Week of Weeknight Meals: July 2023

Hey friends! I’m coming at you today with the latest edition of my Week of Weeknight Meals series! I began this series on the blog a while back in an effort to stay true to the origins of this blog when I used to share my dinners in this space almost every day. This series is now my way of giving you guys a peek into what weeknight dinners look like in our house for one week of every month.

I think I should dub last week the “Week of Zucchini” though, if I’m being honest, it’s more like the summer of zucchini for our family because we’ve been incorporating into so many of our meals! Our garden is thriving and it’s served as the perfect motivation to use lots and lots of our homegrown zucchini in our meals.

Below you’ll see a random assortment of meals, including some recipe experiments, throwback recipes, a night out at a baseball game and more!

Week of Weeknight Meals: July 2023

• Monday: Sausage Zucchini Casserole

Talk about a throwback meal! For Monday night’s dinner, I actually revisited a super old blog post (hellooo, 2011) because something in the back of my mind remembered loving a squash casserole I made more than a decade ago. My brain can’t remember basically anything after I birthed children but my pre-2015 food-related memory is apparently thriving. I quickly Googled “squash casserole pbfingers” and I instantly found the post and made the recipe again, though this time I swapped out yellow squash for zucchini. It was just as delicious as I remembered and Ryan and I loved this one!

• Tuesday: Leftover Salmon Salad

Ryan had a work dinner on Tuesday night and I kept things simple for myself and incorporated some leftovers into a salad. I used leftover roasted cabbage and zucchini as the base of my salad and topped it with edamame, corn, leftover salmon and an orange-ginger dressing. It wasn’t anything amazing but it was tasty and a nice way to get some vegetables into my belly at the end of the day.

• Wednesday: Pulled Chicken Sandwich with Fries

We spent our Wednesday night at the Charlotte Knights baseball game and ordered food for our family at the game. I opted for a BBQ pulled chicken sandwich topped with cole slaw and served with a side of fries. Simple game day food!

• Thursday: Zucchini Lasagna

Surprise, surprise, more zucchini! Thursday night’s dinner looked like my attempt at a zucchini lasagna. I layered zucchini and tomato slices with a combination of ricotta cheese, cream cheese, cottage cheese, fresh basil and Italian seasoning and poured Rao’s marinara over each layer. It wasn’t the prettiest meal but it was so cheesy and so delicious!

• Friday: Brunswick Stew

We arrived in Florida just before dinner time on Friday which meant we made it in time to dig into a meal with my parents before bedtime. My mom prepared Brunswick stew, one of my favorites, and I had two bowls of the stew along with some bread and butter. I need to get this recipe from her to share with you guys because the flavor profile is so unique and a great alterative to chicken soup. If you’re looking to try something similar in the meantime, this recipe looks close to the one my mom makes and has great reviews.

Question of the Day

What was the best thing you ate last week?