I wanted to share a hack on my blog.

I think in such surprising times, when money, energy or resources can be low, any person who looks to eat well or strives to prepare balanced meals for their families, find it a struggle to decide, what to eat or cook on a daily basis!

Recently, when a family member had to be warded with dengue, a revelation came to me.

I was sitting beside the patient bed, and I happened to be glancing at the food on their tray, and whilst just admiring the range of food, it struck me we should all just eat as if we were patients in a hospital. Patients eat regular meals, meals are always balanced, even their snacks are factored into the nutritional count and they eat a variety of food.

So how did I apply this revelation? After we came home with the family member, we acknowledged the meals needed to be nutritious and appetizing to encourage recovery.

With that as a guide, in the past week, we have been making meal decisions (whether we are eating at home or eating out), based on the ‘Healthy Plate’. It is my belief, when healthcare decisions pop up suddenly, the best thing is to keep all decisions basic and simple because, everyone’s health, including the caregivers, is important.

Hence, we incorporated the Health Hub’s ‘Healthy Plate’ and also the eating advice of ‘5 a day’.

Source: https://www.healthhub.sg/programmes/55/my-healthy-plate

Like the main picture illustrates, to maximise our value for our dollar, as well as to ‘get over’ the incessant question of ‘what should I eat/cook today?’, we simply complied by the guidelines of the Healthy Plate – 3 servings of each of the food groups of carbs, protein, vegetable and fruit, to be consumed daily, with each serving measured at 250ml or a palm-size (=fleshy part of palm). (I simplified all food group servings to 3 to facilitate memorisation but you can check the exact servings in the link provided).

So, whether out of necessity (to assist a sick family member to recover well) or due to the ‘eureka moment’ I experienced, I am quite won over to this way of managing my eating/cooking decisions on a daily basis, to optimise my dollar and boost optimism and energy in such times.

If you have a hack, to assist others to eat and cook wisely, do comment below!

Bon Appetit, everyone, and ka-ching$ !