WHOLE FOODS June 2012 Menu
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Ah summer. What’s not to love? Ok maybe sweating in the kitchen, but if you can do most of it in one day, and reap the benefits the rest of the month, then you’re all set. Enter this summery collection of whole food recipes, covering all of the bases for June. First up, versatile breakfasts. You will definitely want to make double portions. Extra Honey Yogurt Berry Pops would make a great hot afternoon snack. A note about the Blueberry Cinnamon Buns: I decided not to adapt the recipe completely. It is still all from scratch, but I will warn you that they contain white sugar and flour (please don’t stone me). You are of course welcome to adapt or substitute. You could even make it as a dessert if you want. But may I suggest that you use it as a special treat for those dad’s who are having a rough time transitioning to whole foods? We all need a little sweet treat sometimes, and Father’s day coupled with blueberry season is the perfect excuse.
Coconut Curry Kebabs – only 5 ingredients!
Outdoor activities tend to dominate in the summer, so I’ve tried to provide some recipes that you can pack up for a picnic or grill. I already mentioned the breakfast casserole travels well, but also the Chicken Salad with Apricots, and Crunchy Coconut Chicken (could even be served cold or on top of a salad). Fire up the grill for BBQ Short Ribs and Coconut Curry Kebabs (both meaty options for Dad’s big day.)
As usual you will see plenty of seasonal produce – berries, apricots, kale, squash, and corn. Our test cooks struggled finding apricots a month or two early, but they should be available in most places now. I recently had luck finding them at Earth Fare. But if you can’t find them for the Apricot Freezer Jam, you can always substitute the Sweet and Spicy Garlic Chili Sauce for dipping your Crunch Coconut Chicken. Finally, we’re featuring whole food dairy choices in our Get Real discussion this month, so you’ll see some great opportunities to practice with milk, cream, cheeses, and even homemade yogurt in the slow cooker!
And look for a Specialty Whole Foods Mini Menu coming out on June 10th!
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
Lunches
Crunchy Coconut Chicken with Apricot Sauce (or Garlic Chili Sauce – take your pick!)
- Chicken Salad with Apricots **
- Crunchy Coconut Chicken with Apricot Sauce (or with Garlic Chili Sauce)
- White Pizza with Kale
Dinners
- Roasted Garlic Mac and Cheese
- BBQ Short Ribs **
- Lemon Ravioli and Summer Squash **
- Bacon Crusted Pork Tenderloin **
- Southwestern Skillet with Cornbread
- Coconut Curry Kebabs **
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 June 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.
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:
- Julie Bickerstaff - I am a homeschooling mom with 4 boys aged 22, 16, 11 and 7. We live in the Sunshine State and hit the beach as often as possible. I blog about homeschooling, my 4 cats and our family fun at Fun In The Sun.
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. 
The crunchy coconut chicken link leads to nowhere. Same with the apricot sauce link next to it. FYI ;)
Should be fixed now. Thanks for the heads up.
I downloaded the recipe cards but the text doesn’t seem to “wrap” properly for printing. In other words, all the directions are on one line and it simply ends in the middle of a sentence on the printing page. Any suggestions?
I have the same problem with printing – I have to manually stretch the instruction boxes as it’s not wrapping properly. Did anyone find a fix?
I am having trouble printing the recipe cards. when I ask it to print it tries to open but never loads, just leaves me with a blank PDF Screen.
I figured it out, did a little moving/formatting and it is just great!
I think I love ALL the recipes! I was drooling over them yesterday :)
The “Meat used” section of the instructions state not to freeze the pork tenderloin. I already have one in my freezer. I’d like to thaw it and use for the Bacon Crusted Pork Tenderloin. Does it not cook properly if it was previously frozen? Has anyone tried using a previously frozen pork tenderloin yet? While I don’t have any country style pork ribs frozen right now I’m curious about those as well. I’ve been a vegetarian my entire life and am new to and still learning how to cook various meat dishes for my husband. So as much detail/explanation as you can provide is much appreciated!
You *should* be okay. Could you just make up the marinade and add it to the tenderloin as it is thawing? If you thaw it, marinade it, then refreeze it you need to make sure that you thaw it the first time slowly in the refrigerator.
If you don’t thaw the tenderloin completely, you will be fine. My mom always said if the meat still had some ice crystals in it you could refreeze.
Hello,
I am new to the site. Today I tried to print out the recipe cards. I logged into Google and downloaded the document, but each time I printed it the font was really large therefore all the instructions would not fit on the page. It was quite frustrating! I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong! I have the settings the way you indicated in the tutorial. Any help would be so appreciated!
Thanks for this fabulous website!
Hmm. This is a new one. Perhaps some readers can chime in too. Can you change the font size in that cell so that it is smaller and fits? Can you choose “fit on page” when you go to print? Did you download to Excel? You might try staying on Google Docs and working in their spreadsheet if so as that seems to cause the least amount of errors. If all these fail email us at info at onceamonthmom.com because we really do want you to be able to use what we have.
When I print from google docs, I open it as a pdf in Adobe Reader and make sure I select “fit to page.” I also have to remember to choose letter as mine is automatically at A4, which isn’t 8 1/2″ by 11″.
Hope this helps!
Hi! Our family has been making the whole foods menu for the last 3 months and I have been loving it! I was on bedrest and now have a 6 week old and it has been a lifesaver! I was just wondering if you have any plans or have ever thought about doing an entertaining menu? Something with appetizer type recipes that you could just pop in should company pay you a welcome yet unexpected visit? Thanks! :)
We have done one or two that way around the holidays (I will include links at the end here). I also have a holiday eCookbook that has recipes to that nature in it as well. Those *might* work for what you want? http://onceamonthmom.com/holiday-thanksgivingchristmas-2010-ecookbook-available-now/
- http://onceamonthmom.com/october-thanksgiving-edition-oamm-menu-podcast-grocery-list-instructions-and-labels/
- http://onceamonthmom.com/november-christmas-edition-oamm-menu-podcast-grocery-list-instructions-and-labels/
I searched and searched and can’t find an answer to this question. I hope I’m not just being dense!! The directions say to pre cook the chicken in the slow cooker but it doesn’t say how. Surely you can’t just cook it all by itself. Doesn’t it need to have some sort of liquid in it??
Hmm, thought that was in the directions but we may need to revisit that. You add 1-2 cups of liquid to the chicken and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high 4-6 hours.
Awesome. Thanks for the quick answer!! Gonna start up the slow cooker now!!
What are beef short ribs? Are they called anything else? What do they look like? I couldn’t find anything like it at the store. I just started eating meat a few months ago so I am kinda clueless :). Thank you!
Here is a link to take a look at: http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/meatcase.aspx. I found them at our local market in the butcher’s case. You might call around to your local grocer’s meat department and ask them if they carry them. You could substitute pork ribs if you wanted.
I’m very interested in getting started but I’m curious as to how these are considered full month menus. Am I missing something?? There are only about 5-6 dinners on each one. Although that’s a great start I’m just trying to figure out a more accurate cap for my grocery allowance.
The recipe card spreadsheet is designed to give you enough for two dinners. So while there are only 6 dinner recipes, you will get 12 dinners because you will eat each one twice (maybe more with leftovers). Sometimes a recipe will give you extra also (like in the case of a batch of muffins). We also assume that you will not require all 3 meals for 30 days since most people go out sometimes. See the recipe card instructions for more details.
http://onceamonthmom.com/category/resources/get-started/ – also more info here.
This is my first try at doing this, but after reading through the recipe cards I am hesitant to give it a try now. I admit I am horrible at math and the quantities for each ingrediant is hard for me to grasp. For example I am cooking for 2 people and the cinnamon roll recipe is asking for .17 cups of vegetable oil. I have no idea how much that is and I know in baking you need to be very accurate with the ingrediants. Is there a simple way to figure this out?
Please see the equivalent chart on the instructions sheet (first sheet of the recipe cards down at the bottom). Changing the number of servings from the original recipe is always going to make your numbers a little bit funny, but just get as close as you can. For example .17 cups is just a little less than a quarter (1/4 or .25) cups. If you’re still confused, you can always follow the links to the original recipes and make your own adjustments.
For anyone who is interested, I experimented with adapting the Blueberry Cinnamon Buns. I substituted coconut oil for vegetable oil, used half white whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour, and I left out the blueberry syrup (filling) and just used cinnamon, sugar, a few tablespoons of melted butter, and fresh blueberries. Still a sweet treat, but slightly more healthy and whole. And my sweet loving husband didn’t even notice. I made them for his Father’s Day treat.
I love this menu!! The cocunut chicken is amazing, we ate it tonight.
Thanks!
We love when people come back to tell us what they love!
[...] this freezer meal plan: Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls; Honey Yogurt Berry Pops; Kale, Bacon and Cheese Casserole; Chicken [...]
Just tried this menu yesterday and I think that the ravioli was a bit ambitious for me — I ended up having to toss it and buy ready made ravioli at the store… The rest of the foods looks amazing. I couldn’t get the ravioli to seal and all the filling just came out in the water. any advice?
After I made mine by hand, I discovered that there are ravioli presses that make filling and sealing the dough a little easier. You might check into buying one of these. I’m excited because mom actually just bought me one. :)
After making the switch to eating “clean” I was so excited to try these recipes as I have really struggled to create menus for my family that contain yummy meals made from whole foods.. I would love to see a whole foods vegetarian menu as we only eat meat a few times a month and I find the vegetarian menus often contain processed meat substitutes. For now, I adapt the whole foods and vegetarian menus can’t wait to stock my freezer fullmofmyummy meals!!! Thank you!
Just and FYI…the grocery list doesn’t indicate that the country style pork ribs should be boneless. Now I have 4 pounds of bone-in ribs…guess they won’t be kabobs :)
So sorry! We will fix that. You could still grill them with the coconut marinade/sauce though.
I’m sure they’ll still taste awesome!
These recipes were so yummy! This is my first month cooking, though, and I don’t understand exactly how it works. I thought if I put in my family size (5) I would get enough ingredients to have two meals. This didn’t work for all recipes like the cinnamon rolls. Do I need to put in 10 for family size if I want a double meal?
It should work out that you have enough for 2 servings for each of the 5 people – 10 servings. if that wasn’t teh case for you on a recipe you should definitely let us know so we can take a closer look. How many did yours yield?
[...] that I tried last time so this time we’re going with the Whole Foods Menu. I’m doing June’s 2012 menu because I was able to do my planning a bit in [...]
This is my first month trying this, so I guess I’m confused. There are six dinner recipes… two servings of each for each family member… that makes twelve dinners, right? I thought I was cooking for the whole month, and I’ve already spent my entire food budget.
Also, I had quite a bad time with the pizza dough. I might have miscounted on something, but after calculating out the proportions for a family of 5, (1) I ended up with so much dough, I didn’t have a bowl that would contain it all, and it overflowed the bowl when it rose, and (2) it was a sticky, liquid mess. Not a dough at all.
I was hoping this kind of system would help me save money and time, but so far, its costing me more to feed my family something quick while I try to get these dinners fixed. Help!
There are less dinner recipes on this menu as the items you are making are more intense and time-consuming than the other menus. It might help you to read our philosophy on this menu here: http://onceamonthmom.com/whole-foods-once-a-month-freezer-cooking/. As for the pizza dough, it is hard to say what went wrong there as it could be a number of things. I will say that if you were doing it for 5 servings, you would definitely need to use more than one bowl as that would be enough to serve 10 people (5 people 2x). The recipe cards don’t adjust to say “use more than one bowl” as we don’t have that capability. The very first card labeled “instructions” on the printable recipe cards does remind you that you may have to adjust container size if doing large quantities.
In the end, I do think that you will find it more cost effective, but yes, the first months are hard to do as they require money up front for food eaten in the future. There are some great posts in our Getting Started series that might help with the budgeting and getting started using our methods: http://onceamonthmom.com/get-started-five-easy-steps-and-resources-for-starting-freezer-cooking/.
Thanks, Tricia. I cooked this menu for July, and I wanted to let you know I think this is really going to work for my family. It has been delightful being able to have terrific food nearly every day. The cooking WAS pretty daunting, but my sister in law and I got it done. I just figured out some inexpensive meals to make up for the other days. (We have a ton of tomatoes coming in from the garden, so I made awesome tomato pies.)
Thanks so much!
Hello! I was very excited to find your website, and think it is absolutely wonderful. I came across the traditional June menu from a link and already bought the groceries to cook this weekend. I would love and prefer the whole foods menu now that I have come across it and am part of a CSA so it would be great to use. I was wondering how much extra time this menu would take to prepare? The traditional is already a whole weekend so I wasn’t sure if it would be easier just to try a couple recipes aside for the whole. Also do you ever do mini menus for the whole food option to try? Thank you!
Selina, depending on how you do it depends on how intense the Whole Foods menu is. It is intended to be a few more labor hours than the other menus, but has a few less recipes so that helps. YOu could also buy organic items listed in add ons if you wanted to cut some time (tortillas, etc). We do occasionally do a mini whole foods menu so stay tuned to the mini menu tab – http://onceamonthmom.com/menus/mini/ and here is one we did just recently http://onceamonthmom.com/whole-foods-10-day-mini-june-2012-menu/
My family loved this mont’s menu! It was the first full OAMM menu I made and I blogged about my experience at: http://www.chelseaisdishingup.com/2012/07/once-month-mom-june-once-month-cooking.html
Thanks so much for all you do!
The white pizza says “serves 2″ is that 2 pizzas or 2 people only?
2 people.
It would be really helpful if the items for serving were marked on the shopping list. It would also help if the amounts/items for serving were on the freezer label. For example: I have to go look at the recipe card to find out how much cream & zest should go in the ravioli sauce. Thanks!
Yes you are right, they should be. We will bring this to the attention of that writer and work on that.
I was wondering if the nutritional info is available for each meal/menu card? Thanks!
At this time nutritional information is only available for meals on our diet menu.