We’re in a busy season of life, so I tend to plan quick and simple meals each week. There are endless websites to search for meal ideas (Pinterest, anyone?), but I’m always curious to find out what people I know are actually feeding their families. With that said, I decided to share our dinner menu for this week to hopefully provide some “real life” inspiration.

I’ll be the first to tell you that we don’t always eat the healthiest foods. We eat pre-packaged items and other “convenience” foods. We are regulars at Chick-Fil-A.  I don’t always cook vegetables at every meal, and some nights we end up just eating a bowl of cereal because it’s just easy. I used to feel a lot of guilt about not cooking homemade, healthy meals every night, but the fact of the matter is that I just can’t. And I’m okay with that for now.

I plan out our menu on the weekends for the following week, and then I create a grocery list based on that menu. I try to use as many items that we already have in our pantry/freezer to keep costs down. I have found that this method helps me to avoid overbuying and takes away the stress of having to come up with meals on the fly.

Here’s our dinner menu for this week:

Philly Cheesesteak Hoagies
Kettle Chips
Fresh Fruit Salad

Grilled Chicken Breasts
Corn
Asparagus

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
Breadsticks

English Muffins
Turkey Sausage
Eggs
Fresh Fruit

Ribeye Steaks
Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli

Baked Ham
Lima Beans
Twice Baked Potatoes

You can’t get any easier than the breakfast meal or the caesar salad. The Philly Cheesesteak Hoagies are super simple, too! Aaron will be home most nights this week, so our menu is actually a little more “robust” than usual since he’ll be here to grill the chicken and steaks.

I should probably add that Turner generally won’t eat everything that we eat. We always offer him what we eat, but if we see that he’s completely refusing a veggie or side item, we don’t force the issue and will just give him some fresh fruit or yogurt instead.

What are some of your go-to dinner ideas? I’d love to hear them!