We’re supposed to be cooking for – or even better yet, cooking with – our kids. Why?

• Home cooked meals were associated with diets lower in calories, sugar and fat, but not with higher monthly expenses for food, according to the University of Washington School of Public Health.”By cooking more often at home, you have a better diet at no significant cost increase, while if you go out more, you have a less healthy diet at a higher cost,” said Adam Drewnowski, director of the UW’s Center for Public Health Nutrition.
• The best way to get your child to eat healthier foods — and actually enjoy them — is to have them help you prepare the meal, found researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada.
• Children whose parents reported more time on food preparation tended to make healthier food choices in the lab than children whose parents spent less time at home on food preparation, even when their parents weren’t around, found  Penn State’s Department of Food Science and Department of Nutritional Sciences.
• And, according to research compiled by the Family Dinner Project, kids who ate dinner with their families got better grades, read more for pleasure, had fewer eating disorders, fewer suicidal tendencies, and lower incidences of drug and alcohol abuse.

Researchers however also know we’re starved for time, so I’ve interviewed experts and found the one secret ingredient into making this happen: planning. If we take an hour each week, perhaps on Sunday or Monday, to plan out our meals, and even buying the ingredients, then we operate the rest of the week on autopilot. We’ll remember (usually, we’ll usually remember) to take out the chicken in the morning or to throw the beef and vegetables into the crockpots. We’ll come home in the afternoon and without hesitating, pull the beans from the soaking water and boil them. Not incidentally, if we plan well enough, we can reuse the main ingredients later in the week. For example, leftover steak makes for excellent steak burritos.

Here’s the newest idea: meal delivery services. First, they force you to plan. You have to log on and choose your meals. Then, they do the rest of the planning and packaging and delivering. Is it worth the price? I’m going to let you know. I’m embarking on the experiment and will keep a close eye on my food bills. I’m going to watch the money saved and spent, as well as time. If you have any thoughts, I’d welcome them. brettgraff@yahoo.com.