Iowa State University Extension

Problem:
People want to prepare healthy meals for themselves and their families, but lack of time, motivation, and ideas prevents the accomplishment of this task. Iowans' risk of having high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes is increasing with 60% of adults and 30% of children over-weight. All these conditions are related to the food we eat. Eating out or using too many convenience foods for quick meals often leads to eating foods that are higher in fat and sodium, and lower in nutrient value. With limited resources, quick, healthy, and low cost meals are desired.

Response:
Iowa State University Extension Nutrition and Health Specialists created a new publication and program called Healthy Meals in a Hurry. It provides directions, tips, and recipes for 14 main dishes that are healthy and quick to prepare to “eat now” or freeze to “eat later”. Directions for freezing them as single servings for the senior citizen or college student and directions for quickly cooking whole casserole dishes when taken from the freezer for the family are included. These recipes were developed to be low-cost and low in sodium, fat, and calorie content with food safety and freezing guidelines included.

The presentation that accompanies the publication focuses on understanding the concern with high blood pressure and offering tips for lowering blood pressure, recognizing sodium content of foods, food safety, and freezing food guidelines, along with the benefits of family meals. The presentation has been made to 281 participants including young moms, senior citizens, child care providers, and families with busy schedules in Marshall, Carroll, Greene, Humboldt, and Webster Counties. The programs have led to the purchase of 260 publications by participants. There are probably more that have been sold through county offices.

Impact:
Participants have had very favorable reaction to the publication and program. Many commented later on how they had started to read labels to find sodium content. Since the booklet is usually an added cost to participants, the fact that most have purchased the booklet after the presentation indicates desire to make the foods and plan family meals. After the first presentation in Marshall County, the CEED decided to expand beyond the presentation and offer a “make and take” program where participants would make 3 of the main dishes and two of the mixes after the presentation to take home to their freezers.

Seventeen participated and afterwards commented on how easy the recipes were to prepare and the various ways they would use the mixes. One participant had attended the presentation in the spring and attended the “make and take” version this summer. She said she had felt a little overwhelmed with just hearing the presentation – but after preparing a few of the recipes, she was now sure that she would prepare more of them and get back to planning meals for her family.

Another couple who attended was a grandmother and adult grand-daughter who, now living in her own apartment, wanted to fix her own food instead of always eating out. Grandma thought this would be a helpful start for her. It was obvious that cooking was a new skill for the young adult. She also commented that these were foods she would now prepare on her own and was glad to be able to save money with these low-cost dishes. There is much more potential use for this program by a variety of groups and more follow-up evaluation is needed to learn how participants are using the resource.

Additional ISUE Staff:
Angie Nelson, Marshall County CEED

Contact:
Paulelda Gilbert
Webster County Extension
217 S 25th Street, Ste C-12
Fort Dodge, IA 50501
515-576-2119
pgilbert@iastate.edu