As always, photos are snapped in real-time and no fancy food photography is allowed. Dinners around here are never complicated and below you’ll see a mix of one-dish casseroles, a simple salad and an easy throw-together pasta. It’s my hope that at least one of our meals below will pop out at you and give you some dinnertime inspiration the next time you’re trying to figure out what to make at the end of a long day.
Week of Weeknight Meals: March 2025
Also, I brought back notes about what our boys ate each evening at your request! For anyone new to our dinnertime approach with our kids, yes, they do often eat different meals than we do. And yes, I am very much okay with how we handle feeding our kids in our house. It’s not much extra work because they will often eat some part of our dinner paired with a fruit or raw veggie that takes very little time to prep. (Believe me, I’ve read plenty about only offering your kids what you eat and we do still offer them our dinners and new foods to try all the time.)
Feeding our kids used to be an extremely stressful thing for me, especially as a first-time mom to a very small child. I let go of a lot of the guilt and anxiety that surrounded their meals years ago (this blog post by a dietician blogger friend did wonders to shift my mindset). I kindly ask for your respect regarding our choices and how we feed our children. You may not agree with it and it might not be the way things are done in your house and that’s okay!
Monday: Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
I meal prepped this chicken cordon bleu casserole on Sunday so it was a breeze to reheat and eat on Monday after a busy day of school, piano practice and the usual Monday craziness. I followed this recipe and added a full bag of frozen broccoli to the casserole before baking (I tossed it with the chicken and the ham). Ryan and I LOVED this one. (Our boys weren’t super into it.) It was one of those ultimate comfort food recipes to the grown ups in our house!
On our boys’ plates: A small serving of the above casserole, grilled cheese, broccoli, strawberries
Tuesday: Air Fryer Chicken Thighs with Milkbread Rolls and Carrot Apple Slaw
This meal was one of the easiest meals to assemble last week but also one of the tastiest! I made the chicken thighs by following this recipe I shared before that we love so much from Pinch of Yum. (I make 8x the amount of seasoning at one time so we have it in a jar to use on our chicken on busy weeknights. Highly recommend! This seasoning mixed with a little brown sugar is also a great shortcut version.) We served the chicken with rolls from Milkbread, a favorite local restaurant I hope will one day ship their rolls and milkbread across the country because it’s unreal.
The side that stole the show was my carrot apple slaw which is something I’ve truly been making every single week for the past couple of months. I love it because no cooking is involved, it stays well in the fridge for a few days after making it (great for lunchtime leftovers) and it pairs well with so many different kinds of protein. I’m planning to share the recipe on the blog this week, so stay tuned!
On our boys’ plates: Applegate Farms organic chicken nuggets, carrot apple slaw, Milkbread rolls with butter
Wednesday: Cheeseburger Salad
Wednesday nights are soccer nights in our house so dinner needs to be quick and easy. Cheeseburger salads checked this box for us! There are a million and one burger salad recipes out there and I combined a few of them to make this creation. I topped chopped romaine lettuce with crumbled burger, roasted potatoes, shredded cheese and edamame and drizzled the salad with this dressing from SkinnyTaste. It was pretty good but I found myself wishing I had tomatoes, avocado and crumbled bacon on hand to include in my salad. I just felt like it needed a few more fun things to be a big win for me.
On our boys’ plates: Cheeseburgers with ketchup, pickles, edamame, orange slices
Thursday: Ricotta Pie
This one was interesting but in a good way! I did a little experimenting in the kitchen in an effort to make a pasta dish with higher protein and combined cooked pasta and hearts of palm “noodles” with blended cottage cheese I mixed with riced cauliflower (you couldn’t even taste the cauliflower), egg and chicken and then I stirred it all up with Rao’s marinara before topping it with shredded cheese and baking the pasta dish for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. I topped it with parmesan cheese before eating and Ryan and I loved this one! And I think this one could even be blog-worthy if you guys are open to something a little unique, but I want to make a few changes (namely swapping out the chicken for Italian chicken sausage for more flavor) before sharing.
On our boys’ plates: Pasta with marinara sauce, carrots, apple slices
Friday: Steak with Carrot Apple Slaw and Green Beans and Oreo Pie for Dessert
Rhett and I whipped up another batch of my carrot apple slaw on Friday for lunch (he loves helping me anytime I use my rotary grater) so I used the leftovers as a side to serve with our steaks along with green beans. In honor of Pi Day (3.14), we made an Oreo pie that our entire family easily polished off in one sitting. It was so easy and so good!
On our boys’ plates: Steak or chicken nuggets (depending on the kid), carrot apple slaw, green beans, blackberries and Oreo pie for dessert
QUESTION OF THE DAY
Tell me about the best meal you ate last week!
Any recent weeknight dinner wins in your house? Bonus points if they’re healthy and easy!
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You weren’t kidding about that grater… it’s amazing! I re-gifted a different rotary grater I had because I love this one so much. Thanks for sharing!
All the recipes please! Also, are you still loving your bake ware? I’m on the hunt and I remember you raving about yours.
Yes, please share that carrot apple salad recipe! Hosting a group for dinner this Saturday – already planning on making that chicken. Would love the salad to go with it!
I have a nine and a three year-old and I am with you on the feeding kids what they like even if it’s a separate meal. It’s really no trouble for me to quickly put something together for them. And as a former picky eater, who can still remember what it felt like to gag while forcing down foods that I didn’t like… I just can’t do that to my kids. And I HATE wasting food “serving them a little of what we’re eating” … like I know they’re not going to eat it! Anyways. It works well for our family. I grew out of my picky eating when I became an adult and maybe they will too. Thanks for sharing!!
I’ve been making the carrot apple slaw since you shared last summer and I’m obsessed!! Any slaw with cilantro is my jam
For the Oreo pie did you use cool whip would whipped cream work?
I would love the recipe for the spaghetti with ricotta. What are hearts of palm noodles? Do tell!
They’re Palmini noodles and they’re shockingly good, especially if you mix them in with traditional pasta and a flavorful meaty sauce! Here they are on Amazon in case you can’t find them locally: https://amzlink.to/az0FgHWz2nfNy