There are so many exciting foods coming into season this month (do you see those avocados yet??). I think I was craving cauliflower. And sausage. Despite being totally ready for my eyeballs to stop trying to freeze solid when I go outside, I still crave the comfort food. This month has a lot of recipes, including a passel of budget, pantry-friendly dinners. I shop for the perishable stuff, and then I may or may not get to the pantry stuff. Some months I’m just buying myself time to shop a little later in the next month. March brings three, count them, three, birthdays in one month. How half the family can be born in one month, I don’t know. But I see birthday cake in my future. Did I mention there are three birthdays this month? Buying myself some time sounds super to me.

Offbeat holidays for this month are: National Peanut Butter Lovers Day (Mar 1), Dr Seuss’s Birthday (Mar 2), International Pancake Day (Mar 4), Pi Day (Mar 14), and International Waffle Day (Mar 25). Feel free to reflect these frivolous holidays in your meal planning.

Ideas and resources for menu planning in March, many seasonal winter 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 ~ Other Plans ~ Pinterest Boards