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It’s hard to believe it’s almost fall, but the good news is that it’s a great time of year to plan for super simple, super yummy family meals. These 30 healthy fall recipes to feed your family this September can be your go-to meal plan for healthy and yummy meals for everyone at the table.
Healthy Fall Recipes
My family’s schedule is just as likely as busy (and unpredictable?) as yours so this meal plan has a focus on easy recipes that can be made on weeknights. There are lots of slow cooker and one-pot options, plus meals that work well to be made ahead of time.
And since apples are back in season at local US markets, there are more healthy fall recipes including apples for breakfast and snacks at the end.
TIP: Add fruit, simple sides, and drinks to round out any meal as needed.
Printable Family Meal Plans
In an effort to make my monthly meal plans more easy to use, there’s an ebook that corresponds with this post called Happy Family Meals Vol 2 in my shop. It has a downloadable digital ebook with grocery lists, meal planning templates, and lots of tips to help improve mealtimes in your house.
It’s a full service meal plan that you can use it on your device or print it!
Here we go, your family meal plan for September week by week!
September Week 1
I know that it’s unlikely that anyone will make every single meal from scratch each day, so I have a few recipe ideas here and trust that you’ll fill in with shortcuts like cereal, yogurt and fruit, and toast for breakfast. Find no-cook lunch ideas, cold lunch ideas, and snack meal ideas here.
Breakfast Ideas
Made with a base of applesauce and whole grain flour, these easy mini muffins are sweet enough to taste like a treat!
You can make this right before serving or make it up to 24 hours ahead.
Lunch Ideas
You can use regular plain yogurt, though I like the consistency that Greek yogurt yields a bit better.
Feel free to double the recipe to make a full 24 mini muffins! We like to stash these in the fridge to eat all week, so having more is usually helpful in our house.
Snack Ideas
You can use any kind of apple in this recipe. It will taste best if your apples taste sweet. There’s a big range of flavors in apples, so just know the final flavor it connected to the flavor of the apples. Honeycrisp and Pink Lady are good options.
With just a few basic ingredients and fresh apples, your crock pot can do the rest of the work of making applesauce!
Dinner Ideas
This works well anytime of the year, but the flavors are particularly great in summer
If you want to make these vegetarian, try using 2 cups rinsed and drained black beans or pinto beans instead of the ground beef.
We like this with rice, but you can also serve this with pasta if you prefer.
Try this easy breakfast-for-dinner idea the next time you need a super easy and nutritious family dinner.
Serve these mini meatballs with grains and veggies or pasta.
TIP: We usually do pizza, takeout, or leftovers once or twice during the week to add another easy meal to the mix.
September Week 2
The breakfast, snacks, and lunches here an all be made ahead and served quickly at mealtime to make sure it’s actually doable for you. The lunch ideas can also be packed in a thermos if you’re sending a kiddo to school or daycare.
Breakfast Ideas
I like to make half of the batch with mini chocolate chips and half without so I have options. They’re still sweet enough for little ones without the chocolate though!
These apple pancakes are hearty and filled with freshly shredded apples and oats, so expect them to have a lot of texture!
Lunch Ideas
These work well to make ahead and warm up for an easy lunch or dinner. These taste best served warm.
This makes 6 rolled up tacos, so you can adjust this as needed for your family. Taste the refried beans before you make the roll ups and adjust the salt and/or cumin if needed. You can also serve the ingredients in separate bowls and let your family serve themselves.
Snack Ideas
With bright berry flavor and a creamy texture, these freezer pops are a delicious and nutritious dessert or snack. If making these for a baby, omit the optional sweetener.
We like these apples warm or cold out of the fridge, so see what your kids like best!
Dinner Ideas
If you have access to fresh tomatoes, they work beautifully in the spaghetti sauce!
This tomato sauce method is the easiest way to transform fresh tomatoes into delicious sauce. Scale the recipe up or down for a smaller or larger slow cooker. You don’t have to be precise! And the chopped tomatoes can be very roughly chopped.
You can cook the rice up to 5 days ahead of time and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake the tots.
You can also do this with full size spinach if that’s what you’re able to find. Just discard any stems before starting the recipe.
My youngest eater eats these pancakes plain and my girls dip them in either maple syrup or peanut butter—they are very versatile! (Recipe updated May 2021)
We like this with rice or rice noodles, but you can adjust how you serve it to fit your family!
September Week 3
The breakfast muffins can be used for snacks or even lunches if you want to mix up how you serve them. Find more lunch ideas for one year olds and daycare lunches here.
Breakfast Ideas
I prefer to grate my own carrots to ensure that the texture is finer and isn’t very noticeable in the baked muffins. See the Notes for allergy substitutions.
Egg muffins will stick to a muffin tin unless you grease it well with nonstick spray. So try not to skimp on that step!
Lunch Ideas
These bars are tender when warm out of the oven, so do be sure to let them cool completely before slicing.
Snack Ideas
These store well, so you can make them ahead of time and pull them out of the fridge to serve. (Post updated October 2019)
You can make this with fresh strawberries or freeze-dried ones, depending on what you have on hand or access to. The version with freeze-dried berries tastes more similar to store bought strawberry milk; the one with fresh berries tastes more like fresh strawberries!
Dinner Ideas
Mix up the type of rice and pasta you buy for a wider range of nutrients or just to mix up the shapes—the kids might even like to pick which shape you have!
You can cook the rice ahead of time and do Step 1 ahead. Or make the whole dish ahead and warm to serve when needed.
Tofu is typically sold in 14-16 ounce blocks. If yours is 16 ounces, you may need 1 ¼ cup panko. The garlic powder is optional, but adds nice flavor.
Use yellow or white cheese according to your child’s color expectations!
TIP: If making pizza dough feels like too much, pick up a ball of ready made dough at your store and have fun putting the sauce and cheese on with the help of the kids.
September Week 4
If you want to add in a smoothie to any of these weeks, here are my go-to veggie smoothies. Or try this Peach Banana Smoothie or these Protein Smoothies.
Breakfast Ideas
Double the ingredients to make a larger batch to feed a family of four as this recipe is on the smaller side.
This recipe make enough for 2-4 servings of yogurt, depending on the appetite of your child. See the Notes at the bottom for storage tips if you have leftovers. You can also cut the recipe in half to make a smaller amount.
Lunch Ideas
Be sure to grease your pan well and roll the dough up fairly tightly around the fillings for best results. (But it’s okay if they don’t look perfect when they go into the pan!) This recipe was updated in September 2019 to ensure that the middles of each roll cook through.
You can make as few or as many of these easy quesadillas as you like.
Snack Ideas
We like to have these granola bars as a snack or toddler breakfast with milk or a smoothie—and they’re an excellent lunch box component too. You can make them plain or choose a flavor to add!
These no-bake bites taste like a cross between oatmeal raisin and peanut butter cookie dough. I use natural creamy peanut butter (like the kind from Smuckers) and it works really well. (Recipe updated slightly in June 2021 to ensure the best texture.)
Dinner Ideas
Add a simple side of fruit to any of these family meals.
This recipe makes enough for two meals. You can cut it in half if desired, but I like to make the larger batch and keep on in the freezer for a future meal—it’s the same amount of cooking effort, so why not!
Before you start, roll a tortilla and make sure it will fit with your baking dish. I call for small ones, but the size can vary a lot depending on whether you use flour or corn and the brand. This recipe was updated and streamlined in October 2020.
With plant-based protein, veggies, and cheese, this soup is a wonderful way to serve up healthy comfort food to the whole family. (Adapted from FamilyFun magazine.)
This dish is easy to pull together in a short amount of time and is a nice alternative to tomato based pasta dishes.
If you can’t find garam masala, you can leave it out, though it adds authentic flavor that you’d expect if you’ve eaten Chana Masala in a restaurant. This will likely make enough for two meals—I like to freeze the second half for a future week.
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I’d love to hear what your family likes in these meals plans so please comment below to share!
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