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Meal Pattern Minute

Looking for quick tips on some of the CACFP's hottest topics? Our nutrition education specialist, Isabel Ramos-Lebron, MS, RDN, LD, is here to help! Be sure to follow us on Instagram or on Facebook for more tips, recipes and resources!

Meal Pattern Minute: Preparing Children for Family Style Dining

What can you do outside of meal service to prepare children for family style dining?

Meal Pattern Minute: Family Style Dining

What is family style dining in the CACFP?

Meal Pattern Minute: Shelf-Stable Yogurt

Is shelf-stable yogurt reimbursable in the CACFP?

Meal Pattern Minute: Quiche

What is needed to serve quiche as part of a reimbursable meal?

Meal Pattern Minute: Soy Milk Beverages

Are all soy beverages creditable in the CACFP?

Meal Pattern Minute: Cheese Products

What is a cheese product, and is it creditable?

Meal Pattern Minute: Disability-Accommodated Food from Home

If a parent of a child with a disability provides all food components for a meal, can the provider be reimbursed for the meal?

Meal Pattern Minute: Tomato-Based Pizza Sauce

Can you credit tomato-based pizza sauce as a vegetable component?

Meal Pattern Minute: Crediting Bean/Pea Noodles as Meat/Meat Alternate

How can you credit pasta noodles that are made from beans or peas?

Meal Pattern Minute: Lactose-Free Milk

Is lactose-free milk also dairy free?

Meal Pattern Minute: Sugar in Muffins and Sweet Crackers

The CACFP has sugar limits for breakfast cereals and yogurt – what about other foods that can be high in sugar, like muffins and sweet crackers?

Meal Pattern Minute: Tomato Soup

Can store-bought tomato soup be credited as a vegetable in the CACFP?

Meal Pattern Minute: Ounce Equivalency for Meat

When determining ounce equivalency of meat, is that done before or after it is cooked?

Meal Pattern Minute: Substituting Cheese By Volume

If you had a recipe that called for one cup of shredded cheddar cheese, could you replace it with one cup of Parmesan cheese and have the same ounce equivalency?

Meal Pattern Minute: Goat’s Milk

Can you serve goat’s milk in the CACFP?

Meal Pattern Minute: Grain-Based Desserts

How do you define a grain-based dessert in the CACFP?

Meal Pattern Minute: Tofu for Infants

USDA released a revised memo regarding tofu in the CACFP infant meal pattern.

Meal Pattern Minute: Meat Alternates

How can you identify a meat alternate in the CACFP?