5 Family Friendly Recipes to Inspire This Week’s Meal Plan

Are you ever curious about what Kitchn editors cook and eat at home? You might be surprised at how often we cook new recipes for dinner or how often we cook recipes from the site at home. You’ve got to practice what you preach, right?

I thought I’d start by sharing what I’m cooking for my family of four this week from Kitchn recipes. Every Friday night I sit down with my planner and a cocktail and choose a week’s worth of dinners for the week ahead. This might inspire you to cook some of these recipes yourself (maybe you missed them on the site) or maybe this will give you ideas for a similar meal plan for your family and the week ahead. So here are the five dinners I’m cooking for the week of March 13 through March 17.

Planning my weekly meals has become a habit I enjoy. Since I’m frequently asked by friends and family what I’m cooking for dinner each week, I thought it’d be useful to share my weekly meal plan here. Whether you’re just learning to meal plan and looking for a real-life example of how this works or you’re an old pro on the hunt for inspiration, here’s a peek at how I’m feeding my family this week.

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For Monday night, I’m reheating baked potatoes cooked on Sunday and serving them with roasted broccoli and fully cooked andouille sausages. I’ll heat those up on the same sheet pan as the broccoli. This isn’t so much a recipe as a coming together of components that make for a comforting dinner that will help us ease into the week.

My daughter has an art class after school on Tuesdays, which means we get home later and need something that can quickly come together and be customized for kid palates. These tacos are really a 10-minute affair. I’ll serve the slaw on the side for my children and leave the salsa off their tacos.

I have a take-out container of rice that needs to be used up and this recipe will make the most of it. I’ll also substitute chicken thighs for breasts because I have some in the freezer that need using up. To make this truly a one-pot wonder, feel free to use frozen pre-cooked rice instead of cooking it from dry and whatever veggies you have on hand. It’s the quick-to-make teriyaki sauce that makes this dish so easy to mix and match with what you have on hand.

My husband’s dinner request this week? Meatballs. I’m going to give Emma’s technique for meatballs in the slow cooker a try and serve them over cheesy grits with apple slices for the kids. Fingers crossed for leftovers.

Friday night is always pizza night in our house, and while I waffle between making it from scratch and ordering delivery, this week I’m going to use the Rainbow Pizza recipe to make St. Patrick’s Day themed pizza topped with only green vegetables: broccoli, zucchini, green peppers, and green onions.

The how and why of Pizza Friday: Why My Week Always Includes a Pizza Night

What are you cooking this week? Are you using old favorite recipes or trying something new? Tell us in the comments!