Every family is different and it’s important to know and understand yours, especially when it comes to portion sizes, preferences and allergies!
The Weekly Schedule
The Fraîche Table Meal Plan was designed so that it can be customizable to meet almost everyone’s needs. As a 5-day meal plan we recommend following a Monday through Friday schedule, but if you end up ordering dinner in on Wednesday that’s ok! You can adjust the schedule as needed and make the “Wednesday” of your meal plan on Thursday. Many foods can be frozen for use at a later date. If you do adjust the days of the week in the meal plan, we recommend being mindful of how long food, once prepped, is safe to eat. For example, you might need to freeze an ingredient to be pulled out when you’re ready to eat it at a later date! We intentionally left weekends open to allow for flexibility. Because life happens!
Portion Sizes
Everyone’s appetite is different and we recognize that! This meal plan was designed to provide a healthy portion size at each meal for an average appetite and depends on your chosen plan, for either 2 or 4 people. If you have fewer than 2 people that you’re cooking for, you can either adjust the recipe as needed, keep leftovers as a snack, or if you have leftovers, freeze them for another time. If you are feeding more than 4 people, or if you have family members with large appetites (ie: teenage boys!), we recommend adjusting the recipes to accommodate the extra servings. Remember that any changes you make you will need to reflect in your grocery shopping list for that week. It’s best to scan through the recipes and identify which ones you may want to adapt based on your family’s needs.
Making Healthier Choices
We always recommend choosing unprocessed, wholesome versions of ingredients whenever possible. This includes whole grain versions of items like pasta, rice, wraps and couscous. Frozen vegetables are also a better choice over canned vegetables. There may be times when you choose differently: as long as you have balance in your diet it's ok to flex your choices.
We recommend making a DIY salad bar or veggie tray at every meal to add extra veggies and as a healthy way to add volume to a meal for those with heartier appetites. See the Salad Bar Guide in the resource section of our guide, it doesn’t have to be fancy! Some dishes, specifically the pasta dishes, have generous portions and are likely to have leftovers depending on your family’s appetites. If you wish to cut down on the carbohydrates in these recipes simply substitute zucchini noodles for half of the pasta (you will need to add these to your grocery list).
Allergies
Allergies should be taken extremely seriously. The Fraîche Table Meal Plan provides nut-free, vegan, and gluten-free options. Follow our substitution guide to help navigate some of the items in this plan and consult your healthcare provider if you have questions or concerns relating to allergies or any other health condition. Please use ingredients that are properly labelled and free of any single ingredient (ie: nuts or gluten) that you need to avoid; some foods may contain traces of a substance.
