Here is the template for March. Notice that I put the 31st at the top. This just kept me from having to make a whole new row just for one day. If that confuses you, you can renumber it. Now I’ll fill out my meal plans using the steps I outlined here.
Step 1:
Our family doesn’t have a whole lot going on this month that will force us to eat out. Don’t get me wrong, we have lots of evening activities (cub scouts, dance classes, science fair). We’ll just plan to eat early enough to make it out of the house in time.
Step 2:
Once again, Wednesdays are going to be Church Dinner nights. So, that’s one meal a week already taken care of. And there are two holidays in March: Easter and St. Patrick’s Day. Easter is (obviously) on a Sunday. We’ll probably do something nice for lunch, so I’m not too worried about planning a great dinner. I’m thinking a nice broccoli cheese soup and some bread would be awesome for Easter supper. St. Patrick’s Day is even easier. It’s a tradition to make Corned Beef and Cabbage for my family for St. Pat’s. This year, it’s even easier since one of our co-op meals from February was Corned Beef and Cabbage. :)
Step 3:
Now we move on to Co-op meals. I have a few meals left in the freezer from the last few months that need to be used:
- Sweet and Sour Pork Roast - slow cooker meal
- Balsamic Brown Sugar Pork Loin - slow cooker meal
This month I'm bringing home 6 meals:
- Sri Lankan Beef Curry - Mongolian Monday
- Spaghetti Pie - Tuscan Tuesday
- Crockpot Shredded Chicken and Noodles - Fix-It-Up Friday (And I’ll have to remember to have something on hand for M because of his allergies - fish sticks maybe?)
- Cuban Pork - Fix-It-Up Friday
- Ravioli Soup - Soup/Salad/Sandwich Sunday
- Colorado Style Beef Enchiladas - Mexican Monday
Once these have taken their place on the calendar, I can begin filling in the rest.
Step 4:
For the remaining main dishes, I started with magazines I’d dog-earred. From Taste of Home, I pulled out Beef Bolognese with Liguine. Nothing else really inspired me, so I just pulled out some standbys for this month, and then searched for a couple of new recipes. Specifically, I needed something for the crock-pot. Usually, we have a lot of crock-pot meals for co-op, but this month, not so much. So I found Jerk Pork Wraps with Lime Mayo and a Vegetarian Minestrone.
Up next is side dishes. I’d found a recipe for Rosemary Dinner Rolls in Taste of Home that would go with my Broccoli-Cheese Soup for Easter. There was also some Lemony Broccoli that looked good, so I stuck that in with Scalloped Potatoes and Ham.
The Finished Product:
Here is the menu for March. Hopefully this inspires some ideas for you. Some of these recipes look super yummy to me. I plan to start sharing recipes tomorrow. We just got back from a trip to Disney World, and I’ve been playing catch-up the last week.
