I've fallen out of a strict routine but for years it was...

Saturday - pizza
Sunday - breakfast for dinner
Monday - soup & sandwich (crockpot meal usually, did this early in the week because I'd generally take leftover soup for lunches at work)
Tuesday - pasta
Wednesday - cooks choice (this was my WAH day so I could spend more time cooking if I felt like it)
Thursday - Mexican
Friday - cook's night off, i.e. leftovers or cereal or whatever else you can find that I don't have to cook.

Pasta night

Casserole night

Slow cooker day

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trying to simplify meal planning for this school year and try to make some things ahead and freeze. I’d like do themed nights to take some of the decision fatigue out of it for me. Taco tues for example. What are some other broad categories that have a lot of options within the theme?

Taco Tues: fish tacos, black bean tacos, ground beef, sheet pan fajitas, quesadillas etc.

I know meatless monday but I am
Stumped for other suggestions. We do pizza or fish fry on Fridays (FF during lent months)

Thanks!

Just a small nit pick but that's more like Latino night since you are expanding it with fajitas a quesadillas.

Maybe you can also do Italian Night, Meatless Monday, Left over Thurdsays.

Seriously, PP?

Anonymous wrote:Trying to simplify meal planning for this school year and try to make some things ahead and freeze. I’d like do themed nights to take some of the decision fatigue out of it for me. Taco tues for example. What are some other broad categories that have a lot of options within the theme?

Taco Tues: fish tacos, black bean tacos, ground beef, sheet pan fajitas, quesadillas etc.

I know meatless monday but I am
Stumped for other suggestions. We do pizza or fish fry on Fridays (FF during lent months)

Thanks!

Search the internet. Literally thousands of websites on this topic, and has been the case since probably 2004 or so.

Soup or Salad Sunday
Moodle Monday (some sort of noodle)
Taco Tuesday
Wacky Wednesday (breakfast for dinner)
Throw Together Thursday (leftovers)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We never do breakfast for dinner but may do it once a month or so this year. We just don't eat those foods for breakfast either so I don't have the ingredients on hand!

You don’t have eggs and avocado and bread for toast and fruit on hand?

Super boring breakfast, much less dinner.

And I only buy avocados certain weeks at a decent price point. They can be very expensive or gross.

I’m so curious what the hell you DO eat for breakfast if fruit, toast and eggs are “super boring” but “we don’t eat breakfast foods for breakfast so we don’t have those ingredients” either

"Breakfast for dinner" for my kids would mean sausages and/or bacon and pancakes or waffles. They would not literally want a typical weekday breakfast again for dinner. Who does that? Everyone listing "breakfast for dinner" please tell me it's not just cereal and toast night?

Our breakfast for dinner nights were pancakes (chocolate chip for those who insist), sausage, scrambled eggs. We haven't done it in a long time; but did it regularly when the kids were younger and their dad had a weekly obligation and wasn't home for dinner. I started it on those particular nights because my husband never liked "breakfast for dinner." I stopped when one of the kids said pancakes for dinner meant dad wasn't home.

Burger night. I often make my own veggie or bean burgers, which can be frozen.

Egg night. Often omelet, sometimes egg curry, or fried eggs with some side dishes. Obviously, you can't freeze the dishes, but you can freeze a curry sauce and rice, or freeze some sides.

We don't eat that much meat, so sometimes Sunday is meat day. I'll airfry a whole chicken or cook some beef. Then I'll use the leftovers to make lunches, or soup.

Middle Eastern (my version). Make a couscous salad with whatever is in the fridge. Cook some fish in the airfryer (previously frozen). Serve with pita bread (freezes well). And lentil soup. I always make large batches of soup and then freeze in individual portions.

*Soup + sandwich Saturday
*Salad + spaghetti Sunday
*Meatloaf Monday
*Taco Tuesday
*Whatever Wednesday
*Takeout Thursday
*Fish Friday

Whatever’s on sale [day you go shopping] night

Get something that’s cheap at the store and base your dinner around it — for example this week shrimp were on sale so we had shrimp curry but I consider pineapple fried rice and rice bowls with shrimp and peanut sauce as well.

M:pasta
T:tacos
W: fish
Th:chicken
Fri:pizza
Sat:grill out (summer) or dine out (winter)
Sun: big meal - roasted chicken, steak, etc.

Chicken (baked, grilled, bbq, teriyaki, breaded...)

Soup (onion, broccoli, carrot, butternut squash, black beans...)

Beans (bean burgers, bean patties, chili, falafel, lemon and herb, with roasted veg, enchiladas...)

Fish or Meat (salmon, burgers, meatballs, steak)

Eggs (breakfast for dinner, quiche, frittata)

M Something with chicken
Taco Tuesday
W soup in winter, something summery in summer
T Something with ground beef
Pizza Friday
Out Saturday
Meat and Potatoes Sunday (roast, steaks on the grill, meatloaf, or something in the crockpot, like beef stew.)

I was also going to suggest meatball Monday. Different types of meatballs in different types of sauces. Can also extend into sliders.

(I feel sort of bad about meatless, but you could always alternate!).

Anonymous wrote:Meatball Monday is not popular than meatless Monday at my house. Modern Proper has lots of different styles of meatballs (not just spaghetti and meatballs)

Oh I riff off the basic recipe all the time.
Zucchini ricotta (don't add milk and add some extra bread crumbs), and my latest, chicken sausage flavored. I added sausage seasonings and a ton of fennel.