Next Week’s Meal Plan: 5 Miracle Meals for a Really Busy Week

Home life right now is a little bit bananas. Just a few weeks ago we sold our home in Georgia and we are currently packing and planning a cross-country move and my husband is gone all week working and house hunting in our new city.

So this week’s meal plan is all about miracle meals — recipes I can cook with my eyes closed, or that whittle down pantry ingredients, or that my children requested and I know they will devour without fuss. There are some seasonal vegetables helping out this carb-heavy week, so this week’s menu is still fun and summery but also super easy.

Planning my weekly meals is 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.

• The Beginner’s Guide to Meal Planning: What to Know, How to Succeed, and What to Skip
• The Best Way to Use a Weekend for Meal Planning Success
• Ask Yourself These 5 Questions Before You Start Meal Planning
• 5 Strategies for Picking Recipes for a Week of Meal Planning

This hardly feels summer-appropriate, but when your 5-year-old requests “that pink pasta” and you know that means she’ll eat some beets, you don’t question the seasonality of this request. We aren’t vegan, so some cheesy garlic toast for the kids and a green salad on the side will make this a meal.

I made a big batch of these peach carnitas this weekend for guests and everyone loved it. Lucky for me we have enough leftovers to turn this into a sensational Taco Tuesday.

Brinner — that is breakfast for dinner — might not be super glamorous, but it’s easy and everyone will eat it and no one will complain, which is kind of what I need on hump day.

My neighbor has not stopped blessing us with tomatoes from her garden and I’ve been waiting to turn them into panzanella (oh, and gazpacho soon too). My fingers are crossed that big cubes of toasted bread will actually encourage my kids to eat just a salad for dinner. I’m bulking this classic recipe up with some cucumbers and canned chickpeas too.

The return of pizza Friday is bringing me so much joy and delight, plus this recipe from Kelli is ideal for using up the bits and bobs of vegetables from last week’s market haul.