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 1 | Week 2 | |
| Monday | Bean and cheese enchiladas | Sheet pan salmon and broccoli + brown rice |
| Tuesday | Rice bowls with steak | Creamy enchilada soup topped with avocado and tortilla chips + chicken nuggets |
| Wednesday | Take out | Spaghetti and meatballs + carrots |
| Thursday | Honey garlic shrimp over rice + asparagus | Tagliatelle with smashed peas, sausage, and ricotta |
| Friday | Tortellini + chicken breast + salad | Ravioli + chicken breast + roasted broccoli |
Recipes and Links
Bean and cheese enchiladas
- Recipe inspiration
- Vegetarian Bean and Cheese Enchiladas (NYT Cooking)
- 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:
- Honey garlic shrimp (NYT Cooking)
- 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:
- Sheet pan salmon and broccoli with sesame and ginger (NYT Cooking)
- 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:
- Creamy enchilada soup (Real Simple)
- 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:
- Meatballs (NYT Cooking)
- 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.
The Meal Plan That Stuck 