I figured the first week of 2024 would be a good one to recap as part of my Week of Weeknight Meals series since there was a decent variety in our meals last week but they also included a couple of tried-and-true recipe favorites.
Week of Weeknight Meals: January 2024
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Monday: Easy Marinated Pork Chops with Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Greens
Our first meal of 2024 looked like a lot of the first meals we’ve enjoyed on the first day of the year in years past! As a kid, I always enjoyed the meal my mom would make for dinner on New Year’s Day, as she said each of the foods represented something special to bring you luck in the coming year. As an adult, I find myself making something similar for our family for the very same reason and for the sake of nostalgia. On our plates: Marinated pork chops, black-eyed peas and collard greens (this recipe was a winner!), for prosperity, good fortune and good luck in the new year!
This recipe was a little polarizing in our house. I thought it was wonderful but it wasn’t Ryan’s favorite. This isn’t a huge surprise as I love any and all seafood prepared in a myriad of ways whereas Ryan, for the most part, prefers shrimp as shrimp alone and not incorporated into other recipes. We both still cleared our plates but this is a recipe I’ll be making for myself for lunch rather than dinner for the family in the future. (My recipe changes: I used full-fat dairy products in the recipe and also added a diced onion to the skillet when I added the sliced cherry tomatoes.)
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Wednesday: Lemon Pepper Roasted Chicken
I’m 99 percent sure I have not prepared a full roasted chicken using a recipe other than the one we love so much from The Whole Smiths Good Food Cookbook for years. I always triple the number of vegetables in the recipe, however, because they’re so, so good and we cannot get enough of them!
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Thursday: Daily Harvest Bake with Leftover Chicken
This was our easiest meal of the week thanks to freezer food and leftover chicken. I baked one of the Daily Harvest bakes I had in our freezer (a gigante bean and artichoke bake I think must’ve been discontinued because I no longer see it on their site) and added chicken we had leftover from Wednesday night’s meal. Simple and delicious!
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Friday: Baked Ricotta Chicken
I love ricotta cheese so much and I’m not sure why I don’t incorporate it into my meals more often. Thankfully Friday night’s dinner had plenty of it and for that reason alone, I loved it! I made a new-to-me recipe from the blog Salt & Lavender and Ryan and I both loved this meal. I admittedly did not follow the recipe exactly (I added spinach and extra chicken I sliced into pieces before cooking and reduced the amount of marinara sauce so it wasn’t too saucy) but the blogger recipe I found provided a good outline. Though we enjoyed ours with fresh crusty bread on the side, I think this would be delicious served over penne or another kind of pasta in the future!
Question of the Day
What was the best meal you ate last week?
Do you have any food-related goals for 2024? I’m hoping to get better at prioritizing meal planning and food prep on the weekends because it makes such a difference when it comes to getting nutrient-dense and delicious food on the table for our family every night.
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Salt and Lavender is my go to for recipes! Hers are simple, but flavorful. My favorite (and the way I first found her) is the buffalo chicken soup!
We tried her broccoli cheddar soup last week, and it was another winner!
Ohh! Broccoli cheddar soup is calling my name on this cold day!
Do the boys eat some version of these dishes too? Mom of 2 boys here and we try to all eat the same but know sometimes they don’t like to eat what we do!
Can you bring back the kids’ meals? It’s confusing when you talk about meals being a hit “with the family” when the boys are eating something else.
Hi Jenn! If I say something is a “hit with the family” that is what I mean! It doesn’t happen often but sometimes everyone (or at least 4/5 of us) like something and I consider that a win for the whole family! I did not say anything in this post was a hit with our whole family because none of these meals were a slam dunk for all 5 of us. 🙂 But yes, I’ll try to bring back adding kid meals to these posts, too!
Hi Robyn!! Our kids definitely don’t eat exactly what we eat!! I’ve actually highlighted their plates in past posts and will try to bring that back if it might be helpful. For an example of a post where I mention there meals, you may check out this one: https://www.pbfingers.com/week-of-weeknight-meals-august-2023/ I hope this helps!!! You’re definitely not alone in the struggle to get kids to eat what the adults in the family eat!
These all look great! Always appreciate seeing more healthy meal ideas! I also highly recommend you check out Caro Chambers. She shares plenty of free recipes on her instagram (and paid substack). But the best part is that everything she makes is simple, delicious and (mostly) kid-friendly. She’s a fellow mom of 3 little boys, so I feel like she gets what my life is like (and yours!).