Coming up with dinner every.single.day. can be such a struggle. It can be hard 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 #12
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 😬🤪
| Steak & French Onion Rice | You can make the rice ahead of time and just reheat before serving. |
| Baja Fish Tacos | Make chipotle mayo. Coleslaw can be up to 1 day ahead (for best flavor/texture.) |
| Pizza Night | Make pizza dough if making it from scratch. Prep any veggies you may be using. Shred cheese if using block. |
| Chicken Scampi with Garlic Parmesan Rice | Grate parmesan cheese. |
| White Bean Sausage Skillet | Slice sausage. Prep kale leaves. Grate parmesan cheese. |
Recipe Links, Side Ideas & Helpful Tips
Steak & French Onion Rice
from Candy Jar Chronicles
FYI:
- The link is for the French Onion Rice only, cook/grill steaks however you prefer!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Parmesan roasted carrots
- Crispy roasted zucchini
- Steamed broccoli
Baja Fish Tacos
from Lemon Tree Dwelling
FYI:
- I’ve heard Trader Joes sells frozen beer battered fish. Haven’t tried them myself but that could be a good substitute if you need to cut down on some of the prep here.
- Adobo sauce – I usually get chipotles in adobo in the can rather than jarred adobo sauce because that’s what my grocery store carries. However, I usually only need a little bit, but the rest doesn’t need to go to waste! You can put it into a freezer safe storage bag or container and then easily scoop/cut off pieces in the future for other recipes.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Chips with Salsa and/or Guac
- Mexican Black Beans
- Corn Salsa
- Fried Plantains or Fried Yuca
Pizza Night
(basic meal idea ~ make it how you like)
FYI:
- Just a basic mid-week pizza night. Make your own or get some takeout. You can make your own fresh dough, buy pre-made dough, or, I like to make naan pizzas with Stonefire Pizza Crust because you simply assemble your toppings and then pop it in the oven for 5-10 minutes to get it all melty and delicious.
- Here’s two super delicious recipes if you’d like an idea for a white pizza or for something different, a focaccia pizza.
Chicken Scampi with Garlic Parmesan Rice
from South Your Mouth
FYI:
- WINE: the author actually mentions this in her notes as well, but it’s something that I do all the time too and wanted to reiterate. I purchase the small 4-packs of wine, 1 red and 1 white, and keep those around for when I need to cook with wine but just am not in the mood to drink any and therefore don’t want to waste opening a bottle.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
White Bean Sausage Skillet
from The Modern Proper
FYI:
- SERVING SIZE! This recipe shows this as 4 servings. If you eat small portions sure, but otherwise, this made 2.5 servings for us. I would double it next time… and there will be a next time, because it’s freaking delicious.
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 💜
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