Last weeks meals were, as always, rather simple and focused on leftovers and, apparently, a lot of chicken. I didn’t even realize we ate chicken every single weeknight last week! (Over the weekend no chicken popped up on the menu so it wasn’t a full week-long streak.) So much chicken is definitely unusual for our family but when we have food leftover, we’re going to eat it and not waste it, so chicken popped up on the menu a lot. At least every meal was still tasty! Below you will find photos of last week’s dinners — hopefully you like chicken! — and as I think through our meals this week, I’m thinking we may need a little chicken break. Haha!
Week of Weeknight Meals: July 2021
Monday: Leftover Rotisserie Chicken with Swiss Chard and Wild Rice
We had some leftover rotisserie chicken on hand from Sunday night’s dinner and, after sautéing some swiss chard in sesame oil, ginger and coconut aminos, I added the remaining chicken to the pan to soak up the ginger sesame flavor. After throwing in some wild rice, dinner was served!
Tuesday: Rosemary Garlic Baked Chicken Thighs with Figs, Onions and Asparagus
Our fig tree is in its prime right now and producing so many figs every single day. We’re eating them at rapid speed and over the weekend we started giving them away to friends and neighbors and we still cannot keep up with them! I trying to get creative in the kitchen and use them in various recipes and this one was such a winner! Inspired by this recipe from The New York Times, I baked chicken thighs with rosemary and figs and added onions to the mix because we’re onion-obsessed in this house. I served the chicken with a side of asparagus and we loved this meal!
Wednesday: Leftover Chicken Grain Bowl
Leftovers for the win! I repurposed the leftover chicken, figs, onions and asparagus into grain bowls for dinner on Wednesday night. The grains actually came from one of ALDI’s Simply Nature organic 90-second grain pouches so to say this dinner was a breeze would be an understatement. We had a busy day on Wednesday so this worked out well.
Thursday: Chicken Fajita Bowls
The oven baked chicken fajitas recipe in Juli Bauer’s Paleo Cookbook has been a go-to for me for years because it never disappoints. (Tina from Carrots ‘n’ Cake also has a shortcut version of this recipe on her blog if you want to check it out!) It’s a simple recipe that’s full of flavor and we served the chicken fajitas bowl-style with an assortment of toppings including rice, tomatoes, shredded lettuce, sour cream, cilantro and some spruced-up guacamole made with black beans.
Friday: BBQ Pulled Chicken with Broccoli Slaw
Things were busy in our house on Friday thanks to Chase’s birthday party prep so we kept dinner simple. I made a batch of BBQ pulled chicken by following one of my favorite recipes from the blog Ambitious Kitchen. I also made the slaw from her blog but swapped in a bag of broccoli slaw mix for all of the chopped veggies to further simplify things. I had no doubt we’d love this dinner since we’ve made it a ton of times in the past and it was a hit once again!
Question of the Day
What is the best thing you ate for dinner last week?
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Hi Julie, Thank you for sharing these posts, they always give me some good meal inspiration. I could make fajita bowls tonight actually.
One question or maybe post request I had was what you have been doing for lunches? I now work from home and always find figuring out lunch a little bit more of a think than breakfast or dinner.
Hi! So glad you like these posts 🙂 As for your question, for lunch, I often have leftovers, make a large smoothie (often paired with something else or a smaller portion of leftovers) or will throw together a grain bowl (base of gains + veggies + some kind of protein — usually edamame, lentils, beans, chicken, salmon, etc.).
Love these. That wild rice dish has me 😍. What do the kiddos eat? I’d love a round up of your plates with theirs too. And in reply to the comment above, have you done a smoothie round up? I’d love some full meal type smoothie ideas.
Hi India!! I often feed the boys deconstructed versions of our meals or make them their own dinners which come together fast. (See my reply to Courtney’s comment for my feelings about this!!) And I love the idea of a smoothie roundup post and will keep that in mind to share in the future!
Julie…do you have a pulled pork recipe that you love that you would share? And if you do -what do you typically buy -pork shoulder, butt, etc? PS. I ask because your pulled chicken recipe sounds delicious but my group here likes pulled pork much better. Thank you for any recipe you can share.
Hi! YESSS! This is my FAVORITE carnitas recipe –> https://www.ninjakitchen.com/recipes/search/0/all/101359/carnitas-tacos/ It calls for pork shoulder and is SOOOO good!
Thank you so much Julie. I can’t wait to make this for my family. I appreciate you always willing to share great recipes with all of us. Have a great day!!!
Alright so I need to ask-do your kiddos eat these meals? I know my picky 4 1/2 year old would not be on board for most of these meals, though they look delicious! I’m just curious ;). Thank you!
Nope!! Haha! Our boys wouldn’t be into these meals the way we eat them either. I often give them deconstructed versions of our dinners or throw together something different for them. I used to stress about not feeding them meals that are identical to ours but let that go years ago — reading this blog post by a registered dietician made me feel A LOT better about that!! –> https://www.theleangreenbean.com/tips-for-feeding-toddlers/
This makes me feel so much better. Not to be, but even now, my teens are pretty picky and simple eaters and so I always did make them different versions of what we had even though there were some people who would say to me don’t do that, etc. Its’s easy to tell someone else what to do but harder to make that always happen. And one of my children does have severe food allergies and special needs, so my goal was to always provide him with many choices and not cause him to have any negative association with food. He has always been very tiny for his age due to medical issues and the last thing we needed was him to refuse to eat. As my teens are getting older, they do try more things but are by no means adventurous eaters, but we are not either. So thank you for your honesty and not making others feel bad about offering different options to their children.
Would love to know how you present these meals to the kids ? Like deconstructed ? Take some things out etc ☺️
Hi Aleisha!! See my reply to Courtney above — she asked a similar question! As an example for how I served a deconstructed version of these meals, for the fajitas night, I gave the boys quesadillas with black beans + rice and then added some raw carrots and watermelon on the side. Definitely not identical to our meals but not a lot of extra work involved for me either!
Perfect timing for this post. I’ve been on a cooking strike since I had my third baby, but I definitely need to get back in the kitchen. Every time I look at recipes to plan meals though I just feel uninspired and overwhelmed. Seeing real dinners is a great reminder of how uncomplicated meals need to be. Thanks!
I’m so glad this is helpful for you! And totally get that postpartum cooking strike — it always takes me a while to find my groove again post-baby 💜