When you’ve got a family to feed, getting meals on the table day after day can be exhausting and time consuming. And during the summer months, it can get even more challenging with kids home during the day.
This can mean feeling like your kitchen is open 24/7 and that all you do over summer is act as a short order cook for your family.
Which, let’s be honest, could even make Mother Teresa lose her cool.
Which is why I wanted to share the best tips to help you make summer meals and snacks easy so you can feed your family great foods while also being able to have time to crush your to-do list, pursue goals, and make memories with your family over summer.
You’ll also find dozens of summer meal ideas–from breakfast to dinner–so you’ll walk away with easy things even your kids can make themselves. These summer meal tips will help you:
- Make snack and meals easier
- Limit messes
- Save you time (and your sanity)
- Encourage independence in your kids
12 Tips for Easy Summer Meals & Snacks for Kids
As you go through the list of summer meal tips below, I have 2 recommendations.
One, think about which tips will be easiest for you to implement and will have the biggest impact in your home. Don’t get overwhelmed and try to do ALL THE THINGS. Pick 1-3 things and start there.
Secondly, as we’ll be covering a lot of summer snack and meal ideas, I recommend grabbing a piece of paper so you can jot down a list of things you want to grab next time you’re at the grocery store.
(Or better yet, put in a grocery delivery order!)
Okay, let’s get into the tips to make summer meals and snacks easy…
1. Set times for snacks and when meals will happen
Without the built-in routines of the school year, summer can be a bit of a free for all. Which is why I highly recommend creating a daily summer schedule with set times for meals and snacks.
This creates structure around food that they get during the school year when at school. Set snack times also help to ensure your family is hungry when it comes to meal times.
While I never let my kids go hungry, I get very frustrated when it’s time to eat a lovely home cooked meal I’ve made and my husband and kids come to the table with no appetite because they’ve been snacking for the last hour.
As for when meals and snacks should be, that’s 100% up to you. No one knows your family better than you. It’s always the balance between getting enough calories for your kids to have energy for daily activities while also being hungry enough to eat come meal time.
2. Plan Your Meals Weekly
Whether it’s summer or any other time of the year, meal planning is a gamechanger when you’re a busy parent.
Because it saves you time, money and stress, and makes it so much easier to get healthy, delicious foods on the table for your family without losing your mind.
Here’s an awesome guide (plus free meal planning printables) to help you get started meal planning.
Free Meal Planning Starter Kit
Ready to save time, money, and effort by planning your meals? Grab the free Meal Planning Starter Kit which includes:
- Weekly Meal Planner
- Monthly Meal Planner
- Favorite Recipe Template
- Grocery Shopping List
3. Create Theme Days
If you find yourself drawing a blank when it comes to meal planning (I feel like I forget 90% of the meals I’ve made when I meal plan), theme nights can be super helpful. This allows you to mix up the meals throughout the week without much thought. Plus, you can keep family favorites in the weekly rotation.
Here are some ideas to get you started!
Weekly Theme Nights Example:
- Meatless Monday – Focus on vegetarian or vegan meals.
- Taco Tuesday – Serve various types of tacos or Mexican-inspired dishes.
- Pasta Wednesday – Enjoy different pasta dishes each week.
- Throwback Thursday – Cook family favorites or recreate a childhood favorite.
- Fun Friday – Make it fun with kid-friendly meals or DIY dinners..
- Soup and Salad Saturday – Serve a variety of soups and salads.
- Slow Cooker Sunday – Use a slow cooker for easy, set-it-and-forget-it meals.
Additional Theme Ideas
- Stir-Fry Night
- Grill Night
- Breakfast for Dinner
- International Night
- Comfort Food Night
- Seafood Night
- Pizza Night
- Salad Bar Night
- Sandwich Night
- Family Favorites Night
(In our family, we have Take-Out Tuesdays during summer swim season because we always have 5 hour swim meets in the evenings 😩)
4. Collect Quick & Easy Meal Ideas
I know this one goes without saying, but I wanted a chance to give you a number of quick and easy summer meal ideas. Because heaven knows, with the constant need to come up with meal ideas, it’s easy to come up blank.
Below you will find some easy breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes that can be quickly whipped up during summer.
Easy Summer Breakfast Ideas:
- Kodiak cakes
- Yogurt breakfast bowls
- Cereal and milk
- Breakfast bars
- Egg muffins
- Scrambled eggs & toast
- Bagel & cream cheese
- Green smoothie
- Choco PB banana smoothie
- Egg in a hole
- Muffins
- Choco protein muffins
- Pumpkin muffins
- Waffles
Easy Summer Lunch Ideas:
- Turkey & cheese roll up
- Cookie cutter sandwich
- Cheese quesadilla
- Pita pizzas
- Salami, Cheese and crackers
- PB & J
- Tuna sandwich
- Grilled cheese
- Microwave nachos
- English muffin pizza
- Cream Cheese & Veggie Pinwheels
- Mac & Cheese
- Pizza rolls
- Homemade uncrustable sandwich
- Mini corn dog muffins
Easy & Quick Summer Dinner Ideas:
- Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Chicken Quesadillas
- Taco Night
- Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
- Baked Ziti
- Chicken Stir-Fry
- Pizza Bagels
- Sloppy Joes
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Breakfast for Dinner
- Baked Chicken Tenders
- Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Pulled Pork Sandwiches.
- Chicken Caesar Wraps
- Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies
- Fish Tacos
- Turkey and Cheese Roll-Ups
- Spaghetti Carbonara
- Rotisserie Chicken Tacos
- Chicken Alfredo
- Chili Dogs
- Shrimp Scampi
- Veggie Fried Rice
Want some specific quick and easy dinner recipes? Check out 7 Quick & Easy Dinners You Can Make in Under 30 Minutes or these 15 Easy & Healthy Summer Salad Recipes.
5. Use the Tools & Appliances You Have
Got a grill you never use? Or a slow cooker tucked away gathering dust? An Instant Pot you never even took out of the box?
While you may have some great tools to help you make quick and easy dinners, it’s easy to “forget” about them as you stick to roughly the same kinds of meals.
But consider dusting off the tools or appliances you have that can make your life easier this summer.
The Grill
The grill is a winner for summer. Not only is it nice to be out on the back patio during the summer weather, it also keeps the cooking heat outside of the house which makes it easier to keep your home cool.
Whether hamburgers, hotdogs, or marinated chicken breasts, the grill is a great option for easy summer meals.
Slow Cooker
I love being able to throw stuff into a slow cooker in the morning (when I have the most energy) and have dinner ready at a time when I have neither energy or patience. If you have one you don’t use, I encourage you to find a recipe you want to use and bust it out.
If you don’t want the heat in your home, consider plugging it in in the garage.
Here are 9 easy slow cooker recipes you can start with or 20 low-carb recipes your family will love.
Air Fryer
Using an air fryer makes meal prep a breeze because it cooks food super fast with its hot air circulation. You can enjoy crispy, delicious meals with way less oil, so they’re healthier too. Plus, it’s compact and easy to clean, making quick dinners even easier. And it won’t heat up your home like an oven can.
6. Set Family Food/Meal Rules
When I say “rules” I am not talking about restrictions or any of the things that can give kids a complex or harm their relationship with food and their body. Instead, these are household rules that create structure, encourage independence, and establish expectations.
It’s not about restriction–it’s about setting standards and creating order and organization in your home.
Here are some things to consider when deciding your family’s food rules:
- What foods can kids access without needing permission?
- What foods are available for a child anytime they’re hungry?
- Which foods always require permission?
- Are there any limits to how much of a specific food a child can eat in a day? (ex. popsicles)
- What are the expectations about cleaning up after yourself?
You may also have other rules. For example, in our home we have the following rules:
- Ask before opening a new package, even if its a food they can access on their own. This is because I hate having 3 open bags of tortilla chips of pretzels at one time in the pantry.
- Always put chip clips on open bags. This drives me crazy. No one in my house eats stale food, and so when they leave the bags open it’s just like throwing money in the trash.
7. Get Easy-to-Prepare Freezer foods
I’ll be honest, I shied away from freezer foods for years thinking that they were so much less healthy than homemade options. But the truth is that there are some awesome healthy freezer foods options that make feeding kids so much easier (like frozen fruits or veggies).
And while some convenience freezer foods aren’t everyday foods, they can definitely be part of a balanced diet that can help you easily get meals on the table–especially when you’re on a budget.
Some ideas:
- Frozen fruit: These are great to add to yogurt (for a yogurt parfait with granola) or just eat as finger foods.
- Frozen veggies: Make it easy to add a veggie to any meal you make
- Pizza: Easy and budget-friendly alternative to pizza delivery. We love the cauliflower crust pizza from Costco.
- Chicken nuggets: A childhood staple.
- Taquitos: These can easily be microwaved for easy preparation.
- Burritos: We get the Red’s black bean burritos from Costco.
- Meatballs: WIth a jar of red sauce, you can make spaghetti and meatballs or meatball sandwiches.
- Stir-fry kits: Add protein and rice and you’ve got a balanced meal.
- Hamburger or Veggie Patties: Pair with a bun & toppings for a quick & easy meal
8. Portion Foods or Buy Pre-Portioned Foods
Having portioned, ready-to-eat foods on hands makes it easy for kids to grab food on their own and also limits messes. Which means you save a whole bunch of time and effort.
Personally, Costco is my go-to for budget-friendly snack pack foods (ex granola bars, individual bags of dried fruit/pretzels/nuts etc). And if you want to be even more budget friendly, you can buy large bags or containers of food items and then portion out into ziptop bags or reusable containers and store in bins in your pantry. You can even do this with frozen fruit.
Here are some easy foods that come pre-portioned or can easily be portioned into baggies/containers:
- Cheese sticks
- Yogurt cups
- Nuts
- Trail Mix
- Beef Sticks
- Whole-Grain Crackers
- Dried fruit
- Granola/Protein bars
- Pretzels
9. Make Foods Accessible to Kids
One of the biggest steps of helping kids gain independence around feeding is making various foods accessible to them. So they can get their own snacks, pour their own breakfast cereal, make microwave nachos at lunchtime.
This is a win win because kids love gaining independent skills and it takes something off your plate. I especially like having kids independent around getting themselves breakfast as it allows them to start their day without making you a short order cook.
So I recommend making the foods that are available to your kids for snacks and meals that they can prepare for themselves easily accessible.
This means placing items in lower shelves in your pantry and in your fridge. It could mean using the lower shelves in the fridge door to fill with things like cheese sticks or yogurt.
I also find that organizing these foods in bins both in your pantry and fridge make it easier for your kids. Because they know where to go for their food.
For example, in my fridge or freezer I have:
- A bin with individual servings of guacamole and humus and another with cheese sticks (I get a mix, mozz pepper jack, colby jack and sharp cheddar). They also can easily access cracker cut cheeses (square cuts cheese to go with crackers) and vanilla yogurt.
- Apples and/or pears, carrot sticks, radishes, ready to eat in the fruit and veggie drawer.
- Baggies of frozen food in the freezer for snacking and putting on top of greek vanilla yogurt.
In the pantry, I have easily accessible:
- bags of tortilla chips
- fruit cups
- Pretzels
- various snack bags (I mix them up a lot)
- Crackers
- protein bars
- Granola
- different kinds of nuts they like
- snapdragon ramen
This gives them access to A TON of different meal options that they can make themselves.
If you want to make clean up super easy, consider having paper plates and bowls on hand. For me paper plates are a form of self care.
Here are some easy prep summer snack ideas:
- Veggies & ranch
- Sliced apples & peanut butter
- Nuts
- Applesauce pouches
- Fruit cups
- Cheese stick
- Fruit leather & crackers
- Crackers and hummus
- Banana & graham crackers
- Granola bar
- Clementine
- Pretzels & cheese stick
- Drinkable yogurt
- Cliff Z Bar
- Apple chips
- Dried apricots
- Mini bagel & cream cheese
- Chickpea snacks
- Microwave popcorn & apple slices
- Yogurt cups & fruit
10. Teach Kids How to Prepare Foods
One thing I love about summer is having more time to teach my kids important life skills like household tasks and cooking. Between school, sports, music lessons, and homework during the school year, it can be really hard to find extra time.
Which can make summer a really great time to build up your kids’ kitchen skills.
You can do this by just including them in the daily cooking/food prep process or even focusing on teaching them to make specific foods on their own.
And a bonus benefit: researchers have found that kids eat more when they prepare the food themselves.
Personally, at the start of summer I ask the kids what things they’d like to learn how to prepare. And then over summer, we work on building up those skills so they can eventually independently make those meals or snacks.
For younger kids, we start with things like toast, sandwiches, microwave nachos and quesadillas, ramen, and macaroni and cheese.
For my older kids, they like to pick recipes from this great kids cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen. Then we make it together, with them taking the lead. And we repeat until they can independently make the recipe on their own.
11. Meal Prep Favorite Foods
I’m all about meal prep because it saves me so much time and grief. I don’t meal prep because I have a lot of time on my hands or because I’m just so organized and on top of it–I do it because it saves me time and money and makes my life so much easier.
Breakfast lends itself really well to easy meal prep foods. Because muffins & waffles all freeze beautifully. My kids pull them out of the freezer, microwave for about 30 seconds and muffins are ready to go.
For waffles, they microwave for 30 seconds, and then put in the toaster and top with syrup, jam or if I have fresh berries on hand. Here are some awesome meal-prep breakfast recipes.
For lunches, we like these Pizza rolls
For more meal prep ideas, check out The Ultimate Guide to Get Started with Meal Prep for Your Family.
12. Assign Kids to be in charge of certain Meals or Snacks.
If you’ve been around The Incremental Mama for any length of time, you’ve probably gathered that I’m all about helping kids gain skills and become more independent. It’s why I love chores. Because it’s a win for the kids and a win for you as a parent.
Independent skills allow kids to be an important contributing member of the household, which in turn builds kids’ confidence and self esteem. Ultimately, this sets kids up to be successful as adults.
And part of that process can be making kids responsible for certain meals or snacks for the family over summer–whether you help them prepare or they can do it on their own.
Kids love to feel like they are making important contributions to the household.
How to Implements the Summer Meal Tips
1. Don’t Do Everything
As I mentioned in the opening, don’t feel pressure to implement everything. In fact, please odn’t. Instead, pick a few you want to try and work on that.
2. Make a Grocery List
Hopefully, you have a bunch of ideas for summer snack snacks and meals for your kids and family. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to make a grocery list (or put in a grocery order) for the food items you want on hand this summer.
3. Hold a Family Meeting
Also, if any changes your making involve getting buy-in from your family, I highly recommend having a family meeting and talking to your family about what changes you want to make and why. And enlist their help in making these changes that will help your home and family.
For help on family meetings, check out The Guide to Successful Family Meetings + Free Agenda PDF
Make Summer Meals & Snacks Easy
By making some simple changes, you don’t have to spend your summer making endless meals and snacks for your kids. Instead, by following these summer meal tips, you can save time, limit messes, and increase your kids skills and independence.
You’ve got this!
And for more help, check out the posts below:
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