Weekly meal plan: Easy dinners that make smart use of leftovers

This week’s weekly meal plan recommendations are here, and we’ve found some easy meals to get you through the week with recipes that make great use of your leftovers this week. Because why cook twice when you can just cook once?

So grab a pen, make your shopping list, and stock up on ingredients before the weekend’s over to make your weeknights that much easier. And if it’s even easier for you to do all that planning from your inbox, be sure to sign up for our weekly meal plan emails. You’ll love them!

At top: Chimichurri Chicken & Rice at Sugar Spices Life; Chipotle Chicken Fajita Bowls at Foraged Dish
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I’ve been cooking from the Simply Scratch cookbook for years, and these Grilled Sesame Steak Skewers are a great, budget-friendly recipe. It calls an expensive ingredient like good steak (so easy to get through Amazon Fresh now!)– but by ordering a more affordable, larger cut then cutting it into smaller pieces you spread the protein a lot farther. with leftovers through the week.

The recipe adds onion to your kabob skewers, but I’d add green peppers and mushrooms to spread the steak budget even further. Finally, set some of the steak aside for the stir fry recipe I’m recommending for later this week.

This is a perfect recipe to generate the best leftovers! When you cook this simple Chimichurri Chicken & Rice at Sugar Spices Life, just be sure to double the chicken so you’ll have enough for the fajita bowls later this week. This recipe is so simple and kid-friendly, and I love that on a hot summer day you can pop it on the grill outside.

For more leftovers, go ahead and double your rice to set aside for the stir fry tomorrow night. Our favorite rice cooker (best investment!) makes it easy. Just be sure to refrigerate the extra soon after cooking; it should be good in the fridge for up to 4 days.

With your leftover beef from Monday’s skewers, whip up this Crispy Spicy Sesame Beef at Gal on a Mission. It’s designed to be a clean-out-the-pantry dish, so feel free to use whatever veggies you already have on hand–or whatever veggies your kids will actually eat, right?

Now, you can use your leftover chicken from the chimichurri night for these Pineapple-Chipotle Chicken Fajita Bowls with this terrific recipe from Foraged Dish. (Be sure to check the ingredient list, should you not have chipotle peppers in adobo in your pantry, though they’re available in most markets) And if you feel you’ve already had a lot of rice this week, go ahead and substitute lettuce for the rice and make an inspired salad instead.

These portobello mushroom sandwiches from The Last Food Blog are a great, casual vegetarian dinner for a weekend night. I would suggest you let the recipe guide you as an inspiration, then use up any leftover grilled peppers, onions, mushrooms, or chicken and steak you might have from the previous week’s recipes in your sandwiches too. You could also pop it into a tortilla and grill it with some cheese if the kids love quesadillas like ours do.