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What's Cooking This Week with Macaroni Kid

A meal plan for your week: steal, borrow, remix or just be inspired!

By Karen Evans, Publisher September 22, 2017

Welcome back to our popular meal plan series! We share our weekly meal plan ideas (or other plans from other families -- feel free to submit your own, especially if you are a family managing dietary restrictions, allergies, or have found a solution for picky eaters!)

This is a pretty omnivore-style week, but we will rotate in vegan and vegetarian and gluten-free ideas as the series progresses!

Here are some suggestions for meal planning for the week:

  • ​Have a set of freezer meals on hand that can be a go-to once a week. I do a freezer meal prep session once every 2-3 months and the time is well-spent when it comes to busy weeknights.
  • Consider getting some assistance with grocery shopping. I am an unabashed Kroger ClickList fan. I make my list on Fridays and set up an order for Saturday or Sunday morning, which gives me most of Friday or even into Saturday to make changes to the grocery order if needed. I pick an early pickup time, and it feels great to come home at 8 a.m. with groceries that I didn't have to spend time shopping for. Other people love Shipt, which delivers groceries to your home.
  • Prep fruits/veggies as part of your meal prep sessions. This includes shopping onions for that weeks' recipes and storing them in an airtight container in the fridge as well as veggies and fruits that will be kept on hand as snacks. We always eat more fruits and veggies when everything is ready to grab.
  • Consider making one night a week something a little different: ideas include DIY pizza night; a night where the person who doesn't usually cook takes over and cooks, bakes or grills; takeout night; or smorgasbord night (offer up a tray of fruits, veggies, hummus, crackers, cheese -- whatever little bites your family loves. 
  • Consider rearranging your fridge. After one too many times where produce languished in the designated produce drawers, we've started keeping prepped ingredients in one of the produce drawers, and keeping fresh fruits and veggies on the counter or in the fridge at eye-level.

Here was our meal plan from a recent week. We chopped up all veggies in advance. For the kids, we end up deconstructing a lot of the dishes and we omit strong spices and try to reduce sodium amounts.

Please share your favorite meal-planning tips and resources with us!