Little Lunches makes meal planning easier than ever for parents

In general, I consider myself a pretty organized mom. I’m great with schedules, I actually enjoy decluttering, and I’ve never met a junk drawer I couldn’t whip into shape. The biggest weakness in my arsenal of life organization? Meal planning.

Despite my best attempts, I’ve never been able to find a system that streamlines the process of recipe hunting, selecting and scheduling while also helping me tackle grocery planning and shopping around for the best prices. Instead, I’d find myself scrolling Pinterest for hours for ideas, struggling to remember which meals I wanted to make each night, and hoping that I had what I needed in the pantry.

And, of course, it was always a toss-up if my occasionally choosy children would actually eat the meal I’d struggled to put on the table.

Multiply that struggle by 5-6 nights a week, four weeks a month, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for mom decision fatigue.

All of that changed when I discovered the Little Lunches app, a complete meal planning experience designed with parents and caregivers in mind.

How the Little Lunches app makes meal planning easier

I don’t know about you, but sometimes the sheer magnitude of recipe options in the world is enough to make me throw up my hands and order a pizza. Which is why the true genius of Little Lunches starts, not surprisingly, in its curated recipe selection. Hand-picked by a team of highly-trained chefs, pediatricians, dietitians and feeding therapists, every breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack recipe has been developed to meet your child’s nutritional needs―and they’ve actually been tested by real kids to make sure they meet even the pickiest standards. 

When you first create your account on their easy-to-navigate app, Little Lunches has you select not only the types of meals you’ll be planning but also any dietary restrictions and preferred cuisine types your family enjoys. For my own family, breakfast and lunch usually comes together pretty easily, so I was mostly looking for inspiration come dinner time. Our favorite cuisines include Mediterranean, Latin, and Indian, and the app even lets you specify based on the age of your littest eaters. The Meatballs, Couscous, and Veggies and Mushroom Spinach Quesadillas quickly became some of our favorite meals to include in our monthly recipe rotation!

My favorite feature, though? Being able to filter results by how much time I want to spend in the kitchen. From 10 minutes to 30 minutes (or occasionally more), I loved being able to narrow down my options based on our family’s schedule each week.

Once you’ve finished making your specifications, the app automatically generates a week plan for all of your meals. They even provide nutritional information for grownups who want to monitor specific nutrient values. If you see something you already know won’t be a hit for your family, you can edit the plan to swap in tastier sounding options for your crew.

Little Lunches subscription options

Little Lunches Meal Planning App

Little Lunches Basic Membership costs $4.99 a month and gets you access to their library of recipes as well as grocery lists and quick check out.

However, to get the most out of Little Lunches, we recommend signing up for the Premium Subscription ($7.99 a month/$49.99 a year). With Premium you get access to 500+ recipes, customizable weekly meal plans with shopping lists, an ingredient library to help you plan meals around new foods your family would like to try, as well as nutrition tips and guidance from pediatric feeding experts.

The first week is free and you can easily cancel at any time!

DOWNLOAD LITTLE LUNCHES

How Little Lunches makes grocery shopping easier

Of course, you can’t eat an online recipe. Little Lunches to the rescue! Once your meal plan is ready, the app automatically creates an interactive grocery list you can edit based on what you already have in your pantry or fridge. From there, your lists syncs seamlessly with your local Walmart’s online shopping website―you can even swap their recommendations for a different brand, if desired. And if Walmart isn’t your preferred grocery outlet, no worries―you can still use your interactive list to check off ingredients wherever you prefer to shop.

Once your online order is in, all you have to do is pick up your groceries (or have them delivered, you little genius you!) and you’ll have everything you need to bring your meal plan to the table. No more thinking you have a can of chopped tomatoes in the pantry only to discover it’s actually chickpeas.

Once your menu is made and your cabinet is stocked, get ready for a decision-free dinner time! Simply tap the designated recipe for each evening and follow the steps to have a simple-yet-delicious meal on the table in less than 30 minutes.

The best part? The recipe selections curated by Little Lunches are designed to appeal to even the pickiest eaters―but they’re also easy to modify for more mature palettes. In no time (and no decisions) you’ll have complete breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks that the whole family really can enjoy, without needing to prepare more than one dish per meal. 

Not only was the process of prepping dinner for my family each night suddenly easier, but I can’t tell you what a mental load this app takes off for me. I found I started dreading dinnertime less because I knew the mental load was already taken care of–there were no more decisions to make or worries about gathering the right ingredients, I simply had to follow the plan and prepare what I had already bought. And if there’s one thing virtually every parent needs, it’s a lighter mental load.

Have I finally conquered my final organized life frontier? Time will tell. But one thing is for sure: Using Little Lunches to meal plan for my family has taken a major burden off my to-do list while helping me get nutritious, tasty food on the table.