In 2019, I launched a monthly series on the blog that shared a real-life glimpse into our weeknight dinners for one week every month. The series showcased our dinners photographed in real time (no fancy food photography allowed!) and made note of any substitutions or alterations I made to the recipes I followed.
After an unintended hiatus, I had more than a few requests to continue the series on the blog this year so we’re back in action today with my first month of weeknight dinners!
Last week’s meals were all over the place and included a bunch of warm and comforting recipes we loved! Below you will find some Instant Pot recipes, vegetarian dishes, simple shortcut meal ideas and more. Please feel free to drop links to recipes you’ve been loving for dinner lately in the comments section. I am always on the lookout for new recipes to try!
Week of Weeknight Meals: January 2020
This is one of my all-time favorite blog recipes (I gave it the “Most Underrated Entree” award in my Recipe Superlatives post last year!) because the flavors are fantastic, the aroma is mouth-watering and the ingredients are good for you. It’s packed with vegetables and the recipe is also a wonderful way to use up leftover chicken! And for my Paleo/Whole30 friends, this one can easily fit your dietary preferences by simply swapping the soy sauce for coconut aminos (which I usually do anyway).
On Tuesday night, I did a little experimentation with this recipe and tried making it in the Instant Pot which didn’t go exactly to plan. It’s definitely not an Instant Pot recipe as-written and needs a bit of tweaking which I did at the end once everything was done in the pressure cooker. I’m not giving up though and hope to have an updated Instant Pot version to share with you guys at some point!
-
Tuesday: Instant Pot Butternut Squash Lentil Curry (via Vegan Richa) + Lettuce-less Greek Salad (via A Healthy Slice of Life)
I’ve made this butternut squash lentil curry a handful of times and it’s quickly become a household favorite. It’s warm and comforting and a recipe I feel very good about feeding to our family thanks to a stellar list of nutritious ingredients. The small substitutions I make to this recipe include omitting the hot green chili, adding extra ginger and using whatever color lentils we have on hand. In Tuesday’s rendition, I used green lentils and also some split peas and it was fantastic!
On the side, we had lettuce-less Greek salad, a recipe from my friend Brittany’s blog, and one I’ve quickly come to love for a weekday lunch dish as well. When I make it for lunch, I’ll add shrimp or chickpeas and usually have some crackers on the side. It’s so, so good! Bonus: Chase loves helping to make this salad since he’s in charge of slicing the kalamata olives and stirring up the dressing.
-
Wednesday: Shortcut Spaghetti
Wednesday was an especially busy day around here so shortcut spaghetti saved us! This simple throw-together spaghetti is my go-to for busy weeknights because I only need three ingredients to make it. I browned some pork in a pot before pouring in a jar of ALDI’s Simply Nature organic marinara sauce (one of our favs!) and the sauce was d-o-n-e. (Sometimes I’ll also add some pureed butternut squash to the sauce if I have some on hand because no one can tell.) The noodles were your average run-of-the-mill whole wheat spaghetti noodles and did the trick in filling us up!
-
Thursday: Instant Pot Chicken Stir Fry (via Fit Foodie Finds)
I saw this recipe pop up on Fit Foodie Finds earlier this month and knew I had to make it! The ingredients in the stir fry sauce sounded simple and delicious (maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, white rice vinegar) and while I did alter it a little bit by reducing some of the maple syrup in the recipe because I do not like an overly sweet stir fry, Ryan and I loved this dish! I also swapped the chicken breasts for chicken thighs and went a little rogue with the veggies in this dish, adding some zucchini and squash since we had some that needed to be used and thought it all came together quite well. Oh and I omitted the cashews from the recipe only because the only kind of cashews we had on hand were honey roasted and I thought that might detract from the flavors of the dish. I will definitely make this recipe again!
-
Friday: Instant Pot Beef Stew (via Nom Nom Paleo)
I made this recipe back in December when my parents were in town for Christmas and we all raved about it! To be honest, the simplicity of this recipe and the lack of liquid used in the dish still kind of blows my mind but it’s so incredibly flavorful and easily one of the best beef stew recipes I’ve ever made. The only thing I alter with this recipe is adding a lot more carrots and butternut squash to the stew before pressure cooking and love the way the butternut squash seems to dissolve into the broth of the stew, making it thicker and richer. I highly recommend this recipe the next time you’re craving a hearty beef stew on a cold winter night!
Question of the Day
What was the best thing you ate for dinner last week?
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
These all look & sound incredible! I love this series you created. Two favorite things I ate was my first ever homemade chicken ‘n dumplings & taco casserole! I made the chicken ‘n dumplings following Kylie’s recipe, & I adapted the casserole from Delish.com. I used Beyond Meat ground “beef” to add a different twist on the casserole. We love both meat & vegetarian meals. I highly recommend both of these! Like the cookbook you shared: cook once, eat several times from it. Lifesaver for our busy days.
i’ve never made chicken & dumplings and i think this needs to change!
I hope you enjoy it too! It’s going to be a go-to meal for us. 🙂
Hi Julie! I always love these posts and often will steal stuff for my meal plans the next week. I’d be curious though if you would be willing to share if your boys eat these things too and, if so, if you have to make any modifications to get them to eat it? I think you read Courtney’s blog (sweettoothsweetlife) and I love how she adds what her boys ate of the recipes she made! Just a thought as I know a lot of your readers have kiddos!
i love this idea! thinking of creating a blog post about their weeknight dinners in the future since, to be honest, they’re usually quite different than ours and typically look like a VERY deconstructed version of ours or something different altogether. it used to be something i was self conscious about in the beginning since i always thought i’d be one of those “they eat what we eat” kind of moms but that was REALLY stressful when i was trying to feel a very small child who was incredibly picky. i relaxed about this a TON after reading this post from lindsay (an RD) on her blog the lean green bean — https://www.theleangreenbean.com/tips-for-feeding-toddlers/
First off, thank you so much for sharing The Lean Green Bean blog post. I’m going to try her approach with my 2 and 4 year old because I’m sick of them (and sometimes me!) crying at the dinner table while I beg them to eat what I cook for me and my husband because I thought that that is what I was “supposed” to do! Second, thanks for considering sharing this info for your own kids. I’d love it!
You are so lucky that your husband likes to eat the same healthy food as you do! My husband is a pickier eater than my 2 kids and it is so hard to pick dinners for us all. On top of that, I am a vegetarian! But I had some success last week. I was craving “pot pie” and I have a go-to chicken recipe I know my husband likes. In order for it to be vegetarian, I swapped the chicken for white cannellini beans. It was delicious and my hubby actually said he preferred it with the beans over the chicken!
These all look delicious thank you for sharing! And you’re really making me think I need to get an instant pot…
you do!! i actually owned one for almost an entire YEAR before i was brave enough to use it but now it’s a staple in our kitchen!! i truly use it multiple times every week. total game changer!
Oh man, I am this close to getting an instant pot…I think the beef stew alone is enough of a reason. The best thing we had last week was chicken pot pie and tonight we’re having the Korean chicken bowls from How Sweat Eats.
i’ve loved that blog for years ! jessica’s recipes always look so, so good!
We made the most delicious chicken pot pie last week – it was filled to the brim with the usual chicken, peas, celery, and carrots BUT we also added fresh thyme, butternut squash, and tri-color potatoes. Then we did lattice on the top using a flaky crust thing that I can’t think of the name right now. It was DELICIOUS!! We had leftovers for two days and it was toddler approved!
that sounds fantastic!! also, something about using thyme in recipes always makes them taste so comforting to me. i think it must be a nostalgia thing since the smell/flavor of thyme reminds me of my mom’s thanksgiving stuffing.
These look so good! I can’t wait to add some to our menu for next week!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Question for you–do you ever have leftovers? I’ve noticed how often you seem to make dinner five nights a week and while it’s just me and my husband, every recipe we make results in plenty of leftovers so we only cook 2-3 weeknights a week. Do you ever plan for leftovers? Alternatively, do you adjust your portions to prevent them?
BTW, we have LOVED all the recipes of yours that we’ve tried, thanks for always sharing filling, healthy recipes!!
Yes!!! We have leftovers quite often & love them for lunches!
Hi Julie: I love these posts and recipes using the instant pot is a bonus! My New Year’s resolution was to do more meal planning on the weekend to make my weekdays less stressful. Since the weather temperatures have dropped, I have been craving soup. I made “Instant pot Lentil soup with sweet potato” by Cookin Canuck and “Instant pot potato and spinach soup” by From my Bowl. I also made your “Easy Baked Chicken”. It was so delicious. For the comments about picky eaters, both of my children were picky eaters. I never forced them to eat what I prepared. I cooked other food items they would eat. It was less stressful for the family and meals together were a happier gathering. Today, my children are adults and both eat a variety of foods.
This recipe title caught my eye and decided to give it a try. I’m so glad I did, they were delicious! I modified the recipe didn’t use olives and mushrooms just sliced peppers, onions, corn kernels, black beans, cheese. After taking them out added sliced avocado. ?
https://cafedelites.com/oven-baked-barbecue-chicken-pizza-tacos/
Do you have any recommendations for how to cook dinner with little one’s around? I’ve pretty much given up and either prep it all during his nap, make it the night before so I just have to throw it into the oven, or do a slow cooker/hands off meal. When you make recipes that require hands on right before being served, how do you manage? I’d love a post on it!
Oo I can’t wait for the cabbage instant pot adaptation. I tried it today and wasn’t jazzed with my results. But it’s typically so yummy so I’ll keep at it!