Coming up with dinner every.single.day. can be such a struggle. My weekly dinner plans are created to help you get one thing off your to-do list and have less stress at dinner time!
Visit the WEEKLY DINNER PLANNER archive for more meal-planning ideas!
Table of Contents
Dinner Plan #44
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 😬🤪
| Easy Chicken and Dumplings | Chop onion, carrot, celery. Cook and shred chicken. |
| Creamy Salmon Orzo | Dice onion. |
| Sheet Pan Quesadillas | Cook ground beef mixture. |
| Baked Chicken Quarters | Prepare seasoning mix. |
| Turkey Melt with Cheddar, Spinach, and Bacon | Cook bacon slices. |
Recipe Links • Side Ideas • Helpful Tips
Easy Chicken and Dumplings
from The Novice Chef
The creamiest, heartiest, most luscious, comforting, and flavorful bowl of chicken dumplings. Ever.
FYI:
- This recipe is for drop dumplings, not rolled dumplings if that’s what you’re expecting.
- LONG COOK TIME – Though this soup takes about an hour to make, the actual steps are very easy and don’t require much skill!
- LEFTOVERS – When I’ve made this soup in the past and had leftovers I noticed the dumplings continue to soak up the liquid and there wasn’t as much the next day. You may want to either take the dumplings out and store them separately from the liquid. OR simply add a little milk, cream, or broth the next day when you reheat (though this may change the flavor a bit.)
SIDE IDEAS:
- Simple side salad
- Roasted carrots
- Crusty bread
Creamy Salmon Orzo
from Recipe Tin Eats
An easy, creamy, and flavorful dish that comes together in no time! Perfect for a busy holiday week!
FYI:
- Risoni – Risoni is the same as orzo.
- Hot-Smoked Salmon – If you aren’t familiar with hot-smoked salmon, it’s basically the same as smoked salmon but with a smokier flavor because it was smoked at a higher temperature. You can use cold-smoked salmon, canned salmon, or make your own salmon.
- Parsley – in this recipe, some fresh parsley actually does add some good flavor to the dish. However, it is totally optional and if you don’t think you’ll use the remainder … don’t worry about it!
- SHORTCUT – Frozen diced onions and frozen cubes of crushed garlic are great time savers that work well in this recipe. And though I’m always a fan of using freshly grated parm, bagged shredded parm works well here too!
SIDE IDEAS:
- Side Salad
- Lemon Garlic Steamed Broccoli
Sheet Pan Quesadillas
from Whisk it Real Gud
A fun take on quesadillas that allows you to get them all done at once!
FYI:
- Feel free to follow the recipe or just use the sheet pan method as inspiration and make the fillings the way you normally would.
- This recipe specifies trimming the tortillas to rectangular shapes to better fit the sheet pan. I’ve seen versions where they overlap the quesadillas and prefer that to save time, not waste food, and not have the filling spilling out as much.
SIDE IDEAS:
- Chips & salsa, queso, and/or guacamole
- Refried beans and yellow rice
Baked Chicken Quarters
from Basil and Bubbly
Not making a big Thanksgiving feast? Try these easy, juicy baked chicken quarters instead! You can even get delicious gravy from the drippings!
FYI:
- Make a gravy using the juices and drippings from the sheet pan. I like to let the chicken rest for 5-10 minutes on the pan to continue to release juices before moving it to a serving platter. Cover the chicken with foil to retain heat.
Pour the juices into a measuring cup, gently scraping off any browned bits from the pan. Add additional chicken broth or water until your total liquid amount equals 2 cups.
Then, in a small saucepan, melt 4 Tbsp of butter on Medium heat. Once bubbling, add in 2 Tbsp flour and quickly whisk until a paste forms. Continue whisking gently until the flour turns light brown and aromatic. Then add in your liquid and stir vigorously until well combined.
Taste your gravy and add salt and/or pepper if needed.
SIDE IDEAS:
Turkey Melt with Cheddar, Spinach, and Bacon
from Easy Healthy Recipes
Not only is this turkey melt crispy, crunchy, and cheesy but it’s a fantastic way to use up leftover Thanksgiving turkey meat! (Leftover chicken works too!)
FYI:
- Asiago and Gouda are also great cheeses to use in this melt.
- Roasted garlic mayo is also fabulous instead of honey mustard!
SIDE IDEAS:
- Chips
- French fries
- Fruit salad
- Broccoli Cheese Soup
- Leftover Thanksgiving sides!
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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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. 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.
