Learning how to create a meal plan is a game-changer for maintaining balanced nutrition and enjoying shared family meals. It’s not just about eating; it’s about bonding, teaching our kids healthy habits, and meeting your family’s health goals.
Our focus is on allergy-friendly, anti-inflammatory food preferences that cater to everyone’s needs, ensuring no one is left out. Let’s dive into some practical tips that will help you set up a successful family menu planning system, involve the whole family, balance preferences and nutrition, save time, streamline grocery shopping, and maintain consistency and flexibility.
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How to Create a Meal Plan System
Setting up a meal planning system is the foundation of family-friendly meals that support your nutrition goals. Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you started:
Choosing a Meal Planning Day: Pick a day of the week when you can sit down and tackle the meal planning process. For us, Sundays work best because it gives us time to prepare for the week ahead. Make it a relaxing and enjoyable time, perhaps with a cup of tea or coffee.
How to Create a Meal Plan Template: Design a menu planning template that includes spaces for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for each day of the week. You can find printable templates online to get you started with custom meal plans or create one yourself. Having a visual layout helps organize and balance meals, as well as serving as a food diary if you are tracking your food intake. Another benefit is to organize your shopping lists.
Tools and Resources: Utilize apps like Plan to Eat or Paprika that help you organize recipes, plan meals, and serve as a food diary. A shared family calendar, whether it’s a physical one on the fridge or a digital one like Google Calendar, ensures everyone is on the same page. Many apps out there will even help you organize your grocery list so you can simplify shopping and cut back on food waste. You can even keep it super simple by utilizing your mobile device’s notes app to help you stay on track.
Utilizing a Shared Family Calendar: Sync your meal plans with your family’s schedule. When you know who’s doing what and when helps in planning meals that fit into everyone’s routines, avoiding last-minute chaos. This is especially important if someone else is going to start meal prepping that day while you’re busy.
Involving the Whole Family in Meal Planning
Getting the whole family involved in an effective menu plan makes it a fun and educational experience. Plus it allows you to work together towards your common health goals. Not to mention that it helps you teach your kids how to create a meal plan so they can do the same with their families down the road. Here’s some step-by-step process on how we make it work for our family:
Effective Meal Planning: Involving the kids in your family’s wellness goals can be a delightful experience. Letting the kids pick meals or ingredients makes them feel involved and more likely to eat what’s prepared.
For instance, Bella loves smoothies, especially when she gets to choose her own ingredients and dietary preferences, especially if it has chocolate, organic peanut butter, or extra stevia! She can make each one taste the way she wants and increase her delight in her healthy eating habits.
We often have family meetings to discuss the week’s meals, which becomes a bonding activity. Everyone gets to share their favorite food items, we can take into account any food allergies, and we can discuss new recipes to try that help us meet our wellness goals.
Educational Aspect: Use meal planning as an opportunity to teach your children about health and nutrition, as well as important life skills related to meal planning and preparation. Here are some ways to include the kids in the process:
- Involve them in shopping: When we head to the grocery stores for healthy foods, it is often a whole-family experience. We may utilize online shopping and get the kids to help us check pantry shelves for needed items on our list. And when we go shopping in person, we show them how we make produce selections (for example, the most important ingredients to purchase organic), how to read labels, and more.
- Measure ingredients and meal prep options: Let the kids help measure, grab seasonal ingredients from the garden, and prepare the food. This teaches them about portion sizes and basic cooking skills. We cover time-saving meal preparation techniques more in-depth here.
- Learn simple dishes: Encourage the kids to learn simple dishes, especially when it comes to the meal ideas we eat frequently. There’s lots of times we use a simple base meal, and then change it up with variations, added ingredients, and so on. This empowers them to take an active role in what kinds of meals they make, and therefore are more likely to eat them cheerfully.
One of the things that we do with the kids too, is that if they want something out of the norm, we let them help research finding a recipe. For example, Esther wanted fettucini alfredo and had to research to find some good recipe options to work from. Then we work together to do the Health Substitutions (see our complete guide) and do the test runs together to evaluate how it will turn out.
They also get to pick their favorite meal for their birthdays as a treat. That’s something they always look forward to putting into the menu plan each year!
Balancing Dietary Preferences and Health Goals
Balancing the task of including everyone’s favorite recipes while ensuring nutritious food items can be a challenge, but it’s the ultimate goal. And one of the best benefits of taking the time to learn how to create a meal plan. Here are some of our top tips:
Save Time on Meals with Simple Customization: Creating customizable meal components is a fantastic way to cater to different tastes without extra work. You literally get an individualized meal plan without any extra effort.
For instance, we love having taco bars where everyone can choose their own toppings. Typical options in our house include pasture-raised organic 100% grass-fed ground beef seasoned with my taco seasoning, black beans, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, organic peppers, avocado, non-dairy/vegan cheese, and homemade salsas that vary between our fruit salsa, pico salsa or corn salsa. Don’t forget to try our layered taco dip, which is always a hit.
Smoothie packets are another great example. By prepping bags with pre-measured ingredients, we can quickly blend up a nutritious smoothie in the morning. Bella particularly enjoys her smoothies when she gets to add her favorite fruits and a handful of spinach. It’s a fun and easy way to ensure everyone gets their greens.
Salad bars are also a big hit. We often use garden-fresh greens for a seasonal ingredient base and switch up the topping variations as the mood strikes. Adding homemade salad dressings keeps the flavors interesting and allows each family member to personalize their salad. Toppings like nuts, seeds, and dried fruit can make salads more appealing and nutrient-dense.
Other cases where this variation of a simple base is used include my delicious hummus, healthy quiche, and infused water recipes. These flexible recipes allow for a variety of ingredients and flavors, catering to everyone’s preferences while ensuring a balanced, healthy diet.
Healthy Alternatives: Swapping unhealthy ingredients with nutritious options is a key part of our meal planning. For example, we use whole grains instead of refined ones and replace sugary snacks with fruit or homemade treats. Incorporating superfoods and anti-inflammatory ingredients, like chia seeds, flaxseeds, and turmeric, adds an extra health boost to our meals. Taking control of your meals on a daily basis will help us
I highly recommend checking out my Healthy Recipe Substitution Guide. This guide offers numerous alternatives for common ingredients that can trigger inflammation, giving you the ability to get rid of gluten, dairy, sugar, or soy. For instance, our Creamy Butternut Squash Soufflé Delight, originally from Aunt Sandy, has been converted into a healthier, allergy-friendly version, giving you meal plan options even if you have allergies. Another great example is our Creamy Dairy-Free Scalloped Potatoes, adapted by a close family friend, offering a healthy side dish option.
Time-Saving Strategies When Menu Planning
Time-saving strategies are essential for busy families. Whether you’re both working, have a lot of kids like we do, or just want to be able to spend your time and energy on other things it doesn’t matter. :
Batch Cooking and Freezing: Batch cooking is a lifesaver when it comes to meal preparation and is something we discuss in more detail in our meal preparation tips and tricks post. Prepare larger quantities of meals and freeze portions for later. This is perfect for soups, stews, casseroles, and even breakfast items like pancakes and waffles. For example, you can make a big batch of our Healthy Homemade Granola and store it for a quick and nutritious breakfast or snack. Another great make-ahead option is smoothie packets. Prepare bags with pre-measured ingredients, so you only need to blend them in the morning.
Preparing make-ahead dishes ensures you always have a healthy meal ready to go. Recipes like our Pesto and Butternut Squash Soufflé can be made in advance and stored in the fridge or freezer. I’ll put the dips in their final serving container, already labeled on the top and on the side, so it’s not only made, but ready to serve for the next event. I usually make between 2 and 4 to go in the freezer to save time in the long run. These dishes are perfect for busy weekdays when you need a nutritious meal without the hassle of cooking from scratch.
Utilizing Kitchen Gadgets: Kitchen gadgets like the Instant Pot, food processor, and blender can significantly reduce prep time. The Instant Pot is perfect for quickly cooking soups, stews, and even whole grains. A food processor can save time with chopping, slicing, and dicing vegetables, while a high-powered blender makes smoothie preparation a breeze. An effective meal plan is only as easy as your ability to implement it!
Quick and Easy Recipes: On busy nights, having a few go-to quick and easy recipes can be a real lifesaver. Some of our favorites include a veggie stir-fry with quinoa or a quick pasta with homemade tomato sauce. These meals can be prepared in under 30 minutes and are both nutritious and satisfying. Check out our recipes tagged as “quick meal” for more ideas, like the Energizing Iced Matcha Green Tea and the versatile Essential Yogurt, which can be topped with various healthy ingredients for a quick and easy meal.
More time-saving tips we use often include:
- Double recipes: Whenever you cook, double the recipe and freeze half for later. Keep a list in your food diary of available meals for busy days.
- Prep ingredients in bulk: Chop vegetables and prepare ingredients for multiple meals at once.
- Use pre-washed greens: Save time by using pre-washed and pre-cut greens for salads and cooking.
- Cook grains in advance: Prepare large batches of grains like quinoa or brown rice and store them in the fridge for quick meal additions.
- Organize your pantry: Keep a well-stocked and organized pantry with staples like beans, grains, and spices for quick and easy meal preparation.
- Downsize containers for leftovers: After an event, I will put any leftover dips into a smaller container in the fridge for family snacks the next couple days, or in the freezer for family use later on down the road.
- Make and freeze herbs in recipe-ready portions: Two of our favorite things to make is salsa and pesto. But cilantro is in-season when no other salsa ingredients are ready to go. So I will harvest all the cilantro, wash and spin it, course chop it or keep the leaves whole, and then store and free in pre-measured amounts. 1/2 cup amounts are usually perfect for our recipes. Basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, and kale amongst others all can be portioned and frozen in pre-set measurements. Be sure to include the date, measurement, and recipe they are measured for, when you label them.
Meal Planning Consistency and Flexibility
Consistency and flexibility are key to making a successful meal planning routine:
Creating Routine: Establish regular themes like Meatless Mondays or Taco Tuesdays, which can make a more effective meal plan. This makes planning easier while still allowing you fun with your meal ideas. During the week, focus on quick and easy, nutrient-dense breakfasts like smoothies. Save time-consuming prep meals or heavier breakfasts for weekends.
Our household keeps a schedule very regimented. We usually do breakfast for dinner on Monday (usually with enough leftover for breakfasts later in the week), tuna (or salmon) fish dish on Tuesday, pasta night on Wednesday, taco (vegan or otherwise) on Thursday, and Fridays are often a pizza night. Saturday and Sunday we either get creative or have leftovers depending on what was happening throughout the week.
The key is to plan your routine. We have to stick to a schedule; it’s predictable for the kids. They know it’s something in this realm that we’re having. It might change or vary, but they know what to expect. This predictability helps reduce stress and ensures everyone is on the same page. It also helps the kids get really excited about their favorite days!
Adapting to Changes: With so many kids and such busy schedules, having a few backup meals is crucial and saves money from needing to eat out. For us, it’s about being prepared. We keep a well-stocked pantry with healthy staples like beans, grains, and frozen vegetables, buying common items when on sale to enhance our grocery budget.
This also ensures you can always whip up a nutritious meal, no matter what. Additionally, utilizing leftovers creatively can save time and reduce waste. We utilize leftovers for the weekend and build room into the meal plan template for it. You can always freeze smaller portions for another time. This way, you’re not stressed about cooking from scratch every day. Make a smart meal plan, not something that will torture you.
Family-wide, effective meal planning offers numerous benefits, from better nutrition to more quality time together. Start your meal-planning journey today, and watch how it transforms your family’s health and happiness. Share your experiences and tips in the comments or our community; we’d love to hear from you!
