I used to think a weekly meal plan meant a spreadsheet, a color-coded fridge, and a shopping list longer than the grocery store aisles. Then I got over it. A plan is just the good kind of simple: pick the week’s dinners in one sitting, buy the groceries, and let the leftovers do half the work for you.
This week’s menu: Thai coconut shrimp curry with a Thai quinoa salad, grilled steak tacos with corn and avocado salad, Mediterranean chicken over rice or pasta, pressed Italian sandwiches with a tortellini pasta salad, a BLT salad with peaches, and breakfast egg muffins. One daily main, mix-and-match sides, and nothing on here that can’t be done on a weeknight.
What’s on the menu
- Thai coconut shrimp curry with Thai quinoa salad
- Grilled steak tacos with corn and avocado salad
- Mediterranean chicken over rice or pasta
- Pressed Italian sandwiches with tortellini pasta salad
- BLT salad with peaches
- Breakfast egg muffins
Shopping, without the second trip
Before you head to the store, steal these shortcuts. They’re the difference between one calm trip and two.
- Swap or add your favorite veggies in the shrimp curry, the Mediterranean chicken, and the side salads. If something’s on special, use it.
- Fresh tortellini lives in the grocery store refrigerator section; frozen works fine from the freezer section. Either way, grab some.
- Short on fresh corn for the corn salad? Canned or frozen is a fine stand-in.
- Buy artichoke hearts packed in water, not oil.
- Flat iron steak is a very affordable cut and totally delicious, especially after a relaxing dip in an acidic marinade.
- Mix and match the meats and cheeses in the sandwiches however you like, but variety is key.
- Mix up your greens with romaine, arugula, baby kale, little gem, and/or leaf lettuce.
- I love thick-cut applewood smoked bacon for the BLT salad. It’s the one splurge worth keeping on the list.
- The egg muffin recipe calls for ham and cheese, but use whatever you have leftover at the end of the week — the bacon from the BLT salad, the cheese from the sandwiches, whatever veggies are on hand. It’s a cleanup recipe by design.
One more thing: the original post comes with a printable shopping list. The source’s interactive shopping cart tool is gone, but you can still pull the list from the original meal plan — select the meals you want, adjust serving sizes, and print.
Meal prep and leftover tricks
Here’s where the plan actually saves you time. Every dish this week is built to carry forward.
Thai coconut shrimp curry. The curry lasts up to 5 days in the fridge. Reheat leftovers gently over medium heat or in the microwave — and go easy on the microwave, because shrimp goes dry and rubbery fast when you push it.
Grilled steak tacos. I normally marinate the meat overnight, or at least all day, for max flavor. But I’ve made these with just 1 hour of marinade time and they turned out just as smoky and adobo-flavored. In a rush? An hour is fine.
Mediterranean chicken. Serve the chicken and its sauce over a bed of pasta, rice, or couscous. Whatever you had in the pantry wins.
Pressed Italian sandwiches. Wrap the sandwiches in plastic wrap before pressing. It contains all the layers and makes for a cleaner bite — trust me on this.
BLT salad with peaches. For easy meal prep, make the dressing and the croutons ahead of time. If the croutons have gone soft, reheat them gently in a skillet, just to warm them back up.
Egg muffins. These will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about 4 or 5 days, and in the freezer for about 3 months. The best breakfast you can start the week with is the one you didn’t have to make that morning.
Two sides, made easy
Grilled corn and avocado salad. Fresh summer corn is the cornerstone of this one, but canned or frozen works if you need it. The avocado does the heavy lifting either way.
Tortellini pasta salad. Choose spinach and cheese tortellini, or a mix of your favorite multi-color tortellini. Use diced or cubed fresh mozzarella, tiny mozzarella pearls, or a combination. Hothouse or English cucumbers work just as well as Persian cucumbers.
Why this works
Every main this week keeps for days, so you’re really cooking four dinners and eating six. The egg muffins stretch into lunch. The pasta salad and corn salad are the kind of sides you can make once and not think about. That’s the whole trick: less cooking, more eating, zero decisions at 6 p.m.
Trade-It Tip
No flat iron steak? A sirloin or skirt cut works in the same marinade. And if you’re out of Persian cucumbers, English or hothouse cucumbers are a like-for-like swap in the pasta salad.
If it doesn’t fit a Tuesday night, it doesn’t get published.