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 #18
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 Fajita Salad with Cilantro Avocado Dressing | Prepare dressing and store in fridge. Prepare steak marinade (up to 1 day in advance.) Cut all salad veggies up to 1 day in advance or only peppers if making later in the week. |
| Creamy Dijon Pork Chops with White Rice | Dice bacon. Grate parmesan cheese. |
| Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake | Shred parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Cook beef. -or- Prepare full casserole, but don’t bake. Cover and refrigerate until ready to eat, then follow baking instructions. |
| Moroccan Chicken Couscous Bowls | Chop chicken breasts. (can be stored 3-4 days as long as it’s within the use-by date on the package.) Make spice mix. Dice cucumber. |
| Burgers (Cheddar Jalapeno Chicken Burgers with Guacamole) | Patties can be made 1-2 days ahead. |
Recipe Links, Side Ideas & Helpful Tips
Steak Fajita Salad with Cilantro Avocado Dressing
from Aberdeen’s Kitchen
FYI:
- Essentially, lightened up fajitas! This salad is seriously delicious with marinaded steak and an addicting cilantro avocado dressing.
- You could grill the steak for even more delicious flavor. Or try this out with chicken!
- THERE IS MARINATING TIME INVOLVED! This does require about 1-4 hours of marinating. If you are short on time in the evenings, get your marinade ready the night before or the morning of. Then pour it over your steak as soon as you get home. Once you get yourself settled, get everything else out and prepped, you should have at least 30 minutes of marinating time which is still better than nothing!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Garlic toast
- Chips and salsa
- Corn
- Soup
Creamy Dijon Pork Chops with White Rice
from Diethood
FYI:
- Savory and juicy pork chops smothered in a luscious cream sauce and topped with crunchy bacon? Ummm… ya!
- You could use pre-cooked bacon, but you’ll miss out on the bacon flavor in the cream sauce.
- Honestly, don’t worry about parsley for garnish unless you happen to have some on hand.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Roasted Parmesan Brussels Sprouts
- Asparagus
- Mashed Potatoes (instead of rice)
Easy Cheesy Pasta Bake
from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
FYI:
- It’s like a baked ziti/lasagna baby! This pasta bake is hot and cheesy and carby and cheesy and yum! It does take some time, but it’s basic and doesn’t need to look pretty.
- This recipe is written as a “weeknight” pasta bake, which I omitted from my description because apparently “weeknight” is as relative as “toddler-approved.” It takes an hour and a half. It’s delicious, but when we get home from work at 6:30 .. this is not a weeknight meal.
- HOWEVER, it’s deeeeeelicious and IDEAL for making ahead. So, if you don’t have the weeknight time, make it on Sunday (up til the baking part) and store in the fridge. Then you just need to bake it the night of! Mel includes directions in the Notes at the bottom of the recipe card.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Breadsticks
- Caesar or Italian salad
- Roasted broccoli
Moroccan Chicken Couscous Bowls
from Healthy Fitness Meals
FYI:
- The Moroccan chicken is rich and aromatic, contrasting perfectly with the fresh veggies and tart yogurt. So much bold flavor in such a healthy dish!
- This is one of those dishes where the flavors develop further the next day so it can easily be fully made.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Warm naan or pita bread
Burgers / Cheddar Jalapeno Chicken Burgers
(basic meal idea ~ make it how you like)
But if you’d like a suggestion, try the Chicken Burgers from What’s Gaby Cooking.
FYI:
- Honestly, chicken burgers are not my thing. But in this case, that healthy dry alternative to a juicy beef burger is blended with some flavorful seasonings and shredded cheddar, then topped with guac, sour cream, and some pico and suddenly it has a place on my dinner plate and I am A-OK with that!!
- Seriously, give it a try. And don’t be afraid to add a slice of cheddar on top of the burger too. 😬
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
- Fries
- Sweet potato tater tots
- Fresh fruit
- Corn on the cob
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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