A promising menu for kindergarten is a balance between the cost of a daily diet, its calorie content and the quality of food. It should be noted that the diet of a child in any educational and preventive institution should, first of all, be perfectly balanced in fats, proteins and carbohydrates. This is necessary so that the child’s body receives everything necessary for growth and development in the amount in which these substances will only bring benefits.
The menu of the kindergarten on average is calculated at 1300-1500 kcal per day, this is quite enough for the child. The daily diet must include:
- porridge (most often it is served for breakfast). The most common baby cereal is oat or oatmeal. The kids also eat rice sweet porridge, in which raisins can be added. Of course, cereals are also used as side dishes. For example, buckwheat or rice. It is possible to replace morning porridge with milk soup or scrambled eggs, but not more than once a week.
- first meal for lunch. It can be any soup, cabbage soup or borsch. Children are not prescribed in the menu the first dishes containing a large number of spices. Therefore, the most common dinners in the garden are cabbage soup made from fresh or sour cabbage, borscht, sorrel or potato soup, as well as pasta soup.
- the second course includes meat and a side dish. At the same time, the side dish can be simple (porridge, potatoes) and complex (mashed potatoes with canned green peas). The meat for children is delivered only fresh and of high quality. Usually it is chicken, pork and beef. Each three kindergarteners should eat these three types of meat within a week. It is assumed that the garden can feed sausages or sausages to children once every 10 days. Meat dishes can be very varied and should not be repeated twice a week (cutlets, meatballs, chops, stew with sauce, meatballs, etc.).
- drinks: milk, kefir (nonfat), compote from fresh or dried fruits, juices, jelly, tea, coffee drink, cocoa. This type of product should also not be duplicated during the day. Usually, children are given tea (ordinary, with milk or lemon) or a coffee drink for breakfast. For afternoon tea (between breakfast and lunch, and lunch and dinner) - juices, milk or kefir. And for dinner - cocoa or something that was not prescribed for breakfast. Thus, the drink should not be repeated during the day twice, but it is impossible to start the day always with one drink.
- bakery products (black rye and white bread, rolls and cheesecakes, various sweets). Usually children get white bread with a slice of butter and cheese for breakfast, and brown bread for lunch. As for sweets, they are the basis of afternoon snacks (waffles, cookies, gingerbread cookies and marshmallows). Also, at midday, children can be given some kind of fruit.
For dinner (if there is one in the garden), children can be offered a side dish and meat, or soup.
The menu for the kindergarten is always compiled at the end of the week for the next 7-10 days. This takes into account many factors:
- Season of the year is important. After all, the range of dishes depends on the time of the year.
- Deliveries of various products. I explain: if pork is brought on Tuesday and Thursday, it means that it must be served on Tuesday or breakfast on Wednesday, and accordingly on Thursday or breakfast on Friday. The situation is the same with chicken. Dairy products must be eaten during the day of delivery, and they are delivered daily in the morning. It is assumed that a small residue can be used during cooking the next day.
- From the expiration date and the sale of products. Here, mainly we are again talking about dairy products (cottage cheese), about eggs and bread. The kindergarten menu should be written so that on Friday (if this is the last working day of the week) there are no leftovers of these products. This is quite difficult to calculate, because their purchase is made at the beginning of the week, that is, the dietician must assume the number of people eating.
- The number of children in the institution. This item is one of the most difficult, because it is impossible to know in advance who will fall ill or just go to visit grandma this week. Of course, parents should warn the dietitian that they plan not to bring the child to the garden. But, unfortunately, this does not always work. Based on this, on Friday it is necessary to eat everything that was not eaten during the week.
- The kindergarten menu is compiled on the basis of special developments, according to which children should receive a particular dish a certain number of times over 10 days. The sister can only adjust the day the product is served, and additional ingredients.
- There is also a certain list of products that cannot be used in cooking for children. This is also important to consider!
- You can not give the same dish 2 times a week or several days in a row. This refers to the main component, i.e. chicken, pork or cabbage. It is assumed that if the children ate chicken cutlets for dinner, then it is possible to make chops from the leftover meat for breakfast, but nothing more.
- Fruits and vegetables are an important component of the kindergarten menu. But they very often cause a lot of difficulties, because the fruit can not be divided (cut). Therefore, with an inaccurate order, extra ones may remain or, conversely, not enough for someone. Also, these products are perishable.
Thus, drawing up a kindergarten menu is a very hard job, which requires attention and knowledge of all the subtleties and calculation of calorie content of dishes. The sister should make such a menu so that the child receives the necessary amount of energy, trace elements and vitamins daily. Today, this work has been greatly simplified in connection with the advent of special computer programs that automatically calculate the calories and cost of each dish.