For us August brings the beginning of the school year (eep!). Kid #3 is starting kindergarten this month. This plan is a quickie, lots of our dinners are whatever I bought from a stand on the side of the road. This month brings a bunch of holidays, including National Ice Cream Sandwich Day (I’m an addict, Aug 2), Chinese Valentine’s Day/Daughter’s Day (7th day of 7th Lunar Month Aug 2), National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day (Aug 4), Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day (Aug 8), Book Lover’s Day (Aug 9th), National Thriftshop Day (Aug 17), and National Trail Mix Day (Aug 31st). I may have gotten excited about the holidays.
Ideas and resources for menu planning in August, many seasonal spring and summer and real food recipes. Very simple ingredients, from scratch. As always, these are all frugal recipes intended for a tight budget. Real food/from scratch/traditional diet/nutrient dense/whole food/blah blah blah. My monthly meal plans use an alternative meal planning method, recipes organized into tiers based on how perishable the ingredients are, not sorted into particular days.
*Attention real food purists/whole foodies – the recipes I link/pin are all from scratch, but some of them you may have to make substitutions or modifications. For example, I link recipes that have sugar, but you can substitute whatever your favorite sweetener is.
*Don’t forget to read about how I meal plan at Frugal, Flexible Monthly Menu Planning!*
In this post: Seasonal Produce ~ Recipes ~ Download PDF ~ Pinterest Boards ~ Other Plans
Seasonal produce for August includes (look at how long this list is!):
Vegetables
Basil
Bell Peppers
Beets
Carrots
Chard
Chiles
Cilantro
Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Fennel
Garlic
Green beans
Green onions
Lemongrass
Okra
Onions
Peas
Potatoes
Radishes
Rosemary
Scallions
Shallots
Summer squash
Tomatillos
Tomatoes (I know, they’re a fruit, but we’re cooking, here)
Zucchini
Fruits
Apricots
Avocados
Blackberries
Blueberries
Boysenberries
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Grapes
Kiwi
Limes
Mangoes
Melons
Nectarines
Peaches
Plums
Raspberries
Strawberries
Watermelons
Epicurious Seasonal produce maps by state
CUESA Seasonal vegetables by month
Recipes from the August Meal Plan (organized by how perishable ingredients are)
Tier 1/Most Perishable (ie avocado, lettuce, snap peas, spinach, tomatoes)
Cucumber and Tomato Sandwich with Garlic White Bean Hummus from Sandra Lee
Farmhouse Egg Bake from Bless This Mess
Oven Roasted Ratatouille from Budget Bytes
Pasta Salad with Lemon-Pesto Dressing from Rachael Ray
Roasted Vegetable Couscous from Southern Living
Spinach Tomato Quesadillas from Budget Bytes
Tier 2/Less Perishable (ie cabbage, cauliflower, corn, mushrooms, peppers, pineapple, zucchini)
Caramelized Yellow Squash with Parmesan from $5 Dinners
Confetti Chicpea Salad from Budget Bytes
Eggplant Carponata Pasta from Budget Bytes
Green Chile Chicken Soup from The Barefoot Cook
Moroccan Spiced Chicken with Summer Squash and Olives
Stuffed Pepper Soup from Lydia’s Flexitarian Kitchen
Tier 3/Pantry or Make It Whenever (ie carrot, celery, onion)
Tropical Chicken with Coconut Mango Rice from Lydia’s Flexitarian Kitchen
Extras
Ella Bella’s Healthy Summer Squash Bread Recipe
Overnight, No-Cook Refrigerator Oatmeal from The Yummy Life
Download PDF. This has the links in the order listed above. Keep in mind I don’t limit myself to particular days, so this is not in order by date. Save it to your desktop and you will always have a quick reference when you’re hunting dinner, you probably have the ingredients for Tier 3 recipes at this very moment!
Other August Real Food/Whole Food Meal Plans
August Meal Plan from Letters from Sunnybrook
Bi-Weekly Whole Food Meal Plan from The Better Mom and The Nourishing Home
Real Food Meal Plan from Life Sanity
Real Food Meal Plan from Live Simply
Real Food Meal Plan from Real Food Real Deals
Weekly Meal Plan from Musings of a Housewife and Sassy Moms in the City
August Meal Plan Pinterest Boards:
Meal Plan August (just look at all that tastiness!)
Recipes to Try Summer
In this post: Seasonal Produce ~ Recipes ~ Download PDF ~ Pinterest Boards ~ Other Plans
Shared with Fat Tuesday, Natural Living Monday, Real Food Recipe Roundup, Real Food Wednesday and Unprocessed Fridays
*Also see our
OR 
Frugal, Flexible Monthly Menu Planning OR Weekly Meal Plan Printable Template
We hope you enjoyed our August Real Food Monthly Menu Plan post
Photo credits:
Kitchen canning photo from Sarah Gilbert on Flickr
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