Introducing My First Meal Plan! Easy Dinners for a Busy Week
Your dinners planned for the week, with a printable menu + shopping list inside.
Once the Thanksgiving parties are over and the Christmas countdown begins, many of us feel like we’re in the “Love Actually” film with an invisible clock ticking in our heads. There’s so much to do: finish work before the holidays, buy presents, food, chocolates, and champagne, decorate the yard, house, and tree, postcards, sign contracts, and take care of a hundred or so other little things.
For these hurried weeks ahead, I put together a meal plan that I’ve unofficially named “In-Betweener,” as it is designed to ease the rush between these two big days. The recipes I picked won’t require you to spend hours in the kitchen. In fact, most of them (or at least their bases) can be prepped in advance and refrigerated or frozen. You’ll learn three ways to use leftover mashed potatoes, so if you have some in your freezer, take them out, and let’s cook!
For a healthy daily garnish option, I’ve suggested a couple of my favorite dressings for a simple green salad.
Since this is my first meal plan, I’m still figuring out how to make it work and help you plan menus in advance. Please let me know what adjustments you would like to see in the future.
Below you’ll find the weekly menu, the shopping list, and a few helpful notes for cooking ahead.
Printable Menu Card (PDF):
THE SHOPPING LIST
This week’s shopping list is organized in one simple PDF you can download and print.
Each ingredient has a small emoji next to it so you instantly know which recipe it belongs to.
The plan serves 3–4 people, but feel free to scale up or down.
Download the list, print it, or keep it on your phone while shopping. I hope it makes your week feel lighter and your dinners easier.
Printable shopping list (PDF):
THE MEAL PLAN
MONDAY: Chicken & Potato Bake With Melty Cheese
A warm, comforting dinner made with simple ingredients you already have at home. Tender potatoes, juicy chicken, sweet onions, and a golden cheesy topping come together in one pan. Easy to prep, easy to bake, and perfect for starting the week with something satisfying.
TUESDAY: One-Pot Creamy Ground Beef Pasta
A rich, one-pot beef spaghetti that cooks right in its own creamy tomato sauce. Simple, comforting, and packed with flavor.
WEDNESDAY: Easy & Quick Salmon Recipe with Dill Sauce
A bright, creamy salmon dinner that feels special but comes together in one pan. Tender fillets simmer in a lemony dill sauce and pair perfectly with smooth, buttery mashed potatoes. Fresh, comforting, and so simple to make midweek.
+ Mini Potato Cakes
THURSDAY: Beef Stroganoff
A rich, creamy beef dinner that feels deeply cozy after a long day. Tender strips of ribeye simmer in a velvety mushroom-onion sauce with Dijon and sour cream. Comforting, flavorful, and perfect for a cozy Thursday night.
FRIDAY: Baked tilapia fillets in a cream sauce with garlic and herbs
A beautiful Friday dinner with two comforting dishes. Tender tilapia bakes in a velvety garlic-herb cream sauce, and the creamy cabbage gratin adds rich flavor with caramelized onion, thyme, and melted Gruyère. Simple to prepare, yet feels like a special end-of-week meal.
+ Creamy Cabbage Gratin with Onion and Gruyère
LUNCH: Crispy potato and cheese quesadillas
A quick, comforting lunch with crispy tortillas, creamy mashed potatoes, melted cheese, and a savory turkey-ham filling. Golden on the outside, soft and cheesy inside, and so easy to make anytime.
COOKING NOTES & TIPS
Here are a few tips to help you cook ahead, stay organized, and get the most out of this week’s meals.
Prepare Ahead and Save Time:
As you can see from the recipes, mashed potatoes form the base of at least three dishes here. They would also be a great garnish for the beef stroganoff planned for Thursday. To save time in the evening, you can prepare the potatoes in advance, portion them, and freeze or refrigerate them for later use. The same goes for chopping onions and garlic, as well as keeping containers of ready-made chicken or beef stock on hand.
To stock your freezer, you’ll need a few aluminum molds and zip bags.
Beef and chicken stock:
I know I’ve probably bored you by saying in almost every recipe that using a high-quality stock makes all the difference in the final result. Although there are many great ready-made stocks available in stores, they can be costly. In fact, it’s quite affordable to make your own at home.
Here, I’ve shared a recipe for you:
Notes:
Chicken breast & Potato bake
Prepare and bake it until you reach the step where you garnish it with a mixture of diced tomatoes and cheese. Once cooled, you can freeze the casserole for up to three months. To finish, thaw the dish and spread the tomatoes and cheese on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Green cabbage gratin
Gratins are perfect for freezing. Follow the recipe up to the baking step, then freeze. If the gratin was prepared in an aluminum mold, it can be popped in the oven while still frozen. After about 25 to 30 minutes, remove it from the oven, sprinkle Gruyère cheese on top, and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown.
Ground beef pasta sauce
You can make the pasta sauce in advance and store it in the refrigerator or freezer until you’re ready to cook the pasta. Gently warm it up, add the pasta, and follow the final steps in the recipe.
My favorite garnish:
We often serve a simple green salad with our dinners. It could be arugula, iceberg, little gem, oak leaf, or radicchio—whatever we have of these lettuce types with funky names. Sometimes I add fresh herbs, vegetables, and fruits, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, fennel, and apples. The secret to never having boring salads is a good dressing.
The all-time classic is French dressing. To make it, take an empty jar with a lid. Add three tablespoons of olive oil, one tablespoon of cider or balsamic vinegar, half a tablespoon of mustard (Dijon, whole grain, or another mild variety), and half a tablespoon of honey. Close the lid and shake well until the sauce emulsifies. Taste it and adjust the seasoning if you like, but it usually turns out perfectly.
Another dressing I love is based on yogurt. It enhances the flavor of the greens and is even quicker to make. In a small bowl, mix 3-4 tablespoons of plain yogurt (Greek, Turkish, Icelandic, vegan or any) with a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Optionally, you can also grate some lemon zest into it. Mix well with a spoon, then coat your salad leaves.
Thank you for being here. Since this is my very first meal plan, I can’t wait to hear what you think! 💛
XO,
Sophie
Thank you for your extra efforts in tagging ingredients on the shopping list per the recipe it‘ll be used for! With several evenings accounted for, I have to skip one of the meals so this makes it so much faster for me to organize everything. I’m new to your page and can’t wait to try out more recipes :) Wishing you all the best for 2026!
Wow, as always, you have gone above and beyond to help your readers. As you know I don't cook. Ok, I don't is a nice way of saying I CAN'T. Even I don't like the majority of the things I've brewed up in the kitchen. lol However, thanks to your easy to make, delicious meals and step by step instructions I have made a few things that were fabulous (if I do say so myself lol) I'm trying to eat less take out so this meal planner is definitely a big help. Thanks Sophie!!