What shall we have for dinner ...

This is easy to answer after you have decided on the main dish.

The main dish is especially important in meal planning. It is the hub around which the rest of the meal is built, and often it carries a large proportion of the cost of the meal. Usually the main dish is the main source of protein—so essential to building and repairing body tissues.

In this booklet are recipes and suggestions for about 150 main dishes—easy to make, hearty, and economical. Most of the dishes give four liberal servings; a few provide more.

Most of these main dishes furnish about a fourth of the day’s needs for protein. For those that provide less, additional protein foods are specified in the menu suggestion following the recipe. Or you may prefer to increase the amount of protein-rich food in the main dish—by adding more meat, for instance, to a main-dish soup, salad, or casserole. The rest of the day’s protein will come from milk used as a beverage, and from cereals, bread, and other foods eaten as part of the day’s meals.

You get top-rating proteins (as well as other important nutrients) in foods from animal sources, as in meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, cheese. Some of these protein foods are needed each day; and it is an advantage to include some in each meal.

Next best for proteins are soybeans and nuts and dry beans and peas. When these or grain products are featured in main dishes, try to combine them with a little top-rating protein food, if you can.

No one food is exactly like any other food and no food is complete in all nutrients. Milk products are high in calcium; meats are low. Meat, poultry, eggs, and beans are good sources of iron; milk is low in it. One kind of B vitamin abounds in meats, another in milk, and a third in whole grains. The best way to be sure of a good diet is to use a variety of main dishes and wide choices of other foods to complete the meal.

Main-dish Proteins From a Variety of Sources

To supply a fourth of the day’s protein requirement, a main dish for a family of four must contain about 2 ounces of protein. Although this averages ½ ounce (15 grams) per person, it will not necessarily be divided equally among the family members—men and teen-age boys and girls will need somewhat more; women and younger children, somewhat less. There follows a list of foods commonly used in main dishes, together with the quantity needed to provide the ½ ounce of protein.

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Approximate Amounts of Some Foods That Provide About ½ Ounce (15 grams) Protein

As purchased

Meat:

Cuts with only small amounts of bone or visible fat (as beef stew meat, veal cutlet, rolled rib roast, round steak, boned rump roast, tongue) 3 ounces

Cuts with moderate amount of bone and visible fat (as standing rib roast, rump roast with bone, lamb shoulder roast, pork chops) 4 ounces

Cuts with much fat or bone (such as bacon, pork sausage, spareribs) 5 ounces or more

Luncheon-meat mixtures (as bologna, frankfurters) 3½ ounces

Chicken (as roasters, stewing hens):

Whole, dressed (with head, feet, bone, viscera weighed in) 4 to 5 ounces

Ready-to-cook (head, feet, viscera removed) 3 to 4 ounces

Canned or boneless, lean 2 ounces

Turkey:

Whole, dressed (with head, feet, bone, viscera weighed in) 4 ounces

Ready-to-cook (head, feet, viscera removed) 3½ ounces

Fish, canned or boneless (as salmon, tuna) 2½ ounces

Eggs, in shell 4½ ounces (2 large or 2½ medium-size)

Milk:

Fresh, whole or skim, or buttermilk 14½ ounces (1¾ cups)

Evaporated 7 ounces (⅞ cup)

Dry, nonfat 1½ ounces (5½ tablespoons)

Cheese:

Cheddar 2 ounces (½ cup, grated)

Cottage 2½ ounces (5 tablespoons)

Peanut butter 2 ounces (4 tablespoons)

Dry beans, except soybeans (as lima, navy, kidney) 2½ ounces (about ⅓ cup)

Soybeans, dry 1½ ounces (about 3 tablespoons)

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A Daily Food Guide

As you plan your main dishes, do your overall menu planning too, keeping in mind the different kinds of foods that are needed for an adequate diet. Plan to serve foods from each of these four groups every day:

• Milk group—milk in all forms (fluid whole or skim, evaporated, dry, buttermilk). For children, the equivalent of 3 or more cups of fluid milk daily; for teenagers, 4 or more cups; for adults, 2 or more cups.

• Meat group—meat, poultry, fish, eggs; as alternates, dry beans, peas, and lentils; nuts, peanuts, peanut butter. Two or more servings daily.

• Vegetable-fruit group—vegetables and fruits of all kinds. Four or more servings, including a citrus fruit or other fruit or vegetable important for vitamin C daily and a dark-green or deep-yellow vegetable for vitamin A at least every other day.

• Bread-cereal group—all breads and cereals that are whole grain, enriched, or restored. Four or more servings daily.

Other foods—the fats and oils, sugars, and unenriched cereal products used in cooking or added to foods at the table—will help to round out meals and satisfy appetites.

Looking at our national diet, we find that nearly half of our protein comes from the meat group. But about a fifth comes from bread and other cereal foods. And the milk group provides about a fourth.

We can then rely on these three food groups to provide the protein of our main dishes. We need not have protein-deficient diets even if we economize on meat. For we can get protein from other foods, using them as suggested in the money-saving recipes given in this booklet.

Meals to Suit the Family

Foods to serve with the main dishes are suggested at the end of each recipe. Choices will depend on available supplies, cost, the season, and what the family likes. If the protein in the main dish is limited, care should be taken to include in the meal the other protein-rich foods suggested in the menu (such as salads or desserts containing egg or milk) or dishes equally high in protein, to raise the total protein for the meal.

In some homes, noon is the time for the big meal of the day. In others, only at night can the family gather around the dinner table. In still others, where everyone is physically active, a big meal is needed both noon and night, and perhaps also at breakfast. But whenever the meal, the hearty dishes described in this booklet will help you to use a variety of economical foods to supply the protein your family needs.

If you cannot use the recipe exactly as stated, perhaps one of the suggested variations will be suited to the foods you have at hand, your family preferences, or the facilities you have for cooking.

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