I plan for the whole family to eat all 3 meals plus snacks from home. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, but that’s how I plan it. And I’m not sure about those magical people that always have leftovers for lunches the next day. Who are they? How do they do it every flipping day? Not me.
So for us muggles, I have a few suggestions on how to include lunch and breakfast in your meal plan.
For any of these the same basic execution of writing your inventory, shopping the sales and putting together a set of meals as outlined in How to get started in meal planning will apply.
Use a template
This is probably my favorite method. Simply decide on Monday and Thursday we have sandwiches for lunch. Tuesday and Friday is for salads and Wednesday is pasta. Saturday is a hot lunch cooked as a family and Sunday we eat out. Or however it makes sense to you. Just designate specific days to particular menu options. You can adjust with the seasons too. Fall and winter might be soups instead of salads. Spring and summer may mean Family BBQ every Saturday. I use this method for the girls lunch boxes through the week and it makes my meal planning go so much smoother.
Cook once and eat for a week
This is something like the traditional lunch prep method where you prep everything you need on Sunday and portion out each day’s lunch separately. So you’ll only need to think of one meal and just make enough of it to feed you for the week. I mostly use this method for my husband’s lunches because he skips breakfast and prefers to feel like he’s eating a full meal at lunch. Plus most recommendations are to keep cooked meat in the fridge no longer than 4 days so I’ll prep a couple meals for Monday and Tuesday and on Wednesday (his day off) I’ll prep for the rest of the week.
Bulk freezer cooking
Now this is a whole post on it’s own. But in summary you’ll want to make a large amount of something that freezes well. Maybe soup, casseroles, burritos or pasta dishes. Freeze in separate reheatable containers and pull out as needed. You might try cooking enough to last you a month at a time depending on how many people you’re feeding and how much time you want to devote to the prepping stage. This particular method I find great for breakfasts. Freezer breakfast burritos or Cinnamon toaster waffles are some of my favorites.
I also like to freeze the extra soups and casseroles after dinner and use these to fill in where I don’t feel like prepping lunch for Cody or when I’m starving and have minimal time or energy to feed myself. Be sure to label the container and if you’re really organized keep a list on the freezer of what you have and when you put it in there!
I hope some of these ideas can help you put together a complete meal plan that works for you. Feel free to ask questions below!
