Whether you like it or not it is “back to school” season. With that comes long nights of homework, busy schedules as extracurricular activities begin, and less time to relax as a family.
Never fear, all month I’ll be featuring Meal Plans along with new, easy and kid-friendly recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I’ll even throw in a few new snacks as well.
Meal Plan
Breakfast
The first meal of the day is never set in stone at our house. My kids love quinoa for breakfast!
- Breakfast Quinoa (I have a few new variations coming up)
- Toast with nut or seed butter and sliced fruit
- Cereal
- Blueberry Oatmeal
- Peachy Keen Oatmeal
Lunch
I chose these lunches because they are easily adapted to something “new and different” (magic words at our house) from last nights dinner leftovers. These lunches are “Lunch Box Friendly” too!
- Black Bean and Faux Cheeze Sauce Gluten-Free Quesadillas
- Baked Potatoes
- Sunflower seed butter and Jelly Sandwiches
- Pasta and Veggie Salad
- Taco Salad
- Nachos
Snack
We usually eat fruit for snacks but I’ll throw in an occasionally muffin in the mix.
- Grapes
- Apples with sunflower seed butter
- popped corn
- Mini (Gluten-Free) Apple Muffins
- carrots and peppers with hummus
Dinner
Don’t let dinner intimidate you! Choose one day to cook your beans and grains for the whole week. Quinoa, lentils, black beans, rice, and pinto beans can be mixed and matched to create new dishes for lunch and dinner. Don’t forget to bake extra potatoes for lunch leftovers.
- Taco Potatoes
- Easy Mexican Brown Rice and Bean Casserole
- Quinoa-Lentil Tacos with Unfried Beans and guacamole
- Gluten-Free Pasta, sautéed mushrooms and veggies with a garden salad.
Are you ready for school to start? What are your biggest concerns?
Joye says
Thanks for posting this! We started back to school last week and I’ve ramped up my workouts. Just got home (it’s 7 a.m.) and I’m STARVING! I froze 5 lb. of blueberries so I’m going to start off with your oatmeal. I’ll be watching for quick and easy meal plans. Thank you again!
Holly @ My Plant-Based Family says
I hope you like it Joye! I had it twice this weekend!
BarefootJacq says
Your dinner’s look like ours! My little guy is off to Kindergarten this year – forgot ALL about packing a lunch!
Holly @ My Plant-Based Family says
I’m all about keeping it simple. When I try to get to fancy I end up picking up takeout. 🙂
You Kindergartener will be such a cutie. I love how their backpacks are almost as big as they are. I have another year before mine is off to school.
Sarah says
I have an extra year too… but only because he misses the 5yr old cut off by 2months… Our date here is Sept 30th and he is 5 in November. So he cannot go to Kinder til Sept ’14… I’m actually glad for the extra year at home 🙂