Menu Magic

Let Your Menu Work for You Menus Grocery List Quantities Purchasing Rules Online Food Calculator

Cycle Menus Benefits to CYCLE MENUS Shopping Consistent menus keep from making errors on components Saves time from completing menu weekly Saves prep time in the kitchen shopping list to vendor for faster check out Time saver of completing 17-8.

What’s Wrong With This Menu?

Monday Breakfast? Lunch? PM Supplement? Looks Good! What part of Taco Meets the Requirements? Ground Beef? Chicken? Make Sure Portion Sizes Meet the Necessary Requirements! Whole Milk?

Tuesday Breakfast? Lunch? PM Supplement? Strawberries would be appropriate, Strawberry Yogurt is not Creditable for a Fruit Component! Pasta is not a Vegetable.

Wednesday Breakfast? Lunch? PM Supplement? 100%! Hominy Is not Creditable. What part of Pizza is filling the Meat Requirement? Frozen? CN Label? CN Label?

Thursday Breakfast? Lunch? PM Supplement? Fresh or Canned? Homemade? Ground Beef? Not a Grain. Same Components!

Friday Breakfast? Lunch? PM Supplement? Details! What Kind? Spaghetti isn’t a Meat! Fresh or Canned? Not Creditable

Remember: Menu Record helps you to stay in compliance Use “CN” to document processed foods Receipts should match food components. Example if Menu says, “Pizza” you should be able to find where you purchased a CN pizza on your receipts.

Menu Record Sept 30, 20XXOct. 1, 20XXOct. 2, 20XX Oct. 3, 20XX Oct. 4, 20XX

Menu Expectations Fresh, Frozen or Canned Variety of foods Precise Wording Milk Servings Cross Reference your CACFP menu with your posted menu Dated menu Make certain all components are met

Best Practices highly recommended by USDA and State Agency Minimal High Sugar Items Served Sweet Breads and Grains Served Maximum of 2 Times per Week Limited Amounts of Processed Foods 1-2 Year Olds Whole Milk and 2 and Older 1% or Skimmed Milk

Portion Sizes

Quick Reference Guide to Portion Sizes

Quantities Remember to Consider: How much you need. What size container best fits your needs What size container is most cost efficient. What size container best fits the work load during food preparation. The storage capacity of the center.

The Food Buying Guide Estimating the amount of food you need to buy is more than a simple math problem!! Helpful in estimating how much you need to buy. Can be accessed electronically by going to:

17-9 Use as a reference to know how much to buy.

17-8 Receipts should match 17-8 and be relative to what is on the menu!!! Receipts should also be organized by date and Menu!

Let us walk you through it!

Now, Let’ s See it in Action!!

Look at the menu and choose an item you will be serving.

Look at your 17-9 and estimate the number of meals being served at each age group Take a 5 day average to get an estimate of the number of servings you will need = /5=29 servings Let’s figure 30 servings just to be on the safe side.

Then use the Food Chart to Determine Serving Size!

Let the online food buying guide do the work for you!

Choose the Food Group you need

Choose the food category you need.

Choose what purchase unit and serving description you will be using.

Plug in the serving size and number of servings you need.

Choose add to list

You may keep going by selecting Add More Items or……. Number of Servings Serving Size What you are purchasing How many to buy What “Unit” are you buying it in? oz. gal. pts.

Choose Print or List once you have your list completed!

If your using the Cycle menu, Make a list for each week Designate which week each list pertains to. Just grab the list you need and go shopping!

Keep an Extra copy… In your purse In your wallet In your glove compartment On your phone

Resources _infants.pdfhttp:// _infants.pdf ingblocks.htmlhttp://teamnutrition.usda.gov/resources/build ingblocks.html care_recipes.htmlhttp://teamnutrition.usda.gov/resources/child care_recipes.html

Milk Reconciliation The Milk Reconciliation is recommended to be completed monthly to ensure appropriate amount of milk is being purchased and served. Can be completed easily by using the 17-9 which is completed daily after each meal service. Only the numbers of participants served are counted the day milk is served.

Milk Reconciliation

Milk was only served on one day for snack.

Milk Reconciliation October 20XX B & C’s Curtain Climbers Comes from your 17-8 which is the Record of Expenditures! 0 Comes from the previous month’s 17-9! If C is negative then enough milk was not purchased!

CACFP Resources

That’s All Folks