For many Australian families, the evening meal is the one time of the day when they can sit together, talk, and enjoy good food.
However, for the person responsible for preparing the dinner, the logistics can cause them a bit of a headache, particularly if one or more members have a specific dietary requirement.
Whether it’s having to cater to a mix of vegetarians, vegans, and meat-eaters, or those with food allergies to gluten, dairy, or nuts, managing different dietary needs within one household can feel like a particularly tough challenge on My Kitchen Rules.
However, with a sizeable dollop of forward planning, a pinch of positive attitude, and a dash of creativity, it is possible to cater for everyone without turning dinner into a labour of love.
Here are some tips on the best way to prepare meals for families with dietary differences.
Understand and Respect Each Other’s Choices
Before we highlight the tips, it is worth noting that all of us have foods we do not like, some we’d rather not eat, and others we might not be able to consume.
Whether based on ethics, health, religious beliefs, or personal preferences, it is important to understand and respect the food choices people make.
If a partner or child has decided to change their diet, try not to pour out your frustrations or focus on what can’t be eaten. Instead, try shifting the conversation to the variety of foods that they can eat, as this will help you to better get a handle on what type of meals you can prepare for them.
Meal Preparation for Multi-Diet Families
When it comes to preparing meals for a family with multi-dietary requirements, it pays to be organised. Here are five tips you might find useful.
1. Be Flexible
One of the easiest ways to manage different dietary needs is to be flexible with your meal planning. Therefore, instead of cooking separate meals for different family members, consider making dishes that can be customised to each person’s needs.
Stir-fries, pasta dishes, tacos, and Buddha bowls are great examples of meals that allow individuals to build their plates according to their preferences. For instance, a taco night can include a variety of fillings, such as grilled chicken, beans, tofu, and roasted vegetables, which enables everyone to create a meal that suits their diet.
Similarly, pizzas can be made with a base sauce that is vegetarian, with separate proteins like meatballs or plant-based alternatives added as needed.
2. Meal Delivery Service
If you have one member of the family with a particular food preference, such as being a vegan, you should consider ordering from a company that specialises in ready-made meals.
Deliveries of Soulara vegan ready meals can be a convenient way to ensure those individuals are given nutritious and delicious plant-based meals every day that cover the five food groups of fruit, vegetables, dairy, grains, and protein.
Utilising services such as this can save a lot of time, not to mention washing up, over the course of a week by reducing the need to cook separate meals.
3. Make Sure the Pantry is Well Stocked
The more well-stocked your pantry is, the more food options you’ll have, which is particularly useful for a mixed-diet family.
It is a good idea to keep a variety of staple ingredients on hand that will enable you to prepare meals quickly without experiencing too much stress.
Some essential items to consider include rice, pasta, quinoa, and cous cous, which can form the basis for any meal. Additionally, lentils, chickpeas, and legumes are very versatile, and it is always worth keeping frozen vegetables like peas, corn, and green beans in the freezer.
Whatever you keep on hand, make sure you have plenty of options that cater for the dietary preferences people have, such as gluten intolerances or celiac.
4. Cook Strategically
Instead of cooking separate meals every night, it pays to take a more strategic approach to meal planning.
One good way of doing this is to batch cook, which involves making larger portions of certain meals that can be frozen in separate containers and eaten at different times. This can include a big pot of dahl, chilli con care, or spaghetti bolognese.
Additionally, you can also try one-base cooking, where you prepare a common base, such as a vegetable stir-fry or soup, and then add separate proteins to individual bowls, such as chicken, tofu, or beans, as per a person’s preference.
5. Get Others to Help
If you are the person who usually makes the meals, then it is important to remember you don’t have to do everything yourself.
Indeed, enlisting the help of other family members with the planning and preparation of meals can make the process of feeding everyone much easier.
Children who help choose ingredients and prepare meals are more likely to be open to trying new foods. At the same time, those who have dietary requirements or allergies will have the peace of mind of knowing that their food was made in a way that matches their ethics and won’t cause them any health issues.
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