Everyone knows that cooking isn't the hard part, but figuring out what to put on the table. After all, everyone loves to eat, but when you ask family members what should be prepared next, the responses of "I don't care!", "Come up with something!", and "Pizzzaaa!" pour in, and it's up to mom and dad to conjure up a dish that satisfies everyone.

Because the question of what-to-cook-today is about much more than just the food we eventually eat. It's about planning, caring, love, nourishment, and health, just as much as it is about budgeting and family time management. Last-minute solutions are not only dangerous for the wallet but also for health, as quality hunger is just as serious a problem as malnutrition.

What is quality hunger?

Quality hunger is a special and often invisible form of hunger that can last for years. In such cases, children are not actually hungry, as food is placed on their plates every day. Often, there is no limit to the quantity, but most of the consumed foods are not suitable for supporting the body's health. They contain too much sugar, fast-absorbing carbohydrates, spices, or additives, do not provide prolonged satiety, suddenly raise blood sugar levels, and then, barely one or two hours later, after the blood sugar level has drastically dropped, the whole family suffers from hunger.

In the long term, quality hunger contributes to the development of diabetes, circulatory disorders, obesity, digestive problems, and many other diseases. To avoid it, a balanced, varied diet rich in vitamins, fibers, proteins, flavors, and colors is needed. Ensuring this, however, especially if the kitchen budget is constrained, is not easy, so thoughtful planning and consistency are required.

Cheap and Good: Impossible?

Due to various economic and global market changes, food prices have changed significantly, causing more and more people to feel uncertain. While it's okay to be scared, it's not worth it! Instead, let's turn with openness to the foods of different nations and cultures - including elements of the original, traditional Hungarian cuisine!

Original recipes usually contained a lot of seasonal vegetables and other ingredients, without using various exotic elements from afar, thus offering easily prepared, nutritious, and varied dishes. Let's forget the rhythm of meat with meat, pasta with pasta, and prepare Hungarian and Eastern-style stews, dahls, hearty soups, and exciting one-pot meals for the whole family!

Menu Planning and Other Ideas to Avoid Quality Starvation

Ideally, menu planning is not the task of the family mother, but a joint task of the family. Let's get together for an afternoon dessert and discuss who would like to eat what! But what to do if no one has time, the family is uninterested, or everyone is already deathly bored with the community brainstorming?

1. If we run out of ideas, browse through the monthly menu offers of nearby restaurants, get inspired by the weekly plans of the school canteen, or follow our favorite food bloggers, hoping to see a captivating idea or two!

2. Put up a sheet or board on the fridge! This way, family members can write down what they crave anytime, and we always have a place to look if we don't know what we would like to cook.

3. Create an online cookbook! Whenever we see a good recipe, a promising idea, or a new ingredient, save it in an online storage, so we always have a place to turn to when lacking ideas.

4. Rediscover vegetables and legumes! In the Hungarian (considered) cuisine, pasta and meat dishes are predominantly present, so we tend to forget the possibilities hidden in vegetables. Think meatless and discover the world of various beans, peas, lentils, and other delicacies for ourselves!

5. Start leftover rescue! Even in the best places, something might be left over after lunch. If we know how to reuse various delicacies as components of another dish, we can save a lot. Dry bread can become breadcrumbs, bread pudding, caraway seed soup, or bread soup, mashed potatoes can always be a good base for lángos, bread, or gnocchi. Roasted beetroot can become vegetable cream, boiled eggs can become sandwich spread, stew can become goulash soup... the possibilities are endless, we just need to be open to old-new solutions!

The Benefits of Menu Planning

There are three common reasons behind quality hunger: the lack of a health-conscious mindset, convenience, and the lack of planning and financial resources. While every family must develop a health-conscious mindset on their own, once it is in place, mastering time management and optimal budgeting for groceries becomes easier. 

If we know exactly what, when, and how much we will need, if we keep a list of what has run out in the pantry, and never go shopping hungry, we can avoid impulse purchases, overstocking, and the expiration of purchased food without using it. 

Remember, every small step saves money, and the forints saved can be spent on special ingredients or other areas of life!
 

Junk Food Craze with Kid-Friendly Solutions

And what about the pizza orders or fast food bites that kids love? While I generally encourage everyone to avoid these often overly seasoned and not very nutritious foods, an occasional order won't harm anyone.

It's even better if, instead of ordering from a restaurant, we choose family fun and prepare hot dog buns at home, knead hamburger buns together, roll out the pizza dough, shape the donuts, bread the chicken bites, or pop the corn in a pot. The result will not only be tastier, more nutritious, and cheaper, but we will also gain shared experiences. Try cooking together, and you will get delicious bites and shared joys in a cost-effective way!