Family Meal Plan Diaries – Volume 1

Feeding a family of six is no small task-especially when you’re trying to eat down the pantry and freezer and not break the bank. I’ve noticed that most “budget meal plans” floating around online either feel like extreme challenges (think beans and rice every night) or just don’t hold up to real life once you add in kids, schedules, and those nights when the only thing you have energy for is calling the pizza place. So, I thought I’d share our own “Family Meal Plan Diaries”- what we really ate this week, from breakfasts and lunches to snacks and dinners, along with what it all cost. This isn’t a perfect plan; it’s a real one. Some meals were cobbled together from the freezer, some were kid favorites on repeat, and yes, there was a night we ordered pizza. With four kids (one who barely eats, one who’s all about the meat, a three-year-old who eats everything, and one who is going through a growth spurt and has 3 servings), meals are always an adventure. My hope is that this gives you a more realistic peek at what family eating looks like-snacks, splurges, shortcuts and all.

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Meal Plan – here’s what we ate

Meatball subs with wedge salad on the side

• Used frozen meatballs. Put them in a slow cooker with a jar of marinara sauce. Served them on ciabatta rolls with shredded mozzarella cheese. Had a small wedge on the side
• Great slow cooker meal for after soccer practice
• Made all the wedge salad components ahead of time (dressing/bacon/hardboiled eggs)
• All the kids ate some part of the meatball subs, will definitely be on repeat.

Tacos

• Plain ground beef tacos with lettuce, shredded cheese, tomatoes and Greek Yogurt (in place of sour cream)
• If it would have been on a soccer night I would have done them in the slow cooker like this
• Huge hit with the kids, they all built their own tacos

Dominos pizza

• Got home late from extra curriculars so we ordered pizza (2) 1 cheese and one with pepperoni and peppers
• Cheap and fast

Spinach baked pasta

• Sam ate 3 servings!
• 2 kids didn’t love it
• Serves a crowd, great for leftovers

Blackened fish with cheddar biscuits

• Got a Red Lobster cheddar biscuits mix the kids wanted to try.
• This needed a vegetable and a sauce, it was so dry
• Would not make again
• Kids don’t love fish (besides salmon which they call pink fish)

Lunches: had leftover meatball subs and wedge salads and leftovers throughout the week

Breakfasts: kefir (strawberry yogurt drink), freezer breakfast sandwiches, freezer waffles, muffins and a batch of fluffy pancakes and bananas

Recipes made

• Blue cheese dressing/wedge salads
• Tacos
• Chocolate chips cookies
• Cookie dough stuffed dates
• Fluffy pancakes

Notes: Sam & his Nana made muffins for the family and gave us fruit snacks and fruit. We had a bunch of freezer waffles the kids ate for breakfast.  Kids had a few school lunches we made (Nutella or salami sandwiches with a cheese stick and strawberries on the side) and ate hot lunch the rest of the time (not included in total).

Cost: $140 Aldi (I bought groceries and kids snacks for school, this total is my entire grocery bill including things like milk and eggs and kefir. I had meatballs, fish, taco shells, blue cheese dressing ingredients, dates, and chocolate chip cookie ingredients on hand). $41 Dominos (this includes tip), $181 food cost this week. Right after I finished this I ended up taking the boys out for breakfast $47 but it’s still part of this week, so $228 is the total

At the end of the day, feeding a family of six isn’t about picture-perfect plans or sticking to some extreme budget-it’s about making it work with what you have, what your kids will actually eat, and what your week looks like. I hope this little peek into our week shows you that realistic family meal planning doesn’t have to be fancy to be nourishing.