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

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili

Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

Veggie Pasta with Toasted Pine Nuts

Taco Tuesday

Create Your Own Taco Board

Black Bean and Crispy Kale Tacos

Slow Cooker Refried Beans Minus The Refry

Spanish Quinoa

Waffle Wednesday/Breakfast for Dinner

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

Whole Wheat Dutch Baby

Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes

Shakshuka

Finger Food Friday

Charcuterie Board

Soup & Salad

Slow Cooker Fire Roasted Tomato and Vegetable Soup

Vegetarian French Onion 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

Best Chicken Salad

Easy Classic Egg Salad

Mediterranean Veggie Wrap

Slow Cooker

Chicken Cacciatore

Simple Healthy Slow Cooker Chili

Seafood

Pesto Salmon

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!