Welcome to Munch Menus!

My new Substack to help fellow busy, overwhelmed parents avoid feeding their kids pasta 5 x a week.

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.

But even with all this kitchen experience, I found the task of feeding my toddler 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 free-styling 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 was 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 crazed 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.

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Here’s what you can expect:

• A weekly meal plan for munchkins 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 (like the frozen veggie dumplings above)

• 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

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Now that you know what to expect, keep an eye out for a new menu that drops every Friday!

New kid-friendly recipes (few ingredients, high nutrient density) will land every Tuesday for paid subscribers only.

Please leave a comment or share with a friend and help me build this community! My goal is for this to be a safe space for all of us to share our tips, recipes and wins as part of a collective brain trust.

xo

Phoebe