Meal Plan #5: Recipes for both the chilly & warm days of spring.
Spring is a fickle season. This meal plan gives you both cozy recipes and lighter recipes for any kind of weather.
Hello Subscribers!
Spring is a fickle season. One day, you’re eagerly soaking up the warmth of the sun and the next day it’s pouring rain (or snowing!) As such, this March meal plan is a mix of cozy and lighter recipes, waving a final good-bye to winter and welcoming in warmer weather.
Weekly Recipes
Meal #1: Instant Pot Ramen Noodle Bowls
Meal #2: Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Meal #3: Tuna and Orzo Pasta Salad
Meal #4: Sheet-Pan Kielbasa with Potatoes and Dill Vinaigrette
Meal #5: Green Goddess Salad
How to print the recipes: Three of these recipes link back to my food blog, Kitchen Skip, where you’ll find the full recipe with cooking tips. Each recipe card on my blog has an option to print, so you can have paper copies of these recipes if you prefer.
Two of the recipes are exclusive recipes for paid Substack subscribers like you. For these recipes, the option to print a pdf of the recipe will be at the bottom of the recipe page.
Meal #1
Recipe: Instant Pot Ramen Noodle Bowls
Side Dishes: Try Roasted frozen broccoli or steamed broccoli or roasted asparagus. You can also go really simple and serve raw snap peas or cucumbers as a side dish. Frozen egg rolls or frozen potstickers are optional but fill out the meal.
These chewy noodles are salty and savory, with a flavor that’s similar to take-out food but for a fraction of the cost. First, saute ground chicken or pork in your Instant Pot. Next, add water, soy sauce and rice vinegar and cook for just 1 minute. That’s it! For color and texture, add crunchy, purple cabbage and garnish with green onions.
Meal #2
Recipe: Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Side Dishes: This is a one pot meal, so you don’t really need a side dish.
Cozy comfort food. Tender chicken thighs and soft, pillowy dumplings in a rich gravy-like broth. Perfect for a chilly, windy spring day.
Meal #3
Recipe: Tuna and Orzo Pasta Salad
Side Dishes: Sliced fruit.
If you can, make this pasta salad early in the day (or the night before) so it’s ready and waiting at dinner time. This type of dinner is perfect for a beautiful evening when you want to be outdoors in the yard instead of in the kitchen.
A reader told me that she adds jalapeños and onions to this salad for even more flavor, which sounds delicious!
Meal #4
Recipe: Sheet-Pan Kielbasa with Potatoes and Dill Vinaigrette
Side Dishes: I often serve an arugula or mixed greens salad on the side and dress it with the dill vinaigrette.
This is an easy sheet-pan meal with the heavier flavors of sausage and potatoes lightened up with a zippy dill vinaigrette.
Meal #5
Recipe: Green Goddess Salad
Side Dishes: If you want to add more protein to this meal, then serve chicken or salmon on the side. You can also just serve a good loaf of bread.
Green Goddess salad is light, colorful and also satisfying enough to be a full meal. If your kids like Ranch dressing they *might* like this creamy dressing too.
This meal plan and meal plans from past months can be found on the Kitchen Skip Substack homepage under the “meal plan” link at the top of the page.
I Have a Question for You!
Your feedback will help me be more helpful to you! I don’t provide a shopping list with meal plans because I figure you can easily read the list of ingredients and make your own shopping list. I also figure that you’re probably not going to make all 5 recipes from the meal plan in one week, so it doesn’t make sense for me to provide a shopping list for all five recipes.
What do you think? If a shopping list would be more helpful, I’m happy to provide it.