In a quest to make mealtimes more fun, we enjoy bringing a little pizzazz to the table, like Backwards Dinner Night – a fun and whimsical way to do dinner in reverse! This is just one of three fun themed dinners featured in this week’s meal plan.
One of my favorite ministries is serving as the Meal Planning Contributor for The Better Mom, where I share my bi-weekly real food meal plans as a way to help inspire and encourage others. Each bi-weekly meal plan includes what’s on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as links to more than 40 of the delicious real food recipes featured.
Why is this called “Meal Plan Monday,” when it’s posted on Saturday? I thought it would be nice to give you the heads-up about what’s on the menu for the week ahead. That way, you have time to take advantage of incorporating some (or all) of the meals featured, if you’d like. Remember: To view the recipe links for each of the meal plans below, please pop on over to The Better Mom.
So … without further ado … here’s what’s on the menu for the next two weeks at
The Nourishing Home. Again, you can find each of the recipe links over at
The Better Mom.
P.S. I’ve provided free links, so you can download the new Meal Plan Template for your own personal use.
P.S.S. If you’d like to learn more about meal planning, please check out my FREE Video Course “Mastering Meal Planning.”
Wishing you and your family a very blessed and joy-filled Good Friday and Easter!
Joyfully Serving Him, Kelly
Love your site! Our family lives in Thailand so we are limited in some of our choices- but we are moving towards a Nourishing Traditions-style approach to food as much as we can. Thanks for including some spiritual encouragement along with the great recipes and ideas.
I’d love to hear how you make decisions about what your kids can/can’t eat. In our case, the dietary changes have been mostly for 2 of my kids who have not coped well with the fairly “toxic-laden” places we have lived (they have lived almost all of their lives outside of the US). After I did a hugh overhaul on our family’s eating habits about a year ago, the one thing that has alluded me is dealing with social events. Birthday parties, church events, school, being invited to eat at a friend’s house– it can quickly feel like they are getting way too much junk food. Any thoughts?
Oh, and thanks for the oatmeal “sundae bar” idea from a while back. That was a big hit at our house! My oatmeal hater was even willing to try it and has asked for it again.
Thanks, Allison, for your kind words. I’m happy to hear you’re finding this site helpful to you both nutritionally and spiritually. 🙂
As far as you note about your kids eating away from home … It can be difficult to be surrounded with an abundance of unhealthy, processed foods that can be very tempting, especially for kids. At the same time, there is the balance of not wanting to offend others and make food an idol or issue that consumes nearly every thought and limits you from interacting with others.
Of course there are cases where food is a very critical matter – such as food allergies – then obviously we have to be vigilant to let others know what our children can and can’t have. But this becomes more of a cloudy issue, when it’s a matter of preferences – us wanting to keep the “toxic load” down, as people don’t often understand this and can even feel as if we’re judging them.
So it becomes a matter of taking each situation into account and setting expectations and limits that are helpful but not overwhelming or unrealistic.
For example, with our now teenage son, he knows how processed/junk foods impact how he feels, so when he goes to church events or birthdays, my goal is to provide him with a healthy meal just prior to the event, so he isn’t as hungry when he arrives. He can then either choose to forgo eating, or select the best options from what’s available. We are not so strict as to forbid him from eating certain foods – he doesn’t have allergies – and he’s a young man now who know’s what the right choices are, so we allow him to have some freedom and make mistakes. In fact, he has learned best (sad as it sounds) from eating an entire evening of junk food at a sleep over, and then coming home and spending lots of time in the bathroom (to be as discreet as possible). He has been a lot more self-controlled since that incident.
As for my younger son, we do the same in feeding him in advance, but because he’s younger, we also talk to the person(s) involved with the event and ask for their help in making sure he has self-control, explaining how certain foods can make him feel really bad if he eats them or too many of them.
When my boys go over to friend’s home for dinner or such, I am VERY CAREFUL about what I ask of the family, I try to just stick to asking that the worse offenders be left out. Things like sugary drinks, candy, food coloring, etc., explaining that my kids don’t do well with these foods.
But each family has to decide how to handle these situations and find balance based on their unique health concerns and goals. We definitely strive to eat as healthy as possible at home, but we also strive to not become slaves to food – allowing it to control us, rather than serve us. Hopefully this makes sense.
Lots of blessings to you and your family! 🙂 Kelly
Thanks for the helpful ideas. I hadn’t thought of feeding them well before they go somewhere. We’ve tried sending them with their own food when we were on a more restrictive diet, but that really doesn’t go over well with a preteen boy. He does seem to learn a lot from bingeing on junk food though– serves as a good reminder that eating poorly makes you feel lousy later. Blessings!
My pleasure! There’s a good post my friend wrote you may find helpful and humorous: http://www.yourthrivingfamily.com/2013/05/natural-living-in-regular-family.html
Blessings, Kelly 🙂