A cozy, fall inspired menu plan with busy families, school schedules, and nourishing goals in mind!
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Getting back into the groove…
We are a couple weeks into school, and I feel like most of my readers are flowing back into fall school routines, so I’d say it’s safe to start talking about fall menus! Fall certainly has a different feel than going from spring to summer menu plans – does it feel like that to you? For the most part it felt like late spring and into summer, the meal planning goes a little more “fly by the seat of your pants” style, and then once September hits, everyone has no choice but to plan a little bit more, or dinner will never hit the table!
Before we get started!
If you have never seen one of my meal plans, I would invite you to start with the Winter Meal Plan Part 1 and the Winter Meal Plan Part 2. Even though we are not full swing into cold weather, the information at the beginning of each of those posts will help you understand my meal plan approach, how I like to handle macronutrients to balance meals, questions you might have about portions and family sizes, and even more. Make a pit stop there first, and then come back to get some fall inspired meals!
School staples, and some lunchbox shortcut favorites
With school starting back up, and the long, daunting thought of the lunchbox packing task that awaits us for the whole year, I thought I would put some lunchbox staple favorites all in one place. Some because I didn’t have a ton of room to always label and link veggie/cracker dips and dressings for salads. And also so that you can see some examples of some store bought snacks and favs that I keep in my pantry. I’ll break these up so that you can find them easily!
Staple store bought lunchbox sides
For the most part, these are used sparingly and minimally – a hand full here, and a few there. But they are great to have on hand in the pantry, and especially help kids that are newer to “real food” make the transition to healthier lunchboxes without giving up some comfortable favorites. I also have a post with 11 Healthy Packaged School Snacks for Kids that I use for morning snacks at school here and there, but they also work well in lunchboxes.
- Simple Mills Crackers (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
- Sweet Potato Crackers (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
- GF Pretzels
- Lindsay’s Natural Olives (I get these at Costco, but you can get them at most grocers and online too)
- Tortilla Chips (I get these at Costco, but you can get them at most grocers and online too)
- Plantain Chips (I get these at Costco, but you can get this Prime brand online too)
- Olive oil potato chips
- Sweet Potato Chips
- Terra Veggie Chips (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
- Bear Nibbles Yo-Yo Fruit & Veggie Strips (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
- Pure Fruit Bars (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
- That’s It Fruit Bars (I get these at Costco, but you can get them online too)
Staple dressings and dips
I’m going to go ahead and list all of our favorite dressings below, and you can put your kids’ favs into your meal plan as you go. I also wanted to mention that we get guacamole cups and hummus cups at Costco. If you don’t have access to Costco, you can find them at most grocery stores these days. You can also find Wholly Guacamole cups and Go Go Dippers Hummus cups online. There are also fantastic, simple recipes for guacamole and super simple hummus in the Lunchbox Staple Chapter of my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!
- Classic Ranch
- Paleo Ranch
- Thousand Island
- French Dressing
- Italian Dressing
- Copycat Olive Garden Dressing
- Classic Caesar Dressing
- Paleo Caesar Dressing
- Simple, Kid Friendly Pesto
- Fajita Salad Dressing (from my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it goes with the Taco Tuesday Fajita Salad)
- Fruity Poppyseed Dressing (from my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it goes with the Colorful Rainbow Chicken Salad)
- Sweet Orange Vinegarette (from my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it goes with the Superhero Quinoa Salad)
- Amazin’ Bacon Dipping Sauce (from my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook – it goes with the BLT Skewers, but is SO good with so many things!)
Veggie Soup Swaps
One of my goals each week in the cooler months of the year, is to get 1-2 bone broth based soups into the family by week’s end. Usually it is a veggie based soup, which the girls have devoured since infancy, and sometimes it is a heartier dinner soup with more protein and bulk. You’ll notice in the meal plan that usually my rhythm is to make the soup for the week on the weekend and that way it is easy to add to a thermos for school lunch later in the week. I know that not every kid will love every soup, and luckily for you, there are a myriad of soups to pick from both on the blog and in my cookbooks. If you have little guys at home, I would encourage you to start these young so that they develop a palate for these tasty soups that are such a great way to get nourishing bone broth and mineral rich veggies in! (Heartier, dinner type soups are linked in the dinner section below)
- Roasted Pumpkin Soup
- Nourishing Greens Soup (This is in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings and my girls very favorite soup!)
- Butternut Squash & Apple Soup
- Creamy Potato & Spinach Soup
- Simple Pea Soup – Baby favorite! (This is in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings!)
- Creamy of Zucchini Soup
- Healthy Alphabet Soup – Copycat Alphabet Soup! (This is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!)
- Creamy Roasted Carrot Soup (This is in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings)
- Simple Broccoli Soup
- Creamy Cauliflower Kale Soup
- Classic Vegetable Soup – Copycat Campbell’s Vegetable Soup!
- Creamiest Dreamiest Broccoli “Cheese” Soup (This is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!)
- Acorn Squash Soup
- Split Pea Soup
- Asparagus Soup
- Creamy Cabbage Soup
- Winter Blue’s Buster Creamy Chunky Potato Soup (This is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook!)
So let’s kick off this Fall Menu Plan!
Here is a PDF for you to download for the full 2 week fall meal plan with links to recipes included. {See below this section for a blank version if you want to fill in your own!}
Want to build your own meal plan?
Go for it! My way of doing meals is definitely not the only way! And my recipes are not the only recipes around! Here is a blank PDF for you to print and fill out your own.
Dinner swaps!
I know that not every dinner chosen on the meal plan below will fit with every family’s tastes. There are so many choices for how to fill this in, which is why I never posted meal plans before. I really want you to fill the meal plan in to your family preferences. The plan below is simply inspiration and a guide to show you how I flow certain meals into others, how I double up meals, and how I balance a day’s macronutrient needs for my family. Here are some fall inspired dinner swaps for anything on the menu that you might want to change. Most of this list is from right here on the blog. Any recipe links that have a page number are from my cookbooks. Those with page numbers in green are from The Little Lunchbox Cookbook, and those with page numbers in pink are from Nourished Beginnings.
- Sheet Pan Nachos with Slow Cooker Pulled Beef Brisket/Roast
- Stuffed Acorn Squash
- Pot Pie Soup
- Italian Stuffed Spaghetti Squash (pg 112)
- Chili
- 5 Min Prep Chicken Fingers (pg 78)
- Taco Night
- Tuscan Bean Soup {pg 73}
- Beef & Kale Soup
- Enchiladas
- Spatchcock Whole Chicken {pg 119}
- Slow Cooker Beef Roast
- Comforting Beef Noodle Soup (pg 54)
- Sheet Pan Fish Tacos
- Copycat Hamburger Helper
- Restaurant Style Chicken, Veg, & Pasta w/ Garlic Cream Sauce {pg 168}
- Sheet Pan BBQ Chicken & Veggies
- Crispy Fish Asian Stir Fry
- Mini Meatloaf & Sheet Pan Veggies
- Meatball Skillet
- White Chicken Chili
- Mongolian Beef & Veggie Stir Fry
- Butternut Squash Lasagna Casserole
- Creamy Garlic Butter Salmon
- Sunday Meatloaf
- Sweet & Sour Chicken & Veggies {pg 66}
- Spinach Lasagna Soup
- Chicken Noodle Soup
