Munch menus hits your inbox every Friday with a curated plan for the week ahead to help you tackle toddler (and big kid) meals.
My approach uses a mix of fresh, frozen, and quick fixes to ensure that your kids are not eating pasta every day—and that you’re not stuck in the kitchen as a result.
The menus are completely FREE and often feature curated recipes from around the internet and my recipe blog. New, healthy recipes and expert interviews are behind the paywall.
No more reaching for that box of mac and cheese or frozen chicken fingers for the 5th night in a row. I’ve got your back.
Subscribe to get full access to the munch menu archives. Become a paid subscriber to get full access to the recipe database!
My toddler meal prep villain origin story
When the time came to start feeding my baby solids, and eventually, full meals, I thought it would be easy.
After all, I cook for a living. I spent a decade working as a professional private chef and caterer in New York City for celebrity clients. I’ve written 4 books and shared over 900 easy, healthy recipes on my blog Feed Me Phoebe.
Even with all this kitchen experience, I found the task of feeding my child day after day, night after night, daunting and humbling. And more importantly, TIME CONSUMING.
Though I have a relatively flexible schedule, my husband and I are not able to be home by 5pm every night to share a family meal. Often when I’m cooking for just the two of us, I’m freestyling and cobbling together a meal from whatever is in the fridge and pantry.
I realized the hard way that if I wanted my kid to try new ingredients, flavors and textures, I had to plan out these meals in advance—and most days, have a caregiver or my spouse help me with the execution.
That’s how Munch Menus were born in my own life.
For the last 16 months, I’ve put together a weekly menu that includes a dinner plan for each night. Each meal includes a protein, starch and vegetable—a perfect blue plate special. And I do my best to alternate between fresh, frozen and store-bought quick fixes so that each meal doesn’t require too much labor the day of.
Boxed mac and cheese is still occasionally on the menu. But it’s not a weekly crutch.
I’m thrilled to now be able to share this resource with my fellow busy, overwhelmed parents via this Substack!
Even if you ARE the type of family who sits down to one shared meal, these menus can help you brainstorm ideas for lunchboxes, breakfasts, snacks, and make sure your kid is always trying new things.
Here’s what you can expect from your subscription:
A weekly meal plan for toddlers (and big kids) to help you get dinner on the table every night or diverse plants into their lunchboxes. This lands in your inbox every Friday to help you shop / prep for the workweek ahead.
A weekly easy-to-execute recipe to help you build new ingredients and flavors into the rotation (for paid subscribers only!)
Meal prep and freezer strategies to reduce the time spent in the kitchen feeding your littles
Expert interviews and thoughtful essays about the challenges of raising good eaters and what it means to be a “healthy” kid
Curated store-bought staples with vetted ingredients that will help you build a non-toxic kitchen and pantry
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The goal of munch menus:
To rotate plants and ensure your kids are eating something different every day, and ideally every week.
To reduce your time in the kitchen with a game plan that includes meal prep over the weekend, quick fixes the night of, and no-cook staples
To give you NEW recipes to fold into your rotation so that your kids are exposed to different flavor profiles and textures.
To take some of the mental burden of meal planning off your plate and allow you to delegate to a caregiver or spouse. The menus are so easy that they require minimal cooking experience!
To reduce food waste by giving you ideas for using leftovers, reintroducing “rejected” food, and freezing portions for future munch menus
About this munch mom
I’m Phoebe Lapine: a gluten-free chef, 4 x published author, and SIBO & Hashimoto’s advocate.
My mom was the original gangster of crunchy health food.
Growing up, her idea of an after-school snack was organic fruit leather that was just a touch too leathery, various carob-covered nuts from the bulk bin, or a rice-based ice cream that tasted like lightly sweetened snow. Naturally, I spent most of my childhood rebelling against this menu, and going into full Fruit-by-the-Foot binge mode at friends’ houses.
It took me a few decades to get on board. But after I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in my twenties and had to change my diet overnight, all those bowls of millet eventually caught up with me.
Now it’s my daily mission to make them taste less like something that should be served to Oliver Twist—and to pass along my love of wholesome, delicious plants to my toddler daughter, who we nicknamed “munch.”
My most recent cookbook CARBIVORE is all about embracing carbs and making your favorite comfort foods part of a balanced diet. You can also find many of my healthy recipes on my award-winning recipe blog Feed Me Phoebe.
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