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Every month I give you a monthly meal plan with lots of different recipes, many of which are favorites at our house. But in reality, we eat a lot of the same things over and over again. As the holidays approach and the weather cools off, I crave simplicity as well as cozy food. Instead of reinventing the wheel every month, I find it helpful in busy seasons to come up with a list of about 20 recipes that I will use once over the upcoming four weeks.
Why only 20 recipes? Well, I only tend to cook 4-5 nights a week. One night a week we eat with our small group, and another night we usually have something from the freezer, something special like date night, or leftovers. These 20 recipes are ones that most of my family enjoys and that I can make without a lot of extra thought.
My Current Fall and Winter Meal Rotation
I have three categories for my meal rotation: the grill (Blackstone), low or no-prep (aka no chopping or complicated prep work), and other. Even the “other” category isn’t that complicated, but they just might not work on nights when I’m getting home from something right before it’s time to start making dinner. The older kids in my family can also make some of these meals, which makes it even better!
On the grill
It never gets too cold to grill here, and I love using our Blackstone for our big family. You can adapt most of these to cook inside if you need to!
I cook all the items on the grill by staggering what I start when so that all the components are done at the same time. I serve it with fruit.
These can be made with any kind of bun or bread and anyone eating low carb can just omit the buns. I serve this with a frozen veggie.
Once a month we have a little splurge and I get shaved beef to make this. Everyone loves it–some eat on buns and some eat it without buns.
I actually have adapted this recipe and don’t even use the cornstarch. I just saute the pork and then add the sauce for those who want it. Serve with rice and frozen veggies.
I love making fajitas on the Blackstone because I can cook the meat, peppers, and onions all at the same time.
Everyone in my family loves pork and it’s so easy to make on the grill. These could be bone-in or boneless. I serve with biscuits and a vegetable.
My kids would eat this every week if I made it. I get a little too tired of it to eat it that often, but it’s still extremely simple. I don’t recommend this on a grill other than the Blackstone because the fatty bacon will make the grill flare up.
Low/no-prep
These are dishes that can be put together in almost no time as long as I have all the ingredients.
This is another family favorite. Serve over pasta or cauliflower rice/zucchini noodles to make it low carb.
Tacos
No recipe here—all I do for this meal is brown the ground beef and add seasoning. We have cheese, sour cream, salsa, and sometimes veggies for the topping. Some kids eat it on tortillas and some eat it on tortilla chips. We have frozen corn or fruit on the side.
If you do the marinade the night before, all you have to do is throw this in the Instant Pot and turn it on.
Everyone loves this because they can add whatever toppings they want. I consider this low prep because you can just pull things out of the pantry or even have kids decide what to use for toppings.
This is a cozy comfort food of cheese and pasta. Tortellini boils super fast and then you just make a simple cheese sauce and bake it. You could add sausage or veggies into the casserole if you want, or serve them on the side.
Other
These are other meals in my fall and winter meal rotation that I save for nights when I don’t mind taking a bit more time to prep dinner.
These can be done in a skillet or even baked to make a bunch at once.
This is a new family favorite that I serve with rice or cauliflower rice.
Smoked sausage with onions, peppers, and potatoes
This is a super cheap option; it just requires a lot of chopping up front!
Bowl options are always good options for big families because everyone can pick what they want to add!
This is a new recipe for us but I love that it’s low-carb for those of us who it matters for. If you have some that eat more carbs, you can make some pasta on the side.
This is a fall and winter staple for most people. Serve with cornbread.
This is another favorite soup recipe that I love to have for lunch leftovers!
What’s in your fall or winter meal rotation? Let us know in the comments!
