January Dinner Menu Ideas

Use the seasonal January Dinner Menu Ideas here as inspiration and a starting point for your own family menus.

Not sure why to menu plan? Check out all the great reasons here plus get a free seasonal menu planning eBook with shopping lists and more here.

Here are some dinner menu ideas for the cold, I-just-wanna-stay-inside, month of January. Most of these are our family’s tried-and-true dinner favorites that appear on our menus regularly.

Since I don’t think many people actually follow someone else’s specific menu plan exactly (every family is different in food preferences, needs, etc.) I’m providing a basic list of dinner ideas to be the most helpful to you.

In the four weeks of menus below you’ll find a main dish and the sides we usually 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 holiday meats you might’ve gotten on sale – a turkey and a 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?

There are no desserts since we don’t regularly have dessert, though a small piece of after dinner dark chocolate is our tradition. If you’d like a dessert for a special occasion or once a week, I’ve got you covered – 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.

French Beef Stew with sour cream mashed potatoes

French Beef Stew, 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), Slow cooker Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes, 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

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, Long-Cooked Green Beans with Onion & Bacon

Parmesan-Herb Topped White Fish, Tasty Rice, Chopped Salad

Quick Homemade Pizza – regular with tomato sauce, or Greek style with pesto & feta

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!)

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

What about weekends?

Make your weekends easy by repeating family favorites!

Our family’s weekend menus always have these standards:

Saturdays alternate between burgers on homemade buns (or pigs-in-blankets) & fries and homemade pizza.
Sundays are mostly on-your-own/leftovers (“OYO” on the menu board) – if nothing is available, a quick pasta is made using our frozen roasted tomato sauce or pesto.