A Healthy Weeks Menu for the Older Person (menopause and after!)

 

It is sometimes hard to maintain an interest in food and mealtimes. To overcome this:

•Try to eat different foods each day

•Maintain an interest in cooking and experiment with new recipes

•Share meals with family and friends

•Try to make each mealtime an important occasion, even if it’s only beans on toast!

 

To help you get started we have devised a week s plan that is tasty, healthy and won’t make you gain extra weight.

The ground rules:

•Wherever possible use the wholegrain version of foods, e.g. wholemeal bread, brown rice, wholemeal pasta.

•You can have butter, spread or low fat spread on your toast, bread, teacakes, crackers or in sandwiches, but use sparingly.

•If you cannot shop regularly for fresh vegetables or find preparing them is a chore, than frozen are just as nutritious

•Tea and coffee can be drunk throughout the day but see note at end for dangers of drinking these to excess. Try herbal teas or the decaffeinated versions of some of these caffeine containing drinks.

 

 Monday

Breakfast:

Half a grapefruit

Boiled egg

Toast with yeast spread

Toast with jam or marmalade

Lunch

Ham and salad sandwich

Small pot of yoghurt

Fruit

Evening meal

Grilled chop: 120-180g (4-6oz) raw weight is fine per person. Trim off all the fat before eating

Potatoes boiled in their skins

Broccoli and Carrots Baked apple

Custard sweetened made with lower fat milk

 Tuesday

Breakfast

Glass of unsweetened fruit juice

Bowl of cereal (avoid sugar coated ones) e.g. Weetabix, Shreddies, Muesli

Slice of toast marmalade /jam/honey

Lunch

Sardines on Toast (one or two slices according to appetite)

Tomato and cucumber

Small chocolate wafer biscuit

Orange

Evening Meal

Shepherds pie: allow 120g (4 oz) of mince/quorn mince (for lowwer fat version) per person, fry the mince and drain off the fat before using.

Mash the potatoes with milk, a little pepper.

Peas and sweetcorn

Tinned fruit with 1 scoop of ice-cream  or low fat custard

 

Wednesday

 Breakfast

Slice of melon

1 crumpet topped with scrambled egg.

1 crumpet with small amount of honey

Lunch

Baked potato with filling of tuna mixed with reduced fat mayonnaise. As the filling is moist, there is no need to use extra butter in the potato. Salad with low fat dressing

Banana

 Evening meal

Stir-fry: Use a base of onions and add whatever vegetables you have in your store, but peppers, mushrooms and beansprouts go well. Add some lean bacon or strips/tofu/ quorn pieces of chicken breast.

Rice

Thursday

 Breakfast

Unsweetened fruit juice

Porridge made with lower fat milk and fruit and  little honey to sweeten

 Lunch

Beans on toast: 1-2 slices depending on appetite. There is no need to ‘butter’ the toast first, as the topping is moist.

Small slice of plain or fruit cake

Evening meal

Cauliflower or Macaroni cheese: Half a pint of milk is sufficient for two people. Make the white sauce by thickening the milk with cornflour, so that there is no need to use fat. Use strong cheddar cheese so that you don’t have to use so much.

Crusty bread

Mousse or sorbet

Friday

 Breakfast

Small bowl of unsweetened prunes/canned in fruit juice

Fresh sliced/canned plum tomatoes on toast

 Lunch

Egg and cress sandwiches. (If using mayonnaise then used the reduced fat version)

Small carton of yoghurt or fromage frais

Evening meal

Pasta with tomato sauce: As with the stir fry, start with an onion fried in a little olive or sunflower oil, then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and whatever else takes your fancy! Tuna, cooked prawns, quorn or chicken can also be added.

Top with a little grated cheddar or Parmesan cheese.

Banana custard, made with lower fat milk

Saturday

Breakfast

Unsweetened fruit juice

Grilled bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes with a poached egg

Toast with lower fat spread

Lunch

Home made soup: Lightly fry some onions and add vegetables of your choice, or add cooked left over vegetables. Add stock and blend.

Bread roll or crackers

Apple with small cube of cheese

Evening meal

6oz lean grilled steak

Baked potato

Salad with lower fat dressing

Fresh fruit salad with natural fromage frais

 

 Sunday

Breakfast

Unsweetened fruit juice

Grilled kippers Grilled tomatoes

Toast with low fat spread

 Sunday Dinner

Lean Roast Meat: Make sure that you cook the meat on a trivet so that all the fat drains away. Do not use the meat juices to make the gravy, but you may use the vegetable water and lower salt gravy granules

Roast potatoes cooked in a small mount of vegetable oil

Cabbage, Carrots

Milk pudding, such as rice pudding, made with lower fat milk

Supper

Cold meat, pickles and salad

Toasted tea cake

 

Notes · If you are particularly hungry or extra active, then you may need some extra snacks between meals. Below are some healthy snack ideas: •A bowl of unsweetened cereal (with low fat milk).

•A sandwich (with low fat filling).

•Fruit.

•A ‘low calorie’/'diet’ yoghurt or fromage frais.

•A plain biscuit, e.g. Digestive, oatcake, semi-sweet biscuits e.g. Rich Tea or Marie.

•Any of the following with a scraping of either low-fat spread or jam/honey: Crispbreads or crackers with hummus, peanut butter or other topping.

•Bread, crumpets or teacakes.

•Plain scones or buns.

•Malt loaf

 

•If you have your evening meal early in the evening or have difficulty getting to sleep at night, then a milky drink at bedtime, such as a lower fat malted milk or chocolate drink may aid sleep.

•Try and include a pint of semi-skimmed milk in you diet every day to maintain bone health

. A third of a pint of milk can be substituted for a piece of cheese the size of a small matchbox or a small pot of yoghurt.

•If you are over 65, you should take a supplement daily of Vitamin D

. •Drinking plenty is important to help avoid constipation and dehydration. Aim to drink at least 6-8 cups of fluid (fruit juice, squash, water or tea) each day.

•Drinking too much tea and coffee and other caffeinated beverages may cause anxiousness and sleeplessness.  . It is therefore advisable not to drink more than 10 cups of all caffeinated beverages each day (e.g. 2 cans of coke, 5 cups of tea and 3 cups of coffee would be the upper limit for the day)

If you drink remember to stick to less than 14 units a week and try and have at least 2 alcohol free days a week