5 Ways to Simplify Meal Planning and Make Your Life Easier

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If you’re anything like me, you might feel a little bit bogged down by what feels like the never-ending task of cooking for your family. They really need to eat 3 times a day every day? And I’M IN CHARGE? It’s not only the physical task of getting to the grocery store and finding the time to chop and prep and cook. It’s also the mental load of planning meals, thinking about when things expire in the fridge, what spices you’re running low on, which kid hates which meal, and so on. 

I actually love to cook! But since having kids,  it has started to feel like just so many meals, all the time. And if you’re also balancing feeding family members/kids with picky tendencies, it can feel even more exhausting.

Having navigated feeding a picky eater myself and going on 10 years of being the main meal maker in my family has zapped a little bit of the joy out of cooking for me, I gotta be honest. If you’re in the same boat, you’re not alone. It’s a huge job. And it’s a job that is on top of all the other jobs we’re already doing as parents and caretakers. 

I want to give you some tips to lighten the load. And spoiler alert, I actually *like* cooking again…well, most of the time.

Enter, meal planning.

This post is sponsored by Skylight

Meal Planning 101

You’re probably like, “Kacie, meal planning is not revolutionary.”

And I agree, it’s not. It’s not new and it’s not something I came up with. But it is something that has unlocked a level of ease in feeding my family that I was desperately needing for years.

And when I say meal planning, I don’t mean like you see fitness influencers on social media doing. I’m not talking about the kind where you make one huge batch of rice, veggies, and ground beef and you put it in 7 containers, doomed to eat the same boring meal for an entire week.

I know meal planning can seem overwhelming, like another chore to add to your list. But I promise you that once you find the way that works for you, it will actually free up mental space, not take up more. 

If you’re like me, you generally know what to do as far as meals go. But I still like seeing how other people do it to see if I can pick up any tips to make it even easier. Sometimes you just need some inspo to get the juices flowing. 

I’ve also included a free toddler-friendly, summer-focused meal plan that you can get at the bottom of this post!

sauteed vegetables as part of toddler meal plan

5 ways to simplify meal planning for a family

Have a weekly meal rotation

If you’re a creature of habit or you have kids that enjoy predictability at meal times, this one will be a jackpot for you! 

Feeding your family well doesn’t mean you have to be constantly trying new recipes. In fact, that’s often stressful if you’re trying to get food on the table fast. You have full permission not to have to make new things.

I love the idea of having a weekly rotation that you change up monthly or whenever you get bored of it. Some popular ones are meatless Monday (serving a vegetarian meal), pasta night, taco Tuesday, or having a family pizza night Friday. Some other ideas I rely on from time to time are a weekly breakfast-for-dinner night, build-your-own-bowl type meals where everyone gets to customize the meal to their liking, and charcuterie night where I basically supply the individual odds and ends on a platter and we call it charcuterie and feel fancy. 

This not only helps free up some mental space for you by not forcing you to decide what’s for dinner that night, but it can also get the family excited and set expectations accordingly. 

Don’t worry, you can still incorporate variety even if you’re making the same rotation of meals weekly. You can make small swaps like changing up the side dish or serving a seasonal rotation of produce! 

green plate with noodles, broccoli, shrimp and slaw

Keep sides simple

When I’m planning out meals, I always plan for at least one veggie and/or fruit in the meal, ideally two. In order to make this happen, I keep it extremely simple!

Raw veggies are on the table most nights. My favorite raw veggies are carrots, cucumbers, and bell peppers. If you’re serving these raw vegetables to toddlers or young children, make sure you offer them in safe preparations. Shredded carrots and long thin strips of cucumber and bell pepper are generally best for toddlers.

I also like to weave in sides that only require one step of cooking. Steamed potatoes, air fried frozen butternut squash cubes, and plain white or brown rice are some of my favorites. 

The sides you serve don’t necessarily have to “go” with the main dish. You don’t have to serve perfectly themed meals 7 days a week. Just prioritize picking something the kids will eat, and don’t worry if it’s a little bit of an odd combination.

Some nights we might have spaghetti and smoothies, or pancakes and avocado slices! Nutritious foods are nutritious foods, period! 

dinner 2

Use frozen and canned goods as needed

As the week goes on, it can be hard to keep the house stocked with fresh produce. I usually go grocery shopping on Sunday, so come Thursday or Friday, I don’t have much on hand as far as fresh things go. 

Also, in winter I find it harder to keep a rotation of produce in my fridge since what’s available is a little slimmer than other months. 

To combat this, I try to strategize which meal in my weekly meal plan can be pushed to the end of the week because it uses produce/dry goods that don’t go bad as quickly or more shelf stable items.

Cooking doesn’t mean you need to make every component of the meal from scratch. That can be overwhelming and time consuming, and I personally rarely do that on weeknights. I frequently use microwave frozen veggies and store bought sauces to simplify things. Good news, the frozen version is almost always just as nutritious as the fresh version. 

When you’re looking for recipes, keep an eye out for ones that use canned things (like canned chickpeas, beans, etc), or make a mental note of where you can press the easy button and use a frozen veggie mix or a pre-made sauce instead of making your own. 

Some other “easy button” items for us include the Banza pizza crusts and frozen burger/veggie burger patties and buns.

green plate with pizza slice and three cucumbers

Have a system in place that involves the whole family and streamlines the process

Kacie using skylight calendar

This is a big one! Having a system that works for your family is the key to reducing mealtime stress and increasing enjoyment for everyone. 

Meal planning and cooking doesn’t need to be solely your responsibility, especially if you don’t want it to be! There are tons of ways to get your family involved.

The biggest one we’ve incorporated in the last year is the Skylight Calendar. It has a meal planning feature that has revolutionized the way we approach dinner in our house.

No more asking mom what’s for dinner every day. No more last minute scrambling/rifling through the fridge to see what you can scrounge together.

On the calendar, everyone can see the plan! This naturally creates more buy in, more ownership in planning, and can get the kids involved, too.

You can also use a whiteboard in the kitchen. But for me personally, it’s a game changer to have it available both in the kitchen and on my phone, too! Skylight has an app where you can see and edit the plan, so if you need to grab something for dinner that night while you’re out and about, you can pull it up to see the plan on your phone! 

There’s something about seeing the plan displayed visually that really helps me stick to it. For me, it frees up mental space- you’ve already planned it and inputted it, and all that’s left to do is just make it! By splitting up the tasks of planning and prepping/cooking, you just focus on one thing at a time. It feels a lot less overwhelming!

kids using skylight calendar

Rack up recipes as you go

My last meal planning tip is more of an ongoing one. You may be in the early stages of collecting recipes and finding out what your family likes through trial and error. And kids change so fast that sometimes finding meals that everyone likes is like trying to hit a moving target. 

But something that’s really helped me is keeping a recipe bank of ideas so I don’t feel like I’m always going back to the drawing board.

Social media is actually a great place for coming across meal inspiration. I tend to save things on Instagram and Pinterest to refer back to for when the time is right to try something new. But I have also compiled a recipe bank on Skylight of tried and true recipes that I know my family loves. It’s especially helpful to have this bank I can add to year-round, because it helps jog my memory for recipes that are more seasonal!

When my inspiration is zero to none or I don’t have the time to go search for something new, it helps to already have selected recipes that our family actually likes.

Skylight also has a starter bank of meal ideas to help you get the process going. You can also label recipes with symbols so you know which are quick for busy nights! This is one of my favorite features of the Skylight Calendar, and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re looking to simplify and streamline meal planning for your family.

skylight meal planning feature

Let me help you get started!

If you’re currently in a rut or could use a little jumpstart into meal planning, I’ve got just the thing for you. I’ve created a one week meal plan that’s available for download–for free! It’s got 7 days of kid-friendly, summer-focused breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snack ideas! And as a bonus, it’s also got a Skylight discount code for you to grab the calendar I’ve been loving and relieve a ton of the mealtime mental load!

About Kacie Barnes, MCN, RDN, LD

Kacie is a mom of two and a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with her Masters of Clinical Nutrition. Kacie offers e-guides and e-books, workshops, brand partnerships, and nutrition counseling. Her blog offers nutrition and feeding tips for your little ones.

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