Description

New Cookbook Series And Menus 2025-2030

Developed and Designed by a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with years of experience working with group homes for the developmentally disabled.

Menu and Cookbooks are Sold Separately

The Cookbooks Are Available Through Amazon

Order Your Menus Here Via Paypal Or Contact Us For Zelle

We are excited to introduce our newly updated Group Home Menu Program and the all-new Group Home Cookbook Series—designed specifically to make meal planning, shopping, food preparation, special diets, and staff training easier in group homes.

Created by a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, these resources take the guesswork out of preparing nutritious, appealing meals while helping facilities maintain consistency, control food costs, accommodate special diets, and meet residents’ nutritional needs.

New Group Home Menu Highlights

Our new menu package provides everything your staff needs to plan, shop, prepare, and serve meals with confidence.

• Two complete 6-week menu cycles: Winter and Summer
• 12 weeks of professionally planned menus
• Daily dietary production spreadsheets
• Portion sizes for Small, Medium, Large, and Extra-Large diets
• Texture-modified diet instructions
• Therapeutic diet modifications
• Daily grocery shopping lists with quantities
• Helpful shopping and cost-control tips
• Weekly staple-food checklists
• Special colorful Holiday Menus
• Daily diet analysis available upon request
• Recipes coordinated directly with the Group Home Cookbook Series

Seasonal Menus Designed for Variety

The menu program includes separate Winter and Summer six-week cycles so meals can reflect the seasons.

The Summer Menu features more fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables along with lighter meals that are especially enjoyable during warmer weather. You might find meals such as Chicken Caesar Salad, pasta salads, wraps, sandwiches, and other refreshing choices.

The Winter Menu incorporates seasonal fruits and vegetables along with warm, comforting foods such as soups, casseroles, chili, and other traditional cold-weather favorites.

This seasonal approach adds variety throughout the year while encouraging residents to enjoy a wide range of nutritious foods.

Designed Around the Group Home Schedule

We understand that group home residents are often away from the facility during the day. That is why the menus were specifically designed with the residents’ schedules in mind.

Monday through Friday lunches include foods that work well for sack lunches, such as sandwiches, wraps, pasta salads, and other portable choices.

Weekend lunches feature simple, easy-to-prepare meals that help reduce preparation time for staff.

Each week includes an attractive weekly menu spreadsheet that can be dated and posted on the refrigerator or another convenient location so residents and staff can easily see what is being served.

Daily Production Sheets Make Meal Preparation Easier

Each menu day includes a detailed Dietary Production Sheet to help staff prepare the correct foods, portions, and diet modifications for each resident.

Production sheets include guidance for texture-modified diets such as:

• Bite Size
• Chopped
• Minced & Moist
• Purée

Therapeutic diet modifications include:

• Carbohydrate Consistent
• Low Fat
• Anti-Reflux/GERD
• No Added Salt
• 2 Gram Sodium
• Renal
• Gluten-Free

Portion sizes are clearly identified as Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large, helping staff provide consistent portions according to each resident’s diet order.

Even better, every prepared menu item coordinates with a recipe in the Group Home Cookbook Series, making it easy for staff to know exactly how each menu item should be prepared.

Shopping Made Simple

One of the most convenient features of the menu package is the daily grocery shopping list.

The shopping lists identify the foods and quantities needed to prepare meals for eight consumers. If Lemon Chicken is on the menu, for example, the shopping list tells staff approximately how much chicken and what ingredients are needed.

This helps facilities:

• Reduce unnecessary purchases
• Control food costs
• Minimize food waste
• Improve inventory management
• Make shopping faster and easier
• Ensure ingredients are available when needed

A weekly order form is also included.

Celebrate the Holidays!

Make holidays special with our colorful Holiday Menus. These menus can be posted for residents and staff and used to create fun and memorable celebrations throughout the year.

Holiday menus include:

• New Year’s Day
• Valentine’s Day
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Easter
• Independence Day
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas

Facilities may choose to use these menus as part of their holiday celebrations and special activities.

Hot Off the Press: The New Group Home Cookbook Series!

We had so many great recipes that we simply could not fit them all into one cookbook anymore!

The new Group Home Cookbook Series now includes six separate cookbooks featuring more than 1,000 healthy, simple, economical, and delicious recipes.

The recipes were carefully selected to encourage a healthier eating pattern by incorporating more home-cooked meals and fewer highly processed foods, while still keeping food preparation practical for busy group home staff.

The recipes are designed to be easy enough for employees with limited cooking experience while providing the consistency needed in a group home foodservice program.

Staff members have often told us:

“The Group Home Cookbook is so simple to use—it taught me how to cook!”

Many group home employees enjoy the recipes so much that they have even purchased the cookbooks to use in their own homes.

More Than Just Recipes

Every recipe was developed with the needs of group homes in mind. The cookbooks do much more than tell staff how to prepare a meal.

Each standardized recipe includes helpful guidance for:

Therapeutic Diet Modifications

• Low Fat
• Carbohydrate Consistent
• Anti-Reflux/GERD
• No Added Salt
• 2 Gram Sodium
• Renal
• Gluten-Free

Texture-Modified Diets

• Bite Size
• Chopped
• Minced & Moist
• Purée

These guidelines make it much easier for staff to prepare one menu item and appropriately modify it for residents who require special diets.

Built-In Allergy Alerts

Food allergies can have serious consequences, which is why recipes include easy-to-identify Allergy Alerts for major allergens including:

• Wheat
• Milk
• Egg
• Fish/Shellfish
• Soy
• Peanuts
• Tree Nuts

These alerts provide another tool to help staff recognize ingredients that may require special attention when preparing meals for residents with food allergies.

Food Safety Guidance on Every Recipe

Food safety is especially important when preparing meals for individuals living in group homes and other residential care settings.

That is why recipes include Food Safety Guidelines and critical food preparation information to remind staff about proper handling, cooking, and serving practices.

Food safety guidance helps reinforce safe food preparation every time the recipe is used.

Quality Assurance Built Right In

Recipes also include Quality Assurance Guidelines and cooking tips to help staff achieve better and more consistent results.

These helpful reminders can improve:

• Appearance
• Flavor
• Texture
• Portion consistency
• Cooking quality
• Resident satisfaction

Even staff members with limited cooking experience can follow the standardized recipes and prepare meals with greater confidence.

Standardized Recipes Make Portion Control Easy

All recipes are standardized for eight servings, making them ideal for many group home settings.

Standardized recipes help facilities:

• Maintain consistent portion sizes
• Control food costs
• Reduce waste
• Improve meal quality
• Meet planned nutritional goals
• Train new staff
• Make menu substitutions easier

When a menu substitution is necessary, staff can select another standardized recipe from the appropriate food category and prepare the correct number of portions.

Recipes Designed to Support Balanced Meals

Recipes are organized into categories based on how foods are typically used in a balanced menu.

Entrée recipes are designed to provide appropriate sources of high-quality protein or suitable protein alternatives.

Typical protein sources include:

• Chicken
• Turkey
• Beef
• Pork
• Fish and seafood
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Yogurt
• Beans and legumes
• Nuts and other appropriate meat alternatives

Breakfast entrées are generally designed to provide approximately 1 ounce of high-quality protein, lunch entrées approximately 2 ounces, and dinner entrées approximately 3 ounces, depending on the recipe and meal plan.

Something for Every Meal

The Group Home Cookbook Series contains recipes from a wide variety of categories, including:

• Appetizers
• Beverages
• Breads, Biscuits & Muffins
• Breakfast Entrées
• Cakes, Cookies, Bars & Desserts
• Dinner Entrées
• Fruits
• Lunch Entrées
• Pies, Pastries & Desserts
• Salad Dressings
• Green Salads
• Vegetable Salads
• Sauces & Gravies
• Soups
• Starchy & Grain Side Dishes
• Vegetables

With more than 1,000 recipes to choose from, facilities have tremendous flexibility to provide variety while continuing to serve nutritious, balanced meals.

One Complete System for Group Home Foodservice

The Group Home Menus and Group Home Cookbook Series work together as one complete foodservice system.

The menu tells staff what to prepare.

The production sheet tells staff how much to serve and how to modify the meal for special diets.

The shopping list tells staff what and how much to purchase.

The cookbook tells staff exactly how to prepare it.

Together, these resources can make meal planning easier, reduce staff confusion, improve consistency, help control food costs, support special diets, and provide residents with delicious home-cooked meals.

Testimonials:

“I use Jackie Larsons cookbook every semester with my dietetics students. It’s an invaluable training tool for hands-on experience with therapeutic diets and modified food textures” Beth Blake, MPH, RD DT program director

Recipes sized to patient populations needed for community programs. Healthy foods that your groups will enjoy! Good for You, tested, tasty and healthy recipes! Lower in sodium, fats, and sugars than unmodified recipes. Heart-wise, Healthy, Easy to Prepare, and Tasty Connecting healthy eating to national dietary goals. A Manual for Daily Use- good variety, recipe, and menu options Cooking basics and content for staff in-service training Your “Go-To” Manual, easier to “Go Do” & “Get To” Better Nutritional Health Use this manual to “Eat Well” and “Be Well”. Guidance for groups improving quality of care in meals and health Debbie Eckhart M.S., R.D.N.

The Cookbook is great for personal use as well as for Group Homes. I bought one for myself and just love it, as well as it is wonderful for the company I work for. Clients are always pleased with their meals and their weights are stable. Joanna Hamilton RN

Great recipes, easy to follow, a must-have not only for group home but for every home. I love it! Cheska, Elizabeth Homes, QIDP

A much-needed resource when caring for individuals requiring modified diets, without taking away taste and pleasure when eating. Cary Kreutzer, EdD, MPH, RD, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Davis School of Gerontology.

To order a menu set a contract and order form must first be completed and returned with a check in the full amount or use the payment button below. If you have any further questions please contact me.

Download Contract Menukitcontract

IMPORTANT: Before the menus can be shipped a written agreement must be signed by the purchased and returned. To download the agreement click here.

Please allow up to 3-4 weeks for delivery