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crepe night.

There are many themed dinner ideas out there, Meatless Monday and Taco Tuesday being two of the most common ones I hear about. I like that they simplify meal planning (i.e. “every Wednesday we make omelets”, etc.), but (with a little imagination and planning) still allow for variety and cravings to be met with fillings/toppings.

Recently I decided we should do a crepe themed dinner.

I blended up a crepe batter while home with Jo during the day, the most complicated part of which was remembering to make it far enough in advance for the one hour chill time. I wanted to make a hollandaise sauce to top them with, but I forgot the lemons at the store and was tired, so that didn’t happen. Instead we just filled them with rotisserie chicken and a fancy parmesan. Plus, served them with a salad who’s dressing came in handy if the crepe seemed dry.

We ended up having leftover batter so we made nutella crepes to finish the meal with something sweet

It’s a fun themed dinner idea I think we’ll bring in week to week when we’re looking to switch it up. Dinners are definitely a bit hectic with children, so nights when Andrew and I work well as a team (something I think we’ll always be adjusting and trying to figure out) I’m always grateful for. This night I had the crepe batter, crepe filling and salad ready to go, but Andrew cooked the crepes when he got home from work while I entertained Jo…and it’s probably the smoothest family dinner we’ve had in weeks haha.

Do you have a weekly themed dinner idea that works for you or your family? I remember one reader saying that their entire week is broken into themed nights. Something like, Monday – meatless monday, Tuesday – taco tuesday, Wednesday – omelets, Thursday – clean out the fridge salads, Friday – pizza…and repeat the following week. I love how that would massively simplify the thought that goes into meal planning, if it’s a week you’d rather not spend much time thinking about meal planning.

13 comments

  1. Mmmm…nutella crepe…

    We don’t do a weekly themed night except that Friday is always out to eat (my 3yo knows “mom doesn’t cook on Fridays” lol). But I do mentally break up my meal planning into one pasta night (spaghetti, alfredo, etc), one crockpot night, one mexican night (tacos, fajitas, burrito bowls), and then one sheet pan night (leftovers for the rest). That helps it seem manageable, but gah do I hate having to do it every week! ;)

  2. Every week we do a big “main dish” salad early in the week that makes for a nice lunch or side with other meals. We rotate between Asian salad, taco salad, chopped salad, and bbq chicken salad. I also plan a “new recipe” night every week because it helps me remember to have fun. 

  3. We definitely do themes, but I try to rotate them bi-weekly so we don’t get burnt out as quickly. Monday’s are either breakfast for dinner, a quiche, or a meatless pasta dish with salad; Tuesday is always fish, either tacos, or baked with a salad and a carb or grain side, Wednesday my kid (she is 12) picks, and it’s usually something “fun” like sloppy joes, crescent-roll wrapped hot dogs, make our own pizzas, or a a stir-fry (she will eat ANY THING is it’s coated in teriyaki ?) Thursday is either clean out the fridge or bid salads with either steak, shrimp, or chicken. Friday we always pick up Chinese. Weekends are when I like to try new recipes or make a big “Sunday Supper” kind of meal. 
    I’d like to have a little more structure for busy weeks, but this seems to work well for our family of 3. We have a general idea of what we’ll make, and kind of amend it to fit our tastebuds that week. 

    • Ooo so fun to have a night your kiddo gets to pick! Love that idea!

      • Thanks! When she was a super picky eater, I found giving her some control over the menu helped her be more open to trying something new on the other nights. And as she’s gotten older her choices have become more adventurous. And I felt like it really helped reinforce the whole “our family is a team” mentality. 

  4. We always have meatless monday and switch between a couple recipes! We have salmon once a week. Having these two meals helps with meal planning instead of making it so complicated. I think having a taco Tuesday is something we will have to incorporate. :) A nutella crepe sounds tasty!

  5. Recently I’ve been doing a pasta night once a week, and we almost always have pizza once a week. I recently found a simpler dough recipe than the one I had been using, so that’s made it a lot more appealing to do more often! During the colder months we definitely have “soup and fresh bread” night at least once a week. And I generally do some sort of seafood one night per week and one meatless dinner. That gives me a -very- loose outline but it has made meal planning a lot easier! I also did something I think you talked about months ago which was to go through cookbooks/recipes and pick like 20 or so to be your base of recipes to pull from for that season. I did it for winter and it worked out GREAT! I picked from 2 different cookbooks as well as my own recipe binder and it simplified the meal planning process significantly. I starred what we loved and noted what we didn’t, then I repeated recipes that we enjoyed and tried new recipes from the list until we had eaten them all and spring had sprung! I share this technique with lots of people because of how well it worked for me.

  6. I miss your posts. I hope you haven’t stopped blogging.

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