more dinner ideas

and a revised meal planning strategy

In my first dinner ideas post, I shared our meal planning strategy that has worked for two and a half years. However, in August, a wrench is thrown in our routine — football season. My husband is a running back coach at a local high school, and while I love that he does this (truly — I wrote and erased a whole paragraph about volunteering, healthy masculinity, and community building!), it does make dinner time absolutely miserable. The work out - cook dinner - spend quality time together triangle of after school parenting is impossible without him, and I am tired of fighting it! So, against all of my greater impulses, I am now meal prepping. As in, we spent about about two hours of Sunday cooking and pre-portioning meals for this week.

My breakfasts are the same until winter (I switch from yogurt to oatmeal when it gets properly rainy and cold!), but now instead of eating leftovers for lunch, I take a sandwich of some sort. Dinners are portioned from Sunday’s big meal, with the caveat that we usually have a date night and a takeout night. I think we will return to monthly planning when the season ends, but I am glad to have found a solution for now.

Below you’ll find a list of our summer dinner hits. Please note that my toddler young son eats pretty much none of this. His favorite foods are all fruit, hummus, avocado, burgers, tacos, and peanut butter and jelly. For now, I am fine with serving him something else as long as he gets a balance of protein, fats, carbs, and fiber.

Farro and watermelon salad
If you can still find good watermelons where you live, it’s worth it to make this salad. The farro adds great protein and texture. It’s also our new standard for summer picnics and potlucks.

Tuna SALAD from Jack’s Wife Freda
Canned tuna is such a staple in our house, especially in the summer. The SALAD is in caps here because it’s not a mayo-based salad, it’s a green salad. The most extensive step is cutting cherry tomatoes in half. It’s so easy and filling and flavorful.

Black bean and vegetable bake
This reheats so well and honestly doesn’t require as much cheese as the recipe calls for. Despite Deb’s compelling intro, my son refuses to eat a bite of this.

Salmon with mango salsa
Growing up, my mom told me that you can’t reheat salmon in the microwave. I don’t know if this is something she actually thought was true, or if she just hated the smell, but I carried this belief with me until high school, when I was gently corrected by my friend. I still try to avoid reheating salmon, so I just adjust the portions for what we can eat in one night. I would triple the mango pico though because it is so good with salmon and with tortilla chips.

Sheet-pan quesadillas
I’ve been cooking for years now, but I find grilled cheese and quesadillas intimidating. On a sheet-pan in the oven seems manageable. I like how riff-able this recipe is. Also, despite the well-meaning top comment, I use pre-shredded cheese, and it melts fine.

Lemon and garlic chicken with cherry tomatoes
I am hesitant to share this recipe because I did not follow the directions at all, so if you do and it doesn’t turn out, I apologize! I use boneless, skinless thighs because they are thinner (no pounding needed!) and I find they don’t dry out as bad as chicken breasts do. I roasted them in the oven instead of pan frying them because I am lazy. Incredible flavor and great use of extra garden tomatoes.

Orzo salad
I just made this last night and ate it for dinner tonight. Great fresh, good leftover — I may try microwaving it for about 10-15 seconds or so just to get the olive oil a little more slippery. Again, the flavors! Perfect for summer.

Please share any late summer recipes or how your family divides up the mental load of feeding a family! Also, it looks like NYT Cooking recipe gift links are unlimited for the month of September, so if you see something you like that’s paywalled, I’m happy to share!