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 #17
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 😬🤪
| Chicken Sausage Breakfast Burritos | Burritos can be fully made ahead. |
| Monterey Chicken with Pico de Gallo and Yellow Rice | Chop and cook bacon. Shred cheese if using block cheese. Make pico de Gallo. (up to 2 days ahead) |
| Creamy Lemon Garlic Parmesan Shrimp with Linguini | Zest & juice lemon. Grate parmesan cheese. |
| Smoky Beans and Greens Tacos with Aji Verde | Shred kale. Prepare aji verde sauce. |
| Instant Pot Ribs | Prepare dry rub. |
Recipe Links, Side Ideas & Helpful Tips
Chicken Sausage Breakfast Burritos
from yours truly
FYI:
- We haven’t had breakfast for dinner in a while so I think it’s about time, don’t you?!
- These breakfast burritos hold up really well in the fridge and freezer if you want to make extra for breakfast later in the week.
- The burritos are intentionally simple, but can certainly be modified to include veggies you like. Saute the veggies before adding in the eggs to make sure they have enough time to cook through. Then proceed to fill and bake as normal.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Simple side salad
- Hashbrowns or tater tots
- Breakfast potatoes (bake frozen diced potatoes along with some chopped red pepper and onion to make a super simple side)
- Fresh fruit
Monterey Chicken with Pico de Gallo and Yellow Rice
from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
FYI:
- This Chili’s Copycat recipe has stellar reviews for a reason! It’s very simple to make, only takes about 30 minutes, and tastes delicious.
- The Pico de Gallo can be made ahead to save you some time; I’d recommend no more than 2 days.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Vigo Yellow Rice
- Refried beans
- Black beans
Creamy Lemon Garlic Parmesan Shrimp with Linguini
from Salt & Lavender
FYI:
- The recipe shows these shrimp served over mashed potatoes, but I’m suggesting linguini (or whatever long pasta you like) because the velvety lemon cream sauce is just irresistible coated onto pasta and slurped up by the mouthful!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Asparagus, which can be served on the side or even better, cut up and added to the skillet along with the shrimp.
- Broccoli would work too flavor-wise, but for texture and proportion, I prefer asparagus.
- Peas would also be fantastic.
- And of course, spinach. The peas or spinach just need to be warmed through/wilted so they could be added to the sauce in the last 3-ish minutes.
Smoky Beans and Greens Tacos with Aji Verde
from Pinch of Yum
FYI:
- If you’re looking for something different for Cinco de Mayo, you MUST try these fabulous tacos.
- Don’t hesitate to add meat if you need to. Though I love them as-is, Joey would look at me like I’m crazy for serving him beans for dinner. So, I buy a little shredded mojo pork as an option for the picky eaters that complicate my life. Seasoned shredded chicken or grilled diced chicken would also work really well with the beans and sauce!
- Don’t skip the corn and queso fresco (or cotija cheese, which is what I prefer)
- Picked red onions would also really enhance the flavor here.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Fried plantains
- Chips, salsa, guac
- Mexican Street Corn Casserole
Instant Pot Ribs
from Spend with Pennies
FYI:
- I loooove how quick these are to make with the help of the Instant Pot. My mom makes some ridiculously good literally-can’t-pick-up-the-bone-without-the-meat-falling-off ribs in the oven which obviously take several hours. These are done in one hour and are just as tender!
- Don’t skip the broiling part! It caramelizes the sugars in the BBQ sauce just a little and really finishes these ribs off to perfection.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Any of the usual suspects:
- Corn (can or cob)
- Baked potato
- Loaded potato salad
- Coleslaw
- Baked Beans
- Creamed Spinach
- Steamed Broccoli
- Sweet Potato (baked/microwaved and topped with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Butter)
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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