Welcome back to a new year of dinner ideas and weekly meal plans. Check in every week to find 7 yummy ideas to help you and your family eat at home. We all know it can be tough to cook every night, but I find that a solid plan helps immensely.

The weeks that I don’t have time to come up with a menu are the weeks that we end up ordering take out, or going through the drive through. I’ve also found that it helps to have a few really easy back up meals.

Even with all the best intentions in the world, life gets in the way sometimes. Having something simple in the freezer can be the difference between a home cooked meal, and greasy expensive fast food.

Dinner Menu Week 53

Day 1

Slow Cooker Carne Asada Street Tacos – I made these for Dinner with the Rollos and they turned out really delicious!

Day 2

Chicken Teriyaki Stir Fry Noodles – I found a great stir fry veg mix that came with a little teriyaki sauce packet (but you could use a bottle of teriyaki sauce as well). Brown some ground pork, add the stir fry veggies and cook until al dente. Stir in the teriyaki sauce and toss in the noodles. I used the fresh stir fry noodle packages you find in the produce section, but you could also cook up a pot of spaghetti or fettuccine.

Day 3

Slow Cooker BBQ Short Ribs, Mashed Potatoes, Side Salad – I found a great package of short ribs on sale. Put them in the crock pot with half a jar of your favorite bbq sauce before heading off to work. When you get home (hopefully more than 7 hours later) you will have super tender short ribs. Dice and boil a couple of russet potatoes, then mash in salt, pepper, butter, milk, and Parmesan cheese. You could also add in cream cheese, sour cream, shredded cheese, or basically anything that comes from a cow (aka dairy).

Our side salads are pretty basic this week. Lettuce, tomato, yellow bell pepper, black olives, mozzarella cheese, croutons.

Day 4

Banh Mi Pizza – Wait! If you’re not sure what this is, or it sounds weird to you… Try it! This has so much flavor and is really delicious.

Day 5

Country Fried Steak, Eggs, Hash Browns Here’s a good recipe– This is much easier to make than you may think. I found a couple of cheap sirloin steaks, pound them out with the meat mallet, coat both sides with flour/salt/pepper/paprika/cayenne mixture, dip in milk/egg mixture, put back in the flour again, then pan fry for a few minutes each side ( from Ree Drummond).

Cook a couple of eggs however you like them (as long as you like them over easy or sunny side up), and I just have a bag of frozen shredded hash browns.

Day 6

Pork Chalupa – We actually have some that my sister in law made, but this easy crock pot recipe is great!

Day 7

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto – A very basic, but hearty meal. Cut up a couple of chicken breasts in 3/4 inch chunks. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat some oil up in a pan and cook the chicken over medium high heat.

Meanwhile, cook up either a boxed or frozen mushroom risotto. Trader Joe’s has both that are easy and delicious. Put the risotto in a bowl and top with the cooked chicken, and shaved Parmesan cheese.

Check out this page for the other 52 weeks worth of ideas. Or you can go here and see all of our recipes!