Jennifer Lowrie is a dietitian. She is also the mom of four school-age kids, so she knows the challenge of feeding a family with everyone’s schedules disrupted by stay-at-home orders.

Her advice: Plan ahead, but also cut yourself some slack as parents.

“Keep it simple,” said Lowrie, a registered dietitian/nutritionist with Atrium Health.

“There is no reason to get all detailed with every nutrient and every vitamin,” she said. “Give yourself some time and some patience to figure it all out. We’re all dealing with something brand new and our schedules are all different.”

Social-distancing in response to the new coronavirus pandemic means shopping for groceries less often and more efficiently. That requires some forethought and flexibility. It means maybe putting weight-loss on hold for now.

It could also be an opportunity to teach your kids skills that make them more self-sufficient.

Here are Lowrie’s tips for making the best of stay-at-home orders from a meal-planning view:

SHOPPING

“We want to get in and out of grocery stores quickly and we want to do it less frequently,” Lowrie described.

“Have a list. Plan ahead. Ideally, (buy) two weeks worth of groceries, but just one week would be a great start. Plan out what meals you’re going to make and what ingredients you’re going to need.

“Once you have that list, make it even more strategic in regards to the grocery store you go to: Is the dairy in the back? Is the produce up-front? You can organize your list accordingly so you’re not going back-and-forth. You don’t want to get to the bottom of the list and say, ‘Oh, I forgot milk!’ and have to go all the way back there.

“It’s less exposure (to the virus) if you’re more organized.”

FLEXIBILITY

“The grocery won’t always have what you’re going for,” Lowrie said of people stocking up more in advance. But maybe they have a different brand. So people can try using a different spaghetti sauce than they are used to, for instance.

FOOD STORAGE

Make sure what you are buying is going to work for at least a week. Canned fruits and vegetables work great, Lowrie said, as does frozen food. “To use all fresh produce, you really need to go to the store every three days to replenish, and that’s just not a good idea right now.

“Get your (fresh) produce when you do go (shopping),” she said, “but have your canned and frozen food as great backups. You’re not going to have to eat canned green beans forever.”

NUTRITION/JUNK FOOD

Nutrition is very important, of course. It’s not going to fix everything and it’s not going to prevent disease, but it’s a component that people have some control over, Lowrie said.

“You can enjoy everything in moderation. You don’t have to avoid the chips or avoid the cookies altogether.

“You want your fruits. You want your vegetables. You want your whole grains. Nuts. Beans. Lean proteins. Grill your chicken, as opposed to frying your chicken,” she said. And be sure to make extra, so when you do cook, so you have leftovers for salads or entrees.

TEACHING KIDS TO COOK

“It’s a great time to get them to learn how to cook. Teenagers especially. They’re too busy and usually not even in the house enough to figure out how to do some of this,” Lowrie said. “I did that the other day with one of my teenagers. He said he wanted tacos for dinner. I said, ‘OK, get out the pan. Let me show you what to do.’

“Normally, we’d be so rushed that there is no way I would have had time to get him involved,” she said. “Now there is time to do it. There is measuring, there is math, there is science involved. You can have fun with it.”

GETTING TAKEOUT

“There is no evidence to believe there is concern with it, as far as the virus being spread that way,” Lowrie said. “If you have the option for contactless delivery, I would definitely take advantage of that.

“If you get the takeout container, while there is no reason to believe that we could get it this way, but I’d take food from the container and put it on my own plate and then I would wash my hands,” she said. “That’s just being overly cautious, but it’s an easy thing to do.”

DIETING

“I would get away from any kind of restricted diet. We have enough stress right now to add the stress of what I can eat and what I can’t eat (based on how) many grams of this and so many grams of that,” Lowrie said.

“In order to have a fully-functioning immune system, we need to be well nourished, so this is probably not the best time to have a restricted diet.”

HYDRATION

“One thing we don’t often think enough with nutrition is drinking enough water. Right now, with how the virus is affecting us, I think it’s really important to be hydrated,” Lowrie said.

“You don’t have to count the number of ounces a day, but you need to stay hydrated. I’d like to see you using the bathroom a good five or six times a day. That’s a good way for you to judge how your own body (processes water since) we’re all different heights and weights.”