Fall Meal Plan #7

Slow cooker French dip, 30-minute shrimp tacos, and one chicken that feeds you twice

This week’s plan is all about cozy fall comfort without the all-day effort. We’re starting with a slow cooker French dip that does its thing while you go about your day, then finishing it with garlic aioli and cheesy bread that turn it into a sandwich the whole table will fight over, then moving on to Change Your Life Chicken, which we’re doubling so a second dinner is already halfway done. Shrimp tacos hit the table in about 30 minutes, and we’re closing out the week with our first soup of the season: a Thai peanut chicken ramen that uses that leftover chicken. The wins this week: the chicken cooks once and feeds you twice, two dinners are mostly hands off, and a maple pecan baked oatmeal covers your breakfasts. Shortcuts are built in too, like coleslaw mix and packaged taco seasoning for the tacos and bottled crema if you’d rather skip the sauce. Grab your cart, pick the nights that fit your week, and let’s make dinner a little easier.



DINNER #1: French Dip | Total time: 8 hours and 15 minutes (slow cooker) | Serves 6ish | Mostly Hands Off
We made this slow cooker french dip sandwich a few weeks ago and everyone at the table was obsessed with it—honestly, typing these notes has us totally wanting to make it again. Chase said it’s the best slow cooker meal he’s had in ages (and he’s picky!). There are a few homemade components like the garlic aioli and the cheesy bread that really send it over the top and take this from “basic shredded beef” to “cozy yummy sandwich”. The recipe is for an instant pot, but we actually did it in a slow cooker and just started it in the morning and it was fantastic (tips and notes below!)

Notes:
If you don’t use an instant pot: You can totally use a slow cooker like we did! Here’s how we did it: Sear all the sides of the whole roast, put the meat in the slow cooker and add the onion, garlic, and other seasoning then cover with the beef broth and wine. Cook on low for 8ish hours.
If you don’t want to open a bottle of wine: You can absolutely sub extra broth for wine. But our pro tip is to buy inexpensive mini bottles of wine just for cooking so you don’t have to open a whole bottle!