30-Minute Dinner Meal Plan: 5 Weeknights and One Shopping List

This 30-minute dinner meal plan covers Monday to Friday with 5 Savour main courses, each with a stored total time of 30 minutes or less and each built on a different main ingredient: chicken thighs, eggs and rice, pasta, ground beef and ham. Added together, the five stored total times come to 2 hours 12 minutes of cooking for the week.

The one job outside those totals is the rice: Tuesday's egg fried rice needs cold rice cooked a day ahead, so Monday's dinner makes it. All five recipes are in the Quick Weeknight Dinners collection; this plan puts them in order, combines their ingredient lines into one shopping list and lists the day-ahead steps and how long each dish keeps.

The 30-minute dinner meal plan at a glance

The times are each recipe's stored total (prep plus cook). Calories and protein are estimates per serving, as stored on each recipe; this plan is general information, not nutrition advice.

Tuesday is the quickest night and Wednesday and Friday the longest, at 30 minutes each. Two of the five dinners have no meat, and two make 6 servings instead of 4. To compare dinners on protein rather than time, see high-protein dinners ranked by protein per serving.

• 

  Chicken • Easy Dinners

  Easy Teriyaki Chicken

  25 mins4 servings
• 

  Easy Dinners • Healthy

  Egg Fried Rice

  22 mins4 servings
• 

  Mac and Cheese • Healthy

  Creamy Vegan Mac and Cheese

  30 mins6 servings
• 

  Ground Beef • Air Fryer

  Air Fryer Burgers

  25 mins4 burgers
• 

  Easy Dinners • American

  Ham and Cheese Sliders

  30 mins12 sliders

What to cook each night, Monday to Friday

Monday: teriyaki chicken, and the rice for Tuesday

Easy Teriyaki Chicken takes 25 minutes in total (10 prep, 15 cook) and serves 4. The 700 g of boneless, skinless chicken thighs brown in a large skillet for 5 to 6 minutes on the first side and 4 to 5 on the second, until the thickest piece reads 74°C (165°F). The sauce of soy sauce, mirin, sake, brown sugar, ginger and garlic then simmers in the same pan for 2 to 3 minutes until it coats the meat as a glaze. The recipe serves it over steamed rice with sesame seeds and green onions.

Cook Tuesday's rice tonight. The egg fried rice calls for 4 cups of cold cooked long-grain rice, about 650 g, from about 250 g uncooked rice, cooked a day ahead. Cook that amount on top of the rice you serve with the chicken. Its tip: cool the rice quickly by spreading it out, refrigerate it within 1 hour of cooking and use it within a day. Neither recipe stores a time for cooking rice, so Monday's 25 minutes do not include it.

Any teriyaki chicken left over keeps up to 4 days in the fridge, so it lasts to Friday. Savour's other chicken thigh recipes are on the chicken thigh recipes page, and every chicken dish is in Chicken Recipes.

Tuesday: egg fried rice from Monday's rice

Easy Dinners • Healthy

Egg Fried Rice

22 mins4 servings

Egg Fried Rice takes 22 minutes in total (10 prep, 12 cook), serves 4 and is vegetarian. The 6 eggs are scrambled first and set aside, then onion, garlic and frozen peas and carrots go into the hot pan, followed by Monday's rice for 4 to 5 minutes until every grain is hot and lightly toasted. The soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper mixture is drizzled around the edge of the pan, and the eggs and green onions go back in for the last minute.

Fresh rice would first need chilling on a tray (30 minutes in the fridge or 15 in the freezer, the recipe says), which the 22 minutes leave out. The tips also say to keep the heat high and fry in two batches if your pan is small.

Leftovers keep only 1 day, and the recipe says to reheat them only once.

Wednesday: creamy vegan mac and cheese

Creamy Vegan Mac and Cheese takes 30 minutes in total (10 prep, 20 cook), serves 6, and is vegan and vegetarian. Potatoes, carrot, onion and cashews simmer for 12 to 15 minutes while 450 g of elbow macaroni or fusilli cooks in another pot; the vegetables are then blended with plant milk, nutritional yeast, olive oil, lemon juice, mustard and spices and stirred through the pasta. Its ingredient line says to check that the pasta is egg-free.

Two notes affect the time. The recipe uses a high-speed blender; with a regular one, its tip is to soak the cashews in boiling water for 15 minutes before simmering, which is not in the 30 minutes. And the fridge note says the sauce keeps on its own for up to 5 days, so it can be made on Sunday (see the day-ahead steps below), leaving the pasta and the final stir for Wednesday.

At 6 servings, this night makes 2 more servings than the 4-serving nights. Mixed with the pasta, it keeps up to 4 days in the fridge. Savour's other mac and cheese recipes are in the Mac and Cheese Recipes category.

Thursday: air fryer burgers

Air Fryer Burgers take 25 minutes in total (10 prep, 15 cook) and make 4 burgers, serving 4. The 600 g of ground beef is shaped into 4 patties of about 150 g, seasoned and air fried at 190°C (375°F) for 5 to 6 minutes, flipped and cooked 5 to 6 minutes more, until the centre reaches 71°C (160°F) on an instant-read thermometer. The cheddar is optional (1 minute more to melt), and the buns toast in the basket for 1 to 2 minutes. The recipe cooks the patties in batches if they do not fit in one layer.

If you would rather not keep the raw beef in the fridge until Thursday, the recipe's freezer note lets you freeze raw patties between squares of parchment for up to 3 months. Its frozen-patty variation air fries 150 g frozen patties at 190°C (375°F) for 15 to 18 minutes, flipping halfway, until they reach 71°C (160°F): longer in the basket than fresh patties at 5 to 6 minutes a side, but the shaping is already done.

Cooked patties keep up to 3 days in the fridge. Thursday is also the night to assemble Friday's sliders, if you want to. Savour's other ground beef recipes are in the Ground Beef Recipes category.

Friday: ham and cheese sliders

Easy Dinners • American

Ham and Cheese Sliders

30 mins12 sliders

Ham and Cheese Sliders take 30 minutes in total (10 prep, 20 cook) and make 12 sliders, serving 6. A slab of 12 joined rolls is sliced in half, layered with mayonnaise, Swiss cheese and 340 g of thinly sliced cooked ham, brushed with a melted butter, Dijon, Worcestershire and poppy seed topping, then baked at 180°C (350°F) under foil for 15 minutes and uncovered for 5 more.

Its make-ahead answer: assemble the sliders, pour over the topping, cover and refrigerate them for up to 24 hours, then bake them straight from the fridge, adding about 5 minutes to the covered baking time. With the sliders built on Thursday evening, Friday is heating the oven and baking.

At 6 servings, Friday also leaves 2 more than a 4-serving night. Leftovers keep up to 3 days in the fridge. All five dinners in this plan are also in the Easy Dinner Recipes category.

30-minute dinner shopping list for the week

Each recipe is bought as written, for its stated servings, with quantities and units as stored. Amounts are added only for the same item in the same unit; every other line names its recipe.

Produce

• 3 cloves garlic (2 cloves, minced, for the egg fried rice; 1 clove, finely grated, for the teriyaki chicken)
• 1 small onion, finely diced (egg fried rice)
• 0.5 onion, roughly chopped (vegan mac and cheese)
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced (egg fried rice)
• sliced green onions, to serve (teriyaki chicken)
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated (teriyaki chicken)
• 300 g Yukon Gold or other yellow potatoes, about 2 medium, peeled and diced (vegan mac and cheese)
• 1 carrot, about 100 g, peeled and sliced (vegan mac and cheese)
• 4 lettuce leaves, to serve (air fryer burgers)
• 1 tomato, sliced, to serve (air fryer burgers)

Meat

• 700 g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, about 6-8 (teriyaki chicken)
• 600 g ground beef, 85/15, about 1 1/3 lb, kept cold (air fryer burgers)
• 340 g thinly sliced cooked ham (ham and cheese sliders)

Dairy and eggs

• 6 large eggs (egg fried rice)
• 8 slices Swiss cheese, about 170 g; Emmental or Gruyère work too (ham and cheese sliders)
• 4 slices cheddar cheese, optional (air fryer burgers)
• 60 g butter, melted, 1/4 cup (ham and cheese sliders)

Bread and frozen

• 12 soft slider rolls or dinner rolls, joined in one slab (ham and cheese sliders)
• 4 burger buns, split, to serve (air fryer burgers)
• 150 g frozen peas and carrots, about 1 cup, no need to thaw (egg fried rice)

Pantry

• 4 cups cold cooked long-grain rice, about 650 g, from about 250 g uncooked rice, cooked a day ahead (egg fried rice; cook it on Monday)
• steamed rice, to serve (teriyaki chicken; the recipe gives no amount)
• 450 g elbow macaroni or fusilli, 1 lb; check that it is egg-free (vegan mac and cheese)
• 75 g raw cashews, 1/2 cup (vegan mac and cheese)
• 25 g nutritional yeast, 1/3 cup (vegan mac and cheese)
• 250 ml unsweetened plant milk, 1 cup, such as soy or oat (vegan mac and cheese)
• 1 tbsp + 2 tbsp neutral oil (egg fried rice) + 1 tbsp neutral oil (teriyaki chicken) = 4 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 tbsp olive oil or vegan butter (vegan mac and cheese)
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil (egg fried rice)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce, light or all-purpose (egg fried rice)
• 60 ml soy sauce, 1/4 cup (teriyaki chicken)
• 60 ml mirin, 1/4 cup (teriyaki chicken)
• 2 tbsp sake, or water (teriyaki chicken)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar, or honey (teriyaki chicken)
• 1 tsp cornstarch, also called cornflour, mixed with 1 tbsp water, optional (teriyaki chicken)
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (air fryer burgers)
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (ham and cheese sliders)
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard (vegan mac and cheese)
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard (ham and cheese sliders)
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise (ham and cheese sliders)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (vegan mac and cheese)
• toasted sesame seeds, to serve (teriyaki chicken)
• ketchup, mustard and pickles, to serve (air fryer burgers)

Herbs and spices

• 0.75 tsp salt (air fryer burgers) + 1.25 tsp salt, or to taste (vegan mac and cheese) = 2 tsp salt, plus 1 pinch salt (egg fried rice) and salt for the pasta water (vegan mac and cheese)
• 0.5 tsp black pepper (air fryer burgers) + 0.25 tsp black pepper (teriyaki chicken) = 0.75 tsp black pepper
• 0.25 tsp ground white pepper, or black pepper (egg fried rice)
• 0.5 tsp (air fryer burgers) + 1 tsp (vegan mac and cheese) + 0.25 tsp (ham and cheese sliders) garlic powder = 1.75 tsp garlic powder
• 0.5 tsp smoked paprika (vegan mac and cheese)
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds (ham and cheese sliders)
• 1 tsp dried minced onion, or 1/2 tsp onion powder (ham and cheese sliders)

What has to be done a day ahead?

Only one step is required: the rice. The other two are optional, and each stays inside its recipe's own fridge time.

The Sunday sauce is 3 days old by Wednesday, inside its 5 days. It thickens as it cools, so the recipe's tip is to keep a little cooking water or plant milk on hand to loosen it. On Wednesday, stir it through the hot pasta over low heat until it is hot to 74°C (165°F), the temperature the recipe's reheat note gives. Unbaked sliders keep up to 24 hours, so assemble them on Thursday no earlier than the hour you plan to bake them on Friday.

How long do the leftovers keep?

The notes differ from recipe to recipe, so follow each one's own.

Counted from the night each dish is cooked, Wednesday's mac and cheese keeps to Sunday and Friday's sliders to Monday, while the egg fried rice does not carry over past Wednesday.

See every quick weeknight dinner