May Menu Plan

Can you believe it's May already?!  Wow, April flew by...at least for us, especially with spring break and Easter in there.  And now we're in the midst of planning for graduations, Mother's Day, and rapidly approaching the end of school.  So, to the May menu plan...

First, we need to inventory the fridge, freezer, and pantry.  I know we already bulked up on rice, beans, and pasta last month, so those will be some staples around which the meals will be planned.  We also still have a turkey in the freezer that we bought on sale at Thanksgiving that we'll cook this month.  That will provide much more than a week's worth of meals by the time we make soup, enchiladas, quesadillas, turkey tetrazinni, etc.  We're also now getting our free, free-range eggs from friends who have chickens (we often trade baked goods for eggs), so we can plan lots of egg based meals like quiche or breakfast for dinner.

We'll plan produce around what's available on sale at the local grocery store, but the farmer's market also opens this weekend (yay!), so we'll see what we can snag there too.  Our CSA begins in June, so it will be really nice once we've got that rolling in, but until then, we'll rely on our local sources.  Little man loves his fruit, so we have to have at least bananas or dried fruit around for him (and we enjoy it too).

Breakfasts:  sticky buns (these are the. best. ever.), lemon poppy seed muffins (love these because I can make them w/ pantry staples), cappuccino chip muffins (from a library cookbook--uses leftover coffee), egg and cheese sandwiches, toast and jam, whole wheat banana nut muffins (from Joy of Cooking--they are Wubba's favorite), oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts

Lunches:  leftovers, fillers: pasta salad, yogurt, muffins

Dinners:  turkey enchiladas (I riff on this recipe a bit--obviously since turkey is in no way vegan-- but the avocado cream sauce is to die for), turkey soup with rice or barley, turkey and rice casserole with broccoli, turkey quesadillas, turkey sloppy joes, beans and rice with cheese, dinner salad with salmon and hard boiled eggs, loaded baked potatoes, whole wheat pancakes with fruit, pesto lasagna, veggie stir-fry over noodles or rice

Snacks:  oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (we like this recipe but often substitute chopped nuts for the craisins or other chocolate for the white chocolate), popcorn, homemade popsicles (they're great made with overripe fruit and yogurt or leftover coffee and evaporated milk), cheese and crackers

We've got a few special things to make this month for graduation parties, which I'll post about later (don't want to ruin any surprises).  We'll also probably end up with a few free meals or potlucks with friends and family, which help to stretch the budget too.  We should be able to do all our regular meals plus the special things without going over our $100 grocery budget.

So, what's your spring menu plan like?  I'd love to hear any frugal recipes you'd like to share!  Here's to living green and saving green in the kitchen, even for special days!