I woke up yesterday morning determined to no longer wing it at the grocery store. My Dinner Ideas Pinterest Board is burgeoning with pins and it was time to put them to good use. The family is worn out from recycling the same recipes every week, so I dove into Pinterest and found 7 recipes for my Welcome Fall Meal Plan.
I am still working on the logistics of creating a meal plan that balances variety, budget, and time. This meal plan alternates proteins, incorporates vegetables, and avoids the pitfalls of one-dish casseroles every night. This meal plan isn’t entirely successful when it comes to budget, but I often have ground beef or pork and chicken in my freezer that I purchase in larger quantities when it’s on sale. My family of 6 still eats like a family of 4, so I am also able to half many recipes.
Monday – Baked Mozzarella Chicken Rolls from pinchofyum.com
These were a hit with 4 out of 6 members of our family and everyone ate it! Don’t skimp on the mozzarella and be sure to use fresh basil if you can. I served this with thinly sliced, toasty french bread. Yum!
Tuesday – One Pan Ranch Pork Chops (with potatoes and green beans) from damndelicious.net
The side cooks with the main dish? Yes, please! Ranch is always a popular (safe) flavor at our house, as are pork chops.
Wednesday – Cheesy Hamburger Pasta
My daughter tried Hamburger Helper at a friend’s house recently and asked me to include it on my menu. I’ll admit to using the boxed stuff or just whipping up a basic stove top mac and cheese and adding ground beef. We will eat this with a side of steamed broccoli (I like to buy frozen bags of steamers when they are on sale).
Thursday – Bacon Mushroom Swiss Chicken from recipesthatcrock.com
I’m honestly not sure how well this will go over, but my husband loves mushrooms and this sounded divine to me. This will be accompanied by some steamed veggies too.
Friday – Quesadillas and Fruit Salad
Friday is a lazy dinner night at our house. Quesadillas are a go-to meal for us and resoundingly popular. You can make them healthier with whole-wheat tortillas and cheese alternatives actually taste delicious melted. I toss together whatever fruits I have in a bowl and add yogurt – ta da! – fruit salad.
Saturday – BBQ Ranch Chicken Casserole from willcookforsmiles.com
Now that I’m looking at the menu, I see some repeat flavors. I guess that will tell you what I was craving yesterday. This will be served with a simple, fresh salad and possibly some bread.
Sunday – Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs and Spaghetti from bakerbynature.com
I didn’t want any of that delicious fresh mozzarella from earlier in the week to go to waste. I will be adapting this recipe with half ground pork and half ground beef because ground turkey always falls flat at my house. This will go well with some steamed veggies or leftover salad.
It’s certainly not a perfect meal plan, but it’s a hearty one with some good variety that should please some/most of my family some/most of the nights. Do you have a meal plan for the week? Be sure to link up!
Wow, lots of really good looking recipes. I want to try the Baked Mozzarella Chicken Rolls .
These all look so yummy, I don’t know which one I want to try first!
I will be trying out the pork chop recipe in hopes of getting out of our chicken rut! Thank you!
The bacon Mushroom Swiss chicken sounds amazing! Bonus that it’s a crock pot meal!
Yum Yum Yum!! Omgosh this all looks so AMAZING!!! That bacon mushroom swiss chicken has my mouth watering!! Pinning this for the great ideas!! Thanks so much for sharing!
My dad used to do this. Like a week a agoni was totally contemplating it you make it seem so easy (and delicious!) thanks for the ideas!!