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Real Food

Meal Planning Surprise – Juggling Real Food and Real Life

I had quite a surprise this weekend.  It was Saturday evening and I still had to do my meal planning for the week.  This time of year gets even busier for us with baseball and softball starting and all of the end of the school year activities.  I can’t afford to fly by the seat of my pants.  I thought it would be fun if my daughter helped me plan her lunches.  I asked her about helping and to my surprise she was really excited to help.  In fact, she kind of took over.

I had written in all of the activities on my planning calendar as I always do first.  She questioned why there wasn’t anything on Friday since there was multiple activities on each of the other days………..including the weekend.  Whew!  We have Friday night off.  Don’t worry, there is still time.  By the time we get to Friday that will be full too.  As she was looking at the calendar, she put it in her lap and grabbed the pen from me.  I then explained to her that she could look at the lunch section of my recipe binder for some ideas.  She did just that and very quickly filled in the lunches for the week.

Meal Planning with Children

Lil M then asked me if she could keep going.  “Sure!” I said.  She wanted to plan breakfast.  She said that if she planned some variety then Daddy couldn’t just give them cereal everyday because “that really isn’t too healthy Mommy.”  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  She DOES listen to what I say.  She decided that a pattern would make life easier.  She picked whole wheat mini bagel, egg, cereal, egg, bagel.  Patterns are so 2nd grade………….and such a great idea because they really do simplify things in the morning.

Next came dinner……………..She flipped to the front of my recipe binder and found where the dinner tab was and then flipped to it.  She quickly filled in all of the dinners.  Full disclosure…………the girl likes pasta and the menu is full of it this week.  Probably, more than I would plan to eat in a typical week, but I was so proud of her that I decided to keep the menu just as she planned it.  We did have to rearrange just a little bit.  She clearly understands that leftovers make for great lunches.  We just had to make sure that we made the meal for dinner and then the leftover lunch came next.  Pretty hard to eat leftovers before you have made the meal.  She gets it now.

Meal Plan

What is usually a bit of a chore turned into really fun time with my daughter.  She had the opportunity to utilize some of the skills she has gained at school and put them to use in a practical way at home.  I was also able to teach her the pride of planning nutritious and delicious meals for our family.  The look on her face is priceless as she eagerly eats the meal she plans.  It is very normal for me to think that I have to do it all myself.  My daughter taught me the joy of involving my family in the day-to-day chores.  Hmm………..what else can they do?

Do you plan meals?  What tips do you have that would help others?  Do you have your kids help in the kitchen?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  I would love to hear from you.  Our Juggling Community can all benefit from sharing information with each other.  You can find more information on meal planning here and here.

Don’t forget you can join us on Facebook for more fun and support along the way.  You can also follow us on Twitter @Jugglngrealfood if you are interested in learning more about the Real Food Movement.  You can also follow our boards on Pinterest.  If at any time, you want to join the Juggling Weekly Challenges, you can do so by leaving me a comment below indicating your interest.  I would love to know how many adults and how many kids are participating.

 


9 Comments

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Comments

  1. Natosha Zachary says

    April 11, 2013 at 7:33 pm

    That's awesome, meal planning done and bonding with your daughter, all at the same time. Your binder sounds like an awesome idea. I have all my recipes in a binder but they are not organized. Sounds like a project.

    Reply
    • Juggling Real Food and Real Life says

      April 12, 2013 at 6:52 pm

      Organizing your binder will save so much time Natosha. It is so worth it. I was surprised at how quickly mine came together. I have so many recipes now that I think I may have to expand to another binder. My favorite part of the binder is that anyone can find the recipe. I like my family to help so this is a definite plus.

      Reply
  2. Gaye @CalmHealthySexy says

    April 11, 2013 at 11:41 pm

    Absolutely love this! A true payoff for all your hard work.

    Reply
    • Juggling Real Food and Real Life says

      April 12, 2013 at 6:54 pm

      You are so right, Gaye. It really did feel like a payoff. I had to contain my excitement so I didn't scare her off. I really wanted to start jumping up and down with joy. I did make a big deal showing off to grandparents how wonderful she was for planning the week's meals. And……….of course, she knows that I wrote about it here.

      Reply
  3. Kalee says

    April 12, 2013 at 2:32 am

    It's great that you and your daughter are so close! 🙂 My mom taught me about meal planning and nutrition and how fun trying new things can be. It's really helped me when all of the other girls were dieting later on, and I knew what I needed to fuel my body instead of starve it! Your daughter is very lucky! 🙂

    Reply
    • Juggling Real Food and Real Life says

      April 12, 2013 at 6:58 pm

      What a great thought Kalee. Girls learn so many negative things about feeding their bodies and what they should look like. It is important to me that my daughter has the information to make an informed decision about what she puts into her body. It would be great if these little lessons help her avoid an eating disorder down the road. Sounds like your Mom did some wonderful teaching when you were a child. You are a lucky daughter.

      Reply
  4. Angela Ryder says

    April 12, 2013 at 12:21 pm

    This is fabulous! Wonderful bonding time with your daughter and she had fun too!! Does she have a new weekly job?! ~~Angela

    Reply
    • Juggling Real Food and Real Life says

      April 12, 2013 at 6:59 pm

      We'll see about the weekly job, Angela. It's about time to plan again. I'm not sure I want to eat all of the pasta again this week though. Maybe that will be this week's lesson. Or maybe……..the boys want to plan this week?

      Reply
  5. Nantawan Bennett says

    April 12, 2013 at 5:01 pm

    Happy Friday.
    visit from Friday blog hop.
    would be nice if you can visit and link up my blog Friday blog hop too.
    Have a great weekend.
    Nan
    http://www.blogshe.net

    Reply

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