Kids Week: Meal Planning with the whole family

Menu or meal planning whichever you would like to call it is a great thing to get in the habit of doing weekly or monthly depending on your preference. We meal plan for a few reasons – variety of dishes, help cut grocery costs when meal planning with what’s on sale, not waiting to last minute to stress over what’s for dinner, missing ingredients and I am sure there are a few more also.

Here is a sample of one of our meal plans for the week of March 12-18,2012

Children that help with meal planning can increase the want to eat what is being served as they feel they helped with this task. A great way to get your children involved more is have each child pick a night during the week and then they pick their favorite meal. On that night they are the helper in the kitchen with mom or dad.

If you have a teen in the house, how about getting them to make their favorite meal all by themselves (make the meal with them a couple times and then let them loose in the kitchen- check in to make sure all is well). This will help your teen be self-confidence. Younger children will learn so much from being in the kitchen mathematics, reading, science, turn taking and safety.

Another fun idea is to make theme nights, a few ideas could be Meatless Mondays, Mexican, Pasta, Casserole, Pizza Fridays. Get the whole family involved with the meal planning even hubby. I always say if you don’t put in the input then you can’t complain. I like to ask the family what they would like for the week, if I find that I am not getting the answers I am looking for I will pick a handful of meals I know the family will like and then ask for a vote.

There are numerous ways to get the whole family involved in the meal planning. It also can be a lot of fun for everyone to get involved, they will also enjoy dinner time more. I have found the 4pm stress hour gone when I have meal planned and have everything on hand. It is a wonderful feeling.

Meal planning is also very helpful in cutting back on the grocery bill as I usually plan around what's on sale and also keep in mind our favorite meals and stock up on things when they are on sale for the next week. Also as you meal plan you will be able to see what everyone is eating in regards to getting enough veggies and other daily intakes. It is also great to help with varieties. I found without meal planning we were eating the same handful of things each week. With meal planning we have tried tons of new meals and veggies and also still have our favorites.

Do you meal plan? If not do you think you would like to try? If you feel you would like help meal planning please contact me I would be more than happy to help you! Send an email to Jennifer @ canadiancouponmom.ca

~*Jennifer 

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Marvelous Mommy Meals. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are honest and my own, images were found doing a Google image search.*~

Posted in: Marvelous-Mommy-Meals