Dinner Theme Nights will transform your meal planning, not only making it simpler for you to plan, shop, and cook, but planning regular themed dinner nights each week will make meal times more enjoyable for everyone at your table, especially picky eaters!
Whether you put Breakfast for Dinner on repeat for the family or choose to host Taco Tuesday for friends on the regular, you’ll make meal planning easier and save money on groceries as well when you plan themed dinners. You’ll easily be able to stop eating out when you’ve got these dialed in.
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Is meal planning tripping you up? Is “lack of inspiration” your current mental gap? Do you wish that meal planning was a “no-thinking required” kind of activity?
Lucky for us all it can be!
Setting up a rotation of dinner theme ideas every season or so can really free you up in the kitchen.
Make a Weekly Routine with Dinner Theme Nights
We can all benefit from this classic way of planning meals. Each day of the week gets its own assigned type of meal. Back in Gramma’s days, it might have been hot dish or meatloaf instead of today’s ramen or Green Chicken Enchiladas.
The method still works — no matter your food preferences, dietary restrictions, or budget.
Why Do This
It reduces decision fatigue. When you put theme night dinner ideas on repeat, you don’t have to recreate the wheel when you plan meals. Instead, you just think within the parameters of that night’s theme. By reducing your choices, you are able to make a more solid choice.
It helps picky eaters manage expectations. It’s hard to meal plan for picky eaters; you know that surprises aren’t always well-received. However, if they know the dinner theme night ideas you’ve chosen (and maybe have some say in what they are), they have some nights to look forward to. And it will be easier for them on the nights when they might otherwise fuss.
It simplifies meal planning and grocery shopping. Once you’ve decided to have a burrito bar each Wednesday and grilled pizza every Friday, a lot of your meal planning and grocery shopping becomes easier. Your grocery list doesn’t change all that much and you can better predict what to do with leftovers.
It saves time and money. When you plan dinner theme nights, you’re making it easier to predict what groceries you’ll need in the coming weeks so that you can better shop the sales and meal prep in time efficient ways.
And no, YOU won’t get bored because you’ll be able to make little tweaks to side dishes, proteins, and condiments to keep things fresh.
In fact, there are so many different ways to make pasta, tacos, or sandwiches, just staying in the range of one particular genre still gives you lots of meal planning variety.
Sample Theme Night Dinners
Sundays – Grilled or Roasted Meats
Mondays – Pasta
Tuesdays – Tacos
Wednesdays – Sandwich Night
Thursdays – Stir-fry
Fridays – Pizza
Saturdays – Slow Cooker
At the face of it, you may think, Can I really have pizza every week?
Yes, yes, you can! There is so much variation in each of those categories! Think about all the different kinds of pizza bases, toppings, and sauces. You could make a different kind of pizza every week for months without getting bored!
Goat Cheese Pizza is my fave.
Possible Dinner Night Themes
There are loads of themes to choose from. Check these out:
Types of Protein:
Since proteins can vary on price, spreading them out over the course of the week can allow you to enjoy steak once in awhile, while serving hearty, less expensive proteins the rest of the week.
Be sure to stock the pantry (or freezer) with proteins you find on sale so you can stretch your grocery dollar.
Styles of preparation:
Depending on the season, you can plan weekly menus based on a certain type of cooking. On busy nights, plan a slow cooker recipe or an instant pot dinner. On more relaxed evenings, go for the grill.
- quick fix – 30-minute meals
- grilling
- roasting/baked/sheet pan dinners
- skillet
- slow cooker
- pressure cooker or instant pot
- air fryer
Types of foods:
- sandwiches
- burgers
- salads
- stews
- soups
- casseroles
- quesadillas
- tacos
- burritos
- wraps
- sautés and stir-fries
- rice bowls
- pizza
- pasta
- breakfast-for-dinner
Flavor profiles:
This list is obviously not exhaustive. Choose a cuisine you’ve been wanting to explore and put it on weekly repeat for several weeks. Or choose one that you know has tempting take-out. You’ll save money and satisfy your craving, making it yourself at home.
- Mexican
- Peruvian
- Italian
- Thai
- Chinese
- Filipino
- Japanese
- Korean
- Vietnamese
- French
- African
- Indian
- Mediterranean
There are so many meal plan theme nights to choose from, you could easily rotate them in and out every month and always have fresh inspiration and easier meal planning.
FAQs
Dinner theme nights can be drawn from the style of preparation, type of protein, type of dish, or flavor profile. Some common themes include pizza, tacos, breakfast for dinner, slow cooker night, sheet pan supper, and stir fry.
Fast food and take-out get pretty boring after awhile, and chances are you order the same things each time. No, once you get in a groove with themed dinner nights, you’ll have more time and creativity for other pursuits.
Nope. Plan as much as works for you. Three days is a good start. Remember there are leftovers and fend-for-yourself nights that you can include in your weekly meal plan, as well as planned take-out.
Our Favorite Meal Ideas for Family Dinners
Serving a buffet dinner for your themed dinner nights allows for lots of variety, but also lets all diners compile their meals exactly the way they like them.
Tell us what you think!
We love to hear your experiences with Good Cheap Eats. Click the STARS on the recipe card or leave a STARRED comment to let us know what you think of the recipe.
This post was originally published on August 16, 2010. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Recipesmademyway
That is a really good idea! I always plan menus 2 weeks at a time but there is no pattern to them and I find myself struggling to think of meals that would definitely help to have a theme in place for each day!!
Mom's Many Projects
What a great idea! It breaks down each day, but still gives you plenty of choices each week!
Mandy
What a great way to make planning meals easier! Thanks! Some weeks, I am just all out of tricks in my attempt to “make up” new meals for us! This will help immensely! 🙂
christa
Once again you saved me! I went on your sight today to search around for 2 things….how to homeschool preschoolers, and your weekly meal list. And what do I find – your first page and second page is EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you Jessica for everything you do – for us, for your family. You are truly an inspiration.
Jessica Fisher
@christa, you are very welcome. Are you pulling my leg, though? You really were looking for the preschool thing? Quite serendipitous!
Juls Owings
actually Jessica My granddaughter is also doing the home school preschool thing also. If they don’t attend a daycare/preschool they start way behind the ones that do.
Charla @ Healthy Home Blog
Now that’s my kind of salad!! 🙂
Barb @ My Daily Round
I do this, too with two changes. Thursday night is leftover night to make sure we use up the bits and pieces from the week. Saturday and Sunday nights my dh cooks. I use leftovers from his cooking as part of the weekday dinner menu. Often he’ll cook a meatloaf that can serve as meat for a meal during the week.
cherie
Now I want some enchiladas. . . . do you have a recipe for enchilada sauce you like? I’m never satisfied with my results . . . .
Jessica Fisher
@cherie, I make so many things homemade, but enchilada sauce is one that I haven’t yet found success in. We only like one kind, though, Las Palmas. I tried homemade when we lived in Kansas and couldn’t get Las Palmas for a time. But, now it’s back to our old standby.
Courtney
creative idea!! I think I might have to make a pattern and try it out!
Susie's Homemade
That’s a great pattern:-)
Andrea
That picture of enchiladas has me hungry!
Michelle
That’s a really good idea — giving each day its own theme. I might have to give it a try one of these weeks. You could add variety to that by also making each day a certain ethnicity — Mexican, Italian, French, Chinese, English, Irish, German… Hmm…theme days. This sounds fun.
Samantha
I have an aunt that swears by this style of meal planning, with an added “new recipe” night each week. I love the idea, but would probably end up doing Mexican night every other night!
Michelle Burgess
Your old fashioned way reminds me of my mum – thats what she used to do. Us kids always knew what to expect.
Jessica Fisher
@Michelle Burgess, exactly! And sometimes kids really need that/desire that consistency.
Shelley Worman
I agree. At one point I made a list by category, of everything my girls liked to eat. They participated in the process sharing their favorite foods. Then I made theme nights like you suggested. Then I layered in fruits & vegetables. Worked great! Much easier and we all ate better! On weekends I would make big crockpots of favorites to eat & then freeze for emergencies!
Jessica Fisher
Sounds like a great family activity!
Alison @ Hospitality Haven
Your meals this week sound delicious!! I have yet to plan my for the week (but I will do it shortly…I promise…!), so I might just take a look at some of your ideas. Yum!!
Sarah Kay
Because I like to try new recipes, especially when I want to take advantage of some special sale, I instituted a night that was “hubby’s choice”. He would get so sad when we would go for long periods of time without going back to old standards he loved, like crock pot roast or enchiladas. Now they are one of his favorite nights!
christina
We’ve been doing the assigned breakfast for a couple of years now thanks to your advice. This year I started doing the same with chores. Emily went to bed tonight reminding me that tomorrow was the day to clean the bathrooms. Your dinner meal plan looks wonderful!
Ginger
I made my weekly menu based on what I have in the freezer/pantry. Click my link to see.
Johanna
Looks delicious! And I’m SO glad to finally be able to get on your blog again!
Nichole
I have a “Gramma” menu template, but I have a really hard time sticking to it.
robin
I do the 50’s meal planning way as well. I do grilling night, make up a chicken meal night, brinner (breakfast for dinner), ethnic food night, family food night, etc.