How to Plan Meals & Dinners for Kids

Written By: Ashley McCargish

 

Planning meals for kids can be daunting especially if you aren’t fond of the kitchen. I know I’m definitely not a huge fan of it.

 

However my husband and kids like to eat so I had to figure it out. 

   

How do I plan weekly meals? 

 

I created a weekly meal board that allows my family to plan our weekly dinners. We needed something that would be very visual. This allows us to see exactly what meals options we have available and what meals we have eaten in the past week.

 

Below is a picture of the board that I created.

   

As you can see it’s been well loved over the past 7 years! Hopefully I can recreate it after we renovate our kitchen in the next year to spruce it up!

 

Either way, I found all of the items I needed to create it from The Dollar Tree. I did this when my husband and I first got married (hello- we were paying off debt and didn’t have much in the extra fund category).

 

Here are some pictures of the meal options we have. I tried to keep the meal options short to allow for “wiggle room”. One one card it says “chicken” meaning we could be eating BBQ chicken, grilled, or baked chicken.

 

Some meals we prefer to eat with specific sides so I tried to include those sides on the meal card. This helps when using these for grocery shopping. When making a grocery list it’s easy to use the cards.

 

We even have cards with nothing written on them to allow for more meals as we find them in cookbooks or from friends and family.

   

How did I create my menu board?

 

You’ll need

 

• a baking sheet
• Magnets
• Card stock or index cards
• Colorful or patterned paper 
• Hot glue 
• A marker 
• Stickers (optional)
• Empty Jar (to put extra meal options)

 

I found some scrap booking paper in my home and used that as a background (in the picture this is the blue paper). Then I took paper and cut out a rectangle for the “title”. I used stickers to make the title “Weekly Meals”.

 

Then I used more scrap paper to write the days of the week out and cut them in equal sized squares. Next, I hot glued the squares onto the magnets. 

 

Finally to make my meal cards, I cut paper into the same sized rectangles. I made more than I had ideas for dinners. I also made sure to make one for “eating out” and “leftovers”.

 

Then I started putting a different meal idea on each rectangle. By the end we had about 25 meals to choose from each week ranging from tacos to lasagna. 

 

Every Sunday we shop for groceries so either sometime on Saturday or Sunday we reconfigure the board and figure out the week of meals. 

 

Why should I plan out my meals? 

 

There are so many reasons to plan out your dinner meals!

 

Saves Time

 

Planning dinner meals saves us time in our home because it makes our evenings go smoother. We know exactly how much time cooking dinner is going to take and when we should start to prepare.

 

It also saves time in the grocery store because we know we are cooking that week we know exactly what to put on our grocery list that we need to buy.

 

Saves Money

 

When we first got married all of our meals were based on the sales for the week at the store. We ate the meat, fruits, and vegetables based on what was in the ad that week. Now that we are on steps 4, 5, and 6 on the Dave Ramsey plan we have a bit more wiggle room with our budget (THANKFULLY!).

 

Anyways, planning our meals has always saved us money! We aren’t wasting food because what we buy is exactly what we have planned for. We also plan for late nights (like if we have church group or one of us is working late). We will plan meals that we know will work on those nights.

 

We might have more “wiggle room” in our grocery budget now than we did then but we are still following a budget. We still have a monthly plan of how much money we are willing to spend at the grocery.

 

Meals for the Kids will Eat: 

 

These are a few of our top family meals that everyone (including my 17 month old) will eat! 

 

Chicken Tacos

 

This is a family hit! We eat them at least once every other week if not more!

 

Ingredients:

 

• chicken (frozen or thawed)
• cut up bell peppers (frozen or fresh)
• onion (frozen or fresh)
• diced tomatoes (Rotel)
• corn (Frozen or Canned)

 

Throw everything (add or omit based on what you have in your home) in a crock pot on high for a few hours. If the chicken is frozen we start it around lunch time. Once the chicken is cooked (about 4-5 hours on high) then cut or shred the chicken.

 

Serve with all the fixings: sour cream (we use plain Greek yogurt), cheese, lettuce (we use spinach), hot sauce, avocado, and my 3 year olds favorite chips and salsa! 

 

Breakfast for Dinner (or in my house- Brinner!)

 

We usually have pancakes or waffles (we love the Kodiak cake mix), sausage or bacon, berries, and occasionally eggs.

 

Spaghetti

 

I try my best to put extra veggies in the sauce like onions, peppers, and spinach! I also use ground turkey for our ground meat. We season it with garlic, onions, and basil. We usually always serve this with a salad and applesauce for the kids. 

 

Chicken & Broccoli

 

This one can be a hit and miss for my 17 month old. He’s picky but also knows he has options (so we are working on that).

 

We make the chicken and broccoli in the oven. For the broccoli we use olive oil & seasonings (we love Mrs. Dash Original).

 

I also usually serve this with some kind of starch (corn or potatoes) or fruit for the kids. I do find that if my youngest feels like there is something on his plate he’s “willing” to eat, he’ll be more likely to try other things on his plate later. 

 

Summer Sausage and Veggies

 

This is a go-to one pan meal. We put onions, bell peppers, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and summer sausage on a pan with seasonings. Then toss it with olive oil and put it in the oven. I usually bake it around 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. We also flip everything half way through to make sure its not burning and to help it cook evenly.

   

Staple items I always keep in the house are Mac & Cheese, taco shells, corn, chicken stock, eggs, waffle mix, pasta sauce, veggies (frozen or fresh), fruit, peanut butter, chicken, ground meat, seasonings (Mrs. Dash and Tony Chachere’s) and some kind of noodle. 

 

I find if I have these items I can usually come up with something for dinner that my kids will eat!

 

Let me know what your family loves for dinner in the comments below.

 

Please share with a mom or someone who is looking for more meal idea content!

 

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