Tag: cooking

New Rotation Deep Dive: Spring 2026

Here is a deep dive on the current rotation. In this post, I detail the current dinner rotation, recipes I’m using, prep notes, and why these meals made the cut.

The New Rotation

Week 1Week 2
MondayBean and cheese enchiladasSheet pan salmon and broccoli + brown rice
TuesdayRice bowls with steakCreamy enchilada soup topped with avocado and tortilla chips + chicken nuggets
WednesdayTake outSpaghetti and meatballs + carrots
ThursdayHoney garlic shrimp over rice + asparagusTagliatelle with smashed peas, sausage, and ricotta
FridayTortellini + chicken breast + saladRavioli + chicken breast + roasted broccoli

Recipes and Links

Bean and cheese enchiladas

  • Recipe inspiration
  • Notes:
    • This is a pretty basic veg enchilada recipe, with bell pepper, onion, black beans, and cheese, but I like that it includes instructions to make your own enchilada sauce. It sounds intimidating, but it really isn’t – and it means that you control the spice level. I make them pretty bland but if you have more adventurous eaters, there are lots of opportunities to add spice and flavor in this recipe!
    • This makes awesome leftovers for the next couple lunches, if you are interested. Otherwise, they freeze easily to save for an easy weekend meal.

Rice bowls with steak

  • Recipe inspiration:
    • No recipe for this one. I had some steak and leftover rice in the fridge that I needed to use up one day, and this dinner idea was born. Turns out it was yummy! Serve cooked skirt steak over rice with your choice of toppings – I add pickled red onions, sauteed zucchini and corn, avocado, and pineapple – and a lime-sour cream crema.
  • Notes:
    • I love bowl dinners because there are lots of sides options for kids to choose from, and adults get to put everything together for a more complex meal.

Honey-garlic shrimp over rice + roasted asparagus

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • My children think sauces are very scary, but they love marinades (just please don’t tell them that). With that in mind, I pull their shrimp out of the pan before adding the additional sauce to thicken and reduce. I just do that step for the adults – more sauce for us!

Tortellini + chicken breast + salad

  • Recipe inspiration:
    • No recipes here, really. Cook a pack of Costco tortellini and serve them however you like – butter, olive oil and salt, balsamic glaze, pesto…
    • Air fry your chicken breast with a seasoning you like.
    • Put together a quick salad. This is Friday, so I really do mean QUICK. I like to use pre-washed romaine, some apple or pear, and toasted walnuts. Dress it with a simple vinaigrette (I batch-make dressing with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and dijon mustard).
  • Notes:
    • This dinner has many components, but they all pretty much run on autopilot, making it a perfect Friday dinner. Start the chicken and the tortellini, and make the salad while those cook.
    • Only one of my kids will go near salad. The other 2 just get some fruit.

Sheet pan salmon and broccoli with brown rice

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • There are a million versions of this recipe out on the internet with all different flavor profiles and seasonings, so find one you like!
    • Brown rice takes for-f**king-ever so plan accordingly. Or just use frozen rice.

Creamy enchilada soup topped with avocado and tortilla chips + chicken nuggets

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • Soup is tricky with kids – with my kids, at least. I love to make it, but they don’t like having all their food swimming together in the same dish. I serve beans and corn separately on their plates, plus the avocado and a few tortilla chips, but I’m also adding chicken nuggets for them to fill up on.
    • This soup freezes so well, so I make it fresh every other time and then just thaw in between. Ultimate quick dinner hack!

Spaghetti and meatballs + carrots

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • These meatballs were on the meal plan last fall, too, and my 7 year old is completely obsessed with them. They are what solidified “spaghetti and meatballs” as his favorite meal, so I brought them back for the spring.
    • I roast or steam the carrots because my 1 year old loves them that way. If I’m feeling fancy, I’ll steam them with salted butter and honey, but usually I am in a rush and just use plain water.

Tagliatelle with smashed peas, sausage, and ricotta

  • Recipe inspiration:
    • Tagliatelle with smashed peas, sausage, and ricotta (Food Network)
  • Notes:
    • This recipe makes it very easy to serve everything separate for kids. The sausage and pasta are cooked separately, so I put some of each onto the kids’ plates before mixing together, and then give them the peas straight out of the freezer (surprisingly a huge hit in our household – “cold peas”).

Ravioli + chicken breast + roasted broccoli

  • Recipe inspiration:
    • No recipes. Make a pack or 2 of ravioli that your family likes (I almost always make Costco ravioli with cheese and spinach). Top them with butter, olive oil, pesto, or whatever else you like.
    • Air fry your chicken breast with a seasoning you like.
    • Roast some broccoli (or another veg you like/have on hand)
  • Notes:
    • Similar to the other Friday meal in this rotation, this meal has multiple elements but is designed to be pretty hands-off. We do dinner and a movie on Fridays, so I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen while the rest of my family is enjoying the movie.

Why These Meals?

I always look for recipes that are simple enough that I can make them quickly while distracted. I love it when there are elements that I can prep ahead of time to simplify dinner prep. And I need recipes that are flexible so I’m not making a different dinner for every person. These recipes all meet the mark, and feel seasonably appropriate for spring when we have more vegetables.

Our house gets cleaned every other Wednesday and I refuse to cook in a freshly cleaned house, so we get take out that night. Feel free to swap this to a night when you don’t want to cook.

Meals that Didn’t Make the Cut

I tried out quite a few recipes to get down to this list. Some were not worth repeating, but a few stood out as delicious options that weren’t right for our family or felt redundant to other meals. I’m calling them out here in case you want to sub them back in.

Roasted vegetable enchiladas (Gimme Some Oven)

  • This recipe would be really easy to customize with the vegetables that you like and want to include, but it was far too veggie heavy for 3 kids who do their best to avoid veggies. I swapped them for the black bean enchiladas, which was a very welcome “upgrade”.

Crispy sesame beef (Damn Delicious)

  • This recipe has rave reviews on the website and the sauce was quick and yummy, but steak every week felt like too much. I cut back to just the steak and zucchini recipe, and shelved this one for another day.

Add-ins to the raviolis

  • I tried sautéeing mushrooms in a lot of butter and serving this as a sauce on the ravioli. It was delicious and added a nice flavor, but didn’t feel very “springy” to me. I may do this when we have some extra mushrooms or another veg lying around, but will just do plain ravioli with a simple oil and vinegar dressing most weeks.

What About Weekends?

We keep weekends simple and flexible, so I don’t have meals planned for those nights. When the weather is nice, my husband grills burgers, sausages, or chicken breast. Sometimes we pull some ravioli or chicken nuggets out of the freezer. And at least once over the weekend, we’ll get take-out or go out to eat.

Grocery Shopping and Prep

Having a meal plan for the week is a great first step, but it falls apart if you don’t follow through. Here’s how I structure my week to make sure I have everything that I need to cook the meals in my 2-week rotation.

(1) Keep your recipes in one place. Pick out the recipes that you want to make and put them in a note in your phone. This keeps everything accessible in the grocery store, in the kitchen, or when your family asks what’s for dinner.

(2) Build your master ingredient list. Copy-paste the list of ingredients from each recipe into the same note. Yes this is a bit tedious, but I promise it is worth the time and effort now. Future-you will be grateful!

(3) Do one main grocery run at the beginning of the week. On Sunday or Monday, I buy everything from my ingredient list that is shelf stable or can last in the fridge (basically everything except proteins and any finicky produce like fresh herbs), plus proteins for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday dinners.

(4) Do a quick midweek grocery refresh. On Wednesday or Thursday, I go back to the grocery store for proteins and any other super perishable items for Thursday, Friday, and weekend dinners. This is a quick and targeted grocery run.

(5) Use your freezer strategically. I keep a number of proteins on hand in the freezer so I don’t have to constantly buy those. Costco ground beef and frozen chicken are MVPs in this house! Set a recurring calendar reminder to thaw what you need the day before you’re cooking so they’ll be ready when you are.

Spotlight: Sheet pan sausages with roasted potatoes and broccoli

Here is a bit more detail on the sausage sheet pan dinner, how I prepare it, and how I serve to kids vs adults.

Recipe

I don’t use a recipe for this dinner, but if you need some inspiration and more concrete steps then I recommend this recipe from Number 2 Pencil as a good starting point.

How I cook this meal

I typically cut the potatoes into bite-size pieces, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and any other spices and seasonings I’m feeling that day (smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder are all good options). That goes in a 425º oven for about 20 minutes.

Once the potatoes are in the oven, I start on the other elements. Chop the broccoli and toss that with olive oil, salt, and pepper. The broccoli will only take 10-15 minutes, so try to add it when the potatoes have that much time left.

For the sausages, it depends whether you’re cooking raw or fully cooked sausages. For fully cooked sausages, I typically put them in with the broccoli. 10 minutes is plenty of time for them to warm up. Raw sausages need more like 20-25 minutes, so they’ll need to start with the potatoes.

Do a quick 1:1 mix of honey and dijon mustard as a dipping sauce. YUM!

The final result

Kid serving

Adult serving

Ratings and reactions

Husband: 9/10. Loves the sausage. Could do without green vegetables)

Kids: 9/10. They all demolished their sausages. I made 6 thinking we’d have plenty of leftovers, and it was all eaten. Potatoes were the next to go. Broccoli was sniffed and poked a few times, but otherwise ignored.

Leftovers: 8/10. We didn’t have any sausages left, but they always make for great leftovers. A few pieces heated up for lunch, or chopped and added to an omelet are easy options. The potatoes are yummy the next day, especially smashed and fried in oil so they get all crispy. Toss broccoli into a salad or just eat it cold.

New Rotation Deep Dive: Winter 2026

Here is a deep dive on the current rotation. In this post, I detail the current dinner rotation, recipes I’m using, prep notes, and why these meals made the cut.

The New Rotation

Week 1Week 2
MondaySausage and pesto pasta with peasPasta e fagioli soup + rolls
TuesdayGlazed salmon + fried riceSheet pan sausages + roasted potatoes and broccoli
WednesdayTake outGnocchi with brussel sprouts and brown butter
ThursdayAsian beef bowlsSalmon pasta with cream sauce + quick salad
FridayNaan pizza barHoisin burgers + roasted potatoes
Continue reading “New Rotation Deep Dive: Winter 2026”

New Rotation Deep Dive: Fall 2025

Here is a deep dive on the current rotation. In this post, I detail the current dinner rotation, recipes I’m using, prep notes, and why these meals made the cut.

The New Rotation

Week 1Week 2
MondayCrock pot chili + biscuitsCrock pot tortellini soup with pork sausage
TuesdayTeriyaki salmon + roasted brussels sprouts + riceGreek yogurt marinated salmon + couscous + roasted carrots
WednesdayTake outPizza + salad
ThursdayRavioli + roasted broccoliStir fry with chicken
FridaySimmer sauce with peas and paneer or chickenSpaghetti and meatballs + caesar salad

Recipes and Links

Crock pot chili and biscuits

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • The NYT Cooking recipe above is perhaps the best chili that I’ve ever made. Don’t let the long list of ingredients intimidate you. I promise you have 80% of them in your pantry already, and the other 20% will bring you great joy.
    • I usually serve this with canned biscuits, crescent rolls, etc. Whatever is available where you do your shopping.
    • Leave 1-2 servings of chili in the fridge for lunches, and then freeze the rest in Souper Cubes to reuse in 2 weeks.

Teriyaki salmon + roasted brussels sprouts + rice

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • The salmon recipe above links to a specific teriyaki sauce. My kids and I prefer Bachan’s Japanese Barbecue Sauce. Use what your family likes.
    • If you think of it, pour the teriyaki sauce over the salmon in a bowl sometime in the afternoon and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to cook. Your salmon will be MUCH more flavorful if it can marinade for a few hours before you cook it.
    • I did not include a recipe for rice – I serve this meal with plain jasmine rice. I usually make some extra rice and then freeze the leftovers to repurpose later.

Ravioli + roasted broccoli

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • This dinner couldn’t be easier! Pick up a package of ravioli that look good to you – cheese, spinach, veg, meat….whatever! Cook according to the instructions on the package while your broccoli roasts. You could boost the flavor with a sauce, but we serve them plain to kids and drizzle with balsamic glaze, some olive oil, and parmesan for adults.

Simmer sauce with peas and paneer or chicken

  • Recipe inspiration
    • Chop your protein of choice – paneer (Indian cheese) or chicken – into bite size pieces and saute in a pan until cooked (the paneer doesn’t really have to cook, just brown it). Pour half a bag of peas into the pan, and then dump in a jar of simmer sauce.
  • Notes:
    • Have you discovered simmer sauces yet? They’ll change your life. I like the Maya Kaimal brand (we usually buy tikka masala or butter masala, which are not spicy and very flavorful), but there are many different brands and flavors. Try a few and see what you like.

Crock pot tortellini soup with pork sausage

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • Make the soup in the crockpot, but cook the tortellini on the stove just before you’re ready to serve. If you’re going to store leftovers, keep them separate. The tortellini get bloated and soggy sitting in the soup.

Greek yogurt marinated salmon + couscous + roasted carrots

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • Marinating salmon in yogurt and then baking it freaked me out at first, but it is one of the best ways that I’ve found to bake salmon. It comes out so tender and delicious, with very little extra effort.
    • If you have a few minutes in the afternoon, get the marinade for the salmon going and let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours before cooking.

Pizza + salad

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • I started making my own pizza dough a few years ago, and it has been hard to go back. It takes less than 15 minutes to mix and knead it, plus a couple hours of rise time, and then you have delicious and fresh pizza dough to roll out and load up with toppings. My kids love to help roll it out and decorate mini pizzas, or you can do 2 big pizzas and choose the toppings yourself.
    • Top the pizzas with whatever you want! We start with a jar of pizza sauce, some mozzarella, and then clean out the fridge and freezer to top it. Sauteed or roasted veggies are great (zucchini, onion, bell pepper, mushrooms are some of my favorites), plus any proteins you’ve got lying around like leftover chicken breast, sausage crumbles, pepperoni.
    • Melissa eats her pizza salad IN her slice of pizza, but I like to have it as a side with fresh pizza. Do you!

Stir fry with chicken

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • These 2 recipes have different spins on stir fry, but you can do literally whatever you want and it will be delicious. I love to add some chopped pineapple at the end for some sweet bites, and sometimes add in shrimp as well. Anything goes.

Spaghetti and meatballs + caesar salad

  • Recipe inspiration:
  • Notes:
    • Double the number of meatballs that you need for dinner, and store the extras in the freezer. In 2 weeks when you cook this again, you can pull them straight out of the freezer and just warm them up (I like to use the air fryer for this)
    • Both of the caesar salad recipes above include ingredients and instructions to make your own dressing, which of course is optional. If you want to make the dressing yourself, it will keep for about 2 weeks, so you could easily use it twice for dinners, or just use it for lunch salads in the meantime.

Why These Meals?

The fall is generally a very busy time of year for us, with a lot of new routines and activities. With that in mind, I made this menu to be very simple and straightforward so that I can put my time and thought into getting everyone where they need to be, rather than making a complicated dinner every night.

On the first cool day of fall, I am always eager to break out my crockpot and start making chili and soup, so my top priority was getting multiple of those recipes in here. We’ve got a busy evening of activities on Mondays, so that was a logical night to do a crockpot meal this fall. You could easily swap this to another day when you’ve got lots of activities to drive to, or when everyone is eating dinner at different times.

Our house is cleaned every other Wednesday afternoon, and I hate ruining it immediately by cooking, so we always do take out that day.

On weekends, when it is decent outside (above about 50º F), my husband wants to grill, so I leave the weekends for him to do that. He’ll usually grill burgers, brats, or chicken breasts one night over the weekend and we get take out or go out to eat the other night. Because of that, I left the weekends off this meal plan entirely.

Grocery Shopping and Prep

Having a meal plan for the week is a great first step, but it falls apart if you don’t follow through. Here’s how I structure my week to make sure I have everything that I need to cook the meals in my 2-week rotation.

(1) Keep your recipes in one place. Pick out the recipes that you want to make and put them in a note in your phone. This keeps everything accessible in the grocery store, in the kitchen, or when your family asks what’s for dinner.

(2) Build your master ingredient list. Copy-paste the list of ingredients from each recipe into the same note. Yes this is a bit tedious, but I promise it is worth the time and effort now. Future-you will be grateful!

(3) Do one main grocery run on Sunday or Monday. I buy everything on my ingredient list that is shelf stable, plus proteins for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday dinners.

(4) Do a quick midweek grocery refresh. I go back to the grocery store midweek for proteins and any other super perishable items for Thursday, Friday, and weekend dinners. This is a quick and targeted grocery run.

(5) Use your freezer strategically. I keep a number of proteins on hand in the freezer so I don’t have to constantly buy those. Costco ground beef and frozen chicken breasts are MVPs in this house! Set a recurring calendar reminder to thaw what you need the day before you’re cooking so they’ll be ready when you are.