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 #14
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 😬🤪
| Smothered Baked Pork Chops & Roasted Potatoes | Pork chops – make the sauce, then store in fridge. Potatoes – mix olive oil with seasonings, store room temp |
| Chicken Pesto Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes | Roast cherry tomatoes |
| Red & Green Enchiladas | Cook and shred chicken if making your own |
| Alfredo Pasta | Cook and slice chicken, or slice and saute sausage (if using either) |
| Butter Chicken & Rice | Marinate chicken night before. Dice onion. |
Recipe Links, Side Ideas & Helpful Tips
Smothered Baked Pork Chops & Roasted Potatoes
from Lauren’s Latest
FYI:
- Tender, flavorful pork chops are so quick to put together with basic ingredients, and then they just bake in the oven for an easy weeknight dinner!
- The roasted potatoes are a separate recipe linked (above) and the recipe states to bake at 400°F. DON’T up your temperature because you’ll overcook the pork. Instead, cook both potatoes and pork chops on the 375°F temp as in the pork recipe, once the pork chops are done (25-30 mins.) you take them out and let them rest for 10 minutes. During this time, you’ll finish up the potatoes by raising your oven temp to 450°. If you cut them small enough that they did fully cook in the first 30 minutes, then just turn on the broiler for a few minutes to get them a little crispy on the outside.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- If you don’t want to make roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes are delicious with these chops, as is rice.
- As for greens, collard greens, brussels sprouts, or asparagus pair well!
Chicken Pesto Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes
from Julia’s Album
FYI:
- Herby, creamy, and delicious! This dish is packed full of flavors from the pesto and roasted tomatoes.
- GRILLED CHICKEN would be amazing if you’d rather skip the sauteeing.
- SUN-DRIED TOMATOES are a good substitute if you want to skip roasting the tomatoes, HOWEVER, roasted tomatoes are incredibly delicious so I recommend not skipping them!
- I top with fresh grated PARMESAN CHEESE instead of pine nuts. If they’re not something you typically eat and want to buy, skip them! Besides, pesto typically has pine nuts in it so you’re already getting hints of that flavor from your sauce.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- There’s a lot going on in this pasta as-is, but if you’d like a side – salad is the way to go. In the recipe post she links to a spinach salad and an arugula salad that are pretty simple and use pine nuts so if you have them/got them, this is a good way to use more.
Red & Green Enchiladas
from Lauren’s Latest
FYI:
- A fun take on enchiladas using both red AND green enchilada sauce!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Cilantro lime rice
- Refried beans and yellow rice
- Chips & guacamole
- Simple side salad
Alfredo Pasta
(basic meal idea ~ make it how you like)
FYI:
Simple yummy alfredo pasta tonight. Jarred sauce or make your own!
- Protein suggestions: grilled chicken, sliced smoked sausage, sauteed shrimp
- Add-ins: mushrooms, peas, asparagus, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, roasted garlic cloves.
- Add some heat with red pepper flakes or cajun seasoning.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Garlic breadsticks (dipped into extra alfredo of course)
- Caesar or Italian salad
- Fresh tomato slices drizzled with balsamic
- Cucumber caprese salad
Butter Chicken & Rice
from What’s Gaby Cooking
FYI:
- This recipe does take some time to make, and requires an hour or more of marinating time, but it’s incredibly flavorful and worth a try! Good thing is you can marinade overnight, and though it takes about an hour to cook, it’s mostly hands-off so you can get some other things done in the meantime.
- If you don’t have time to make this dish, but like the idea of Butter Chicken for dinner this week, see if you’re grocery store sells jarred butter chicken sauce. I personally love this one from Sharwood’s.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Basmati Rice
- Naan Bread
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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