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 #16
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 😬🤪
| Instant Pot Beef Barbacoa Bowls | Chop onion Cook and shred the barbacoa beef |
| Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing | Cook & shred chicken Slice & chop peppers, green onions, peanuts, and cilantro Make dressing |
| Ginger Lime Chicken & Coconut rice | Prepare marinade |
| 20-Minute Tortellini Carbonara | Grate parmesan cheese Dice bacon Mince shallot |
| Parmesan Crusted Tilapia with Tomato-Basil Cream Sauce & Mashed Potatoes | Halve tomatoes |
Recipe Links, Side Ideas & Helpful Tips
Instant Pot Beef Barbacoa Bowls
from The Real Food Dietitians
FYI:
- Flavorful, saucy shredded beef piled onto rice alongside your favorite burrito bowl toppings. The beef barbacoa takes some time to make so you’ll want to plan ahead. Make it on Sunday to eat later in the week, or make it on a day you’re home with a few hours to spare before dinnertime.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- These bowls can be customized with any toppings you like so they can be pretty filling without any extra sides!
Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing
from Iowa Girl Eats
FYI:
- Every crunchy bite is full of creamy peanutty flavor in this light and healthy salad that’s a perfect follow-up to the heavy burrito bowl from yesterday!
- If you’re loving the idea of this salad, but feeling a little lazy about making the dressing from scratch… just use a store-bought dressing. The dressing is DELICIOUS, but I get it … sometimes you just need to cut some corners and get dinner done quick. However, if you can swing it.. just make the dressing ahead of time, and then you’ll have it in your fridge ready to go!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Potstickers / Steamed Dumplings
- Baked Thai Coconut Shrimp
- Thai Corn Fritters
Ginger Lime Chicken & Coconut rice
from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
FYI:
- Super flavorful chicken with creamy dreamy coconut rice is a match made in heaven! I can just eat a big bowl of coconut rice on it’s own tbh.
- There is marinating time involved here – minimum 2 hours, but no more than 8 so the chicken doesn’t get mushy. HOWEVER, if you don’t have 2 hours…still make this meal and do 30 minutes. The flavors won’t be as deep, but it’s still going to be delicious!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Broccoli
- Edamame
- 5-min snap peas
20-Minute Tortellini Carbonara
from The Chunky Chef
FYI:
- Carbonara is one of my FAVORITE pasta dishes. It’s lucious and rich and savory and just YUM. This twist to the classic carbonara uses tortellini instead of long pasta for some extra flavor and heartiness.
- If you’re hesitant because of the eggs, just make sure to read the instructions to understand how to temper them and add them into the pasta properly. It’s easier than you think!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Caesar Salad
- Bread sticks or Garlic rolls
- Mozzarella sticks
- Broccoli Rabe
Parmesan Crusted Tilapia with Tomato-Basil Cream Sauce & Mashed Potatoes
from Life’s Ambrosia
FYI:
- This quick 30-minute dinner is super easy to make and absolutely delectable. Crunchy pan-fried tilapia with a light cream sauce that’s bright and slightly sweet from the tomatoes and basil.
- The recipe link is for the tilapia only, but I listed it with Mashed Potatoes as Des shows because it pairs well.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
- White or brown rice
- Pan fried gnocchi
- Steamed green beans
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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