Christine Steendahl On Meal Planning Software

Busy moms and dads often wonder how to find the time to prepare fresh foods at home and avoid the canned, frozen or shelved kind.

Meal Planning Central has come up with the answer that will help you save time, money, and allow you to make nutritious meals for you and your family. Christine Steendahl known as the Menu Mom created MenuPlanningCentral.com because she realized that many families wanted variety in their meals but had little time to plan or to plan or prepare them.

My interview with Christine Steendahl, owner of http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/

Q. How do you plan a dinner menu? Do you make use of the USDA food pyramid?

A. We mainly plan dinner – so obviously we can’t take care of the entire pyramid in our planning. We do try to provide balanced meals with a protein, healthy starch and lots of fruits and veggies. Our healthy meals are designed to be less than 8 grams of fat, generally, and we also try to watch cholesterol and sodium levels.

Q. What do you think of menu planning software? Are these applications helpful to people?

A. Sure! Different tools work for different people. Some people prefer to just sit down the old fashioned way with their cookbooks, tablet & pen. Others prefer menu planning software, and others like to take all the hassle out of it and use pre-made menus from a menu planning service such as ours. We actually have an online software tool as part of our membership. So our members can use our pre-made vegetarian, healthy, frugal, or family friendly menus, or they can use our “My Menu Maker” online software. The software allows members to pick any recipes out of our database (over 1000) and/or add your own recipes and create a menu that is perfect for your family. It also gives you the ability to flag recipes that contain certain ingredients that you might not care for, or have an allergy to, so you can make sure to exclude those recipes from your planning.

Q. How does your meal planning differ from downloading a plan via phone application software?

A. You know, to be totally honest I haven’t used any of the phone application software, so I can’t completely answer this question. I am guessing that our program is a bit more advanced with 4 menu options, the “My Menu Maker” option, monthly e-books, a member’s only forum, and culinary experts.

Q. Do you include diabetic meals for people on restricted diets?

A. We don’t at this time. I believe many of our [tag]healthy recipes[/ta] could easy be used by diabetics, but of course it is always best to consult with your physician if you have any special health needs. We have considered adding diabetic menus, possibly in the future, but we need to find a qualified diabetic nutritionist who can help us in this area. I am not qualified to give health advice.

Visit: http://www.menuplanningcentral.com