A month of dinner menus for our house this May

There's simplistic beauty in a patch of lettuce in the garden.

For the home-cook, what could make the daily event of dinner prep as encouraging as a menu plan for the entire month? 

All of my ingredients and time constraints for the month of May have been taken into account. I'll be drawing mostly from our stock in the garden, pantry, fridge and freezer. For produce, May is still in pre-summer mode, here. Our garden will be producing spinach, watercress, mustard greens, lettuce, pea tendrils, chives and rhubarb in abundance, but not much else for now. So, I'll be relying on freezer produce from last summer, as well as canned pumpkin, canned pineapple, and canned tomatoes (in salads, chopped and drained).

I also have given myself 2 nights per week as easy nights, either as meals using primarily leftovers, or, having my kids cook, or, making a simple breakfast-for-dinner supper. Doing so allows me full afternoons to devote to various projects.

I don't strictly follow my menu plans. I almost always make the main dish, but the sides may change, depending on what I have. For example, on May 2, we had the marinated lentil and barley salad, French bread, fruit jello (rhubarb jello), but instead of garden greens, onions and garlic, I added watermelon (picked up at the produce stand) and a bed of watercress to the servings of lentil salad (for the "greens").

If you menu plan, do you deviate very much from your plan? Or do you stick to it pretty closely? Do you menu plan as a way to simplify your work? Or do you menu plan to save money? 

So here you go. A month of May menus, simple and frugal-style. 

week of May 1 through May 3

1   ham and green pepper pizza, garden salad (or cole slaw if garden lettuce not ready), rhubarb sauce (double batch for fruit jello)

2   marinated lentil salad (double batch for May 5), French bread (make/freeze 2 extra loaves 1 for garlic bread on May 18, 2 for crostini on May 12), sauteed garden greens, onions and garlic, fruit jello

3   turkey, cranberry and cream cheese sandwiches (turkey and cranberries from freezer), sweet potato fries, rhubarb squares (freeze half of the rhubarb squares for Wednesday)

week of May 4 through May 10

4   bean-vegetable soup (double batch for Thursday), rolls from freezer, rhubarb crisp

5   pocket sandwiches (pocket bread filled with leftover lentil salad and shredded lettuce), fresh fruit, brownies (double batch brownies and freeze half)   

6   meatloaf muffins topped with marinara, mashed kale, garlic and potatoes, green salad from garden 

   

7   leftover soup from Sunday, rolls, cole slaw, rhubarb squares (from freezer)

8   waffles with fruit topping   

9   pinto bean, rice, grilled peppers/onions, corn salsa, and cheese burritos (double batch rice for tomorrow), green salad, leftover brownies

   

10   grilled whole chicken (shred leftover chicken into 2 containers, freeze 1 container), oven-roasted potato casserole w/ chives/cheese (make extra large for leftovers), pumpkin souffle (canned pumpkin)

week of May 11 through May 17 (Mother's Day on Sunday)

11   Mother's Day (kids make dinner)  leftover chicken in BBQ sauce over buns, carrot sticks, leftover potato casserole, blackberry-rhubarb pie

12   chicken noodle soup, made with chicken carcass from Saturday and veggies from garden, crostini, leftover pie

13   spinach souffle, brown rice, fruit salad, tossed green salad

14   bean patties (double batch/freeze for May 20), corn bread, carrot sticks, cole slaw

15   French toast with fruit topping

16   frittata, brown rice, pumpkin muffins

17   hot dog cook-out -- dogs in buns and 2 salads-- pasta salad (w/ chopped, canned tomatoes, olives, garlic greens and any green vegetables from the garden), spinach salad with rhubarb dressing

week of May 18 through May 24 (Memorial Day weekend begins on 24th)

18   tofu garden lasagna, green salad, garlic bread

19   polenta squares (double batch) with marinara sauce/cheese, lentil-barley salad, steamed spinach

20   leftover bean patties, leftover polenta squares, green salad, roasted carrots

21   turkey and dumplings (turkey from freezer), spinach salad with rhubarb dressing

22   black beans and rice, garden salad, blueberry muffins (blueberries from freezer)

23   pancakes topped with rhubarb coulis

24   hamburgers, oven fries, sauteed spinach, cookies

week of May 25 through May 31 (Memorial Day weekend ends on 26th)

25   Asian chicken-noodle salad, (chicken from earlier in month, pea tendrils, green onions, garden vegetables and whole wheat spaghetti noodles), grilled pineapple

26   Memorial Day: hot dog cook-out -- dogs in buns with 2 salads --  potato salad, tossed green salad, rhubarb lemonade, s'mores

27   quiche, brown rice, fruit salad, sauteed greens and garlic

28   baked ham, sweet potato fries, green salad, plum kuchen (using frozen plums)

29   ham and baked beans, cornbread (double batch for tomorrow), creamed spinach, rhubarb sauce (double batch for tomorrow)

30   ham and eggs, leftover cornbread, leftover rhubarb sauce

31   vegetable pizza, pasta salad w/chopped canned tomatoes, olives, green veggies from garden and garlic greens, leftover kuchen

~~~~~

May looks to be promising in so many ways

Dear friends (and I do think of you as friends, you've been so kind and supportive, and offered so many valuable ideas),

Sometimes life just keeps on spinning and spinning, until you realize that it has spun out of control. You don't know how you got there, but your life is now too full, too complicated, and spread too thin.

This is where I found myself in early April. I had said "yes" so many times to so many people, that I couldn't do everything that I was committed to, and do it all well. This is key. If I do something, I want to do it well. So, I spent the second half of April attempting to take some of the "busy" out of my life.

There's a lot of common wisdom on how to unwind a too-tight life. For the last few weeks, I've been trying to implement many of these suggestions, such as:

• spend some time choosing what will be your priorities. This is a no-brainer for me, most of the time. Serving God, my friends and family are what and who matter most.
• begin saying "no" to people and things that don't reflect your new priority list. So, I've begun doing this more. I realized that I don't need a long, expanded reason why I can't contribute time to something. Just a simple, "oh, I'm so sorry, but I have something on my calendar that day". And that is true, I have ME on my calendar that day.
• use a calendar and only fill it partially. This is really freeing. When I allow myself to have fewer appointments on my calendar, I actually achieve more concerning my list of priorities (see the first point). How much a person fills their own calendar will depend on how much activity they can not merely tolerate, but also find enjoyment from.
• find the "good thing" about each of your commitments. Sometimes the "good thing" is time to do something you never find time to do at home. Sitting in the dentist's waiting room while kids have their appointments gives me time to read that book I've got sitting on my night stand. Other people might bring cross-stitch, knitting, quilt-piecing projects to fill the time. I also like to bring a pad of paper and pen, and detail the next day's activities, or plan the next month's dinner menus. In a grueling 1 1/2 hour wait during appointments this past month, I was able to plan the entire month of May's dinner menus. Had I not put that time to good use, I would have flipped through the waiting room's magazine selection for about 30 minutes, then grown restless, and watched the clock for the remaining hour.                                                                                 Another way to find that "good thing" for me, has been to bring an audio book, to listen to on long solo drives. I've had many late evening pick-ups from university for one of my daughters this quarter. The bus schedules don't suit late nights on campus. So, I find myself driving downtown to pick up one daughter, on a regular basis. Instead of bemoaning these long, long drives, I bring a book on CD with me, to listen to, not just while on the road, but while sitting in the parked car waiting for my daughter to finish up with ushering duties.
• schedule "vacations" from your normal routine. Instead of a week of household chores, I've set aside entire weeks to tackle large chores, such as getting our outdoor area ready for summer cook-outs. I gave myself permission to let the mopping and dusting slide for the week. And, I recently just "gave" myself a two-week vacation from blogging (and other projects). I was able to accomplish quite a lot by not having my thoughts split between so many areas of daily life.
• give yourself a needed day off from all work every once and again. I am trying harder with this one. My goal is once a fortnight to do something just for the joy of it. One day while cleaning out the junk drawer, I came upon a bottle of my kids' bubbles. It was a beautiful, sunny April day. So, I went outside and blew bubbles for about 30 minutes. This was sheer joy, and could in no way be construed as "work". So worth it. And I would suggest you try this some day when life feels to be nothing but drudge work. For joy on a larger scale this month, what day could be better for doing something just for oneself than Mother's Day? I have plans to visit a local botanical garden with my family on this Mother's Day. Have you planned anything special for your day this month?
• in at-home work time, work at something enjoyable that still fills the bill of doing "work". This I am very good at. I love baking, and I often will bake and skip the other housework for the day (okay, so maybe that's a bit out of balance, the house could use at least a pick-up at some point in the day). When I combine fun with productivity, life feels good. A few days ago, I made the year's supply of vanilla extract, and thoroughly enjoyed the entire process. I have a particular method for getting maximum flavor from vanilla beans. I'll post that in later this month, as well as how I get vanilla beans for free (and you can too). I also took the time to make a huge batch of pie pastry which I rolled and put in tins for the freezer. In going through my selection of pie tins and plates, I counted 8 assorted pie tins. So I made a double batch of dough (enough for 10 single crusts), filled all 8 tins, then rolled up the remaining 2 portions onto empty waxed paper and foil cardboard tubes (I can use these 2 for top crusts). (Here's a pie pastry post from a couple of years ago. There's a link to the fool-proof recipe I use there as well.) Summer pie season is underway here, with the rhubarb harvest in full swing. Having the crusts all ready to go means I can throw together a pie in about 10 minutes. 

In late April, I made quite a bit of progress in the area of unwinding my too-tight life. I hope to carry this through May, as well. One change I am making with creative savv is I'll be posting fewer times per month, but still on a regular basis. As I'll be writing fewer blog posts, I'll be using facebook more often for some of my smaller frugal activities. Yes, it looks like May shall be a very good month, indeed!

Now get out those bubbles and start blowing!

Cheers, my dear friends,

Lili