5 Day Mini Menu March 2012 Menu
Want access to customizable recipe cards and grocery lists, step-by-step instructions and labels complete with freezing directions and serving amount alterations so you don't have to do it all yourself? Become a Member!
Already a member? Sign In!
It has been some time since I have tried my hand at creating a menu. I was beginning to get worried that I might get rusty. Turns out all the editing of the other menus monthly has kept me in the game! I am happy to be back in the saddle this month with a mini menu though!
Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells
This is a compilation of several recipes that we have come to love over the last season. Three of the five have no meat so I think that you will find this to be a budget friendly menu and perfect for the Lent season. If your family likes a little more meat in their dinners, just add either cooked ground beef or chicken, whichever happens to be on hand. I hope you like my choices and that you are finding these mini menus to be of help in your freezer cooking journey.
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 March as we have another 10 Day Mini Menu coming out then that you might also enjoy.
Honey Spiced Chicken Thighs
Dinners
- Rosemary Pot Roast
- Bean Enchilada Casserole
- Spinach Ricotta Stuffed Shells
- Potato Soup
- Honey Spiced Chicken Thighs
**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
OAMM Members Only!Become a Member or Sign In to gain access.
Grocery List
OAMM Members Only!Become a Member or Sign In to gain access.
Instructions
OAMM Members Only!Become a Member or Sign In to gain access.
Labels
OAMM Members Only!Become a Member or Sign In to gain access.
Pinterest:
Are you a person that likes to see the menus visually? Perhaps you should check out the March 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 – Month March 11th 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 on the left side margin.
- 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:
- Rete St. Germain – I am a wife and mother of a 10-year old girl, and another one the way! I work full-time outside of the home for a state government agency and am trying to start a quilting business from my home. I am always looking for ways to make the daily cook ing easier and quicker to give me more time for my quilting and family, especially since we’ll be adding a new baby to the mix in June. I also blog at www.retequilts.com.
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. 
Super excited for this mini menu! I’m almost out of freezer meal in my freezer! god forbid!
One question/comment. When I printed out the shopping list, the field for quantity needed for condiments was blank on the excel.
Thanks, that is fixed now.
Hey, just going over the shopping list, and is appears that the quantities for the rosemary pot roast are a little screwy too. I entered in 4 servings in the yellow box, and it was telling me to use 1.32 ozs of the cream of mushroom soup and 0 oz of diced tomatoes. and .32 oz of petite diced tomatoes.
Excited to make them all!
Nope, those quantities are right. The original recipe makes 6 so when you put in a 4 the quantities are not quite the whole recipe.
zero oz of diced tomatoes? I’m doubtful that is right. I’m only reducing by 2 servings. same with the 1.32 oz of cream soup – it’s orginally 14.5 for 6 servings.
one more thing (sorry!) again – with the 4 servings in the yellow box, the grocery list seems half of what the recipe is for the Stuffed shells. I went on the website, and looks like 24 shells does four servings (which seems excessive to me?) but your grocery list says 12 (more reasonable, lol).
Yes, we made an adjustment from the original post so that everyone is getting 3 shells each per serving.
Much more reasonable! :)
Is there an error in the recipe cards spreadsheet, where it says, “For example, If I was cooking for my husband, myself and my 2 children, I would enter 4 into the YELLOW box above. That would give me what I need to yield 10 dinners for EACH of us.” That should be “yield 5 dinners”, shouldn’t it?
I’ve wrapped my head around the idea that the yellow box means 2 meals each, but if I understand it correctly, in the mini menu it means 1 meal each. Is that correct?
I went back and looked at the 10-day recipe cards, and it says the same text as the 5-day. So are they really both adjusted for 5 meals each? Does the yellow box work the same in each? If so what is the difference between a 10-day and a 5-day mini menu?
Thanks!!
yes it is likely a copying error – the 5 day menus yield one meal each. I will look into that. Sorry for the confusion.
Don’t apologize!! I’m just trying to figure things out. I’m am simply amazed by how much work you do. I’m sharing my experiences freezer cooking with a mom’s group tonight at our church, and seeing if anyone wants to do some group cooking, so I’m trying not to mess anything up.
If I can make a suggestion, I would say that in the future you might consider removing the terms “5-day” and “10-day” and just have mini menus and full menus. Then, you could make the box pink or some other color (then you can change the color of past 5-day mini-menus box, and little else). Then you can have text somewhere that says, “yellow box” = 2 meals pp, pink = 1 meal pp; just double the pink boxes if you want 2 meals.
Alright so we’ve decided that the monthly menus are too overwhelming for our small kitchen and we’re going to stick to the mini menus. One thing that is driving me batty is that going from the original 6-serving recipe to the 4 servings we ‘normally’ need provides some food waste, specifically from canned goods we’re not fully using. I’m currently modifying my copies of the spreadsheets to just make full serving amounts of the original recipes that I’ll divvy up but how are others handling the ‘waste’ from partial usage of canned goods in these recipes?
I wondered about that too – when I have not quite half a can of evaporated milk; leftover shells; leftover egg roll filling; etc. (from the April menu) It’s not a terribly high amount, but enough.
I’ve stored the evaporated milk in another container (need to find a small dessert recipe for it); stored spaghetti sauces in glass jars and frozen it in for future use. The leftover egg roll contents were added to a fresh salad (actually quite delicious!). And the stuffed shells I am just about to chop up and melt some cheese on them with warmed tomato sauce – just as a very light breakfast this morning.
It would be nice if the amounts worked out evenly, but when I’m adjusting for just myself and my son, it is not going to work out that way :) If I had more freezer space, I could increase the recipe size and make more meals at once… :)
Thanks so much for your work on this menu! I did the cooking day with three of my best friends, and we had a great time. We’re looking forward to doing this monthly, and your resources make it so much easier.
Any suggestions about making it easier to divvy up costs when cooking with multiple people (making different numbers of servings, and some people skipping certain meals)? I’m thinking of maybe modifying the grocery spreadsheet.
Hi Amanda! If you saw Lisa’s post on group swap it can help some. I do a group swap at work and we use a spreadsheet to tally who cooks what, what they spent at the store for the dish they made, then we factor the cost per serving, and then take away the servings of the meals they took from what they spent for the dish they made. Some people will get a credit from the group pot if they spent more than what they asked for. And vice versa, some people owe to the group pot if what they made cost less than the servings they requested. I can send you our spreadsheet if you want me to! Email me at kelly@onceamonthmom.com