Coming up with dinner every.single.day. can be such a struggle. Many people have a hard time 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 with the convenient grocery list 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. If you’re subscribed to my emails, you’ll get a super convenient grocery list for that week’s dinners. (And it’s color-coded because I’m just a nerd like that.) Subscribe below if you haven’t already:
Dinner Plan #9
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 😬🤪
| Cobb Salad | Cook hardboiled eggs Cook & crumble bacon Chop tomato & slice red onion |
| Quick Skillet Tuscan Tortellini | Chop onion |
| BBQ Pulled Pork, Sweet Potato Wedges, & Coleslaw | If making your own pulled pork, cook & shred it for both dinners. Coleslaw can be made a day or two ahead. |
| Sweet & Spicy Sesame Chicken Meatball Bowls | Prep and cook meatballs; store in airtight container in fridge. -You can prep meatballs and store raw, 1-2 days ahead of time. Cut broccoli florets (or buy pre-cut) Make sauce and store in fridge. (Shake/stir well before using) |
| Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese | Shred cheese |
Recipe Links, Side Ideas & Helpful Tips
Cobb Salad
(basic meal idea ~ make it how you like)
FYI:
- I prefer chicken tenders in this salad (from the grocery deli) both for flavor and a little crunch and skip the bacon, but I listed ingredients that were more “typical” of a Cobb Salad.
- Add cucumbers, sweet peppers, or any other favorite salad toppings
- Don’t like blue cheese? (Good neither do I) Shredded cheddar or Colby Jack are a good substitute. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the farmstyle shredded cheeses from Tillamook because they are thicker and have a seriously minimal amount of potato starch that it’s almost unnoticeable. (If you don’t know, potato starch, corn starch, and cellulose are used in shredded cheeses to keep them from clumping.) You can also buy/cut small cheese cubes instead!
- Red wine vinaigrette is the traditional dressing for Cobb Salad, but I like mine to have a creamy dressing like Thousand Island, Ranch, or Honey Mustard
SIDE SUGGESTIONS: (not included in shopping list)
Cobb Salads can be pretty filling, but if you’d like you can always serve with:
- Cup of soup
- Breadsticks
- Crusty bread with olive oil for dipping
- or just save room for dessert!
Quick Skillet Tuscan Tortellini
from Chew Out Loud
FYI:
- Italian-style turkey sausage is significantly healthier than pork sausage and tastes just as delicious! Seriously, about HALF the fat, calories, carbs etc.
- Don’t mistakingly get fully cooked sausage. But if you do, you can simply slice it and saute it for a few minutes to warm through and get a little carmelization, then cook the recipe as written.
- Refrigerated tortellini works well here as well and you can reduce the cook time by a minute or two.
- Frozen spinach is fine if you can’t get fresh, just make sure you squeeze out all the water before putting it into the pan.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS: (not included in shopping list)
- Salad
- Garlic Bread
- Garlic Broccoli
BBQ Pulled Pork, Sweet Potato Wedges, & Coleslaw
(basic meal idea ~ make it how you like)
FYI:
- This is a quick semi-homemade dinner idea, where you can double up your pork to use for tonight and for the mac & cheese casserole later in the week.
- Make your own pulled pork, buy pre-made from your grocery store, or purchase pulled pork by the pound from your local BBQ restaurant.
- Obvs you can do pulled chicken instead of pork.
- Use frozen sweet potatoes and/or pre-made coleslaw if you prefer.
SIDE SUGGESTIONS: (not included in shopping list)
Other side suggestions if you don’t want sweet potatoes and/or coleslaw
- Texas toast
- Cornbread / Corn muffins
- Spicy Corn Casserole
- Mac & Cheese
- Baked beans
- Loaded Potato Salad
Quick Coleslaw & Easy Sweet Potato Wedges:
Print
Ingredients
- Cole Slaw
1 Bag Cole Slaw Mix
3/4 Cup Mayo
2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
3 Tbsp Honey
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
Salt & Pepper to taste
- Sweet Potato Wedges
2-3 Medium Sweet Potatoes
Olive Oil for drizzling (about 2 Tbsp)
Salt & Pepper, about 1/2 tsp each
You can get creative with your fries using other seasonings like:
– garlic, onion, and thyme
– paprika and chili powder
– garlic, chili, cumin, and cayenne
– cumin and cinnamon
Directions
- COLESLAW
- Prepare your coleslaw by mixing all ingredients in a medium bowl, cover, and let sit in refrigerator until ready to eat. Give it a stir before serving.
- SWEET POTATOES
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Line 1-2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Sweet potato wedges can be made with skin on or off. If you want to leave it on, just give them a good scrub before cutting, otherwise peel the skins. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and then cut into wedges, approximately 1/2″thick (where the thickest part is about 1/2″.)
- Place on baking sheets or in a bowl, and add your olive oil and seasonings. Stir together, making sure the sweet potato wedges are all well-coated.
- Arrange the sweet potatoes on the baking sheet so they are not overlapping or overcrowded, allowing for good airflow around the potatoes. They will not crisp up well if they are all bunched up together.
- Bake for 20 minutes, take out and flip the sweet potatoes, and then bake an additional 15 minutes until they’re nice and crispy.
Sweet & Spicy Sesame Chicken Meatball Bowls
from Ambitious Kitchen
FYI:
- The recipe lists coconut rice and links to another recipe. I did include the cans of coconut milk in the grocery list, but you can also make plain jasmine, basmati, or brown rice and this dish will be just as delicious!
- Because this recipe has a lot of ingredients, it does take some time to make, but it’s SO delicious. Shortcut where you can by:
- making the meatballs ahead
- prep sauce ahead
- use Ginger paste instead of grating fresh
- buy pre-cut broccoli florets (fresh, not frozen as they’ll release too much water)
- skip the rice, making this low-carb friendly, and eat just the meatballs and broccoli!
- I’m not big on peanuts so I often skip them when they’re listed as a garnish and don’t ever feel I’m missing out!
Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese
from Tastes of Lizzy T
FYI:
- ICYMI: She mentions you can cut back on bake time if you heat your pork up before adding to the casserole. But, she didn’t mention how much. If you heat it up, you can bake this uncovered for about 25 minutes.
- Don’t want pulled pork again? No problem, you can do BBQ pulled chicken or skip it altogether and serve this Mac & Cheese casserole with a rotisserie chicken instead! (OR do the rotisserie chicken earlier in the week and save the pulled pork for this deliciousness.)
- Leftovers are easily reheated in the microwave. Warm up your portion, stir, add a little milk to thin out the sauce, and then finish heating.
BASIC SIDE IDEAS, because you don’t want another recipe to follow: (not included in shopping list)
- Good ol’ canned baked beans
- Side Salad
- Steamed green beans
- Canned corn
- Roasted Broccoli (olive oil, salt & pepper, 425°F for 20 minutes <–not a recipe, just listing it so you don’t have to google how long to roast broccoli 😁)
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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