Today I’m sharing One Month of Easy Dinner Ideas! This is Part 1 of a 4 Part series! Wondering what to make for dinner this week? Here are 7 easy ideas.
Pinterest. Where to begin? I seriously haven’t met any mom/friend/teacher in the last two years or so who isn’t downright addicted to Pinterest.
Pinterest is our happy place. Pinterest is us/We are Pinterest. You get it. I know you do. The thing about this wonder of a site is that it can either be a graveyard for good ideas or a springboard for action. I like the latter of the two.
It’s pretty safe to say that 95% of what comes out of my mouth is I got that from Pinterest (the other 5% is drop it! directed at the dogs, obviously).
Today I want to share my meal plan for this week curated from, you guessed it, Pinterest!
Some weeks I mix it up and pull recipes from my cookbook shelf, food magazine tear-outs, and old standby no-recipe required dinners. But this week, I’m pulling all of my ideas for dinner from my Pinterest boards.
So are you ready for this? I actually enjoy meal planning (I also live for grocery shopping, too, but that’s a story for another day). I mean, how could you not? Scrolling through Pinterest and saving ideas along the way: everything salted caramel, low back exercises, and woodland for me.
Interested in my Weekly Meal Planner? You can grab one (plus more printables) here!
To simplify meal planning, I often pull from a list of family favorite meals, or I find variations of those meals on Pinterest in order to change things up.
I often don’t follow the recipe step-by-step, sometimes I’ll just use the recipe for inspiration and then adjust based on what ingredients I have on hand.
My main weekly meal planning goals are:
1.) Save Money
2.) Save Time
3.) Save Sanity aka Meals (or meal components) my toddler will eat
Want More on Meal Planning?
♥ 3 Life-Changing Meal Planning Hacks
♥ No-Recipe Required: Dinner Ideas from Real Moms
♥ Blank Meal Planning Printables
I typically will pick 5-6 recipes and leave one or two days open for an unexpected dinner out. My number one trick for saving time and money is to pick several recipes that use the same ingredients or ingredients that can easily be swapped to use what I already have.
Tip: The Pinterest Trap is picking too many new recipes that call for different ingredients; that is without a doubt a surefire way to overspend at the grocery store.
I almost always pick recipes from my favorite food blogs, ones that I trust so I know that the recipes will work. Most of the recipes I chose for this week use:
- broccoli
- asparagus
- purple cabbage
- chicken
One Month of Easy Dinner Ideas: Week 1
Meatless Monday: Garlic Oil Pasta & Broccoli from Food Network
Taco Tuesday: Blackened Salmon with Mango Salsa and rice (served as tacos with slaw) from Skinnytaste
W: Coconut Curry Noodle Bowls from Pinch of Yum
Th: BBQ Chicken Burgers with Slaw and sweet potato fries from Food Network
F: One-Pan Lemon Chicken & Asparagus from Chelsea’s Messy Apron
S: Turkey Meatballs (add chopped broccoli) and roasted Sweet Potato Bites from Skinnytaste
Slow Cooker Sunday: Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki with broccoli from Gimme Some Oven
