Seasonal January Dinner Menu Ideas to use as inspiration and a starting point for your own family menus. Simple, healthy, from-scratch meals include side dishes as well as a couple dessert ideas for the month.
Not sure why to menu plan? Check out all the great reasons here!
Dinners for the cold, I-just-wanna-stay-inside, month of January are mostly warm, hearty, and healthy around our house.
Most of these are our family's tried-and-true dinner favorites that appear on our menus regularly. And they reflect that we're just coming off an anything-goes holiday eating season.
In the four weeks of menu ideas below you'll find a main dish and the sides we often enjoy with it.
You can use the sides as-is, come up with your own, or even mix-and-match from other days.
I've also created a couple of weekly menus around some items you might've gotten on sale over the holidays like turkey and ham. I love stashing these in the freezer to bring out in January or February - it's fun to have them again and there are lots of meals you can make with the leftovers.
What about desserts?
We don't regularly have dessert, though a small piece of after dinner dark chocolate is our tradition.
But I'm providing two ideas for lighter, healthier dessert options if you'd like to include them in your menus.
If you'd like a dessert for a special occasion, find both decadent and healthy-ish dessert options here.
If you see a dinner that your family would enjoy and you have the ingredients for, then all you need to do is copy and paste it into your own dinner menu planning system, whether digital or analog.
Dinner planning done!
January Dinner Menu Ideas
Week 1
French Beef Stew (best stew ever), Garlic & Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, green salad
Baked Ham (bought on sale over the holidays - save leftovers for the soup and next week's ham pies), Easy Vegetable Barley Pilaf Recipe, roasted vegetables, Shaved Cabbage Salad
Ham Bone & Vegetable Soup (slow cooker), Easy Artisan Bread
Easy Potato And Caramelized Onion Frittata, leftover artisan bread, green salad
Soft Tacos, Easy Refried Beans, chips & salsa
Week 2
Individual Cheesy-Crust Ham Pies, green salad with homemade vinaigrette
Baked Ziti with sausage, green salad
Maple Mustard Baked Chicken with Pouring Sauce, Tasty Rice (make enough for tomorrow), Long-Cooked Green Beans with Onion & Bacon
Parmesan-Herb Topped White Fish, Tasty Rice (leftover), Chopped Salad
Quick Homemade Pizza - regular with tomato sauce, or Greek style with pesto & feta
Week 3
Homemade Pigs-in-a-Blanket, oven fries, cut carrots
Roasted chicken & vegetables, green salad with Creamy Feta Dressing
Salmon Patties, green salad with garbanzo beans, Artisan Bread
Curried Chicken & Rice Soup, salad
Sriracha Beef and Vegetable Rice Bowls (one bowl meal!)
Week 4
The Best Sausage & Lentil Stew, cut vegetables & dip, Easy French Baguettes
Roast Turkey (bought on holiday special & frozen), Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Baked Grated Carrots, green salad
Classic Turkey Noodle Soup with vegetables & Artisan Bread (or leftover baguette if available)
Quick Mini Meat Loaves with Chipotle-Maple BBQ Sauce, Simple Barley Pilaf, salad
Thai-Style Turkey Curry, rice, Orange-Almond Salad
Monthly Dessert Ideas
Dark Chocolate Coconut Clusters - Low Sugar & Just 3 Ingredients
Healthy No Bake Fudge Oatmeal Bars {Gluten-Free}
What about Saturdays & Sundays?
Our family’s menu always has a couple of standards for the weekends - it's one of the ways I make menu planning easier!
Saturdays alternate between burgers on homemade buns (or pigs-in-blankets) & fries and homemade pizza.
Sundays are mostly on-your-own leftovers (if nothing is available, a quick pasta is made using our frozen roasted tomato sauce or pesto).
If you need more ideas for menu planning, you can always check out these articles in our archives:
- Menu Planning 101 (5 steps to easy meal planning)
- Seasonal cooking through the year
- Monthly dinner menus
I hope you enjoy and are able to use some of these favorite family meals of ours. You can follow me on Pinterest for even more simple, seasonal and from scratch dinner ideas!
Angi @ SchneiderPeeps says
That beef stew looks wonderful! I'll have to work that into our menu this month, maybe substituting the beef with venison. We got our first dip below freezing last night and now all we want is soups.
Jami says
I've actually made this with venison before, Angi, when I was lucky enough to have some - and it was good. I think the long cooking in the wine-broth mixture was really good for the venison. This stew has spoiled me for any others, basically. 🙂
Shelley says
Years ago, I decided we needed to eat less meat and I devised a means to do so:
http://shelleyshouse.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/tale-of-two-lists.html
This month, like many others, we are 'eating down' our supplies in the freezers and pantry, but I'm still able to follow this method for choosing my main course. I don't normally use recipes much, but having just discovered how much fun Supercook.com can be, I've been 'letting' it help me break out of my rut and make some different things.
I've re-discovered your blog after a couple of years. Lots to look at around here!
Jami says
That's a great idea, Shelley, to start with the protein and then devise the meal from that with whatever you've got on hand. And I've not heard of supercook before - I'll have to check that out! Hope you find some more helpful things on AOC with your return. 🙂
Carolyn Williams says
I love your monthly meal ideas! I always end up pinning (and even cooking) a few of them. Happy New Year!
Jami says
So nice to hear - thanks, Carolyn!
Katrina says
Thanks so much for sharing this - now I've got a few more good winter meal ideas!