Our May and June Two Week Dinner Rotation
Last year, I started doing an 8 week meal rotation.
I come up with two weeks of complete dinner plans and then we rotate through them for eight weeks.
Having the same meal every two weeks means it’s not so often you’re just SICK of it, and an eight week block lets you eat pretty seasonally.
I shared the meal rotation we used in January and February and then I took March and April off.
It feels like freedom for about one week to make whatever I want and then I’m like “oh, this is the worst.”
So we’re back on the bandwagon with some new spring dinner ideas, especially as we deal with home renovations and moving this month.
I need to not be thinking about dinner every night – it just gets so old.
Here’s what is on our family dinner menu for the next eight weeks:
Spring Dinner Ideas
WEEK 1:
- Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup with tortilla chips and pineapple
- Greek Sweet Potato Bowls with pita bread and grapes
- Potato Frittata with Bacon and Feta with spinach salad
- Chicken Salad Sandwiches with chips and apples
- Homemade Pizza with roasted broccoli
- Takeout
- Pesto Salmon with lemon roasted potatoes, green salad and dinner rolls
WEEK 2:
- Breakfast burritos with spinach smoothie
- Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta with green salad and strawberries
- Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad with muffins
- Thai Chicken and Noodle Soup with naan bread and mangos
- French Dip Sandwiches with apples and sugar snap peas
- Takeout
- Grilled Chicken with Coconut-Jalapeño Sauce with rice and roasted green beans
Of course, there are some nights where we just have leftovers instead or I make pancakes or something, but those happen less frequently because I know from the beginning of the week exactly what I’m making and I have all the ingredients to get dinner on the table.
I’d love to hear what you’re cooking for dinner right now!
I actually started a new system this past year. I plan four weeks of meals and rotate them three times. I keep it in a Google doc with the ingredients needed for each meal. So it is three months or a full season of meals before moving on to the next set of meals. My family would balk at repeating every 2 weeks but repeating monthly seems to work. I am just completing the year mark since starting this. So now I have a full years worth of meals to use. 🙌 When I got to my “spring” menu again, I just spent a few minutes looking through it and making some tweaks on recipes that weren’t super successful on rotation or that I was sick of. I also sometimes swap out a meal in the week if I have a new recipe I want to try or something in the fridge that needs to be used up. But overall I just use what is on that week’s plan and can easily order whatever is needed to make them, thanks to the list of needed ingredients on the meal sheet. It’s been life changing!
Oh man, I need much more variety than two weeks! I started something this year that is working really well so far. I printed off a six week calendar and looked over my list of meals we like and filled in the blanks. At the beginning of the week I make adjustments for we I feel like or if we have other dinner plans. The next six weeks I’ll grab something I didn’t make from the previous calendar or just keep going through my list of meals. I’m always trying to add new meals to the list. Either way you do it, it’s SO nice not to stare at the week on Sunday evening trying to figure out what to make. Planning might just be my love language haha.