Meal Planning

In my social media feeds, I often see ideas for meal planning.  That’s likely because I’m a middle-aged woman with some weight to lose, but it got me thinking. Meal planning is touted for weight loss because you spend one day prepping healthy meals and then you can easily stick to your plan throughout the week. An added benefit is that by eating similar meals each day, you have a clear sense of your calorie intake, and you can put some of your food decisions on autopilot.

How Does this Apply to Us?

As special needs parents, we may already have little ones who eat familiar meals on repeat.  Why not use one day to prep them and then have them on hand to serve on busy weeknights? Also, this would allow us to plan each week, grocery shop once and vary meals intentionally (within our little one’s ability to be flexible). 

So, if chicken tenders are their favorite, we might change up what goes on the side. It could be baby carrots, apple sauce or grapes…if we plan the meals for the family for the week, we know we’ll have those ingredients on hand, and we know our child will have some familiar favorites to depend on.

Variety

Meal planning would also allow us to choose one or two new things each week to help our kids branch out.  Do you have a typical kiddo who loves clementines? Maybe you could buy a bag of cuties to try with your special needs child, knowing your typical child could help use them up in the event your special kiddo doesn’t love them.