Inside: Today I’m sharing what to feed kids in summer at home for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks – without driving yourself crazy and feeling like the kitchen is open 24/7! Easy summer meal ideas coming up!
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If your kids will be home this summer I bet you’re already slightly stressed, thinking about the amount of snacks they’ll request every 5 minutes 😀
One thing about kids is that they’re always hungry for snacks, right?
And summertime can really exacerbate the endless food requests!
In my previous post on our Daily Summer Routine we chatted about why it’s important to have a predictable routine (even over summer vacation) – and this includes mealtimes.
Whether you’ll be home with a toddler, a preschool-aged child, big kids, or a combo of all 3, it will be incredibly helpful to:
- Decide approximate times meals will be served
- Choose when snacks will be available
- Have store-bought snacks on hand
- Involve kids in picking meal ideas
- Dedicate time to prepping things in advance
This feeding kids thing is a full time job, I know, but today I will help you simplify the process with the systems I use in my own home with my 3 kids.
Feeding Your Kids Over Summer Break
Throughout the summer, my kids are knee-deep in their mud kitchen, sprinklers, or dripping with watermelon juice so I often feed them outside.
Eating meals over summer vacation is way more casual for us and we often don’t even sit at the kitchen table.
Sometimes dinner is served on the back patio, lunch is on-the-go at the pool, and snacks are on the couch with an afternoon movie.
It’s fun for the kids and it’s less work for me to just feed them wherever they are.
The goal here is to simplify, not add more work.
Why use a Feeding Schedule?
Your feeding schedule more or less determines what times meals will be served.
This helps greatly decrease the mental work of constantly wondering when to feed kids and prevents us from constantly asking “are you hungry?”
Instead, determine the mealtimes for summer in your house.
If your kids were to attend camp, food would not be available all day and there is certainly no counselor making food for them at every request!
Your home can function like this as well over summer break.
And this doesn’t mean you have to be strict with the times meals are served, it’s more just a helpful tool for everyone.
Below you’ll find a sample feeding schedule for summer. These times are general and will of course depend on what time everyone wakes up and goes to bed in your house!
Sample Summer Feeding Schedule:
7:30 AM – Breakfast
10:00 AM – Snack (usually on the go)
12:30 PM – Lunch
2-3:00 PM – Afternoon snack (with a movie or outside)
5:30/6 PM – Dinner
Related: How to be an Organized Mom this Summer
What to Feed Kids This Summer (Kid-Friendly Summer Meal Ideas)
Below you’ll find ideas for what to feed your kids for meals and snacks this summer! I’ve also included a free printable PDF below (no need to subscribe) that organizes all of these summer meal ideas into a single cheat sheet!
Summer Meal Prep for Kids
Breakfast is one of my favorite meals to meal prep.
It’s easy to make a batch of pancakes, muffins, or hard boiled eggs in advance and have ready to go for the week.
Here are some simple ideas perfect for toddlers through big kids:
Summer Breakfast Ideas:
sheet pan pancakes | recipe
scrambled eggs or egg muffins, store-bought biscuits, fruit, bacon | egg muffin recipe
What to feed kids in summer for lunch
Lunch always feels like the trickiest meal to come up with.
I don’t want it to interfere with what I make for dinner (like pasta for lunch and pasta for dinner) and my kids don’t love sandwiches.
More often than not I end up doing a “snacky” lunch or a clean-out-the-fridge lunch.
Summer seems like the perfect time for snack board lunches and throw-together “leftovers” lunches!
I actually find that it’s easier if we eat lunch on-the-go and often we will grab lunch while we’re out and about for the day.
In the interest of saving money, though, it is more frugal to pack lunches and take them along with us..
Here are some favorite summer lunch ideas for at home and on-the-go!
Hawaiian roll with turkey & cheese or turkey roll-up, fruit, hummus & pretzels (left: at home, right: on-the-go) | shop snack boxes here
left: turkey & cheese on mini naan bread, pretzels, cucumbers & blueberries | middle: lunch at the beach – taquitos, cucumbers, string cheese, blueberries, pretzels & hummus | right: cream cheese & cucumber sandwich, grapes & cheddar bunnies
Kid-Friendly Summer Suppers
Like most families we grill a lot in the summer which often means eating dinner outside.
It’s fun for the kids and keeps it easy for me!
We’ll usually throw a couple different things on the grill (something each kid will like), I make a side like pasta salad plus chips & salsa, fruit, and sometimes s’mores for dessert.
In the summertime I always keep a bag of slider buns in my freezer so I can make fun little burger sliders as a family-friendly dinner.
Here are some easy family summer meal ideas:
make your own pizza: naan bread, mozzarella cheese, pizza sauce | recipe
left: rice & beans, cheese, avocado & tomatoes | right: grilled chicken, cous cous, hummus, grilled veggies, naan or pita bread
left: refried bean & cheese taquitos, oranges, air fryer broccoli | right: grilled chicken burgers & hot dogs, potato salad, corn on the cob
Easy Snack Ideas for Summer (on-the-go or at home)
left: z-bar, string cheese, cucumbers, strawberries, pretzels & hummus, goldfish | right: strawberries, cucumbers, cheese, hummus & pretzels, goldfish, made good cookies, blueberries, watermelon
left: patriotic snack – yogurt-covered pretzels, crackers, cheese, strawberries, watermelon, blackberries, white chocolate chips | right: blueberries, made good cookies, freeze-dried fruit, baby carrots, cheese sticks, goldfish, gogo squeez, pretzels & yogurt-covered pretzels
Download Summer Meal Ideas Printable
What to Read Next:
- Summer Camp at Home for Toddlers
- How to Get Organized for Summer
- My Daily Summer Routine with 3 Kids
- Summer Survival Guide PDF
- Fun Summer Camp Theme Ideas
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