A week of dinners for two, with one shopping list

The week at a glance

Every dinner links to its full recipe. Amounts in the shopping list below are for two people.

• Sunday: Hearty Turkey Sweet Potato Stew, about 65 minutes. Make the full recipe (four servings) and eat half.
• Monday: leftover stew. Nothing to cook.
• Tuesday: Thai Coconut-Chicken Lettuce Wraps, about 45 minutes. Half the recipe.
• Wednesday: Pan-Seared Salmon with Lemon Glaze and garlicky green beans, about 30 minutes. Half the recipe.
• Thursday: Shish Kabobs, about 35 minutes. Half the recipe.
• Friday: Salmon Tlayuda con Queso Oaxaca, about 35 minutes. Half the recipe.
• Saturday: night off. Eat out, order in, or finish what's left in the fridge.

The longest cook is on Sunday, when there's usually more time, and it pays for Monday too. The weeknight dinners all take 45 minutes or less.

The shopping list

Combined from all five recipes, halved where the recipe is halved, and rounded up to what stores sell.

Produce

• 1 head garlic (you need about 9 cloves across the week)
• 2 yellow onions (one for the stew, half for the kabobs)
• 1 small red onion (a quarter goes in the wraps)
• 2 lemons (about 3 tbsp juice for the salmon and kabobs)
• 2 limes (about 3 tbsp juice for the wraps and tlayuda)
• 1 bunch fresh parsley (stew and salmon)
• 1 small bunch cilantro (wraps)
• 1 small piece fresh ginger (wraps)
• 1 stalk lemongrass (wraps)
• 1 head butter lettuce (6 leaves for the wraps)
• 1 cucumber (half goes in the wraps)
• 1 bell pepper (kabobs)
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes (half goes on the kabobs)
• ½ lb green beans (salmon night)
• 1 large sweet potato, or 2 medium (2 cups diced for the stew)
• 2 medium carrots (1 cup sliced for the stew)
• 2 stalks celery (stew)
• 1 ripe avocado (tlayuda)
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary (garlic bread for the stew)

Meat and fish

• 1 lb turkey breast, skinless (stew)
• About 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast (half a pound for the wraps, the rest for the kabobs)
• 2 salmon fillets, skin on (Wednesday)
• 4 oz smoked salmon (Friday)

Dairy and cheese

• Unsalted butter (3 tbsp: 2 for the stew's garlic bread, 1 for the salmon)
• 1 small tub sour cream (½ cup for the tlayuda)
• ¼ lb Oaxaca cheese (tlayuda)

Bread and tortillas

• 1 crusty sourdough loaf (with the stew)
• Large masa tortillas (you need 2)

Pantry

• 1 carton chicken broth (4 cups)
• Dry sherry (½ cup)
• Tomato paste (2 tbsp)
• 1 can coconut milk (½ cup for the wraps)
• Fish sauce (about 2 tsp)
• Rice vinegar (½ tbsp)
• Honey (½ tbsp)
• Brown sugar and white sugar (½ tsp each)
• Olive oil (about 5½ tbsp) and vegetable oil (¼ cup)

Spices (check before you buy)

• Smoked paprika, sweet paprika, dried oregano, dried thyme, bay leaf, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, black pepper

What to do with the extras

• Half a cucumber: slice it next to Wednesday's salmon.
• Half a pint of cherry tomatoes: add them to the green beans or eat them as a snack.
• The rest of the red onion: thin slices on Friday's tlayuda.
• Half a can of coconut milk: freeze it in a jar for next week.
• Leftover sourdough: slice and freeze it for toast.

How to plan your own week for two

The same method works with any recipes you like.

1. Pick the nights you will cook. Five is plenty for two people; leave one night for leftovers and one night off.

2. Make one dinner a full batch. A four-serving stew or soup feeds two people twice, so one cook covers two nights.

3. Halve the other recipes. Most recipes serve four, so cut every amount in half for two people.

4. Choose recipes that share fresh ingredients, like lemons, limes, garlic, and parsley, so you buy each one once and use it up.

5. Write one shopping list from all the recipes. Add up repeats, then round up to what the store sells, like a whole cucumber or a head of garlic.

6. Plan a use for the extras, like the second half of a cucumber or an onion, before you shop.

For more on picking recipes from your own saves, see how to meal plan with recipes you already saved. For the list itself, see how to make a grocery list from recipes.

The faster way: let Prepful do the math

Prepful is a free app that saves recipes from links and photos, puts them on days, and builds the shopping list.

1. Open any recipe above and tap Plan to put it on a day in Prepful. You can also save your own recipes from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, any recipe website, or a photo.

2. On the Plan tab, mark Monday as Leftovers and Saturday as Eating Out or Ordering In, so the week reads the way you'll actually eat.

3. Open a planned dinner and set its servings to 2. Prepful scales that recipe's ingredients to match.

4. Open Shop. All the week's recipes become one list, with repeats like garlic and lemons combined and amounts scaled to the servings you planned, grouped by category. Check items off as you go.

Planning for one or two is mostly about not wasting food. If you find yourself buying the same things every week anyway, read why you keep buying the same groceries.