5 Day Mini Menu April 2012 Menu
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April is that transition month, where winter lends to spring. In Iowa the weather can be pretty unpredictable, so we can’t solely rely on grilling yet. My family still craves a few comfort food items on the chilly spring nights (Pizza Meatloaf and Mom’s Sloppy Joes), in addition to lighter spring fare. In your grocery store, you will start to find broccoli, cabbage and carrots on sale, as well as ham and other related Easter items.
What are Mini Menus? Mini menus are a fraction of the meals you would see on a normal menu and can be completed quickly and efficiently in a few short hours, in the evenings when you are preparing the meal for dinner or during small bursts of times like naps. Mini meal plans are designed for the busy family who wants freezer meals in their freezer but doesn’t have time to do a full months worth of meals. If you are new and not sure how to get started we have a wonderful series starting with 5 easy steps to get you on your way to once a month cooking. Good luck!
**Stay tuned on the 10th of April as we have another 10 Day Mini Menu coming out then that you might also enjoy.
Dinners
Pizza Meatloaf
- Pizza Meatloaf **
- Mom’s Sloppy Joes
- 21 Ingredient Slow Cooker Chili
- Chicken & Broccoli Foil Packets **
- Spaghetti Bread
**Indicates meals that require NO COOKING on your OAMC BIG DAY aka “throw and go” meals, perfect for the family who needs to adjust to just do the quick meals!
Recipe Cards
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Grocery List
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Instructions
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Labels
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Pinterest:
Are you a person that likes to see the menus visually? Perhaps you should check out the April 2012 5 Day Mini Menu via Pinterest to see the yummy goodness you will be cooking up on this menu. Not sure what Pinterest is all about, check out what Once A Month Mom has to say about it.
Facebook Fan Party:
OAMM Facebook Fan Page Party – Thursday, April 12, 2012, 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm EST – We will be able to chat via video AND messaging during the event through FACEBOOK! How cool is that? We will be talking about the current month’s menus, answer your burning questions about freezer cooking and have fun getting to know one another. You can also see other past recordings from that tab as well. This is a great way to meet fellow Once A Month Mom’s or get your questions answered as you get started.
Instructions for viewing live-stream:
- Go to the Once A Month Mom Facebook Fan Page.
- Click on the “FB Fan Night” Tab.
- Hit “view live recording” – If I am live streaming it will show you what is happening in progress. If I am not live streaming at the time, you will have the option to click through other videos that I have recorded in the past.
- Enjoy!
Test Cooks
Each month we have some wonderful volunteers who “test” out the menu prior to publication. They do an amazing job of helping to eliminate confusion and mistakes. They may not catch everything but they sure do catch A LOT! If you are interested in test cook, feel free to volunteer. Here is a little bit about this month’s test cooks:
- Kelly Hamilton - My name is Kelly and I am a stay at home mom with 3 children. (15, 12, and 4). In the past year we began raising chickens and selling the eggs and we would like to eventually buy a cow and slowly begin to get more self-sufficient. I work hard at providing good meals for my family but try to stay within a strict budget doing it.
- Aimee Bell - I’m a scientist who loves the chemistry aspect of cooking and am enjoying this new foray into freezer cooking! It’s become an economical way to provide my husband and I with healthy, natural meals every night. Also, I am a wife to a pilot in the military, so freezer cooking has freed up our precious time together when he is home.
Get Started
Are you new to Once A Month Mom or once a month cooking (oamc) in general? If so, you might want to spend a few minutes (or hours) on the Get Started Series. If you are in a real hurry to catch on we have written some simple steps for getting started. Welcome!
If you are feeling abundantly blessed and generous feel free to donate. 
Sorry I am not sure if I missed it, but with the spaghetti bread, do you have freezer instructions on this? Would you freeze it unbaked?
Chelsea – see the “printable recipe cards” for our recommendations on freezing this dish!
I just cooked up this mini menu on Wednesday with great success! We have tried 3/5 meals and they are very yummy and since I doubled the recipes we get to eat them all again in the near future! The chicken & Broccoli foil packs were **excellent**!
I did want to mention a couple of glitches that I noticed in the grocery list, though. After I changed the serving number to 8 on the grocery list, the following items did not change to the proper amount: Pizza Sauce, saltine crackers, and Italian sausage.
Also, after I changed the recipe card file to 8 servings, the meatloaf recipe went to 16 for some reason, and called for 8 lbs of meat! I only used 4 lbs of beef and just omitted the ground sausage and it worked great, but I was a little confused at first!
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know about that. Thanks so much for providing all of this information and planning for free! It takes a bit of the thinking out which is really appreciated when you have little ones!
Wow, there was definitely a mathmatical error on the recipe cards for that recipe which was correct in the grocery list which is why you had a difference in amounts purchased and the recipe card. I have that fixed now, thank you.
I am new to OAMM and would love to see a mini Menu of Whole Foods cooking. I was looking at the April Whole Foods and I am a bit intimidated. The mini menu looks like the perfect way to get started.
I found this site one night when I was up late one night trying to make my grocery list for the next day…with no meals planned out. This saved me so much time and the meals turned out fabulous! My picky kids loved the Pizza meatloaf and the Spaghetti Bread, and my husband and I really enjoyed the Chili and the Chicken packets. I would definitely recommend for anyone to give the mini menus a try, I plan on going back to previous months and keeping April’s list and recipes on file….definitely a keeper and a time saver. Thanks from this busy Mother of three who got extra sleep that night : )