These 20 Theme Night Dinner Ideas will help eliminate the stress around meal planning. Save time, money, and create nutritious meals for your family with these ideas, recipes, and FREE customizable printables.
When my coaching clients are working toward living a healthier lifestyle and packing more nutrients into their meals, one of the first places we start is meal planning. Not only does it cut out the 5:00 p.m. “What’s for dinner???” stress, it allows you to intentionally make meals that are packed with flavor and fuel your body.
A few years ago I did a meal planning and meal prep series. Check out this Meal Plan Like a Boss post to read all about my top reasons for meal planning and the exact steps I take to meal plan each week. It also includes a free meal planning checklist, my signature shopping list/menu template, and the links to all of the posts in the series.
The thing that I get asked about the most is how I come up with a variety of easy meals without spending hours on Pinterest or paging through cookbooks. My foolproof solution to making weeknight meal planning simple is theme nights. By assigning each night a theme, you will eliminate decision fatigue and have your weekly meal plan made in minutes.
Getting Started with Theme Nights
I’ve come up with a list of 20 theme night ideas for you and have created some FREE printables to help you get started. The printable bundle includes:
- List of 20 Theme Nights
- Sample Theme Night Meal Plan/Menu with Linked Recipes
- Blank Meal Plan Template
- Brainstorming Worksheets for Each Theme – You can list all of your go-to recipes for each theme into the template for easy planning. I’ve also included a blank worksheet for you to create your own themes. You can type your list or print the worksheets and write your list. If you’re not into the themes, I made a worksheet for you to plan by protein. You can download your bundle at the end of this post.
Theme Night Dinner Idea List
Meatless Monday
Veggie Pasta with Toasted Pine Nuts
Taco Tuesday
Black Bean and Crispy Kale Tacos
Slow Cooker Refried Beans Minus The Refry
Waffle Wednesday/Breakfast for Dinner
Finger Food Friday
Soup & Salad
Slow Cooker Fire Roasted Tomato and Vegetable Soup
Mixed Berry and Goat Cheese Salad with Raspberry Chipotle Vinaigrette
Salad/Salad Bar
Shrimp Mango Avocado Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
Soup & Sandwich
Pesto Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Sandwich
Slow Cooker
Simple Healthy Slow Cooker Chili
Seafood
Instant Pot Meal
Instant Pot Creamy Broccoli Soup
Here are some other theme ideas:
Thrifty Thursday
Grain/Power Bowl
Pasta Night
Asian Night
Italian Night
Mediterranean Night
Mexican Night
Grill/BBQ Night
I hope these theme night ideas and printables will help you eliminate decision fatigue and create nutritious meal plans in minutes each week!
jeanne gentry says
Tammy, I love this for meal planning. I’m hoping this will help us to eat better. You always have such great ideas. thank you so much.
smallgesturesmatter@gmail.com says
So glad you like it Jeanne! It really helps us. Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help you in any way. xoxo
Pamela kERR says
Love your website – it’s giving me so many great ideas. Can you guide me on where I can download the printable tent cards (floral that go with bagel bar sign). Can wait to display my bagel bar!
smallgesturesmatter@gmail.com says
Hi Pam,
Thank you so much! So happy to hear that you love the blog. The printable tent cards are in my Easter Tablescape post.
https://smallgesturesmatter.com/simple-easter-tablescape/
I also emailed them to you. I would love to see pics of your bagel bar. xoxo, Tammy