April includes both April Fools Day and Easter for holidays. There will be some malarkey happening for April Fools. There will also be ham for Easter. We always have it with candy gravy. Am I the only one who knows what candy gravy is? It involves drippings, orange juice, and brown sugar. I am dealing with guitar lessons for kid #2 one day a week, so that will usually be leftovers or crock pot day. Also we have a week of vacation in there, so I may plan a couple breakfast and lunch meals (gasp!). Our main protein for this month is chicken, with some ham. I went hog wild with the peas and asparagus.
Ideas and resources for menu planning in April, many seasonal spring 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 are 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 April includes:
Vegetables
Artichokes
Asparagus
Chives
Greens
Horseradish
Leeks
Lettuce (leaf and head)
Parsnips
Peas
Rhubarb
Shallots
Fruit
Grapefruit
Oranges
Epicurious Seasonal produce maps by state
CUESA Seasonal vegetables by month
Recipes from the April Meal Plan:
*What’s with these tier thingies?
Tier 1/Most Perishable (ie shrooms, asparagus, peas, spinach, tomato)
Chicken and Asparagus Crepes from Food Network
Chopped Greek Salad with Chicken from Eating Well
Creamy Greek Scrambled Eggs from Family Fresh Cooking
Fajita Omelet from Good Cheap Eats
Fusilli with Creamed Leek and Spinach from Food & Wine
Garlic Parmesan Chicken and Noodles from Better Homes & Gardens
Italian Egg Drop Soup Stracciatella from Simply Recipes
Pappardelle with Baby Spinach, Herbs, and Ricotta from Cooking Light
Spring Brunch Bake from Taste of Home
Spring Chicken & Barley Soup from Eating Well
Spring Lentil Soup from Real Simple
Spring Pea Soup from Taste of Home
Spring Peas Risotto from Better Homes & Gardens
Spring Spinach Salad from Taste of Home
Spring-Ahead Brunch Bake from Taste of Home
Tier 2/Less Perishable (ie peppers, sweet potato)
Corn and Bell Pepper Chowder from Bon Appetit
Gingered Carrot-Sweet Potato Soup with Chive Cream from Better Homes & Gardens
Spring Vegetable Soup from Good Cheap Eats
Sweet Potato and Feta Dinner Skillet from A Couple Cooks
Thai Carrot Soup with Rice from In Praise of Leftovers
Tier 3/Pantry or Make It Whenever (ie carrot, onion)
Chili Stacks from Good Cheap Eats
Dirt Cups from Kraft
Meat Loaf Cake from Taste of Home
Mexican Lasagna from Rachael Ray
Spiced Split Pea Soup from Taste of Home
Spinach Artichoke Lasagna from Budget Bytes
Spring-Thyme Chicken Stew from Taste of Home
From Scratch Ingredients and Other Doodads
Crepes from Alton Brown
Hawaiian Sweet Rolls from Yammie’s Noshery
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!
April Meal Plan Pinterest Boards:
Meal Plan April (just look at all that tastiness!)
Recipes to Try Spring
Other April Real Food/Whole Food Meal Plans
Bi-Weekly Whole Food Meal Plan from The Better Mom subscribe for shopping list
Real Food Meal Plan Kit from Live Simply includes shopping list
In this post: Seasonal Produce ~ Recipes ~ Download PDF ~ Pinterest Boards ~ Other Plans
Participated in Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Down Home Blog Hop, Fabulously Frugal Thursdays Fat Tuesday Forager Festival, Happy Healthy Green & Natural, HomeAcre Hop, Homestead Barn Hop, Let’s Get Real, Meal Planning Monday, Menu Plan Monday, Mostly Homemade Mondays, Natural Living Mondays, Real Food Fridays, Simple Lives Thursday, Sunday Social Blog Hop, Thank Goodness It’s Monday, Thrifty Thursday, and Unprocessed Fridays linky parties
*Also see our
OR 
Frugal, Flexible Monthly Menu Planning OR Weekly Meal Plan Printable Template
We hope you enjoyed our April Real Food Monthly Menu Plan post
Photo credits:
Kitchen corner photo from Ian Sommerville on Flickr
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Hi there! I loved this post 🙂 I found you on the Homestead Hop. I’d love for you to share some of your posts on our Mostly Homemade Monday link up, as well! I think you’d fit right in. Here’s a link to this week’s link up: http://www.thesustainablecouple.com/2014/03/mostly-homemade-mondays-week-74.html
Thanks! I’ll go check it out!
Hi there! I’m stopping in from Let’s Get Real today. Your meal plan is so full of spring excitement. I love all of the seasonal produce you have included. There are so many new recipes for me to try. It is very exciting to me to see a meal plan that is as organized as your is.
I like using lots of different recipes. When you’re eating seasonally you only have so many ingredients to work with, so it’s important to keep the variety going.
Thanks for linking up and sharing on Mostly Homemade Mondays! We’re so glad you joined us, and look forward to seeing what you link up next week 🙂
Kelli @ The Sustainable Couple
http://www.thesustainablecouple.com
Thanks Kelly, thanks for hosting the linky!
Hi Melissa – I love your plan and the way it’s so organized. Thanks so much for sharing with the Let’s Get Real party. I’m pinning this to our group board.
By the way, 2 of your social media buttons seem to be linking to the wrong platform – e.g., the Twitter button linked to G+ for me and the FB button linked to Twitter.
Great meal plan Melissa. I’m stopping by from the Let’s Get Real Friday Link Party. I will be featuring your plan this week on my page. I love how you’re using seasonal items.
Yay! It’s always exciting to get featured. I love your linky. It always has something I didn’t know before.
I love those who can come up with plans and stick with them. We are going on vacation next month, and I think it’s sad we have to find a way to get good drinking water without our Berkey. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays, new party going on now.