September Dinner Menus for Easy Weeknight Meals

Late summer cooking blends all the great produce we’re still getting with the return of comforting meals. These September dinner menus will help you ease the transition into fall while keeping vegetables and real ingredients as the focus with four weeks of complete dinners with sides.

Not sure why to meal plan? Check out all the great reasons here!

This menu is part of a monthly series of meal plans that help you cook healthy meals from scratch that fit real life, not perfection.

The weather is changing with the sun lower in the sky, the kids are back to school, and our commitments are picking up again. If it’s one thing we need in September, it’s some sort of menu plan so the busy days don’t get in the way of healthy dinners, don’t you agree?

Studies have shown the value of gathering around the table to eat and share your day as much as possible with the people in your home, so it’s worth it to plan meals thinking about activities you have scheduled. So that day you’ve got three afternoon activities and won’t be home until 5:30pm? Plan a slow-cooker meal or something quick using a rotisserie chicken.

On a day you’ve got more time, make something special for your family, like mini meat loves with bbq sauce and garlic mashed potatoes. Whatever you decide, having a plan based on what your activities are will make your life easier – believe me, I know all about those 4:30 or 5:00 “what am I going to make for dinner” moments. Ugh. The simplest plan will help alleviate that!

Have you guessed that I’m a fan of having a menu? Any menu from the most basic (a main dish scrawled on a notepad) to all meals in detail – whatever works for you and your family (mine is basic and simple, if you couldn’t guess!).

Here are the menus our family will be enjoying this month using September’s abundance of seasonal produce – I hope you will find some dinner menu ideas here for your family’s menu!

What’s Included in this Plan

• Five days of complete dinner menus for four weeks. Mix and match to the days that work for your schedule.
• The no-brainer, repeatable menu we have on weekends you can replicate.
• Each day’s menu includes a main dish and sides.
• Use the sides as-is, come up with your own, or pull from the other days.
• Easy dessert idea that highlights the one of the best fruits of September: apple crumble!

How to use the dinner meal plans

You have a couple options to make these menu ideas work for you and whatever system you use:

1. Click the heart in the lower right corner to add the whole month’s plan to your recipe box. When you want the recipes, revisit the menu and click on the recipes you need to make.
2. Copy the daily menus you like and paste them into your own menu planning system.
3. NEW!! Download a PDF of this entire meal plan, complete with links (with no other text and only the recipe images), to keep on your computer. When you want to make something, open the pdf, click on the recipe you want and it will take you straight there! (And on the off chance you want to make the whole month’s menus, you can print it out and post it as your menu, too.)

September Dinner Menus

Week 1

• Sausage & Corn Stuffed Zucchini, Artisan Bread, green salad with Simple 3 Ingredient Tomato Chutney Vinaigrette
• Grilled chicken thighs seasoned with Tex-Mex or Basic Spice Rub, Zucchini, Corn & Tomato Sauté, grilled leftover artisan bread (and while we’re talking zucchini, maybe there’s a reason to make this incredible White Zucchini Cake?)
• Pasta with easy, fresh Roasted Tomato Sauce (add whatever meat you have), green salad with basic vinaigrette
• Bacon, lettuce & tomato sandwiches on easy 100% Whole Wheat Bread, corn on the cob
• Easy Sriracha Chicken Noodle Bowls – One Dish Dinner Recipe

Week 2

• Tuna Pasta with Lemon and Olives (20 Minute Pantry Recipe) – add broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, or whatever veggie you have to make it a one dish dinner
• Roasted Sausages, Peppers & Onions (we’ll probably grill this month vs. oven), Quick & Easy Chopped Salad, Easy Artisan Bread (or sourdough artisan)
• Steak Salad with Creamy Garlic-Pepper Dressing, leftover grilled artisan bread
• Spiced Lemon Skillet Chicken with Kale & Beans, brown rice, Tomato & Feta Salad
• Grilled pork chops with Spicy Rhubarb Chutney, Summer Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Green Beans

Week 3

Rotisserie Chicken Week (buy or slow cook two chickens):

• No Bake Greek Nachos (15 Minute Recipe)
• Tortilla wraps with lettuce and Cranberry Feta Chicken Salad, corn on the cob
• Chicken, Spinach (or chard or kale) & Feta Frittata, green salad
• Thai-Style Chicken Curry, rice
• Mexican Chicken Corn Soup – 30 Minute Recipe

Week 4

• Greek Style Pasta Salad with Tomatoes & Green Beans, sliced cucumbers dressed with vinaigrette
• Grilled chicken & vegetable skewers (brushed with basic vinaigrette), Authentic Greek Salad, grilled easy baguette slices
• Unbelievably Delicious Vegetable Tuna Salad Recipe, Easy No Knead Sourdough Focaccia (Long Ferment) or leftover baguette, sliced tomatoes
• Salmon & Vegetable Frittata with Creamy Feta Sauce, green salad with a lemon vinaigrette
• Slow Cooker Chicken & Corn Chili, 10-Minute Baked Tortilla Chips, Pico de Gallo and/or Salsa Cruda

Dessert Idea

Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (with Big Crumb Topping) – perfect for the beginning of fall and apple season!

More Meal Planning Help

• 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. Make sure to sign up here to download the PDF of this meal plan if you haven’t yet, and get more recipes and simple homemade life tips delivered right to your inbox!

This menu has been updated – it was originally published in 2014.