remember that when growth rates slow, so do their appetites.

The main difference between feeding a toddler and a preschooler is the amount of food you offer

Preschoolers should never be encouraged to “clean their plates,” as this can often lead to obesity later in life.

Offer smaller servings and let children ask for more

School-agers

School-agers enjoy preparing their own snacks

When school-agers arrive at your program after school, it may have been several hours since they have eaten. Have a healthy, nutritious snack ready for them when they arrive.

School-agers enjoy cooking. Cooking activities and special projects are a great opportunity for talking about healthy eating.

Serving Sizes and Regulations

State licensing agencies or your local Child Care Food Program (CCFP) may also have specific serving sizes that must be offered to children at each meal based on their age. Be sure to check with your local licensing agency or CCFP (if your program participates in the CCFP program) to ensure that you are offering the correct serving sizes.

SAMPLE Menu

Week of: January 24, 2011 Week in Cycle: 1

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Breakfast

Bread & Cereal Fruit/ Vegetable Milk

1 Banana muffins Apple slices Milk

English Muffin Peaches Milk

Pancakes Strawberries Milk

Oatmeal Bananas Milk

2 Oat rings (cereal) Grape juice Milk

Morning Snack (choose two) Fruit/vegetable Grain Milk/Dairy Meat

3 Carrot sticks (peaches for infants/toddlers) crackers

Pears Fish crackers

4 Cheese cubes Yellow and red peppers, cucumbers

5 English muffin Tomato sauce Mozzarella cheese

6 Pita bread hummus

Lunch Meat Grain Fruit/Vegetable (Choose two) Milk/Dairy

Ground beef Spaghetti noodles Tomato sauce Romaine lettuce and tomatoes Milk

Fish sticks Biscuits Green beans Tangerines Milk

Cheese Whole wheat bread Broccoli Pineapple Milk

Chicken nuggets Whole wheat bread Cucumber Fruit cocktail Milk

Ground beef Whole wheat bun Potatoes Peas Milk

Afternoon Snack (choose two) Fruit/vegetable Grain Milk/Dairy Meat

7 Peanut butter Whole wheat bread bananas

8 Celery Raisins Peanut butter (oat rings cereal) raisins, milk)

Rye crackers Cream cheese Apple Juice

9 Yogurt Berries

10 Oranges, pineapple and bananas Oatmeal cookie

Planning Form

Week of_________________________________________ Week in Cycle # ________

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Breakfast Bread & Cereal Fruit or Vegetable Milk

Morning Snack (choose two) Fruit/vegetable Grain Milk/Dairy Meat

Lunch Meat Grain Fruit/Vegetable (Choose two) Milk/Dairy

Afternoon Snack

(choose two) Fruit/vegetable Grain Milk/Dairy Meat

Explanation of Sample Planning Menu

Color Coding Fruits and Vegetables

Get out your highlighters or colored pencils and markers. It is important to vary the color in your menu in order to add interest and, even more importantly, to ensure a well-balanced diet. When you highlight the red, yellow/orange, green and purple fruits and vegetables, it becomes easier to see if you are getting a good balance of different kinds of fruits and vegetables.

Planning Menus vs. Menus to Post for Families

When developing your menus, it is helpful to separate each component or food group so that you can easily see if you have met all nutritional requirements. While it is a great tool for planning, it is not very interesting and attractive to post. Once you have completed planning, create a nicer-looking, postable menu that will appeal to families and children.

Notes on Sample Planning Menu (above):

1. You can bake the muffins the night before (family child Care providers).

2. Children will probably want to pour the milk on their dry cereal. By serving grape juice, you can provide a drink to go with the cereal and, as a added benefit, grape juice is a “purple” fruit, high in many nutrients.

3. When serving carrot sticks to a mixed-age group, that may be a choking hazard for very young children, include an appropriate alternative, such as peaches.

4. Red and yellow peppers may be a new food for many children. Offering them as a snack with two other familiar foods such as cucumbers and cheese cubes allows children to try a new food without having it be the only option on the menu.

5. Children can make their own “mini pizza” as part of a cooking activity. Additionally, when you are shopping, you could buy the english muffins in a larger, and possibly cheaper, quantity.

6. Pita bread and hummus are healthy foods and are good ways to introduce foods from a possibly different culture. Some children may be reluctant to try the hummus (which is a good meat alternative). By serving it for a morning snack instead of a main meal, a child who does not want to try it will not be missing a major component of a meal.

7. Instead of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, try a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Children will enjoy slicing up the banana and placing it on their bread.

8. Children can make “Ants on a Log” by spreading the peanut butter on the celery and adding raisins on top. Because this would not be an appropriate snack for very young children, an alternative is offered (cereal, raisins and milk).

9. This can be another cooking activity by allowing children to make yogurt sundaes.

10. Purchase enough bananas, oranges and pineapples so that you can use the leftover fruit from meals earlier in the week for a fruit salad. You can slice up the fruit before snack time and allow the children to mix their own salads. The oatmeal cookie will be a “treat” but, if you allow children to mix up their own salad, the focus will be on the healthier fruit. This is also a great opportunity to talk about eating treats in moderation.