If you know me, you know I love lists… especially lists that include food. I was a meal planner prior to becoming a mom, and I’m finding meal plans are clutch to staying somewhat sane. FEEDING A CHILD IS NEVER ENDING. So many meals, so many snacks. Being vegan, I feel this added pressure of making sure our child is consistently exposed to a wide variety of foods because long-term picky eating could lead to deficiencies. I also see how specific processed foods are favored over fresh, so I like to keep items on rotation instead of restricted.
Meal planning not only takes out the guesswork, but it also helps us save money because we aren’t wasting food and time, because we aren’t making random runs to the market throughout the week. And while he eats the same meals week to week, we’re able to switch it up based on what’s in season / what we’re in the mood for (and what he helps pick out at the market!).
Mondays: cereal with fruit – usually Cherrios, Kix or Heritage Flakes with whatever fruit B chooses that morning and Ripple.
Tuesdays: oatmeal with fruit and a nut / seed – some favorites include shredded coconut with mango, blueberries with pecans, and grated apples with cinnamon and almond butter.
Wednesdays: shake with a hash brown – in a word doc I copied and pasted about 10 different smoothie recipes, printed it off and keep it in the kitchen for easy access / inspiration. A banana is always used, a frozen veggie (usually cauliflower or peas), a leafy green (kale or spinach), hemp seeds or a nut butter, and usually another fruit. B helps me make the smoothie by scooping, pouring and picking the produce, so he’s fully aware of what’s in the smoothie aka I’m not hiding fruits or veggies.
Thursdays: tofu scramble with bagel – I use up whatever veggies we have on hand and prefer the Dave’s Bread bagels, either plan or everything.
Fridays: frozen pancakes or waffles – these are items we’ve made from scratch over previous weekends and have extras of, so we freeze them for an easy Friday breakfast – just pop it into the toaster oven and done! Our favorite waffles these days include an entire can of pumpkin puree in the batter and pumpkin spice… paired with a spread of almond butter, pear and coconut dairy free yogurt – YUM!
Saturdays and Sundays: tend to be pancakes or waffles because we have more time, chickpea scrambles (usually with a homemade baba ganoush), steel cut oats, or mung bean pancakes / scrambles. I use this recipe instead of buying JUST Egg and we all love it!
I’m a savory breakfast kind of gal, so I try to incorporate as many veggies as I can. I’ve learned that our toddler sometimes prefers everything NOT be all mixed together (i.e. tofu scramble or oatmeal), so I’ve started to serve all of the components separate and leave the mixing up to him.
Are you a planner? Does your family eat the same meals each week? Same meals every day? I’d love to hear!
