I began this series on PBF 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.
Last week’s meals looked pretty typical and included easy eats, leftovers and some tried and true favorite recipes. Hopefully something below looks good to you and gives you something new you might want to try for dinner in your house!
Also, before diving into our meals, I wanted to share a quick side note because this inevitably pops up whenever I share our boys’ meals: Yes, they do often eat slightly different meals than we do. And yes, I am very much okay with how we approach dinnertime in our house. It’s not much extra work because they will usually eat some part of our dinner paired with a fruit or 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.) I let go 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) and feeding our kids used to be an extremely stressful thing for me, especially as a first-time mom to a smaller child. 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!
Week of Weeknight Meals: August 2023
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Monday: Leftover Shepherd’s Pie
Ryan had a work dinner on Monday night and since there was just enough shepherd’s pie leftover from Sunday night’s dinner to feed one, I jumped on it! I love leftovers and shepherd’s pie makes wonderful leftovers. It’s kind of like soup or chili in that the flavors only intensify and get better if they have a little time to sit. I’ve been on a shepherd’s pie kick ever since my sister made it when we visited family in Florida and have been making it every Sunday night since! I’m sure we’ll get sick of it eventually but right now I’m loving it.
On the boys’ plates: Grilled cheese, a few bites of shepherd’s pie, strawberries and green beans
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Tuesday: Turkey Vegetable Meatloaf with Roasted Brussels Sprouts (and Rainbow Cake!)
My turkey vegetable meatloaf continues to be an all-time favorite in our house both for the flavor and for the fact that it’s truly jam-packed with vegetables. One little hack I use when making this recipe: I double the vegetables when I prep this meatloaf and freeze half of them so I can simply defrost the veggies and make this meatloaf without any veggie prep the next time we’re craving it in our house. On the side we had roasted brussels sprouts and thick slices of Rhett’s rainbow cake for his birthday!
On the boys’ plates: Turkey meatloaf with ketchup, blueberries, cucumbers with salt and rainbow cake
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Wednesday: Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Skewers with Macaroni and Cheese and Arugula Salad
Ryan had a last-minute business trip to Chicago pop up on Wednesday night so I was riding solo again. I wasn’t overly in the mood to cook so I figured it was a good time to try some new-to-me Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Skewers from Costco. While the boys weren’t into them (hence the mac and cheese you see mentioned below), I thought they were delicious, especially when paired with a little barbeque sauce for dipping. I initially bought them to have on hand for easy lunches but they came in handy for a quick and simple weeknight dinner, too. I paired them with a simple arugula salad and white cheddar mac and cheese.
On the boys’ plates: ALDI’s Simply Nature organic white cheddar mac and cheese, carrot slices and strawberries
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Thursday: Air Fryer Teriyaki Trout with Curried Corn and Ginger Sesame Broccolini
This is the kind of simple dinner I love and could easily make and eat every night. Whenever I’m at a loss for what to feed our family, I go with the basics: Some kind of simple marinated protein, a flavorful veggie side and an easy-to-make starch. I used a teriyaki sauce I bought from Thrive Market to marinate the trout, frozen corn to make the curried corn (I still need to share this recipe for you guys because it’s one of Ryan’s all-time favorites and SO easy) and ginger sesame broccolini — aka the only recipe that can make me want to eat an entire pound of broccoli.
On the boys’ plates: Shrimp, ginger sesame broccolini and corn
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Friday: Steak and Arugula Grain Bowl
We were in the mood to grill out on Friday night and since it’s been a hot second since we’ve made steak of any kind in our house, this meal felt like a bit of a treat to me! I almost forgot how delicious hot steak right off the grill can be and loved this sliced ribeye served on top of a mix of arugula and brown rice and a simple honey vinaigrette dressing. (My eyes were a little bigger than my stomach on this one and I ended up saving some of my steak for lunch the next day. I love cold steak, too!)
On the boys’ plates: ALDI’s organic hot dogs in whole wheat buns, watermelon, bell pepper slices
Question of the Day
- Any recipes you’ve been loving for dinner lately?
- Do you make similar meals for dinner every week or change things up?
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Yum! Looks like a delicious week. Out kids eat different things ALL the time and it keeps everyone happy and makes for a nicer family meal. The other day I told someone I would NEVER let my husband order for me at a restaurant. I would always want to choose myself. Then I realized that’s what we make our kids do all the time… Your boys are happy and fed! P.S. I do count corn as a veggie tough 🙂 Close enough right?
As empty nesters and since we’re not dealing with kid schedules, we have a relatively simple schedule. Mondays (or the first of the week) is always air-fried salmon, Tuesdays is usually thin cut chicken breasts with Tuscan sauce, Shrimp in lemon butter over rice goes third, Thursdays are a toss up of whatever we’re currently craving (mazetti was last week’s choice, but we’ll do tacos in a pinch). We make homemade pizzas on Saturday (when we’re home), and alternate between picking up sandwiches/burgers at a local pizza place or make kielbasa sandwiches with homemade kaiser rolls for the other “weekend days”. This loose structure really helps keep me from getting bored with dinner and still allows for some creativity if needed. LOVE seeing your recipes & meals, Julie… and love how adventurous your boys are!
I love these posts and truly appreciate you also including what you served the boys too. While I attempt to feed my picky eater some of our dinners or some version of it that isnt always the case and thats perfectly ok! Fed is best and you provide your kiddos with balanced meals! I miss the old school version of blogging as seeing meals was always my favorite. OG reader here!
Also- to answer your question(s) we typically always have some kind of taco or mexican night. Recently I made a mexican chicken soup that I always just wing it. On Sunday we made a kalua pork butt in the crockpot which I served with sauteed purple cabbage & gandules with rice- gandules are green pigeon peas and typically eaten in puerto rican cuisine (my grandmother was puerto rican so I learned to make them from her)
Standing ovation for your paragraph about how you feed your children and politely asking people to refrain from expressing judgement. Sometimes I feel like there is TOO much parenting advice accessible to us on the internet, so everyone has an opinion, and it just inevitably causes people to question if they are doing the right thing. Sometimes my son eats what we have for dinner (or some portion of it) and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he eats frozen chicken nuggets for dinner 3 nights in a row. It’s what works best for our family and he’s a healthy, growing boy.
Love this post and how you approach the (I’m assuming) negative comments about how you feed your kiddos. Mama knows best, heck your kids eat more fruits and veggies than my husband does so you’re doing a great job!
I’m not sure if you already posted it, but any chance you have the recipe for the shepherds pie? That looks delish!
In my experience, the people saying their kids eat whatever they eat for dinner are people who don’t have picky eater kids! And they often have no idea just how challenging it can be to feed a picky child a balanced meal. I have two boys and my oldest is a picky eater. As a new mom I thought I was doing something wrong because I just couldn’t get him to eat what we eat all the time. So now I feed my picky eater, strong willed son similarly to how you feed your boys. I also had another son who loves to eat everything and realized there is absolutely nothing I’ve done to either of them to make them the way there are!
You are doing a great job feeding your family!
I love that you include what your boys eat! Not only does it help knowing that someone else is approaching it the same way but it’s giving this tired mom some ideas- 💡 grilled cheese yum.