Coming up with dinner every.single.day. can be such a struggle. Many people have a hard time coming up with dinner ideas for tonight let alone a whole week.
Our weekly dinner plans are created to help you get one thing off your to-do list. Shop once for the week with our convenient grocery list and you’ll have the ingredients and meal choices ready to go for the week.
Visit our weekly dinner planner archive for more meal planning ideas.
What’s a “Flexible Dinner Plan”?
Flexible dinner plans are a loose schedule of 3-5 dinners that you plan for based on your family’s schedule. Your week is set so you’re not constantly figuring out dinner ideas for tonight, but you have the flexibility to switch things around when life happens.
I started meal planning years ago because I had a stressful job and would constantly be working late. I did not have the time or headspace to think of dinner ideas for tonight, stop by the grocery store to pick up needed items, and then get home and cook.
Also, when I’m hungry I get even more indecisive than I already am. Either I want allll the food. Or literally nothing sounds good. There is no in between.
And then I get hangry and things go downhill real fast.
So flexible, easy dinner plans became my thing. I’d never stick to a rigid 5 or 6 day meal plan because, honestly, some days are just too hard to have to make dinner. And some days, I really just want some take-out food. I only plan for 3 or 4 meals per week. The other days are for leftovers, drive thrus, date nights … or just some boxed mac and cheese (because we’re not above that over here.)
So How Does it Work?
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. If your week is planned out, you won’t be left wondering about dinner ideas for tonight.
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 too constricted. 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.)
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. If you’re subscribed to my emails, you’ll get super convenient grocery list for this week’s dinners. (And it’s color coded because I’m just a nerd like that.) Subscribe below if you haven’t already:
What Can You Expect?
- Mostly quick dinners. If there’s a longer one in there it’s usually because you can make it on Sunday and have leftovers on a weekday.
- Realistic menu. I include basic, go-to dinners that don’t require a recipe, like tacos or spaghetti, to give you ideas without needing to follow recipes every night. We need basic to keep us sane 🙃
- Variety. I don’t want chicken three nights in a row and I assume you don’t either.
- Repurposing ingredients. Using remaining ingredients for another night this week or next week. Like when you only need 2 tbsp of parsley for a recipe but you have to buy a bunch, I’ll make another dinner this week or next week to use up more of that parsley.
- Suggestions and Tips. For add-ons, adjustments, or things to know. Read the notes under each night’s meal idea in the post below!
What These Meal Plans Are Not:
- Everything from scratch; I don’t have the time for that ish and I presume you don’t either.
- Clean, raw, unprocessed, etc; I like to eat healthy-ish but I also eat for convenience and availability. Like most things, there’s a balance.
- Vegan or vegetarian; though there will sometimes be a meatless meal, I wouldn’t be authentic and doing any justice to include things we don’t actually eat.
Weekly Dinner Plan #4
- Linguini with Scallops in Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce
- Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
- Slow Cooker (or Oven) Cranberry Orange Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potato
- Shortcut Chicken Cordon Bleu with Rice & Asparagus
- Pizza
SEE BELOW for Additional Info, Add-On Suggestions, and Pinnable images for linked recipes.
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Linguini with Creamy Garlic Scallops
FYI:
- Publix Patagonian Scallops in Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce are in the frozen seafood section, and often a BOGO product! I use 2 boxes for my family and simply serve atop linguini with a salad, veggie side, or just some spinach wilted into the dish.
- If you don’t shop at Publix, your grocery store may have a great frozen or pre-made shrimp or scallop item similar to this that you can try.
- Alternatively, grab some frozen shrimp or baby scallops and a jar of your favorite garlic alfredo sauce for a similar dinner idea!
SIDE SUGGESTIONS: (not included in shopping list)
- Salad
- Breadsticks / Garlic Bread
- Sauteed Spinach
- Asparagus
Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas from Cooking Classy
FYI:
- You can make sheet pan fajitas with steak, shrimp, or a combo!
- Grocery List includes common toppings for serving, adjust as needed!
Slow Cooker (or Oven*) Cranberry Orange Pork Tenderloin from Let’s Dish
with Sweet Potatoes
FYI:
- If you have leftover cranberries from Thanksgiving, this is the perfect time to use them up!
- Sweet Potatoes: You can do roasted sweet potatoes in the oven simultaneously as you cook the pork; microwaved and topped with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar; or boiled and mashed; but I personally love to air fry them!
- Preheat air fryer to 400°F. Peel and cut into small (roughly 1″) cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic power. Place in air fryer basket in a single layer. Air fry for 12 minutes, tossing half way through. Perfectly delicious roasted sweet potatoes!
OVEN:
To make this tenderloin in the Oven:
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- In Step 1, sear the tenderloin in a dutch oven, cast iron or oven-safe pan. If you don’t have one, sear in any pan and then transfer to a glass baking dish.
- Add ingredients from Step 2 into the dutch oven/pan.
- Place the pan into the oven and bake uncovered for 15 minutes. The center (thickest part) should register 145°.
- Remove the roast onto a cutting board. Put the pan back onto the stove and proceed with Step 3 to thicken your sauce (I just use the sauce as is.)
- Serve!
Shortcut Chicken Cordon Bleu from The Girl Who Ate Everything
with Rice and Asparagus
FYI:
- Don’t let the listed “total time” deter you. This recipe takes a little but of time in the oven (about 30 mins.) but it’s super quick to prep and you can use the hands-off baking time to get a chore or two done.
- Asparagus tastes super yummy with the cream sauce that goes on the chicken so that’s my go-to for this dish. You can microwave, boil, saute, air fry, or roast asparagus. In either case, cut or snap off the bottom inch or two and then:
- Microwave – wrap your asparagus bundle in damp paper towels and cook for 3 minutes, adding a minute as needed until tender-crisp.
- Boil – in a large pot of salted water OR a large pan with about 3/4 inch of salted water, boil until tender-crisp. Thin asparagus, 1-2 minutes. Medium asparagus 5 minutes. Thick asparagus, 6-7 minutes.
- Saute – melt butter in a large pan on medium heat, add asparagus and cook 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Air Fry – drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in air fryer basket in a single layer. Air fry at 400° for about 7 minutes.
- Roast – drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven at 425 for 10-12 minutes.
Pizza
It’s Pizza night! Whether you want to order out or make pizza from scratch is up to you! We like to make our own Flatbread Pizzas using Stonefire Original Naan or Stonefire Pizza Crusts. Everyone can make their pizza just how they like it and it gets the kids involved. You can also buy pre-made dough, use english muffins, or pita bread.
FYI:
- If you’d like to make your own pizza dough from scratch, try this recipe from Lauren’s Latest.
- The Stonefire Naan Rounds are perfect for smaller lunchtime pizzas for the kiddos! (or for yourself.. esp. for those of us who grew up on Pizza lunchables 🙋🏻♀️😬)
SIDE SUGGESTIONS:
Salad is always a solid choice for a pizza side. But you can also go for garlic bread, chicken wings, or raw veggies and ranch.
Week 4 of meal planning is done so you no longer have to think of dinner ideas for tonight! 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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