14 dinner theme night ideas (for easier weeknights)

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

1. Meat-free Monday: vegetable curries, bean tacos, big salads
2. Taco Tuesday: a favourite in many households, ours included
3. Wok Wednesday: stir-fries, fried rice, noodles
4. Pasta night: bolognese, carbonara, a big pasta bake
5. Pizza Friday: homemade, or at least homemade-adjacent

A bit different

1. Soup and bread night: my favourite, especially in winter
2. Breakfast for dinner: pancakes, eggs, toast. Kids think you’re a genius
3. Barbie night: sausages, burgers and a salad, weather permitting
4. Roast night: Sunday, with leftovers planned for Monday and Tuesday

And a few more

1. Leftover lottery: everything in the fridge comes out; everyone picks
2. Freezer night: one meal from the freezer stash, no cooking required
3. Kids’ choice: each child picks a dinner once a week (they’re more likely to eat it)
4. 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
5. Picnic night: the same dinner, eaten on a rug in the lounge room. Unreasonably popular

How to set up your theme week

1. Pick five themes for weeknights, and leave the weekend flexible.
2. Write three or four favourites under each theme.
3. Rotate: each week, choose one from each list.
4. 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

Set your themes up once as a routine: Tuesday is home cooked, steered towards “tacos”; Friday is pizza; the weekend stays loose. Every new week starts that way, and the tomte finds the recipes. Want a fish week? Set a protein for the week, or pin a meal to a night.