Week of Weeknight Meals: February 2022

Pull up a chair at the kitchen table because dinner is ready! I’m coming at you this morning with a recap of last week’s meals. This blog post is part of my Week of Weeknight Meals series where I share what one week of weeknight dinners look like in our house every month.

Pictures are snapped in real-time right before I dig in so no fancy food photos are allowed!

Also, I’ve had a number of requests to share what the boys eat every night for dinner so, for the first time ever, I’m including a note at the bottom of each day to explain what our kids ate that night for dinner. I always thought I’d be the kind of mom who would only serve her kids exactly what I was eating every night for dinner but that went out the window when we had our first child. Chase was quite small (in the first percentile for YEARS) so all of the tough love I thought I’d have regarding feeding kids went out the window when I was just desperate to get food into my child’s belly.

This blog post by a registered dietitian is the one that helped me get rid of all mom guilt I had surrounding making different meals for my kids and I highly recommend it to anyone struggling in this area. Now our kids often eat deconstructed versions of our meals or we also have a handful of meals we make for them on repeat that are quite easy so I don’t feel overwhelmed by making something different for the boys. Rhett (18 months) typically eats some version of our dinner every night or occasionally a dinner more similar to his big brothers if he’s not into our meals at all.

Week of Weeknight Meals: February 2022

• Monday: Instant Pot Chicken Soup with Cornbread

My love for simple Instant Pot soups in the winter months runs strong and Monday night’s dinner was another easy weeknight winner. I did not follow a recipe but sautéed carrots, onions, zucchini and celery in a little olive oil and garlic salt in the Instant Pot before adding boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chicken broth, thyme, rosemary, sage, salt and pepper to the mix and cooking it for 11 minutes on high pressure. After shredding the chicken, I added a whole bag of frozen peas and served the soup with a side of our family’s favorite cornbread — aka the winning cornbread recipe!

For the kids: Applegate Farms organic chicken nuggets, carrots, cornbread and blackberries.

• Tuesday: Turkey Vegetable Meatloaf with Roasted Zucchini and Shredded Cabbage and Baked Sweet Potatoes

The last time I made my turkey vegetable meatloaf, I made a double batch of the vegetables and froze half. This significantly cut down on the time to took me to make one of our family favorites and you better believe I’ll be doing this from here on out! My turkey vegetable meatloaf is packed with vegetables and it’s a dish our whole family loves so it’s one I make all the time. On Tuesday night, I paired it with roasted zucchini and sweet potatoes.

For the kids: Turkey vegetable meatloaf with cucumber slices and strawberries.

• Wednesday: Banza Cascatelli Pasta with Breadcrumb Chicken and Creamy Marinara Sauce

This dinner was all kinds of random but somehow it worked. First, I sautéed leftover rotisserie chicken in a pan with a little butter and Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs. I placed the chicken on top of Banza cascatelli chickpea pasta and topped it with pasta sauce that I made by combining jarred Sicilian pasta sauce from Thrive Market with a heavy splash of heavy whipping cream and Parmesan cheese. It was SO good and Ryan and I loved this meal!

For the kids: Banza chickpea pasta with butter and cheese, sliced bell peppers and watermelon.

• Thursday: Daily Harvest Bake + 90-Second Grains

Ryan had a work dinner on Thursday evening and I was tempted to just make myself a bowl of oatmeal and call it a night but since I was a little low on vegetable consumption for the day, I figured heating up a Daily Harvest Harvest Bake would be a good idea. I paired about 2/3 of the Gigante Bean + Artichoke Olio Harvest Bake with some grains that came together in a flash thanks to a 90-second microwavable Simply Nature organic grains pouch I had on hand from ALDI. It was an easy dinner but a good one!

For the kids: The kids wanted no part of the Harvest Bake so they ate grilled cheese, green beans and pear slices.

• Friday: Air Fryer Marinated Chicken Thighs with Green Beans, Roasted Cole Slaw Mix and Mixed Grains

Note: I swapped out last Friday’s meal for yesterday’s dinner only because I was traveling and forgot to snap a pic of my pizza dinner when I was with my friends in Idaho.

A couple of months ago, I had someone on Instagram DM me to say I had to try making my Paleo Marinated Chicken Thighs in the air fryer. I figured I’d give it a go one night when we weren’t in the mood to grill and oh my gosh we were blown away! They turned out amazingly well and I think I’ve now made them at least five times in our air fryer!

To make the boneless skinless chicken thighs in the air fryer, I first marinated them in my go-to marinade and then cooked them in the air fryer at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes, making sure to flip them halfway through. On the side we had steamed green beans, roasted cole slaw mix (a hack I love because it’s essentially just pre-shredded cabbage and carrots) and mixed grains from ALDI’s Simply Nature organic 90-second grains pouch. I loved this dinner so much!

For the kids: Marinated chicken thighs/nuggets (depending on the kid), green beans and fresh berries.

Questions of the Day

What was the best meal you ate last week?

Any new must-try recipes to share?