Peanut Butter Fingers

I hope you’re hungry today — or at least in the mood to see some dinner ideas — because I’m coming at you with February’s edition of my Week of Weeknight Meals series! I began this series a few years ago as a way to take things back to the early blogging days when sharing my meals in this space every day was the norm. Pictures are snapped in real-time right before we eat and no fancy food photography is allowed.

As always, our weeknight meals last week were fairly easy and included a homemade soup, a delicious casserole I loved so much, a simple salmon meal, pasta, salad and more. Hopefully at least one of the dinners below will jump out at you if you’re looking for some dinnertime inspiration or a new recipe to try this week!

Week of Weeknight Meals: February 2026

• Monday: Fettuccine with Shortcut Bolognese Sauce (Leftovers)

Leftovers to the rescue! I made a shortcut Bolognese sauce last Sunday night — 1 jar Rao’s vodka sauce + 1 pound lean ground beef + 1 shredded yellow squash (I used my fav viral cheese grater to shred it)  — and used it on top of fettuccine for an easy and delicious pasta. We repeated the exact same dinner on Monday night and it was a winner yet again.

On the kids’ plates: ALDI’s Simply Nature white cheddar macaroni and cheese, cucumber slices with salt, raspberries

• Tuesday: Air Fryer Teriyaki Salmon with Green Beans and Greek Yogurt Biscuits

Bless the air fryer. It is, without a doubt, my most-used kitchen appliance, especially when it comes to quick and easy dinners. On Tuesday, I marinated salmon (we still have a teeny bit left from our Alaska family vacation!) in teriyaki sauce, sprinkled it with garlic salt and air fried it at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. We ate the salmon with steamed green beans and our family’s favorite Greek yogurt biscuits.

My formula for dinner on nights when I don’t have any dinner ideas looks a lot like this meal: 1 marinated or seasoned protein cooked in the air fryer + a vegetable + a carb. No need to complicate things!

On the kids’ plates: Salmon (not marinated — just sprinkled with salt + lemon juice) + Greek yogurt biscuits + green beans + blueberries

• Wednesday: Teriyaki Chicken Chopped Salad

Ryan had a work dinner on Wednesday night and, honestly, I was tempted to make myself another bowl of my high protein oat bran for dinner nad call it a night. Buuut, I knew I had a bag of chopped salad on its last leg in the fridge and since I hate wasting food, it served as the perfect motivation to make a dinner for myself that actually included vegetables. I marinated the chicken in teriyaki sauce and then air fried them before tossing them into the pre-made chopped salad mix. Easy peasy!

On the kids’ plates: Applegate organic chicken nuggets with ketchup, carrots with ranch or hummus (depending on the kid), strawberries

• Thursday: Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole + Greek Yogurt Biscuits

The flavors of chicken cordon bleu are the ultimate comfort food for me. Cheesy, buttery, slightly tangy — ugh I love it so much. This casserole from Jo Cooks was a slam dunk (for me and Ryan — the kids could not have been less interested) and I loved it just as much on Thursday night as I did for Friday’s leftover lunch! The only change I made was to omit the Panko breadcrumbs from the top of the casserole only because we didn’t have any on hand but we didn’t miss them. I also made a batch of Greek yogurt biscuits for on the side (yep, same as Tuesday!) but we all demolished them well before the casserole was done so I don’t have any pics of them!

On the kids’ plates: Quesadillas, Greek yogurt biscuits, raw broccoli dipped in ranch and strawberries

• Friday: Lasagna Soup

Hot dang this lasagna soup took me longer than anticipated to make but we liked it so I suppose it was worth it!? I have no idea why it took me so long to make (lots of chopping + helping the boys with various things as I was trying to make dinner, maybe?) but it was a journey! I made the soup as detailed here only I swapped one of the pounds of ground beef for hot Italian chicken sausage. We also didn’t have any lasagna noodles on hand so we used fettuccine noodles and they worked just fine. (For this recipe, you prepare the pasta separately — this is also a tip I learned from my in-laws to help prevent the pasta in soups from getting soggy, especially if you know you’ll have leftovers.)

The recipe made a LOT of soup, so I froze some of it in my favorite silicone 2-cup Souper Cubes containers to have on hand when we need an easy reheat-and-eat meal. Future Julie is already grateful!

And the Funfetti cake you see in the background served as dessert! Rhett and I made it together just because on Friday, though he ended up saying the cake was in honor of his 1/2 birthday once we realized he officially turned 5 1/5 on Sunday! It served as a delightful Friday night dessert!

On the kids’ plates: Grilled cheese + carrot slices + apple slices + Funfetti cake

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Have you made any dinners lately that proved to be big hits in your house? Please share!