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!

Hashbrown bowls

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.

Patty melts / smash burgers

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.

Philly cheesesteaks

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