How often do you serve a particular item?

Do you change up your meals and snacks every day? Would you serve the same thing more than once in a week or do you have a set weekly, biweekly or monthly meal plan?

My daycare meals are based around my supper meal plan. I cook in bulk and we do 'leftovers' for lunch. So, yes, we do have the same items in a week. Every week I roast a chicken, and we have leftovers. Every week I make spaghetti sauce, and we have leftovers. The rest varies...usually we have tacos every other week, casseroles are popular too (and easy for me).

Snack is always a fruit, a carb, a protein. For example, grapes, cheese chunks and pretzels. It's easiest for me to prepare that way and easy for the children to eat.

Also, whether or not something is a 'repeat' depends on what is on sale. When I can get grapes for $0.88/lb then we have grapes a lot that week...but when bananas are on for $0.44/lb then we eat those more.

I shop by the sales too. We do a lot of repeats of the fruits since they get at least 3 while they are here. Veggies are almost always the frozen mixed ones so I don't have to fuss over who likes what- you eat what you like and leave what you don't. Mostly the meals are the same meats week to week just done differently so one day is hamburg but is a different casserole or meatload each time. Mostly food is left overs from night before.

I do a weekly menu for the daycare based on the meals I prepare for my family for dinner the night before. I try to vary it week to week, but definitely some of the fruits and veggies are repeated in a week since I am not going to buy five different kinds of fruit and have some go to waste. I also often make grilled cheese sandwiches on Fridays since everyone likes it and it is easy. Other than that, everything is prepared the day before and is always a hot meal such as soup, quiche, pasta, rice, etc.

I guess I have a lot of repeats week to week.

There is usually rice and chicken once a week
usually lasagna or Spaghetti once a week
Then soup every 2 weeks
Some of my kids are partimers but the girl who is full time will sometimes get the same lunch two days in a row. If I make a big Lasagna and my family doesn't finish it in two suppers and is still left then we use it until it is done. I try to do the 'waste not, want not'

and snacks are pretty much the same things rotated through.....crackers and fruit, yogurt and fruit, cucumbers and crackers with cheese, cookies and applesauce.....prett y much always along the same lines

No complaints from the parents or kids but sometimes I bore myself. lol I occassionally try something new like perogies with veggies for lunch or roast beef and egg noodles but usually anything new I introduce gets wasted and the kids don't like it :blink:

Which is why I do repeats of favourites and leave introducing new things to the parents. Why should I have to be the one to waste the food and then deal with hungry cranky kids for the rest of the day.

Good, I'm not the only one! Sometimes I feel like the parents expect more from me and I shouldn't be serving the same things all the time. I guess that's just the pressure I put on myself though to be a good provider. But yes, I basically serve the same fruits and veggies every week/couple times a week. And then either leftovers or chicken nuggets or grilled cheese or soup ...something easy if I don't have leftovers. I like the idea of the mixed frozen veggies though and having the kids choose what they want to eat from there. I have so much waste lately, it's not even funny.

I am a parent and it is impossible not to repeat the same things. I introduce new things but it is true that it is not a hit for while.
As long as the children eat healthy and get enough nutrition - veggies, protein and fruits I am fine.

Recently, we have been kind of "wingin' it" for meals and snacks (meaning; whatever I have in the house is what we eat, since there has been no time for shopping!!)
I try not to serve the same foods too often, but reality is there are only so many things that are easy to make, that the kids will eat!!
I find the usual foods like perogies (big hit), chicken strips, grilled cheese, etc to be the most liked items.

I have a weekly rotation of the kids' faves. Chicken nuggets, fish sticks, grilled cheese. I'm with the others in that fruits get served more often. Everyone loves bananas and are fairly priced, for example. I used to serve our family's leftovers, but these guys only like "kid friendly" meals. They don't like casseroles ::ohmy: so I tend to stick to the above items.