Meal Plan for the Whole Month: September 2025

September dinner menu

This month, we are embracing simplicity in the kitchen. As life gets busier with school routines and evening activities, the last thing I want is a complicated meal plan. To make things easier, we are trying a different approach for September: an “odd and even week” menu.

This means we will have one set menu for the odd-numbered weeks of the month and another for the even-numbered weeks. It’s a simple strategy to reduce decision fatigue while still keeping some variety.

Check out this post if you’re interested in how to use Week Numbers to simplify your planning!

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Our Simple “Menu Matrix”

To build our menu, I rely on a simple framework I call a “Menu Matrix”. It’s a themed approach to our weeknight dinners that makes planning so much faster. Each day has a category, which helps narrow down the options.

• One Pan Wonder (Mondays & Wednesdays): These are for our busiest nights. Think simple skillet or sheet pan meals that don’t create a lot of dishes.
• Effortless Eats (Tuesdays & Thursdays): These are nights when we need dinner to be ready whenever we are. This means leftovers or a slow-cooker meal that can stay on warm.
• “Fakeout” Friday: We love takeout, but making it at home is more budget-friendly and works better for our dietary needs. This is where we make takeout-style meals like Korean beef bowls or curry.
• Fend-for-Yourself Saturday: After a week of cooking, this is my day off. It’s a great chance for everyone to get creative with leftovers or prepped ingredients from our food prep session .
• Sunday Supper: I like to make something that can cook low and slow, like a roast or chili. It makes the house smell amazing and gives us plenty of leftovers for the week ahead.

To help you create your own, I’ve made my Menu Matrix sticky note a brand new freebie! You can get access to this printable and my entire library of free resources by signing up for my newsletter.

My Go-To Kitchen Tools

When you’re trying to keep things simple, having the right tools can make all the difference. This month, two of my favorite appliances that help me with this menu planning strategy are:

• The Beautiful Multi-Cooker: I recently got a multi-cooker from the “Beautiful” brand, and I am in love with it. It’s great because you can sear meat right in the pot before you slow-cook it, which saves me from using the stove and heating up the kitchen.
• Big Air Fryer: We love this air fryer because it is huge and you can make a sheet pan meal in here (and frozen pizzas!). It has lots of functions and we like to air roast chicken breast in it for an easy hands-off meal. It serves as our toaster too! (We have the older version of the one I linked…this one looks even better!)
• PlannerKate Perpetual Calendar Sticker: I love using this simple grid sticker to easily fit the whole month’s menu on a single notes page in my Erin Condren planner. There are so many cute designs to choose from (though here I opted not to use the included decorative pieces). Be sure to use my code KK20 to save an extra 20%!

More menu planning and kitchen favorites here and here.

The September Menu

Here is a look at what we’ll be eating this month, alternating between our even-week and odd-week menus.

Even Weeks (Weeks 36 & 38):

• Monday: Sheet Pan Salmon Bites with rice and broccoli
• Tuesday: Leftovers from Sunday’s dinner
• Wednesday: Sheet Pan Chicken (thin sliced chicken breast and chopped veggies, add oil and season with your favorite blend, air fry or air roast 375°F for about 15 mins)
• Thursday: Crock-Pot Taco Soup
• Friday: Curried Ground Beef with potatoes and peas
• Saturday: Fend for Yourself
• Sunday: Beef Chili (Week 36) or Salsa Chicken (Week 38)

Odd Weeks (Weeks 37 & 39):

• Monday: Sheet Pan Chicken
• Tuesday: Leftovers from Sunday’s dinner
• Wednesday: Sheet Pan Sausage with veggies (chopped smoked sausage and veggies, air fry until veggies are tender to your liking)
• Thursday: Crock-Pot Chicken Chili
• Friday: One-Pot Taco Rice (add ground beef in with the onions in the first step).
• Saturday: Fend for Yourself
• Sunday: Shredded Beef Tacos (Week 37) or Pulled Pork (Week 39)

If you’re looking for more guidance on creating your own simple menu planning system, you can download my free Menu Planning Guide and Workbook. It’s a printable guide that will walk you through the entire process of building a plan that works for you.

If you’d like some more ideas, I have 60 Dinner Ideas for easy, delicious, and relatively healthy options for feeding your family.

And to make your planning even easier, I have brand new menu planning printable sticky notes coming to the shop on September 1st! You can keep an eye on my shop (or the newsletter) for the new release.

Watch the Full Process

If you’re a visual planner and want to see exactly how I put this menu together in my planner, you can watch the full step-by-step video below.

Note: If you can’t watch this video, it may be currently only available as early-access or as an exclusive for my channel members. Please consider joining! More details here.