Next Week’s Meal Plan: Five Simple Dinners for a Week of Travel

This weekend, two moving containers were delivered to our driveway and slowly but surely filled with everything in our Georgia home. Left are a few kitchen staples and enough clothing for each of us to “camp out in our house” and on the road for the next two weeks. It would be incredibly easy to give up meal planning for the next couple of days or weeks while we move, but — and this is a testament to meal planning as a tool for improving our home lives — having a meal plan and feeding my family simple, nutritious meals during a hectic time makes me feel steady and confident in a time of total chaos.

This week I’m planning meals that can be made from the small bin of cookware I packed for traveling: knives, a cast iron skillet, a sheet pan, a few measuring devices, tongs, etc. Here are the five incredibly simple meals that I’m planning for our first week of travel.

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

Please tell me I’m not the only one who buys lasagna noodles for lasagna once or twice a year and then hangs onto a partially full box for months. This is one of our last nights in our former home and I’m still using up the bits and bobs I refused to throw out, donate, or pack. Skillet lasagna to the rescue!

Why, yes! This is a recipe I’ve included in other meal plans. This shortcut stir-fry uses frozen potstickers and takes about 15 minutes to pull off, including chopping the vegetables. I’ll double this recipe to feed my family of four.

If you are a busy home cook or a harried parent, do not disregard the sandwich or smoothie as an easy, filling dinner. Wednesday we will sign our first home over to its new owners and hit the road for North Carolina to visit my husband’s family before we head West. These wraps pack perfectly and will keep us out of the drive-thru (for tonight anyway).

My husband’s family owns several acres of farmland in North Carolina where we will stay with his MawMaw for Wednesday night. We will spend the morning stealing vegetables from his uncle’s garden, making this frittata for breakfast, and stashing the leftovers in our road cooler.

We’ll arrive hungry and tired in Nashville Friday evening. Depending on my kids’ moods, we will either order hotel room pizza or adventure out to find a local pizza spot to try, keeping our pizza Friday tradition alive, even on the road.