WHOLE FOODS April 2012 Menu
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Spring produce will be full swing this month. Depending on where you live, you should see farmer’s markets and road side stands opening up soon, and home gardeners and CSA members are likely to have their first baskets of crops in the coming weeks. How appropriate that our Get Real topic this month will be fruits and vegetables! Again, we tried to give you ample opportunity to put what you learn into action as you cook this month.
“Real” Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
You’ll see some more traditional dishes, like “Real” Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole, one of my family’s favorites. But you’ll see veggies pop up in some unusual places as well, for example, asparagus at breakfast and mushrooms as pizza “crust” instead of just a topping. You will also be introduced to the topic of soaking grains. This helps to break down some of the more difficult to digest compounds in whole grains and make the nutrients more available for absorption and use in your body. It is an extra step, but it isn’t hard. Also, don’t be alarmed when you’re asked to leave yogurt out overnight. I promise (from personal experience) it will be perfectly safe!
Last, if you enjoy entertaining for the holidays like I do, here are a few suggestions. Whip up a few extra servings of the breakfast meals, add some fresh fruit or juice and coffee, and serve them as an Easter breakfast or brunch. An extra batch of the French Onion Soup (lunches) makes a wonderful starter for a multi-course meal, and you can leave out the extra bread and cheese if you need to for dietary restrictions or just so you don’t fill up too fast. I made my first batch of homemade beef broth and tried it on my friends – a hit for sure! And finally, the Chicken Marsala Pasta or Grandmom’s Galumpkis can be easily dressed up and served for a holiday dinner. How nice will it be to wow your guests and barely break a sweat?
Grandmom’s Galumpkis – Traditional cabbage rolls could easily be dressed up for a holiday meal.
First of all, this isn’t for the grocery store Whole Foods, it is a menu for those that want to spend more time making their meals from scratch. For a detailed explanation of what is involved in creating this menu we have a post welcoming you to this menu. 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!
Is your family making the transition to whole foods in 2012? Or maybe you have set a New Year’s Resolution to eat healthier in 2012? Or perhaps you find yourself curious about the whole foods/real food lifestyle? Whatever the case may be, you should consider joining us for our year-long journey to help families transition to real food if they so desire through Get Real 2012!
Breakfasts
Stuffed Portabella Pizza
Lunches
Dinners
- Grand-mom’s Galumpkis (cabbage rolls)
- Creamy Artichoke Lasagna
- Slow Cooker Asian Pork**
- Chicken Marsala Pasta
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- “Real” Chicken Broccoli Casserole**
Add Ons
**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 Whole Foods 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 – April 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:
- Angela Dressback - I am a working mom and wife. I have 2 boys 7 and 14. We own our own business and keep a very hectic schedule. Track, Soccer, Gymnastics, Church, Kickball, and Softball. With this schedule, OAMC is the only way I can provide home cooked whole food meals everyday. We just recently switched to whole food cooking and eating. I find it to be a struggle daily pleasing everyone in my house at the dinner table. I figured if someone is not going to like what I cook why not change what we are eating and make it healthier. They are going to complain anyway. I have lost 8 lbs since I started whole food eating 2 months ago. I learned a lot and plan on making this my way of cooking from now on.
- Tammy Lott – I am a wife, mom, and best of all, grammy to two sweet boys. Even though my nest is technically “empty” I still cook to feed the entire family several times a week. My freezer cooking journey began 14 years ago and continues today. Besides cooking for my own freezer, I teach a freezer cooking class for our local Community Education program. My blog: www.playforamoment.blogspot.com is mostly about family news, with some fun toddler activities and crafting tossed in.
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. 
On average, how much do your grocerys cost each month? We run a home business that in the summer months can be a little slow leaving our bank account low but I would like to start freezing meals for our very busy months. Great site! I look forward to reading more :-)
Check out this post on budgeting your OAMC day: http://onceamonthmom.com/get-started-budgeting-for-your-once-a-month-cooking-day/. Just be aware that the Whole Foods menus can run a little higher (closer to $300) depending on how much you have already in your pantry and how many organic options you choose.
I just found your site via Pinterest and I’m eager to cook this weekend! Is there someplace that lists other items needed with the amounts for things like eggs and pasta? Or do you just add those on to your grocery list?
I’m not exactly sure of your question but I do want to help. You should print out the “printable recipe cards” (all of them) and then you should print out the grocery list and instructions. There is a detailed description here: http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/. If this wasn’t your question please ask again.
I was working on prepping tonight and I noticed that your nourishing fruit and spice muffins recipe isn’t multiplying correctly for however many servings. It stays at one. The shopping list IS giving me the correct numbers for upping the servings. Just wanted to let you know :)
Well, you are partially right. There is a formula in that recipe because of eggs. It is difficult to explain. The formulas are also written into the grocery list but for this recipe the grocery list formula was correct and the recipe card was not. Bottom line is you will want to re-export or copy the recipe cards now that i have it fixed, put in your servings and go from there. And thank you for pointing that out.
Thank you! I ended up just making 40 muffins. They are delicious! I did end up with a lot of extra red peppers that my shopping list said to buy but I didn’t need?
Thank you so much for doing this! ER have loved everything so far and its been such a relief to have GOOD freezer meals :). Now I have more time to focus on the kids and make special stuff! Can’t wait for next month to come out!!
Anna
friday night dinner…
[...]WHOLE FOODS April 2012 Menu | OAMC from Once A Month Mom[...]…
I’m excited to find your website and looking forward to trying a bunch of the recipes. I cook with whole ingredients now, and am always looking for new ways to spend less time in the kitchen. I’m wondering if you have calorie information for any of the recipes. Some of the recipes look like they have a fair amount of butter in them.
This all looks amazing!! Real food, done easy. Thank you for taking the time to do this. I’m a new cook, but want to eat healthy, or if not healthy the way foods used to be cooked, from scratch. Thanks so much!
You are most welcome!
Your website is AWESOME! I found it via Pinterest, and I’ve repinned it! It is great to find a OAMC site that isn’t a bunch of soup mix recipes… As good as those can taste I don’t like all the preservatives for my family. Looking forward to trying all the recipes!
Thanks Mandi! We’re happy to see you have found us and hope you’ll stick around!
Found your website from pinterest. Thought it was going to be a WHOLE FOODS recipe. Whole foods, being foods that are not made of more than 1 ingredients. Then, I though perhaps you were just using recipes from the WHOLE FOODS market website, but such is not the case. I can assure you Muffins, and Pasta are neither a whole food, nor healthy for you – they should be used as a moderation and treat food. I applaud you for trying to eat healthy, we all need to do so, but these are not WHOLE FOODS recipes. Good luck. :-)
I realize there are some differences in opinion when it comes to the term “whole foods,” but for our purposes we define them as foods as close to their natural state as possible, unprocessed, or traditional (taking our cues from Michael Pollan, Sally Fallon, etc.) According to this definition we allow meat, plants (including whole grains), and unprocessed fats and dairy. I also realize that for some, grains must be eaten in moderation or not at all (see our Paleo or Gluten Free Menu), but again for most of us trying to eat real food, they are permissible. It sounds like you are looking for recipes toward the “raw foods” end of the spectrum, but here we allow for whole ingredients to be cooked into recipes, as long as those ingredients are foods in their whole state (i.e. produce, meat, whole grains, etc.) or containing less than 5 ingredients themselves (i.e. something off the shelf at the grocery store). Finally, you will notice that we occasionally allow a little wiggle room (for example you’ll see small amounts of sugar in a few recipes) as we are trying to provide recipes for the average family trying to eat a whole foods diet. If you need more information on what we consider to be “whole foods,” please see our Get Real series. http://onceamonthmom.com/get-real/
Can the broccoli cheddar soup be frozen?
If it is on this menu, it can be frozen. You should make sure you are accessing the PRINTABLE RECIPE CARDS for all the cooking and freezing instructions.
Thank you for taking the time to do these menus. While I have been picking and choosing recipes off each months menu and creating my own for the month, I still like having the entire menu for each month :) We just finished dinner (the Creamy Artichoke Lasagna) and it was Awesome! Thanks again :)
I have followed your directions and tried numerous times but it will not let me choose file then make a copy so I can adjust serving amounts in the recipe cards. I did register as a new user but instead of Google docs it went to Google drive. Maybe that is the problem or is drive Google’s new docs? Any suggestions on what I’m doing wrong?
I’m not sure why it’s not letting you. Google drive is the new google docs but it shouldn’t be a problem. Maybe try logging in directly to docs.google.com and then opening up our recipe card link and seeing if it will let you? http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/
I’m so sad you went to a paid membership model! I happened upon this blog a few months back and my husband and I decided to take a few recipes from the different months and take a few days to cook meals these first few weekends of september so we have yummy food to eat after our first baby is born in oct! We just went out and bought a bunch of food, but now we can’t access the recipe cards without paying. :( super sad. We understand, but are still bummed.