5 Meal Planning Ideas for the Family

After almost two years of living through pandemic-related precautions, school is back in session in classrooms, many workers are back at the office versus working remotely, and life is finally getting back to its hectic normal pace. That includes the hustle-bustle lifestyle for families, juggling after-school activities, homework, music lessons, and even the fully loaded weekend schedules of activities and parties. And with everything else going on, parents continue to strive to feed their family’s healthy meals.

Continue reading to discover why healthy meals are the foundation of a healthy family and five easy meal planning ideas that any family can adopt.

Meal planning involves consciously considering what you plan to prepare as meals and following through with it. Some ideas to successfully plan are:

Create a Menu With Your Family

Creating a weekly menu for a family can be exhausting. Selecting foods that everyone in the family will equally enjoy and preparing them to perfection takes patience and skill. That is why it is suggested that you involve every family member in the menu for the week.

Allow your family to have some say in what they want to eat during the week. Let them have some say so in what the meals are. Talk to children about healthy snacks and encourage them to switch out some cookies and chips for more nutritious snacks. Some tips for planning a weekly menu are:

Decide what proteins you will serve on which days.

Look at what sides you already have.

Check the sale circular for local grocery stores.

Shop for the items you need to prepare the meals.

Post your menu where your family can see it.

Choose a Day to do the Bulk of Your Cooking

After work, picking up children after school, helping with homework, and then evening practices and activities, the easiest thing to do is stop on your way home is to stop and pick up dinner. However, you have already shopped for the week, and your refrigerator and pantry are stocked with food.

Meal planning works best when you pick a day of the week to do the bulk of your cooking so that you can heat and eat during the week. For instance, if your schedule is open on Sundays and you’ve planned roasted chicken, salmon, and meatloaf as your proteins for the week, it makes sense to prepare them both on Sunday, along with a few sides. Then you can put serving-size portions of each meal into a bowl for easy heating during the week.

Include Healthy Snacks in Your Meal Prep

Brands entice families with snack-sized cookies and chips packages, making them more appealing to small children. However, getting children involved in meal prepping should also include preparing healthy snack options.

Keto has become an eating lifestyle for many, and snacks like cheese sticks, sliced salami, and peanuts are great options for children and adults looking at a keto meal plan for beginners. Prepared snack packs will prevent the entire family from selecting sugary, salty, and unhealthy snack options.

Plan a Day for Leftovers

Even with the most carefully planned menu, there are likely to be leftovers during the week. That is why when meal planning, you should include one day of the week that is leftover or “fend for yourself” night. Fend for yourself is not a night for eating out. Instead, it is an excellent night for an array of leftovers, sandwiches, toast, or even a scrambled egg for dinner.

Simply put, making a meal with something already in the house is a great way to avoid waste and get the refrigerator and pantry ready for the next week of meal planning.

Try Different Food Options

When you and your family plan your meals, don’t limit yourself to the same things every week. After seeing what is on sale at your local store, think about foods you haven’t cooked or eaten before or at least in a while. Cornish game hens, shredded bbq pork, and even lasagna aren’t prepared often but are great for meal planning.

As you have read, there are fun and engaging ways to get your family involved in meal planning. Cooking and enjoying your own foods are healthy and the foundation of a healthy family.