What I Feed My 6 Kids Every Week (Simple, Repeatable Meals)

If you’re feeding a family, you know how exhausting it can be to figure out what to cook every single day. For a long time, I thought I needed more recipes, more variety, or a better plan.

What I actually needed was less.

Now, I cook the same meals every week.

And it has made feeding my family so much easier.

Why I stopped trying new recipes

I have a large family, I’m homeschooling, and we live off-grid. I don’t have time to experiment with meals my kids might not even eat. So I stopped trying to make meals “interesting” and started making meals that work. Meals I can cook without thinking. Meals my kids will eat. Meals I can adjust based on what I have. Don’t get me wrong, I do love variety, and I do love cooking new meals however, in this season of my life with a growing family with many mouths to feed, I need to be more practical and efficient rather than be interesting. And let me give you an in on a little secret….kids don’t necessarily need “interesting”…they just want consistency!

What we eat every week

I rotate the same dinners most weeks:

Monday – Chili

Tuesday – Chicken Enchiladas

Wednesday – Chicken & Bacon Bake

Thursday – Tacos

Friday – Pot Roast or hamburgers

Saturday – Chicken Noodle Soup

Sunday – Leftovers or something simple like sausages with crackers or a family favorite is a thrown together charcuterie board

That’s it. No complicated planning. No new recipes every week.

Breakfast (simple rotation)

Breakfast is always some version of:

1. Yogurt and granola

2. Eggs

3. Banana muffins (that I always have on hand)

4. Chicken sausages

On slower mornings, or if I happen to wake up early enough, we’ll make a pancake bake, or oatmeal bake. I save the “fun” recipes for special occasions like birthdays or for when my husband has been gone for a work trip for some time and comes home. That’s always a celebration! If I am going to try a new recipe, I save those recipes for those special occasions.

Lunch (nothing fancy)

Lunch is simple and quick:

1. Sandwiches

2. Tuna and crackers

3. Quesadillas

4. Leftovers

5. Chicken sausages

6. A charcuterie board (a kid favorite)

I don’t overthink lunch. It just needs to get done. I typically try and use lunch as an opportunity to get some schooling done. We have a lot of read aloud books that I use for our one school room style so lunch is perfect opportunity to catch up on those read aloud books, or wrap up some history lessons that we didn’t get to. Their mouths are full so it's a perfect opportunity to squeeze in those tasks.

I don’t follow recipes exactly

One of the biggest things that’s helped me is learning to adjust meals based on what I have.

1. No ground beef? I use chicken

2. Missing ingredients? I leave them out

3. No tortillas? I can whip up some fresh milled tortillas or tortilla chips if I have them on hand.

Most meals don’t need to be exact to work. I use to panic over the fact that I didn’t have certain ingredients to complete a meal and would then completely change the direction of the meal. Why? The kids will still eat the enchiladas even if I had to substitute the sauce for salsa. In fact, sometimes when I have to substitute an ingredient, we end up liking it more than the original recipe! Its ok to be flexible and think outside of the box when it comes to cooking for your family…they will still love you and you are still a good cook, I promise!

What this has changed for me

1. I spend less time thinking about food

2. Grocery shopping is simpler

3. My kids actually eat what I make

4. I feel less overwhelmed

It’s not fancy—but it works.

Feeding your family doesn’t have to be complicated.

It just has to work.

And this is what’s working for us right now.