Since the theme for Nutrition Month (R) is “Food Connects Us” we wanted to show how to do a cooking demo for a “build your own” style dinner. Family meals have been shown to have so many benefits and yet they are super chaotic when you try to meet so many taste preferences, schedules, and the amount of time needed to cook and clean.

One of the most engaging types of meals you can serve is a “build your own” where you put out all the ingredients for an entree and people build their own. Pasta, tacos, chili, burgers, soup and sandwich, and ethnic meals come to mind.

You might end up prepping a little bit more food, but then you have leftovers for other meals, and everyone loves “building their own” to accommodate for taste preferences and less food waste.

Here are three excellent meals that can be served family style and “build your own”

Burger board - using a grazing board for burgers. You can have turkey burgers, beef burgers, and veggie burgers, all made on an induction stove, while the rest of the items are just cut up. An air fryer makes great French Fries, too. And for added engagement, members of the audience can come up and help prep!

Family Salad - a large platter makes a great way to serve salad so everyone can help themselves, but there is minimal cleanup.

Sheet Pan Dinners - allow for many things to be roasted and for family members to take what they want to eat.

Step one - list what you want to demo and how you will serve it. If you get audience members to help, you must buy the ingredients. If you are making a TV-style presentation by yourself, then you should buy enough items to show the prep and to show the cooked items. Get handouts ready and practice the dishes a few times.

Step two - Shop for the demo the day before. Look at our photos and see how the items are presented - do you need to get a large board, pan or platter? Make sure you have everything. Organize all the ingredients so the audience can find them and help or prepare them in advance.

Step three - arrive early to your demo and get your table organized. Place handouts on all the chairs or at the front so people can pick them up.