I hope you are able to use these seasonal menus as 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!
Here are some dinner menu ideas for the cold, I-just-wanna-stay-inside, month of January. These are many of 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 felt that providing a list of dinner ideas would be the most helpful to you. I’m including a main dish and the sides we usually enjoy with it. 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 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!
Monthly Dinner Menu Ideas for January:
French Beef Stew, Garlic & Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, salad
Baked ham, Slow cooker Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes, roasted vegetables, salad
Ham Bone & Vegetable Soup (slow cooker), Easy Artisan Bread
Soft Tacos, Easy Refried Beans, chips & salsa
Individual Cheesy-Crust Ham Pies, salad
Baked Ziti with sausage, salad
Homemade Pizza- quick! (regular with tomato sauce, or Greek style with pesto & feta)
Parmesan-Herb Topped White Fish, Tasty Rice, Chopped Salad
Homemade Pigs-in-a-Blanket, oven fries, cut carrots
Roasted chicken & vegetables, corn bake, salad
Salmon Patties, Soba Noodles with green beans (I omit the baked salmon and top the noodles with canned-salmon patties & the sauce)
Curried Chicken & Rice Soup, salad
The Best Sausage & Lentil Stew, cut vegetables & dip, Easy French Baguettes
Roast Turkey (bought on holiday special & frozen), Garlic Mashers, Baked Grated Carrots, salad
Classic Turkey Noodle Soup with vegetables & artisan bread
Individual Meat Loaves with Chipotle-Maple BBQ Sauce (recipe coming soon!), Simple Barley Pilaf, salad
Thai-Style Turkey Curry, rice, Orange-Almond Salad
*Note: our family menu always have a couple of standards: Saturdays alternate between burgers (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
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.
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. 🙂
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!
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. 🙂
I love your monthly meal ideas! I always end up pinning (and even cooking) a few of them. Happy New Year!
So nice to hear – thanks, Carolyn!
Thanks so much for sharing this – now I’ve got a few more good winter meal ideas!