Do you cook hot breakfast for your kids on weekdays?
In our family, we've had times where breakfast was the "family meal". We've also had times where breakfast was a "fend for yourself" type of meal.
For a while, Brittany's family was doing hot breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and she was feeling quite overwhelmed. She listened to a mom who did a dinner rotation--after considering that--Brittany realized that good and diverse dinner menus were one of her values. Also, eating the same meals every week would get VERY boring for her family. Dinner wasn't negotiable, but breakfast was. SO, Brittany's family does a static breakfast menu to save time and energy (with a hot breakfast choice-made by older kids-of course).
In our house, we now do a freestyle breakfast. Honestly, I got tired of cooking food that kids weren't eating. We have fruit, yogurt, cereal, and waffles available--and I encourage kids to forage in the pantry and refrigerator for breakfast.
Sidenote: why is it feast or famine with bananas? Either they get eaten in 24-hours, or they sit and go bad on the counter. . .there is no in-between.
What do you do for breakfasts?
For Brittany's family, lunches are almost always leftovers or freestyle. Ramen, macaroni and cheese, and sandwiches are a good fallback.
Sidenote: Brittany's sandwiches are unreal! Y'all, you can even up-level a pb&j.
In our home, we do leftovers for lunch quite a bit. Food is expensive, so limiting food waste is a good thing. You can ALWAYS spend that money on something else!
When we don't waste food, we teach great lessons to our kids about life in general.
Dinners. . .how do you handle dinners?
Brittany uses Pinterest! Scanning recipes, appealing meals for her and her husband, new ways to torture her older son with sweet potatoes. . .
Brittany shops not only for the week's meals, but also to stock her pantry and freezer. When she does her meal planning, she looks at what she has AND what's on sale.
For example, if zucchini and squash are on sale, she has ground beef in her freezer, and pasta in her pantry, she will search recipes on Pinterest with those items. (All together-or in complimentary dishes).
IMPORTANT: Pinterest is a search engine! It is EASY to find visually appealing recipes that are delicious!
Another example, Brittany's family was recently sick, and had an abundance of produce in the fridge. Instead of letting it go bad, she cut up some pre-cooked sausage, diced the veggies, tossed everything in olive oil and her favorite seasonings, and cooked them in th
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