The holidays are over and, with the start of the new school year, an old friend makes a grand return to our homes:
"What are we having for dinner tonight?" 😅
Between work, daycare, school, appointments, baths and bedtimes, preparing a varied meal every day for the whole family can quickly become a real mental burden.
And when you start BLW, you can easily get the impression that you also have to think about a specific meal for the baby.
Good news: it's absolutely not necessary.
With a few simple habits, it is possible to continue offering varied meals to baby without spending your evenings behind the stove.
Don't always prepare a different meal for your baby
This is probably the first thing you can do that can significantly lighten your daily life.
In BLW , baby can gradually share a large part of family meals, provided of course that the food, its texture and its presentation are adapted to his age and abilities.
Are you preparing pasta with vegetables? Part of it can be adapted for babies.
Oven-baked vegetables? Keep some pieces that are still soft enough.
Meatballs? Prepare the same base for the whole family, adapting the salt and the size accordingly.
The goal is not to cook for adults + for children + for baby, but to think as much as possible about an adaptable family meal.
This saves time and also allows the baby to share more family meals.
Planning is good… but without planning 14 different meals
Planning a weekly menu can greatly reduce mental load.
But be careful not to turn this organization into a new XXL mission.
No need to plan precisely every breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner for the next seven days.
Simply start by noting down a few main meals.
For example :
Monday: Pasta + vegetables
Tuesday: Patties + suitable raw vegetables
Wednesday: Fish + potatoes + vegetables
Thursday: Leftovers or quick meal
Friday: Homemade pizza suitable for the whole family
You've already deleted the famous question, "What's for dinner?",
And that's already huge.
Think in terms of components rather than recipes
To simplify meals even further, it is not always necessary to prepare a real “recipe”.
You can simply combine several foods.
A starchy food + a vegetable + a source of protein + an appropriate fat can already form the basis of a meal.
For example: melting potatoes, courgette, omelet and a drizzle of vegetable oil.
Simple, quick and perfectly compatible with BLW when food is offered in suitable formats.
Not all baby meals need to be photogenic to be nutritionally valuable. 😉
Always have a few "cheat" meals on hand
There will inevitably be evenings when the schedule will not survive the day.
A late appointment, a tired child, a meeting that runs over time…
This is where cheat meals become valuable.
Always keep a few quick fixes at home:
- frozen vegetables;
- eggs;
- pasta;
- semolina ;
- bread ;
- fruits;
- a few portions of frozen recipes;
- pancakes or muffins prepared in advance.
The goal is to have enough ingredients to put together a meal in a few minutes without having to think about it.
And sometimes, an omelet, some vegetables and a piece of bread will do perfectly.
Cook once, eat twice
When preparing a recipe that keeps or freezes well, simply increase the quantities.
Are you preparing eight pancakes when your baby will only eat two? Freeze the rest.
Are you making muffins? Double the recipe.
Are you cooking a vegetable sauce? Prepare enough for a second meal.
Without organizing a full batch cooking session, you gradually build up a small stockpile that can save the busiest days.
To find out which preparations can be stored and for how long, see our article How to properly store baby food?
The freezer: your best back-to-school ally
A few pre-prepared portions can really make a difference to an evening.
Galettes, pancakes, muffins, meatballs, cakes, certain sauces or compotes are particularly well suited to freezing.
Consider freezing the prepared foods in individual portions. This way, you can take out only the amount you need.
Another little tip is to write the name of the recipe and the freezing date.
Because three months later, the mysterious orange block at the bottom of the freezer could become a real police investigation. 😅
Also plan for snacks
Evening meals are not the only things that require organization.
When school resumes, snacks also return to the routine.
Preparing some muffins, pancakes or small cakes in advance allows you to quickly have a homemade option available.
You can supplement with a seasonal fruit or a dairy product suitable for the baby's age.
Again, there's no need to offer a different preparation every day.
Repeating a popular recipe is not a problem.
Use up leftovers rather than starting from scratch
Leftover vegetables from dinner can become a patty the next day.
A few potatoes can be turned into small croquettes.
Leftover chicken can complement another meal.
A very ripe banana can end its days in pancakes. 🍌
Before looking for a new recipe, take a look at what's already in your refrigerator.
It's simpler, more economical, and an excellent way to reduce waste.
What if the baby eats at daycare?
Before planning the whole week, also check what the baby is eating elsewhere.
If he already receives a full meal at midday at the nursery or with the nanny, you can take that into account in your planning.
It is not necessary to strive for perfect diversity at every meal.
A balanced diet is built over time.
Dinner can therefore sometimes be very simple, especially after a day already full of discoveries.
✨ Practical tip: 5 habits that will change your week
To truly simplify meal planning:
✔️ Plan a few meals before going shopping;
✔️ Adapt the family meal for the baby as much as possible;
✔️ Regularly cook an extra portion to freeze;
✔️ always keep 2 or 3 spare meals available;
✔️ Use up the leftovers before looking for a new idea.
No need for a perfectly organized refrigerator with 25 boxes lined up.
Good organization is what saves you time, not what creates more work for you.
Also accept very simple meals
This is perhaps the most important piece of advice in this article.
A balanced meal does not necessarily have to contain an elaborate recipe.
And preparing a very simple dinner because you are tired does not mean that you are doing a worse job.
Diversification is built up over weeks, months and hundreds of meals.
A plate composed of a few simple foods can perfectly fit into a varied diet.
The start of the school year is already intense enough. Baby's mealtime doesn't need to become another task to perfect perfectly.
And what if you really have no idea?
Even with the best organization in the world, there will always come that moment when you open the fridge with absolutely no inspiration.
This is precisely why menus can be useful: not to dictate what baby should eat each day, but to remove some of the thinking involved.
On BLW Baby, we offer you a weekly menu with meal and snack ideas, as well as more than 500 recipes to choose from according to your desires, your time and what you have in your cupboards.
Because sometimes, the most tiring thing isn't even cooking.
It's about finding the idea.
In summary
Organizing meals for the week doesn't mean spending your Sunday cooking or planning every bite your baby will eat until Friday.
A few meals planned in advance, versatile ingredients, two or three freezer solutions and easily adaptable family meals can already considerably lighten the load on a daily basis.
And what about the days when nothing goes as planned?
We're keeping it simple.
Because in BLW , as in all aspects of parenting, doing your best is more than enough. 💛
