Theme nights are a meal planner’s best-kept secret. Instead of choosing from every recipe in the world, you choose from a small, friendly shortlist. Monday is pasta? Great. Which pasta? That’s a much easier question.
Here are 14 themes to mix and match.
The classics
- Meat-free Monday: vegetable curries, bean tacos, big salads
- Taco Tuesday: a favourite in many households, ours included
- Wok Wednesday: stir-fries, fried rice, noodles
- Pasta night: the most reliable dinner in the Western world
- Pizza Friday: homemade, or at least homemade-adjacent
The crowd-pleasers
- Soup and bread night: my favourite, especially in winter
- Breakfast for dinner: pancakes, eggs, toast. Kids think you’re a genius
- Barbie night: sausages, burgers and a salad, weather permitting
- Roast night: Sunday, with leftovers planned for Monday and Tuesday
The clever ones
- Leftover lottery: everything in the fridge comes out; everyone picks
- Freezer night: one meal from the freezer stash, no cooking required
- Kids’ choice: each child picks a dinner once a week (they’re more likely to eat it)
- Around the world: one new cuisine a week. I usually start in Asia, with a recipe from Nagi at RecipeTin Eats: her recipes just work
- Picnic night: the same dinner, eaten on a rug in the lounge room. Unreasonably popular
How to set up your theme week
- Pick five themes for weeknights, and leave the weekend flexible.
- Write three or four favourites under each theme.
- Rotate: each week, choose one from each list.
- Add one new recipe to a theme every couple of weeks, so the lists grow.
That’s your meal plan, done in five minutes.
Where My Tomte helps
Pin a meal to a night (pizza on Friday, always), set a protein for the week, or let the tomte fill in the gaps around your themes. On Premium, playlists let you save a group of recipes, like “Taco Tuesday” or “Winter soups”, and drop them into any week.