Week One of Budget-Friendly Weeknight Dinner Ideas to Simplify Your Grocery Shopping

Hey there, fellow foodies! Are you staring blankly into your fridge, wondering what to make for dinner tonight? Say goodbye to endless scrolling through recipe apps or getting stuck in a meal-planning rut.

Here in the Barthelman house we use meal planning for our dinner ideas Monday through Friday every week. Using this strategy helps me stay in budget while grocery shopping, know that I have ingredients for the meals, and makes life a little less stressful after long days at work. I would recommend using a grocery pickup option if your local grocery store offers one to help stay in budget as well!

What tends to work best for our family is to plan for 5 dinners per week. I do not usually plan for the weekends, for we often use the weekends to eat at restaurants or munch on leftovers from the week. It also happens occasionally where our week night plans change and we don't eat the meal I had planned for- in which case it just gets pushed back to the weekend! Do whatever works best for you and your family when meal planning! I like to keep my "staple sides" on hand for when my family might be a little hungrier than normal to add to the meal. These sides include fresh fruit, cottage cheese, baby carrots.

Week Night Meals for Sept. 23-27

Monday

Pigs in a Blanket, Sauteed Green Beans with Bacon and Onion

I have done these with both hot dogs and little smokies, whichever I can find cheapest at the store. If using hot dogs we enjoy adding a slice of cheese in the "blanket" wrapped with cresent rolls.

Tuesday

Chicken Parmesan Casserole, Salad Greens with Italian Dressing

The recipe linked above is a tried and true one in our house. To make it even easier on yourself, pre-make this casserole when you have more free time on the weekend so it is ready to pop in the oven on Tuesday night! I have also doubled this recipe and kept one in the freezer for another time to make week nights just a little easier.

Wednesday

Tilapia, Quinoa, Broccoli

To keep this one budget friendly I usually lean towards getting frozen Tilapia at either my local ALDI or Costco. Adding spices such as garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and onion powder can give this could-be bland fish a punch. Feel free to experiment with different blends of spices to make it your own! Throw it on a sheet pan with your frozen broccoli and bake until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees (typically 20 minutes at 400 degrees gets it there for me!). For the quinoa, I find that putting the serving size that best fits my family into a rice cooker gets the job done the fastest on those nights where you don't have a whole lot of time to spend in the kitchen.

Thursday

Shrimp Stir Fry, Potstickers, Rice

My kids absolutely LOVE shrimp, so we do this one often! Grab a bag or two of frozen shrimp (we enjoy getting the tail off ones just to make it a little easier, but get what your family loves!) and any frozen stir fry veggie mix. Even better if you chop up the vegetables you might have sitting leftover in your fridge from the previous week/weekend! We tend to use this as an "everything but the kitchen sink" stir fry to use up any leftovers. Pair it with your favorite teriyaki sauce and now you're cookin'! Bring out that rice cooker again and have the rice cooking while you are working on the stir fry so that everything is ready together. Check out these potstickers as a fun little side dish to add!

Friday

PIZZA NIGHT!

We love having a night dedicated to pizza every week. No matter what, we are always making some

kind of pizza whether that be homemade, frozen, mini tortilla pizzas, etc. We keep staples in our house at all times such as pepperoni, sausage, pizza sauce (homemade- recipe coming soon!), cheese, and sourdough starter for yummy crust every time. Depending on the time you have on your Friday nights, choose whichever version of pizza works best for your family.

I hope this list makes your life a little easier this week and your grocery bill a little lower.

Have the best week!

With love,

Katie Barthelman