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.
Easy Meal Rotation
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
Mini Cinnamon Muffins
Made with a base of applesauce and whole grain flour, these easy mini muffins are sweet enough to taste like a treat!
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Banana Bread Oatmeal (to Share with the Kids)
When you use a really ripe (or over ripe) banana in this recipe, it tastes so much like banana bread—but is much faster! See the options for which toppings make this even more delish.
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Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
You can use peanut butter, almond butter, or Sunbutter in this recipe. Choose creamy unsweetened if possible.
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Lunch Ideas
Creamy Hummus Without Tahini
You can use regular plain yogurt, though I like the consistency that Greek yogurt yields a bit better.
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Easy Egg Cups (with Zucchini and Cheese)
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.
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Easy Apple Smoothie
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.
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Snack Ideas
Best Homemade Chocolate Milk
You can make this right before serving or make it up to 24 hours ahead.
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Easy Crockpot Applesauce
With just a few basic ingredients and fresh apples, your crock pot can do the rest of the work of making applesauce!
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Easy Pear Sauce
Transform fresh pears into the most delicious fruit sauce with this simple method. It's a delicious fruit puree to share with a baby or toddler that you can serve on its own or mixed with yogurt or oatmeal.
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Dinner Ideas
Healthy Pasta Salad with Chicken
This works well anytime of the year, but the flavors are particularly great in summer
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Slow Cooker Beef Burrito Recipe with Veggies
If you want to make these vegetarian, try using 2 cups rinsed and drained black beans or pinto beans instead of the ground beef.
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Italian Lentils with Rice
We like this with rice, but you can also serve this with pasta if you prefer.
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Roasted Sweet Potato Hash
Try this easy breakfast-for-dinner idea the next time you need a super easy and nutritious family dinner.
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Moroccan Lamb Meatballs
With a mellow, kid-friendly flavor, veggies tucked inside, and an easy baking method that makes clean up a breeze, these Lamb Meatballs are a delicious family dinner recipe to pair with pita, grains, or pasta.
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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
Healthy Zucchini Muffins (Vegan and Easy!)
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!
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Fresh Apple Pancakes
These apple pancakes are hearty and filled with freshly shredded apples and oats, so expect them to have a lot of texture!
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Easy Overnight Oats with Applesauce
You can easily double (or triple!) the recipe to make more servings. It uses a 1 to 1 ratio of yogurt to applesauce so you can easily scale it up. Mix these up the night before you plan to serve them.
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Lunch Ideas
Pizza Muffins (with Veggies!)
These work well to make ahead and warm up for an easy lunch or dinner. These taste best served warm.
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Refried Bean Taco Roll Ups
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.
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10 Easy Wraps for Kids
Try these easy wraps for kids as an easy lunch or meal when you want to change up the usual sandwich options. Nutrition info will vary according to the ingredients you use.
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Snack Ideas
Add a side of crackers or cheese or something else easy to these to make them more substantial as needed.
Strawberry Popsicles (with Greek Yogurt!)
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.
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So Easy Sliced Baked Apples
We like these apples warm or cold out of the fridge, so see what your kids like best!
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Healthy Banana Cookies (to Share with the Kids)
These are an easy whole grain cookie to share with the kids—they're a great baby cookie! Try them for snack, dessert, or as a breakfast cookie
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Dinner Ideas
If you have access to fresh tomatoes, they work beautifully in the spaghetti sauce!
Easy Tomato Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes
This slow cooker 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.
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Homemade Broccoli Tots (Better Than the Freezer Aisle!)
Crispy on the outside and tender in the middle, these tots are a seriously fun way to serve broccoli. 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.
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Easy Spinach Quesadillas
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.
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Fluffy Zucchini Pancakes
These fluffy pancakes are a yummy way to serve vegetables for breakfast and use up zucchini should you find yourself with extra. These can be served plain or with a side of yogurt or applesauce to babies and younger eaters, or with maple syrup—they are very versatile!
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Quick Teriyaki Shrimp with Zucchini and Rice
We like this with rice or rice noodles, but you can adjust how you serve it to fit your family!
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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
Easy Zucchini Carrot Muffins
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.
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Spinach Egg Muffins
Egg muffins will stick to a muffin tin unless you grease it well with nonstick spray. So try not to skimp on that step!
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Favorite Healthy Toddler Smoothie (with Veggies!)
Learn to customize yummy smoothies for your toddler by starting with one simple recipe, then adjusting based on which fruit and veggies you'd like to use.
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Lunch Ideas
4-Ingredient Baked Chicken Meatballs
Serve with Marinara sauce, Pesto, Cheese Sauce, or with a side of ketchup or any other favorite dip. We like to have these on hand to use an easy lunch component or have them with pasta.
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Favorite Pumpkin Smoothie
This creamy Pumpkin Smoothie has delicious pumpkin-pie-like flavor and is a delicious meal component or snack. This makes two toddler-size servings, or a smoothie to share for a parent and toddler. You can freeze any leftovers into a freezer pop!
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Healthy Pumpkin Bars Recipe
These bars are tender when warm out of the oven, so do be sure to let them cool completely before slicing.
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Snack Ideas
I aim to make one homemade snack each week and then rotate with easy store bought snacks.
Sweet Spinach Muffins with Banana
These healthy muffins taste like a delicious banana muffin, but with the added nutrition of a big handful of spinach. These store well, so you can make them ahead of time and pull them out of the fridge or freezer to serve.
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Favorite Strawberry Milk
Creamy and delicious, you can make this with fresh strawberries or freeze-dried ones. The version with freeze-dried berries tastes more similar to store-bought strawberry milk; the one with fresh berries tastes more like fresh strawberries!
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Quick Sauteed Cinnamon Pears
Transform any variety of pears into these delicious cinnamon cooked pears. Serve them as a simple side or snack, or cut a little smaller for a finger food for babies.
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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!
Shortcut Butternut Squash Risotto
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.
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Easy Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Forget takeout—deliver this popular Indian dish to your table instead. Shredded chicken thighs are coated in a rich, buttery sauce with hints of tomatoes, ginger, and garam masala—a messy but very flavorful finger food. Adapted from The Multi-Cooker Baby Food Cookbook.
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Crispy Baked Tofu Nuggets (SO Good and Easy)
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.
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Cauliflower Mac and Cheese (5-Ingredient)
With a simple cheese sauce—no standing and stirring over the stove here!—a solid dose of veggies, and a super creamy final result, this Cauliflower Mac and Cheese is a fast lunch or dinner option for toddlers. (And the rest of the family, too!)
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Quick and Easy Pesto Pizza
You can use any store bought crust for this recipe, or try my easy Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I like making these as personal pizzas for the kids since they cook so fast, but you can also make one large pizza. See the Notes at the bottom for that info.
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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
Quick Cottage Cheese Pancakes
These 4 ingredient pancakes are packed with nutrients and are so yummy. Double the ingredients to make a larger batch to feed a family of four as this recipe is on the smaller side.
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Best Banana Yogurt
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.
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Easy Veggie Muffins
I like to grate the carrot on a box grater and cut the top of each broccoli floret off and finely dice with a knife. Avoid the stems since they won’t blend into the batter as well.
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Lunch Ideas
Favorite Pizza Rolls (with Spinach and Cheese)
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!)Â
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Creamy Pasta with Broccoli
Feel free to cut this recipe in half to make a smaller portion for your family. (Or make the full batch and enjoy the leftovers!)
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Vegetarian Quesadillas with Beans and Cheese
You can make as few or as many of these easy quesadillas as you like.
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Snack Ideas
Easy Homemade Granola Bars
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!
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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Energy Balls
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.
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Dinner Ideas
Add a simple side of fruit to any of these family meals.
Easy Ratatouille with Pasta
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 half in the freezer for a future meal—it's the same amount of cooking effort, so why not!
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Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas
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.
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Healthy Broccoli Cheddar Soup
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.)
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Easy Pasta with Summer Squash and Beef
This dish is easy to pull together in a short amount of time and is a nice alternative to tomato based pasta dishes.
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Instant Pot Channa Masala with Rice
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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Printable Family Meal Plans
In an effort to make my monthly meal plans more easy to use, there’s an ebook that corresponds fairly closely 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!
Related Recipes
I’d love to hear what your family likes in these meals plans so please comment below to share!
