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Meal Prep for Kids: Our Best Tips for Busy Parents

October 28, 2020 by Virginia Boyles Leave a Comment

Parents are juggling more responsibilities than ever. At Workweek Lunch, we have so much respect for all the caregivers who are just doing the best that they can right now. Meal prep can be a lifesaver for busy families, which is why we have asked the amazing parents of our community to provide us with their best tips for meal prep for kids.

Whether you’re looking for kid-friendly meal prep dinner ideas or wondering how to get breakfast on the table every morning, we hope that these fantastic tips help you. 

What's In This Post

  • What’s the best food hack you discovered that makes cooking for and feeding your family easier?
  • What systems have you found really work for you when it comes to feeding your family? 
  • If you meal prep, what are some tips for making it work while having kids around? 
  • How do you meal prep/cook when everyone has different tastes and preferences? 
  • I have a toddler/I’m a mom to a newborn and can’t seem to make time for meal prep. What do I do?  
  • Equipment, Food Products, and Memberships that Make Life Easier

What’s the best food hack you discovered that makes cooking for and feeding your family easier?

“Rotisserie chickens, bagged washed lettuce for salad, pre chopping veggies, repurposing ingredients (rotisserie chicken becomes nachos or wraps, salad kits become wraps, rice becomes stir fry or into soup).” Sally* from Canada

“Meal night – Monday = soup (made in batches on weekends), Tuesday = tacos (big surprise), Wednesday = pasta. I thought I’d hate the repetitive nature, but no way. It’s been a saver. We changed things up with the type of soup of the type of tacos. But the nightly allocation is always the same. Kids love the dependability.” Ali from Canada

“If something freezes well, double the meal and freeze to slowly build a freezer stash. I meal prep my own lunches in the traditional way but find the double and freeze method is way more efficient for family dinners. And of course meal planning in general is the key!” Becca from Canada

“I prep breakfast for the whole week. On Sunday I make the same basics: 9×13 egg bake (different add ins depending on what I have on hand), pancakes, sausage patties, a cottage cheese salad, and a type of muffin. I serve buffet style with fresh fruit and yogurt. Everyone self serves and cleaning up is quick and easy for a busy morning as a mom to 5.” Diana from Colorado

What systems have you found really work for you when it comes to feeding your family? 

“I try to make things that can be used over multiple nights (i.e. taco filling for tacos and then taco salad the next night, or cooking a whole chicken and having it with potatoes and veggies and then making chicken noodle soup the next day) or prep some things ahead when I have more time (i.e. chop veggies or assemble casseroles while my husband is on a break from work so all I have to do later is stick it in the oven).” Marisa from Hamilton, Ontario

“Google Sheets [used for meal planning] that we copy and paste each week and just update sports, holidays, travel, etc. I always start cooking with an empty dishwasher and a sink full of hot soapy water. Makes clean up during prep and after the meal a breeze. When planning a menu, I make it a family event so that everyone can look forward to their favorites that week. One time we took a ‘trip around the world.’ My son chose a different country for every day and I found meals that were either authentic to that country or reminded us of it in some way.” Anonymous from Tampa, FL

“I have a dry erase board I update weekly to map out all meals. I write down any meals that I know I won’t need to prep – eating out/events. Also, I try to hand wash all my big pans right after using them. This helps keep my sink area clean and allows me to have more room to fill the dishwasher to max capacity. I almost never put big pots or pans in the dishwasher and it’s almost a habit now to hand wash right after using, so much more efficient!” Kim 

“Schedule someone to cook for dinner every night. Does not matter what kind — frozen meal, home-cooked or to go. This has sort of turned into a competition for us!” Kristine from Olympia, WA

If you meal prep, what are some tips for making it work while having kids around? 

“Do it during naps! Or schedule a time for the other parent to be available to entertain.” Eliza from Vermont

“A big meal prep day doesn’t work for us, so I cook a couple of times a week planning out the meals. Having kids help cut things is great and have them set the table. And fostering independent play so you can cook. It’s not always feasible to have them cooking with me all the time for time’s sake, but as much as they can be involved helps.” Sally from Ann Arbor, MI.

“My meal prep consists of cooking extra at dinner time each night to make a few extra lunches. I work from home and my daughters are schooling virtual right now so this seems to work for us. If a meal is a favorite, I make at least 2-3 extra servings for lunches.” Katie from Georgia

“The ice cube game when she was around 2-3 years old. We would give her a whisk and a bowl of ice cubes and she had to trap as many ice cubes as possible in the whisk. This bought me at least 15 mins every time!” Anonymous 

How do you meal prep/cook when everyone has different tastes and preferences? 

“Use a concept rather than a recipe. ‘Mexican for dinner’ can mean taco salad, tacos, quesadillas, a plate with all the ingredients separate. But essentially I can make all of the things with the same core ingredients.” Erin from Indiana

“I follow my pediatrician’s advice: it’s my job to provide the food, their job is to eat it. Nights I know they don’t love a meal, I provide other items like extra fruit, yogurt or PB toast but still encourage the main meal.” Elisa from Connecticut

“We each pick one meal for the week. Everyone is happy one night, we try new stuff, you eat as much as you want, but you must try it. If you choose not to eat it, you help clean up and when everything is done, you thank the person who prepared the meal and are free to make PB and J or grilled cheese. Nothing else. We don’t want to force anyone in our family to eat food they don’t enjoy, but we don’t want to offer too many choices because that creates chaos.” Susan from Southern California

“Try to pick meals everyone likes to eat. Find recipes with anything you can leave out while cooking that is easy to add in when you go to eat it. Or look for meals that have things that can be easily picked out. I’m a firm believer that by not giving in to all the little food demands, your kids become more adaptable and learn how to compromise better. And they just might end up liking something they hate!” Kyla from Arizona

peanut butter jelly sandwich pantry lunch

I have a toddler/I’m a mom to a newborn and can’t seem to make time for meal prep. What do I do?  

“Concentrate on meals with a ‘set it and forget it; mentality. Really utilize your crockpot or Instant Pot or oven. THE FREEZER IS YOUR FRIEND.” Lucy from Los Angeles

“Have a bunch of friends get together and schedule a babysitter or make sure the spouse is free to spend time with the kiddo! Then bust out a bunch of meals and score girlfriend time!!” Sarah from Camas, WA 

“Break it up! Grocery shopping/order one day, make one meal per day or every other day. And don’t be afraid of takeout or pre-made freezer meals. Also, be flexible.  Sometimes the ingredients for a fancy meal get cooked one at a time and turned into three non-fancy meals instead. Just try to make sure you have good ingredients on hand for that magical moment when you have time to cook.” Henry* from Tempe 

“Do what you can when you have the energy. Say “yes” when folks offer help and don’t feel guilty saying you could use help with meal prep. Do as much before the baby comes as possible and fill the freezer. Premade or convenience foods are still foods. Splurge on the cut fruit and salad mixes if you can. Chicken nuggets are filling and a source of protein. The first few months are a guilt-free zone. As long as you and the kids eat, it’s all okay.” Mandy from Sacramento

Equipment, Food Products, and Memberships that Make Life Easier

We asked parents in the WWL community which equipment, food products, and memberships make feeding their littles easier. You all had so many great suggestions! Below are the top five most popular of each category. 

Equipment

  • Instant Pot 
  • Dishwasher
  • Air fryer
  • Crockpot
  • Food processor

Food Products

  • Rotisserie chicken 
  • Frozen veggies 
  • Pre chopped veggies and fruits
  • Bagged salad mixes
  • Microwavable rice packets
  • Annie’s Mac and Cheese 

Subscriptions 

  • Sam’s Club 
  • Misfit Market
  • Thrive Market
  • Costco
  • Workweek Lunch! 

IG Accounts and Blogs for Feeding a Family/Kids

We also asked which Instagram accounts and blogs were most helpful for planning meals for a family. Here are the five most popular answers!

  • Feeding Littles
  • The Natural Nurturer
  • Kids Eat in Color
  • Yummy Toddler Food
  • NaptimeKitchen 

Thanks to all the parents who took the time to send us your answers!

There was so much helpful advice. We hope this post helped make mealtimes a little easier for you and your family. Have any tricks we missed here? Let us know in the comments below!

Filed Under: Blog, Cooking For Two (Or More) Tagged With: family meal prep, family meals, kids, meal prep, meal prep tips

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Workweek Lunch | Talia Koren
Before we dive in here, I just want to say this po Before we dive in here, I just want to say this post is not meant to shame people for resting on the weekend (or their TV choices). 🙏🏼 We all gotta do what we gotta do. But if you’re someone who believes meal prepping means giving up TV time, I’m here to prove otherwise.
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📺 I’m a huge TV fan in general, anyone else? I’m also a huge fan of reducing stress and saving money and time during the workweek, so that’s a big part of why I choose to do some TV watching from the kitchen on weekends - not just the couch. Again, no shame in that!!! You can find me on the couch almost every weeknight (my partner and I are between shows right now (recommendations a welcome)😅
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🤘🏼If you’re someone who knows doing some prepping ahead of time can make your workweek easier, but don’t want to give up binge watching your favorite shows, I hope this post inspires you to switch it up. If not, by all means, couch on.
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😅😅Btw I need new shows! What are you watching these days?
Not sure what to meal prep this weekend? Try findi Not sure what to meal prep this weekend? Try finding a recipe to replicate your fave takeout meal! My favorite takeout inspired meal to cook for weekly lunches is definitely teriyaki chicken.
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🥡Takeout inspired meals work so well for meal prep and they’re easier to make at home than you’d think!
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🌯We have sooo many take out inspired meals (like the ones you see pictured) in the WWL Meal Prep Program for members! Learn more and sign up on a FREE trial in my bio link and jump with with all our recipes, meal plans and grocery lists today!
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🥗Btw when I say “better” than takeout, I don’t mean healthier. I mean it’s often tastier, you have more control over the ingredients (and how they make you feel) and it’s cheaper! Good things all around.
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🍕Don’t forget to save this post for next time you’re not sure what to prep for the week!
Have you tried the Starbucks Spinach Feta Wrap? If Have you tried the Starbucks Spinach Feta Wrap? If yes, have you ever tried to make it at home? 👩🏻‍🍳I did and here are the results! Grab the FREE recipe on stories/story highlights! Btw we have a full how to video for this meal on YouTube - youtube.com/workweeklunch!
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💸So this wrap cost about $5 when I bought it over the weekend. And the groceries for THREE of the wraps cost me $5.56, which comes to $1.85 for each wrap. Note that I calculated this based on what I used up. For example I bought tortillas for about $3.50, but only used 3 out of 8 of them.
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✅ You only need 5 ingredients for this breakfast: egg whites, feta, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and wraps.
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🤔Since I know you’re going to ask: how do I reheat these?
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👇🏼REHEATING TIPS:
-for microwaving, wrap the wrap in a dry paper towel. It soaks up extra moisture.
-for best results, use a toaster oven or oven.
-I do a microwave/toaster hybrid method.
-these last 4-5 days in the fridge and 6 months frozen.
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✔️The trick to making wraps NOT soggy: let your filling cool 100% before wrapping. Also use good wraps. My favorite wraps are from @missionfoodsus
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🙏🏼Hope you enjoy this recreation! This is a great way to save money too. Happy prepping!
HOLD UP! Don't toss those veggies yet. 🥦You can HOLD UP! Don't toss those veggies yet. 🥦You can transform them into a new meal by rolling them up - even better if it's with lavash bread from @josephspitabread. 🌯What’s lavash? It’s a thin flatbread you can use for pizza, burritos, rollups, cut up and toast for chips - it's really endless!
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😍This lavash is FREEZER FRIENDLY! So you can keep it stashed for months and use it whenever you need to repurpose your leftovers.
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🌯In these roll ups, I used leftover roasted veggies, a random bit of arugula (aka rocket) that I had leftover and the last of my tzatziki from another meal prep. Wrap it all up in delicious lavash bread and call it lunch.
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👉🏽Save this post for next time you have no idea what to do with leftover veggies and need some inspiration! And if you're all about lavash bread like me, you can transform leftover veg into a lavash pizza or lavash quesadilla too!
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🙌🏼Want to try this amazing Lavash bread? Get 20% off your online order with code WWL20 at checkout on the Joseph's Pita Bread site! Linked in stories, or head to https://shop.josephsbakery.com
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🥶Everything except the pasta on this week’s plan is freezer friendly!
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🌯And I’m so excited to finally share our Starbucks copycat wraps in the plan now that we have a good vegan version! Thanks to @lochjessmonster_ our new FT veggie-focused recipe developer!!!
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🥣The black bean soup and  savory waffles are brought to you by @pinkleme aka “The Soup Queen” (all of her soups are a huge hit).
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🙌🏼Can’t wait for you all to try these recipes! To get access, you must be a member of the WWL Program! As a member you get a new plan, new weekly recipes (and all our old ones), access to our planning tools and grocery list generator, private community and more! Sign up on a free trial then it’s just $9.99/mo to keep meal prepping with us. The membership will pay for itself in what you’ll save on groceries every month. Are you on or what?!
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CW: weight gain discussion
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🤔I had a really hard but interesting conversation about this over the weekend with my partner. We both expressed to each other that we want to be more active in our highly sedentary lives (although I’m on my feet a lot in the kitchen). But didn’t see eye to eye completely on what health “looks” like in our bodies and in our lifestyle. That’s ok. No one truly knows what it feels like to be you. I think it’s hard for some to wrap their minds around the idea that you CAN be in a larger body AND feel amazing, eat a varied diet, eat enough, be strong and flexible and have stamina. My partner expressed concern that I’ve gained weight in the last year (hello, we’re in a pandemic) and we talked about how it’s ok. It’s normal. It’s expected. And it’s not something that’s self-contained and needs to be “fixed” or focused on. Aside from being less active than I was pre-pandemic, *I feel good*! Luckily he’s very open to learning about IE and HAES, and we are ok with not being totally on the same page in every aspect of this complex topic. Because he doesn’t get to define health for me. And I don’t get to define health for him. We can still care about and respect each other AND have boundaries.
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🙏🏼I hope this post is a good reminder if you have someone (or something, like social media) in your life trying to control what health should look like for you. Like I said, no one knows exactly how it feels to be in your body except you. Trust your body. Advocate for yourself.
Things I never thought I’d be: an expert on rehe Things I never thought I’d be: an expert on reheating burritos. Yet here we are! 🌯🌮🥙
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🌮We have TONS of meals like this in the WWL Program! Recipes for all the meals pictured can be found in the program for members only - sign up today in my bio link to get recipes + time saving weekly meal plans + grocery lists and so much more.
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👩🏼‍🍳Hope this helps set you up for success in the kitchen! I got so many tortilla questions yesterday during my meal prep. Happy to answer more below!
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🌯Meal prep is one of them, but it’s not realistic or best for every person. If it’s not for you or you don’t have time, here are some other ways to set yourself up for enduring LESS STRESS every week. Don’t try to do them all - just pick one or two.
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❓What did I miss on this list? Share below!
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Have you ever tried a produce box subscription? Sh Have you ever tried a produce box subscription? Share your experience with us in the comments! Here’s mine 👇🏼
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This isn’t an ad btw! Just really enjoying Pacific Coast Harvest and happy I stumbled upon their boxes recently.
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