Coming up with dinner every.single.day. can be such a struggle. Many people have a hard time coming up with dinner ideas for one night let alone a whole week.
These weekly dinner plans are created to help you get one thing off your to-do list. Shop once for the week and you’ll have the ingredients and meal choices ready to go for the week.
Visit the WEEKLY DINNER PLANNER archive for more meal planning ideas!
Table of Contents
👇🏻 SCROLL for Recipe Links, Tips & Additional Info 👇🏻
How To Use the Meal Plans
People are typically put off by commitment but if you give yourself a guideline with the flexibility and permission to make changes as needed, you’ll be more likely to stick to it. That’s why flexible meal plans work.
I give you 5 suggestions and you pick 3-5 meals for your week. Each week I scour through my collections of recipes from a variety of amazing food bloggers, recipe sites, cookbooks and personal recipes to thoughtfully create a weekly dinner plan that is easy and delicious. Pick 3-5 of them for your week based on what works for your schedule and include days for eating out, leftovers, etc.
Use the order of the meals as a guideline. You’ll notice dinners are not listed as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. and that’s on purpose. I don’t want you to feel restricted. That sense of “I HAVE to do this” is what makes people stop meal planning. Keep things flexible and be realistic with your expectations and schedule.
Make mindful adjustments as needed. Sometimes, you need to consider foods (i.e. meats) that need to be used by certain days. For example, if you planned on making steak fajitas on Tuesday, but now it’s Tuesday and you can’t or don’t want to, think about your ingredients for a minute. Check your steak, if the date is good til tomorrow then just make sure you make that meal tomorrow. Otherwise, throw it in the freezer and plan to make it on Friday instead (just take it out the day before to thaw.) This will become second nature as you continue meal planning.
Grocery shop for the week. Get all your groceries for the week so you have everything on hand. This will save you so much time and extra money spent on impulse purchases.
Dinner Plan #23
Meal Prep Tips
These are some basic prep ideas you can do before the week starts to get ahead of the game! Do some, do them all, whatever works for you! I just barely make it to the grocery shopping part, so actual meal prep is a stretch for me personally …. but I hear it’s super-efficient 😬🤪
| Spicy Korean Chicken with Rice | Prepare marinade. Trim and cut chicken. |
| Tzatziki Fish Tacos | Make tzatziki. It can be made several days ahead, but the garlic flavor does become a bit more potent. Chop Cabbage. |
| Pork Tenderloin with Dill Sauce | n/a |
| Thai Sweet Chili Chicken Bowls | Cook quinoa. Cook and slice chicken. Slice/Shred veggies. |
| Summer Ratatouille Pasta | Slice zucchini & onion. |
Recipe Links, Side Ideas & Helpful Tips
Spicy Korean Chicken with Rice
from Rasa Malaysia
FYI:
- This is a simple meal with a big punch of flavor and heat.
- MARINATE TIME NEEDED! (30 mins-2 hrs.) However, because this recipe is so simple, even with 30 mins of marinating you’ll still have dinner ready in no time.
- Intentional Ingredients: Thai Sweet Chili Chicken Bowls call for 1/4 cup scallions; if you’ll have unused scallions, you can make Scallion Rice to go with this Korean Chicken. Cook your rice as normal, once done, add about a 1/4 cup diced scallions and the zest of 1 lemon and stir to combine.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- White rice
- Quick Pickled Radishes
- Pan Fried Korean Zucchini
- Asian vegetable medley (frozen aisle)
- Edamame
- Simple side salad with a ginger dressing
Tzatziki Fish Tacos
from SkinnyTaste
FYI:
- A Greek twist for your Taco Tuesday!
- Intentional Ingredients: Feel free to use red cabbage instead of white if you’re also making the Thai Chicken Bowls so you don’t have to buy two types of cabbage.
- If you don’t want fish, these would also be good with sliced grilled chicken.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Pita Chips
- Lemon Rice
Pork Tenderloin with Dill Sauce
from Peace, Love and Low-Carb
FYI:
- Easy weeknight dinner that is low-carb/keto and can be served with veggies or a side salad.
- But you can also serve it with white rice, egg noodles, boiled potatoes, or my fave – gnocchi.
- Intentional Ingredients: The Pork Tenderloin and Greek Fish Tacos both use dill.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Asparagus
- Green beans
Thai Sweet Chili Chicken Bowls
from Closet Cooking
FYI:
- Fresh, light, and packed with incredible flavor.
- The Thai Sweet Chili dressing is freaking fabulous! I prefer to use fish sauce sparingly – feel free to limit it to 1 Tbsp or use Soy Sauce instead. If you haven’t had fish sauce before, start with less and add more after you’ve tasted the dressing.
- If you don’t care for quinoa, rice noodles would be awesome in this!
- You could also substitute shrimp for chicken if you prefer. Or go with edamame or tofu for a vegetarian option.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- With so much going into these bowls, sides really aren’t necessary.
Summer Ratatouille Pasta
from What’s Gaby Cooking
FYI:
- Super simple and quick pasta dish with fresh summer flavors of tomatoes and zucchini.
- If you’d like to add a protein, sauteed shrimp or broiled white fish (like Halibut) would be perfect!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Side salad
Hope this helps make dinner time less stressful for you this week! If you have questions or feedback let me know in the comments or email me, I’d love to hear from you 💜
SAVE / PIN THIS POST
SAVE THIS POST TO REFER BACK TO THROUGHOUT THE WEEK
Copy & Paste the URL into your fave notes app:
https://momentsandmeals.com/weekly-dinner-plan-23/
-OR-
Click to Pin the image to your Pinterest board.
