Back to School Meal Prep Ideas (Kid-Friendly)

Your family will LOVE these easy back to school meal prep ideas, which are super kid-friendly, and easy to prep on a Sunday so you have quick breakfasts, after school snacks, and easy weeknight dinners prepped and ready to go!

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Per your requests on Instagram, I’m continuing my Weekly Meal Prep series, sharing a roundup of recipes and ideas you can prep on a Sunday for the whole family – this week is all about Back to School!

It totally feels like there’s so much to know and it can be overwhelming when you just want to try something that will make your life easier!

But don’t worry! You’re in the right place to learn my favorite ideas for a Sunday meal prep session that will fuel your busy school week!

Grab your coffee and let’s get started! 

Busy School Week Meal Planning

This is the meal planner I am currently using and I’m obsessed with it!

Can’t beat the price ($7!) and I love that I can write the grocery list on one side, and my meal plan on the other. 

After my grocery store trip, I tear the sheet in half and put up the weekly meal plan on the fridge for the family to see.

I’m also obsessed with this cookbook (pictured below) which helps with meal planning, prep, recipes, etc. (it’s not just dinner recipes, but breakfast, lunch & snacks as well!)

School night dinner ideas that are kid-friendly

Today I’m sharing a few go-to weeknight dinners that my kids love, all which have a component you can prep in advance so you can make dinner on a busy school night, fast! 

While you don’t you need to prep an entire meal in advance (like a dump and go crockpot dinner), I find it helpful to just have some components prepped like:

• Slow cooker shredded chicken
• Sheet pan meatballs
• Baked rice
• Taco meat

In this post I’m sharing my favorite, easy recipes that anyone can make. 

Freezer-Friendly Meal Prep Recipes You’ll Love:

• SO Easy 3 Ingredient Taquitos 
• Mini Waffle Maker Omelets (so fun!!)
• Healthy Kid-Friendly Chicken & Broccoli Meatballs
• Back-to-School Freezer-Friendly Family Meal Ideas
• Muffin Pan Meal Prep Challenge

Back to School Meal Prep Ideas (Kid-Friendly)

Healthy meal ideas for back to school season that are quick to prep and kid-friendly!

Find all of my meal prep essentials here

Make-Ahead Breakfasts for School Mornings

Oven-Baked Bacon

Bacon is something you may not think you can prep ahead of time but this actually saves me a lot of time during the week!

My kids like to have bacon sometimes for weekday breakfasts and this is the easiest way to make it ahead of time.

Recipe: Make-Ahead Bacon

Cheesy Waffle Eggs

Waffle makers aren’t just for waffles!

• I use my mini waffle maker to make “waffle eggs” – similar to an omelette – and they’re very customizable! 
• My kids favorite version is with broccoli & cheese.
• No waffle maker? This recipe also works in a silicone muffin pan!

Recipe: 4 Ingredient Cheesy Waffle Eggs

Muffins

If there’s one thing I prep every week, it’s muffins! 

My kids also love mini muffins, which I make in this pan.

3 favorite muffin recipes:

• Mini Banana Oat Muffins (gluten-free)
• Spinach Chocolate Fudge Muffins (hidden veggie)
• Classic Blueberry Muffins 

Breakfast Burritos

It’s easy to make a batch of burritos and fun to customize them! 

My kids love the classic eggs, cheese, and breakfast sausage, but you could of course add chopped bell peppers, spinach, etc. for grown-up ones!

If your kids are old enough to help, make an assembly line so you can prep a bunch of burritos at once!

Here’s how I make them/what I add:

• Scrambled eggs
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Cooked breakfast sausage, chopped up (such as Amylu or Jones Dairy Farm)
• Flour tortillas, burrito-size

1. Place a piece of foil on the counter
2. Then place a tortilla on top of it
3. Spoon some eggs into the middle
4. Top with cheese & sausage (and any other toppings)
5. Roll up the tortilla into a burrito shape (first fold the sides in, then roll starting from the closest end to you until it’s all rolled up
6. Wrap tightly in foil and repeat!

Store your breakfast burritos in the fridge for the week or freeze them all in a zip lock bag and reheat as needed (just remove the foil before microwaving!)

Sheet Pan Pancakes

Busy school mornings are decidedly not the time to be flipping individual pancakes.

I love to make a big sheet pan of these on Sunday and then portion the pancakes into squares to warm up throughout the week!

Serve with oven-baked bacon and fruit!

Recipe: favorite sheet pan pancakes 

Lunchbox Prep Ideas

Make-Ahead Quesadillas

Ingredients:

• Tortillas (flour or Siete gluten-free)
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Optional: shredded cooked chicken

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F
2. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper
3. Line up tortillas on the baking sheet
4. Add shredded cheese and chicken, if using
5. Top with tortillas
6. Bake for 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted

• You can bake for a few more minutes if you want the tortillas crispy
• Allow the quesadillas and the pan to cool completely and then place the pan directly into the freezer to flash-freeze them!
• If the pan doesn’t fit inside your freezer just line a smaller pan or plate with parchment paper.
• Once the quesadillas are frozen, store in a freezer-safe bag or glass container lined with parchment paper.
• Place a frozen quesadilla in their lunchbox in the morning and it will defrost by lunch!

Note: depending on how far in advance you are prepping these, you can also simply store in the fridge and pop into the lunchbox as needed!

DIY “Uncrustables”

Ingredients:

• Sliced bread (I use Whole Foods 365 Gluten-Free or white sandwich bread)
• Natural peanut butter
• Jam or Jelly

Instructions:

1. Make a bunch of PB&J sandwiches (peanut butter on each slice and jam in the middle)
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
3. If using an uncrustable maker, press each sandwich through the maker and then place on baking sheet
4. You can also freeze them whole without using a sandwich press

To Freeze:

• Place the pan directly into the freezer to flash-freeze them
• Once the sandwiches are frozen, store in a freezer-safe bag or glass container lined with parchment paper
• You can put the sandwiches in the lunchbox from the freezer and they’ll defrost by lunch

Homemade Ranch Dip

This takes 5 minutes to prep and you probably already have all of the ingredients!

We like the Trader Joe’s ranch seasoning, but any brand will do.

What you’ll need:

• Equal parts: mayo, sour cream, greek yogurt
• Ranch seasoning

1. Mix everything together and taste for seasoning. 
2. Store in a glass jar in the fridge and add to lunchboxes throughout the week for dipping with veggies!

These are my favorite little dip containers to use in their lunchboxes. 

Fruit & Veggie Prep

I have learned (the hard way) that having fruits and veggies washed & chopped, ahead of time, makes packing lunches so much quicker. 

When you’re not starting from scratch, washing grapes or slicing cucumbers every day, it makes this daily task manageable.

These are my top things to prep:

• Wash & slice cucumbers
• Put baby carrots in glass container, submerged in cold water (keeps them fresh longer)
• De-stem & wash grapes
• Wash & store fresh berries

These are the containers I’ve used for years that help keep produce fresh longer!

So if you wash grapes on Sunday for the week (or a few days in my house), be sure to store them in these containers to keep them fresh!

After School Snack Prep

The washed & prepped fruit and ranch dressing also make great after school snacks.

My kids’ favorite though?

No-Bake Cookie Dough Balls

No-bake peanut butter cookie dough balls – tastes like a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie!

The recipe I use comes from the paid version of the My Little Food Critic app (worth it!) but linked one of her similar free recipes, here!

Mini Banana Oat Muffins

Love these for breakfast, but they also make a great after school snack. 

Pack in a snack box with some fruit like grapes or strawberries for an on-the-go afternoon snack. 

Recipe: Mini Banana Oat Muffins (gluten-free)

Busy Weeknight Dinners

This is what you’re most likely here for, right?

Once the school year starts, dinner feels like this whole variable to solve.

Everyone has practice, dance, after school clubs, events, etc., and dinner has to be made and served somewhere in the chaos before bedtime?

In my 10 plus years as a stay at home mom, I’ve learned a few things when it comes to meal planning, prepping, and serving dinners during the school week:

• Plan to cook 3-4 dinners per week
• The rest of the nights can be a fridge cleanout/leftover night, freezer meal night, take out or restaurant night 
• Cooking dinner from scratch 5-7 nights in a row is a recipe for burnout
• Make Friday pizza night a fun family tradition and change it up as needed (homemade, frozen, take out/delivery)
• Having prepped proteins in your fridge or freezer makes pulling dinner together so much easier (think: shredded chicken, cooked ground beef, homemade meatballs)

Back to School Dinner Recipes & Meal Prep Ideas

House Favorite Taco Meat (Kid-Friendly)

• This recipe is really simple to prep in advance and freeze or keep in the fridge to use early in the week. 
• Swap out the ground turkey for beef or chicken, I’ve made it with all 3!
• This taco meat works in tacos obviously, but also on sheet pan nachos, burritos, or in bowls with rice. 
• You can also add another can of beans, some chicken stock and a can of diced tomatoes and call it chili. I won’t tell anyone 🙂

Recipe: Fam Favorite Taco Meat

Shredded Chicken in the Slow Cooker

How to:

1. Add 1-2 lbs of chicken thighs to the slow cooker
2. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil
3. Season with desired seasonings
4. Pour about ½ cup of water or chicken stock in the bottom of the slow cooker around the chicken
5. Cook on HIGH for about 4-5 hours (depending on how hot your slow cooker runs)
6. Once cooked, shred the chicken and store in glass containers until ready to use – freeze if necessary!

If you want to make salsa chicken, BBQ chicken or taco chicken, halfway through cooking, carefully discard any accumulated liquid in the slow cooker, and then add the desired sauce.

This will ensure it doesn’t get watered down!

Healthy Baked Meatballs

An easy way to add more veggies, and the recipe makes a bunch of mini meatballs, making it the perfect thing to prep in advance.

And if one of the kids doesn’t like broccoli, just leave it out!

The recipe below shares full instructions for freezing. Just toss in some store-bought sauce (I get Rao’s at Costco) to warm up and dinner is basically done!

Serve with pasta, mashed potatoes or on slider buns for meatball sandwiches. 

Recipe: Healthy Chicken Mini Meatballs

Refried Bean & Cheese Taquitos

• My kids love these and you can customize them with chicken or beef instead of the beans, or whatever kinds of beans your kids might like.
• Prep a bunch and warm them up one at a time as needed.
• Serve with fries or rice, guacamole, salsa, and sour cream!

Recipe: Bean & Cheese Taquitos (including air fryer, freezing & reheating instructions)

Make-Ahead Meatloaf

The ultimate comfort food!

To make these for meal prep, double the recipe and store half in a glass container in the fridge and freeze the other half.

I also like to make these in a silicone mini loaf pan. 

Serve with frozen mixed veggies & mashed potatoes

Recipe: Mini Turkey Meatloaves

I hope these ideas were helpful to you! 

1. Remember that it’s not about trying to meal prep a million things while being in the kitchen all day.
2. Start by picking one or two ideas that would be really helpful for the week ahead and see how it goes!

Don’t forget I’ve saved all of my Meal Prep tools here (like my slow cooker, muffin pans, cookie scoops, and favorite glass storage containers). 

What to Read Next:

• What I Fed My Family This Week
• Muffin Pan Meal Prep Ideas
• Everything I Meal Prepped This Week
• Top 10 Toddler Meal Prep Ideas
• Make-Ahead Weekday Breakfasts

Follow Marla on Instagram for more weekly meal prep ideas