A Week’s Worth of Healthy Dinners

Meal Ideas for the week

The weekdays can get crazy for everyone, and trying to plan both healthy and quick meals can get put on the back burner. After your hectic day, the last thing you want to think about is what to make for dinner, and you might find yourself heading to grab take-out for the third time this week.

Let us help you out! We’ve come up with a week’s worth of healthy dinners you can make for Monday through Friday. Not only do we have recipes, but we’ve mapped out the ingredients you are going to need and made a grocery list for you! Some of the ingredients you may already have in your fridge or pantry. All you have to do is take inventory of what you have at home and head to the store for the rest. Then, get ready to make some delicious recipes!

 Grocery List: 

 Meat/Protein:

  • 1 pack pre-cooked sausage
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 1 whole rotisserie chicken

 Pantry Items:

  • 1 box of penne pasta
  • Olive oil
  • Herbs and spices
  • 6 cups of chicken broth
  • 16 oz can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 box of brown rice
  • 1 can of tomato sauce
  • Buffalo sauce
  • Ranch dressing
  • 1 package of tortillas (flour or corn)

 Fruits/Vegetables:

  • 1 head of broccoli
  • 1 large zucchini
  • 8 bell peppers (any color)
  • 2 large packs of cherry/grape tomatoes
  • 1 bulb of garlic
  • 1 pack of spinach
  • 2 small yellow onions
  • 1 bag of carrots
  • 1 bag of celery

 Dairy:

  • Parmesan cheese (shaved or shredded)
  • 1 package of shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 package of shredded Mexican cheese
  • Greek yogurt
  • 1 stick of butter

Now that you have all you need to make your meals, let’s take a look at the recipes you will be making for the week. Keep in mind they can all be altered to your liking!

Monday :

Monday night’s dinner is a quick and easy spinach and tomato pasta recipe. All you need to do is cook down your ingredients for the sauce while you are cooking the noodles. You can add red pepper flakes if you are looking for a little heat or choose to leave them out. We chose to use chicken broth rather than white wine for this recipe since we will need it for another recipe later in the week. We are also only using one pack of tomatoes for this dish, and using the other for tomorrow’s dinner. We are also going to save some parmesan for Tuesday night as well.

Tuesday:

Tuesdays seem to be the day things start to get a little crazy. We are still easing into the week and the chaos might be starting to hit. That’s why we planned one of the easiest recipes for this day.

This one-pan sausage and veggies recipe is easy to prepare as well as easy to clean up. All you have to do is chop up all your ingredients and place them on a large baking sheet. Make sure you add some spice you already have or just opt for the trusty salt and pepper. Top it all off with some of the remaining parmesan cheese right when it comes out of the oven!

Wednesday:

For Wednesday night’s dinner, we are going to be cooking up some healthy stuffed bell peppers. This is a fun meal that’s both healthy and filling. With this recipe, you can use either ground turkey or ground beef.  We chose turkey since it has less fat than ground beef. The recipe also calls for 6 bell peppers, but feel free to make as many or as few as you want. If you decide not to make them all, you can add some diced peppers to tomorrow night’s dish.

Thursday: 

Thursday night’s menu consists of buffalo chicken quesadillas! For this recipe, there are a few substitutes we have made to the original recipe. The first substitution we are going to make is using olive oil in place of canola oil since it is much healthier. The other substitution is to use greek yogurt in place of sour cream. Greek yogurt is healthier, and you’ll find that it practically tastes the same as sour cream when added to dishes.

Friday:

The last meal that we have for you to make is this chicken and rice soup. This recipe includes a lot of different ingredients you have already been using throughout the week. For example, you are going to use the remaining rotisserie chicken that you used in Thursday night’s recipe, as well as some of the brown rice from Wednesday night’s recipe.

We chose to make this recipe on Friday night so you can have leftovers for the rest of the weekend. You can also just freeze it and save it for a weeknight you don’t want to cook!

Happy Cooking! 

We hope you enjoyed this week’s worth of meal prepping, and that you have gained some recipe ideas along the way! Whether you make all of these recipes or just try one, it can be a great habit to make and eat a home-cooked meal. And besides – you might just find it’s easier than you thought!