The last couple of weeks leading up to the end of preschool were hectic. Juggling splash days and dance class alongside swim team’s daily practice, I felt pretty scattered. Now that everything is tapering off for the season (minus swim of course), I’m looking forward to finding our summer groove and getting fully back on the meal plan train.
I’ve shared my best meal planning tips but to add one more, I will admit that I largely keep the flow of our meals similar from week to week. It’s not exactly to Taco Tuesday status (not that there is a darn thing wrong with that delicious tradition), but keeping “fancier” dishes to the weekend and relying on our go-to favorites during the week help me prevent burn out and keep us eating well all week long.
Check it out!
So I don’t know about y’all, but I’m weird about seafood and fish turning bad. Since I usually grocery shop on Fridays now, our seafood night generally falls on Saturday night. This past Saturday we kept it simple with grilled shrimp kabobs using my favorite marinade.
Since I said I’d report back, I do use and like my rice cooker (15 surprising things you can make in a rice cooker– I’m intrigued by the hummus!), but I also see why people say to opt for the Instant Pot instead. Since I have an electric pressure cooker already (that I need to learn how to use more easily), the rice cooker works fine for me, but still, the Instant Pot does look pretty cool.
I’m also looking forward to making Gina’s Lemony Tomato Herb Scallops using fresh tomatoes. It’s a favorite of mine that I haven’t made in forever!
Sunday night usually is a form of red meat. I love Jen’s flank steak marinade and have used it on several different cuts of meat.
We get the best steak results with sous vide but sometimes just toss it on the grill. I’m a big fan of keeping sides simple and light with steak, like garlicky green beans, sliced tomatoes and grilled corn. Those are my favorite spring/summer sides!
If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll make my grilled corn and arugula salad, which despite the pictures needing desperately to be updated, is really delicious!
Mondays are a good day to go meatless since I love me some alliteration. #meatlessmonday
I know soup doesn’t scream warm weather, but if you can swing it, you should try Angela’s glowing spiced lentil soup – SO good. Often times I will keep this start of the week simple with a grilled cheese and salad or make a hearty dish to fill David up by using pasta, like in this Greek Pasta Salad.
Which can be prepped during nap time, which is always nice.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are all over the place protein-wise. I usually resort to my favorite repeat dishes, like paleo sausage and veggie bake or chicken fajitas. Have you tried the oven-baked version?! So easy and tasty.
We also do a lot of grilled chicken, either eaten with basic summer vegetable sides or as sandwiches. Grilled chicken topped with wing sauce, blue cheese crumbles and ranch on a bun is one of David’s favorites. However, I’ve pinned (follow me!) this incredible looking cilantro lime chicken with avocado salsa to try soon. Drool.
To switch up the protein, I make these gyro burgers with lamb. I feel like I talk about them all the time, but you guys, SO delicious.
You can even put them on top of zoodles, which is another summertime favorite.
Speaking of zoodles, have you seen the pre-spiralized veggies from Veggie Noodle Co? So cool! I really want to try their recipe for their beet spirals, but as for the basic zucchini, I’ll probably stick to making my own with my spiralizer because it really is so quick and easy.
Fridays always mean pizza around here.
I want to say I use my whole wheat pizza dough recipe most often, but I’ve really fallen into the enticing ease of using my bread machine’s dough setting with bread flour. It makes perfect dough every single time.
I have a habit of sticking to my favorite toppings of mushrooms, onions and pepperoni, but with summer coming and the idea of grilled pizza, I’d like to do more pesto style pizzas and this incredible looking BBQ chicken pizza with jalapenos!
So that is our basic breakdown of a week. Since adopting this flow of meals, we’ve cut back significantly of eating out. We only eat dinner out once or twice a month now, which makes a pretty big difference in our food budget.
Share with me, do you have a flow to your weekly meals?
What are some of your favorites (links encouraged!)?
And do you have any meatless meals that I need to try?
Kate says
Pizzas are a Friday tradition in our house, too – although we stick to every other week. I have been playing around with my pizza dough lately and have had great results with adding a bit of corn flour.
It’s not really a meal but a side that I have been loving lately: spinach with sesame dressing and it tastes as addicting as it sounds: http://www.justonecookbook.com/spinach-with-sesame-sauce/ – I don’t use sake and mirin (since the munchkin eats it too) and reduce the amount of sugar to about half of the recipe.
Holly says
I bought a bunch of ingredients to make a Greek pasta salad – I’ll have to check out your recipe! All I want to eat these days are cold foods, which honestly makes meal planning a little tough! So I’m on the hunt for lots of cold salads. Lately we’ve been in a bit of a rut and eating the same things over and over again – grocery shopping is a breeze but I’m not excited to cook or eat.
Heather says
Saturdays are usually pizza night so I have plenty of time to make dough and generally anything that isn’t quick is relegated to the weekend (like you). In the summer months we do A LOT of grilling – or rather my husband does, which means it’s also my favorite time of year because less cooking for me. 😉 Burgers, chicken, steak, ribs, fish (bonus if it’s fresh caught) and veggies too. I love to do a foil pack with veggies to throw on the grill with whatever meat we’re having or better yet, some corn, though we’re still working on mastering grilling corn.
Kate @ Mom's Radius says
Those grilled shrimp look amazing! I need to make those soon. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Katie says
Love my Instant Pot but speaking of your pizza, I got my husband a Kettle Pizza for our Webber grill for Christmas. Being that we live in MN, we just busted it open last weekend and tried it out last night. Freaking amazing pizza. I also got the Artisan Pizza and Flat Breads in 5 minutes a day from the library and that is also amazing pizza dough. http://www.kettlepizza.com But that pizza on the Kettle Pizza, I felt like I was in Napoli!!!
Alyssa @ renaissancerunnergirl says
My weekly meals are keeping it simple for myself and occasionally my BF during the week – frittatas, broiled fish or chicken and veggies – and trying new things on weekends. It works best for us too!
Sarah says
I have found one I’m absolutely loving lately – Asian Turkey Lettuce wraps from Damn Delicious (http://damndelicious.net/2013/09/24/asian-turkey-lettuce-wraps/). I’ve been making it with coconut milk cauliflower rice (http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2013/11/coconut-cauliflower-rice/) and my 19-month old devours it. Its light and filling and ground turkey is so cheap and a great alternative protein to chicken. I’ve made it 3 times in the past 6 weeks.
Brittany Dixon says
Definitely checking out those turkey lettuce wraps- YUM!! Thank you for sharing!
Lauren @ Oh Hey! I Like That! says
I just added that BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe to my meal plan for next week!
Landon says
I’ve been a reader and fan of your blog for a couple of years and have learned a lot and found that while I enjoy all your posts, your meal planning posts are truly a favorite. Now that my daughter is 2 1/2, I work full time and in school full time (plus being an only parent) meal planning is becoming essential and your posts and recipes are always inspiring. Thank you for this summer post and recipes, this will come in handy and I’m looking forward to making some of these recipes.
Julie says
I tend to make quicker meals on weeknights (on the table in an hour or less including cooking time) & look forward to spending more time and/or trying something new on Sun. nights. Fri. and/or Sat. nights are often out w/ friends or some type of function, but I’ll cook if we’re home (we’re generally not home both nights tho). I try to switch things up during the week so we’re eating a variety of meals/proteins (Mexican one night, pasta another, chicken vs. beef, etc., casseroles vs. skillet meals). I also usually incorporate at least 2 leftovers nights because I generally make enough each time I cook that we end up w/ plenty of leftovers for lunches and evenings when I have early classes at the gym.
Laura says
I meal plan using Google Calendar so it’s really easy to look back at what we’ve had in the past for ideas (and my husband can find out what we’re having for dinner without asking me. Haha). I also set some meals to repeat on the calendar every 4-6 weeks (more frequent and we tend to get burned out on the recipe), which makes meal planning quicker.
jennifer says
Weeknight night dinners are always fast dinners accompanied by fruit. But we typically cook extra meals on the weekends so we can just reheat during the week. Last night we reheated hamburgers from the grill and cooked up some roasted potatoes and did watermelon.
I love your Greek pasta salad. It has become a family favorite. I will often cook it on Sunday and then add grilled chicken to it so it becomes a main course on busy weeknights.
I too love your menu plan posts! 🙂
Monika says
Once or twice a month?! I need to get on your level!
Julia @ Drops of Jules says
My family totally participates in Taco Tuesdays. Some weeks I sit out though because I like my variety! But hey, it’s my brother’s favorite and my mom aims to please. That steak looks incredible, and I’m trying out more meat in my diet, so I think I may give that recipe a shot. Looks delicious!