Problem:
A family of 4 needs a meal plan that will fit in with their weekly activities. The plan needs to include what they are having for dinner, who is cooking the dinner, how much is being made and what time they are cooking/eating at. There are requirements the meal plan must meet though, which includes having every family member cook at least once, having one new recipe, having at least the correct amount of servings, and dinner should be served when everybody is home.
Solution:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
| Recipe | Grilled Cheese | Black Bean Tacos | Chicken Noodle Soup | Vegetable Pad Thai | Farmhouse Chicken Dinner |
| Portion of Recipe | Full Recipe made twice (2 servings x 2) | Full Recipe (4 servings) | Full Recipe (6 servings) | Full Recipe (4 servings) | Full Recipe (4 servings) |
| Who’s Cooking? | Teen 2 | Teen 1 | Parent B | Teen 1 + Parent A | Parent A |
| Dinner Time | Start cooking at around 6:05 and begin eating at around 6:25-6:30pm. | Start cooking at around 6:05 and begin eating at around 6:20pm. | Start cooking at around 5:30-6:00 and begin eating at around 6:15-6:45pm. | Start cooking at around 5:30 and begin eating at around 6:05-6:10pm. | Start cooking at around 6:15 and begin eating at around 7:00pm. |
Justification:
On Monday, Teen 2 will cook two full recipe servings of Grilled Cheese. This is a good choice because Teen 2 has the least experience in the family and it would easier to give them a recipe where they would have less troubles on instead of giving them a harder recipe and making them cook it later in the week. 6:05pm is also a good time to start cooking at because the only evening activity is at 8pm.
On Tuesday, Teen 1 will cook a full recipe serving of Black Bean Tacos. This is a good choice because they have no evening activities that day and it is an easier recipe for Teen 1 to cook because they may not have as much experience as the parents and the taco recipe is a short and easy recipe to do. It also fits the evening schedule of Teen 2 because of their evening activity at 7:30pm.
On Wednesday, Parent B will cook a full recipe serving of Chicken Noodle Soup. The two extra servings of this recipe will be for Teen 1 and Teen 2’s lunch the next day. This is a good choice because Parent B has nothing else to do for the rest of the week and it is better for one of the parents to cook the bigger meals that serve more people. Parent B also comes home earlier than Parent A so we decided that since that is the case we would let Parent B cook on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Teen 1 and Parent A will cook a full recipe serving of Vegetable Pad Thai. This is a good choice because Teen 1 has less experience, and since Parent A will be home early, they can help Teen 1 cook because Pad Thai is a harder/more skilled recipe than the other recipes. This choice also fits into the schedule of Parent B’s evening activity of 7:30pm.
On Friday, Parent A will cook a full recipe serving of Farmhouse Chicken Dinner. This is our new recipe for the week. This is a good choice because it is a Friday, and Farmhouse Chicken Dinner is great for that week! It is also a more skilled and bigger recipe, so we decided that one of the parents cooking would be better.
References:
Name of New Recipe: Farmhouse Chicken Dinner
Link to Recipe: https://www.kraftwhatscooking.ca/recipe/farmhouse-chicken-dinner-94564
Collaboration Reflection:
Our group communicated in many ways. We first started to talk in our document and separate channel on Teams, but at the end we were talking face to face and able to communicate on who was doing what task for our meal plan chart and how were going to finish the chart as well. As said before, we used Microsoft Teams to communicate for a while before talking a bit in our meal planning document. We mostly used our laptops to communicate electronically, but I think that being face to face and being able to properly communicate together helped us to be able to finish our planning sheet and move onto the next step. We asked questions about what we were going to put in our own sections and if we needed to make large or small changes to the chart. Technology was hard for us to communicate on, so I hope we continue to talk in a group together face to face more this semester.
The tasks were divided in our group by communicating and figuring out who wanted a certain date first. We gave tasks to the people who wanted a certain task before giving the rest of the tasks out afterwards. One person gave the task that they wished to do, and then another person, and then whatever was leftover we’d discuss who was going to do it and then distributed it afterwards. My task was to figure out who was doing what on Monday and on Thursday for the meal plan. By looking on the group planning document, you can see our listed tasks and below, you can see the chart. Monday and Thursday are filled out and I was also able to help out some of my group members with what they were writing.
Self Assessment: Collaboration and Critical Thinking
Some of the things I thought about before dividing tasks among our group members was who is more of a participant in the group and who has paid less attention to the project than others. I felt like figuring that out was helpful to how the days of the plan would be divided up and I also thought about how they would do their role as well.
I know the group is working well together when I hear questions about the assignment and see others in my group beside each other sharing their screens and helping each other with problems or issues they may have with their task.
I can contribute to and work with criteria to improve my own work; evidence of that is working individually on my own task and listening in to my group member’s conversations to hear what issues they may be having so that I can try to help them as well, and maybe I can even learn a thing or two from helping them as well. I also try to add in enough information so that it is understandable and meets the requirements for the assignment.
I remain open minded as I explore viable options or alternative approaches, like when I feel stressed about a part of the assignment where I am unsure on what to do. I try to get advice and think about the thing I am worried about a little bit more before coming to a conclusion on what I should change or what I should do to try and solve my situation if I can not come to a good conclusion.