Okay, I am giving monthly menu planning yet another try. Fingers crossed that no one gets sick this month and we can eat the whole thing!
My Perdue Farms order was finally delivered a week or two ago, so it did take the full 5-6 weeks to arrive. Based on my one data point, I would say their current estimate of 2-3 weeks is probably accurate despite the upcoming meat shortage, although the package I ordered and several other products are not currently available. But talk about good timing! One of the reasons I ordered this meat in the first place was in anticipation of a meat shortage, and here we are. All of the meat we will be eating this month is already in my freezer – even the chicken from the cheesy farro, broccoli, and chicken that we had on Saturday was from a big batch of chicken breasts I baked a few weeks ago.
Speaking of the meat shortage, you might notice that there isn’t a lot of meat in this menu plan. Not that that is atypical around here, personally I feel that the meat and three menu gets pretty boring pretty quickly. Of course no meat can get kind of boring too! So my categories this month are soup, pasta, vegetarian, eggs, pizza, and a meat night. My Monday and Tuesday nights switch between two categories because of some scheduling conflicts – just makin’ it work.
May means Cinco de Mayo, and also… Cinco de Cuatro! Just in time too, because my kids have been asking if we can make chocolate covered bananas again.
I made the menu printable again this month – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.
Soups
(Our 1-year-old eats what we eat, and she really likes soup. Feeding her with the spoon is hit or miss, because she likes to feed herself. Right now, one of my favorite ways to feed her soup is by dipping chunks of bread in the soup and letting her feed herself the soupy bread.)
- Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
- Chicken Noodle Soup – requested by my kids
- Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
- Slow Cooker French Onion Soup – This probably isn’t the best French onion soup recipe ever, but it is pretty easy
- Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup
Pasta
- Tortellini with pears and prosciutto (adapted from this recipe)
- Eggplant parmesan with pasta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – I’ve never made this recipe for myself, but my favorite vegetarian friend – the one who recommended this book to me in the first place – made it for me a while ago so I thought I would give it a whirl.
- Spaghetti aglio e olio
- Pasta alfredo
Vegetarian
- BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa from Thug Kitchen / veggie tacos for my kids – I made this sometime last year and it was sooo good. Hands-down the most flavorful burritos I have made at home. They were pretty labor intensive, which is why I haven’t made them since, but Cinco de Mayo seems like the perfect occasion for a repeat. Unfortunately the burritos were pretty spicy, and my kids genuinely hate spicy foods right now, so I’ll cut up some veggies for them to make their own little vegetable tacos.
- Yeasted waffles à la King Arthur Flour
- Weeknight enchiladas (bean and cheese enchiladas) / veggie tacos for my kids – Again, these enchiladas are really not very spicy, but I have tried and failed many times to get my kids to eat them. I’m going to make them on the super-mild side (with Monterey jack cheese instead of pepper jack, for instance), and also plan on some simple veggie tacos for them.
- Polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto
Eggs
We’ve been alternating scrambled eggs and eggs-in-a-basket lately; it’s been a nice change of pace!
Pizza
I’m back to making pizza – this is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.
Meat
- Cheesy farro with chicken and broccoli – like a deconstructed chicken-broccoli-rice casserole, but with farro
- Whole chicken in the slow cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
- Potato kielbasa sheet pan – I’ve never made this recipe, but it looks simple, a.k.a. just my style
- Easy orange chicken – Why yes, you *can* make that sauce ahead and stick it in the fridge for later in the day
- Slow cooker honey soy drumettes – This recipe has been in my mental bookmarks for YEARS. Literally, at least five years. Of course, basically every time I think to make it I have a baby under a year old doing baby led weaning, and the one food they are really not supposed to eat before they turn one is honey (thanks, botulism!). Hopefully five years of anticipation do not leave me disappointed.
Notes about side dishes –
- I use “green veggies” and “salad/greens” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
- Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.
Lunches
- Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
- Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac & cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies
Breakfasts
Cereal, yogurt, smoothies, fruit, oatmeal
