One Shop, 5 Dinners #1: A Full Week of Easy Weeknight Meals

Here’s exactly what I bought, what I prepped and what I cooked every night this week. Every dinner was on the table in 30 minutes or less and nothing went to waste.

The Sunday Prep Session

This is where the magic happens. Twenty minutes on Sunday sets up every dinner for the week:

1. Dice all the onions at once. Doing it five separate times across the week is tedious. Do it once, store them in a container in the fridge and grab what you need each night.
2. Prep the proteins. I formed the meatballs for Monday, prepped the arayes mince mixture for Friday, sliced the chicken for Wednesday’s parmesan crusted chicken and Thursday’s stir fry. Getting the proteins ready to cook is the single biggest time-saver.
3. Make the garlic butter. Making the garlic butter takes a few minutes on Sunday but seems to save so much energy on a Monday when I just don’t want to be in the kitchen for long.
4. Make the teriyaki sauce. It takes 2 minutes and having it ready in the fridge means Thursday’s dinner is just cooking and tossing.
5. Cook the rice. Cold rice makes better fried rice and having cooked rice in the fridge opens up quick lunch options too. After cooking, spread the rice out on a baking sheet and cool completely then transfer to freezer bags or containers and freeze or refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

The whole session takes about 20 minutes and the payoff across the week is enormous.

This Week’s Dinners

Monday: Cheesy Baked Meatballs with Garlic Bread

The meatballs and garlic butter are already formed from the Sunday prep, so Monday is essentially just a quick cook and assembly job. Warm the meatballs in tomato sauce, top with mozzarella, bake until bubbly and golden. The garlic bread goes in alongside (or pop into the air fryer).

Tuesday: Fish Tacos with Avocado Salsa

A complete change of pace from Monday. Seasoned white fish cooked until crispy, tucked into tortillas with a quick avocado salsa. The salsa is just smashed avocado with jalapeño, lemon and salt. This is the lightest meal of the week and it comes together in about 20 minutes. In the original recipe the fish is grilled but this week I decided to air fry the fillets and it worked so well. Everything is fresh and bright and it feels like a totally different cuisine from the night before, which is exactly the point.

Wednesday: Easy Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Air Fryer Green Beans

The chicken is already sliced from Sunday so all you’re doing is doing a quick dredge and pan-frying until golden. The green beans are blanched and dressed in my easy lemon parmesan dressing. I added some air fryer sweet potatoes too.

Thursday: Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry

I used my chicken stir fry recipe but swopped the stir fry sauce for my homemade teriyaki sauce. The chicken is prepped already and the teriyaki sauce is made, so Thursday’ is pure speed’s dinner comes together in a flash. Hot pan, chicken, stir fry vegetables and instant noodles. Everything tossed in that glossy teriyaki sauce. This was the fastest dinner of the week, about 10 minutes from pan to plate, and my kids demolished it.

Friday: Beef Arayes with Yogurt Dipping Sauce

The mince mixture has been frozen since Sunday so I just thawed it before stuffing into halved pita breads. I pan-fried them until golden and finished them in the air fryer to make sure the beef is fully cooked. I served them with a quick yogurt dipping sauce and it was truly delicious. It feels like a Friday night takeaway but homemade and better. Recipe coming soon to the blog.