Spring is almost here!
This week the meal plan includes lots of Irish inspired dishes for St. Patrick's Day as well as some snack type meals for March Madness noshing.
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🫑 What's in Season?
A better question might be, "what isn't in season?"
Everything is ripening and coming into the Farmers' Markets now. It's fresh, in season, and at it's best. Make the most of these fresh flavors.
- Apricots
- Beets
- Bell pepper
- Berries (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries)
- Chiles
- Corn
- Cucumber
- Eggplant
- Figs
- Green beans & Wax beans
- Mangoes
- Melon
- Nectarines
- Okra
- Peaches
- Pineapples
- Plums
- Radishes
- Tomatoes
- Zucchini and yellow squash
- apples
- artichokes
- arugula
- avocado
- asparagus
- bananas
- beets
- bok choy
- broccoli
- brussels sprouts
- cabbage
- carrots
- cauliflower
- celery
- collard greens
- grapefruit
- kale
- leeks
- lemons
- limes
- mushrooms
- oranges
- onions
- parsnips
- pear
- pineapple
- potatoes
- radishes
- spinach
- sweet potatoes
- turnips
💭 Tips for success
- When you're making the ground beef for the beef and potato skillet brown enough for the cabbage rolls (or casserole!) and Mexican lasagna.
- You can save time by assembling the cabbage rolls and Mexican lasagna ahead of time. Just slip into the oven to bake before serving.
- March Madness starts on the 18th. If you're a fan make up a batch of the empanadas and freeze them. They make great snacks!
- Have beef and potato skillet leftovers? Roll out rounds of refrigerated biscuit dough and put about a tablespoon and a half of it in each one. Bake as directed in the empanadas recipe. It's a great lunch!
🍀 Happy St Patrick's Day!🍀
- This week is St. Patrick's Day. There are lots of ways to celebrate and you may want to exchange some of these recipes for the ones in the St. Patrick's Day category.
- The Irish apple cake is not overly sweet and it makes a great brunch bread on St. Patrick's Day. Serve it with my Irish Cream hot chocolate bombs!
- Whether you're having a Zoom bash or getting together with a few close friends you'll enjoy these St Patrick's Day cocktails, too.
March 12
Creamy Ground Beef & Potato Skillet
Ground beef and potato skillet is an easy, 6 ingredient dish that's ready in less than 30 minutes. Assemble the Mexican lasagna tonight to save time later in the week.
Multigrain Bread with Flaxseed
Y'all, I can't begin to tell you how much I love this soft, chewy, multigrain bread! It's firm enough that you can make it into dinner rolls, too.
Quadruple Chip Cookies
These quadruple chip cookies go way beyond anything you've had. Chewy, crispy, and 4 types of chips plus toffee and pecans!
March 13
White Chicken Chili
My prize-winning white chicken chili is creamy and comforting! It's easy to make in the slow cooker for a lip-smackin', family pleasin' supper. Leftovers spooned over Fritos make an exceptionally good, and unique, Frito Pie for snacking on during the basketball tournaments.
Cornbread
If you're going to have chili you need cornbread to sop up all the goodness. This is a classic southern buttermilk cornbread - no sugar.
Buckaroons
These old fashioned buckaroons are a chewy butterscotch cookie that became popular sometime around 1940-ish. Taste one and you'll see why.
🥧 March 14
Cheesy Mexican Lasagna
Layers of taco seasoned beef, cheese, refried beans, and tortillas bake up into a gooey, cheesy meal in 30 minutes. Mexican lasagna freezes well, too!
Cauliflower Salad
Cauliflower salad is a bit like a low carb tabbouleh! The vegetables are chopped finely and marinated in a tangy dressing.
Chocolate Chess Pie
Celebrate Pi Day with this southern classic. Chocolate chess pie is like eating brownie batter out of a flaky, buttery crust. It's SO good!
March 15
Cabbage Rolls
This is my mom's recipe for cabbage rolls. Sometimes, instead of spending the time to roll them up I just cut up the cabbage and throw the whole thing into the crockpot, topping with the sour cream, and cooking on low for 6 hours or so. OR bake at 375F for 30 minutes.
Potato Rolls
Homemade potato rolls are float away soft and tender. There's nothing like the taste of one that's warm from the oven and has butter melting into it. Make extra- they are delicious slider buns for deli meats.
Irish Apple Cake
This Irish apple cake has a whiskey brown butter sauce that is out of this world good!
March 16
Chicken Empanadas
These chicken empanadas are super easy to make with refrigerated biscuit dough. Make a bunch of these, they freeze like a charm.
Sweet Potato Fries
Crispy, sweet, spicy... these easy sweet potato fries have it all. Best of all, you can bake or air fry!
Circus Animals Cookies Ice Cream
I love homemade ice cream any time of the year and I will admit that a bag of frosted Circus Animal cookies basically evaporates around me. This circus animal cookies ice cream is a must try!
🍀 March 17
Smoked Sausage Shepherd's Pie
I love this quick and easy twist on the classic shepherd's pie! Smoked sausage cuts the cooking time to about 15 minutes - and I've given tips in the recipe for saving even more time! Enjoy a green margarita, too.
Irish Soda Bread
Irish soda bread is buttery, tender, and crumbly all at the same time. It's perfect with the shepherd's pie.
Guinness Fudge Bundt Cake
Guinness adds a deep flavor to this moist fudge bundt cake with Guinness ganache glaze!
🏀 March 18
Dr Pepper Sticky Chicken
This needs to be marinated overnight but... oh. my. goodness is it ever delicious. Dr Pepper Sticky Chicken is done in 20 minutes, too!
Texas Knot Rolls
Similar to the garlic version, these tender and butter Texas knot rolls are dipped in a seasoned butter sauce you'll want to drink. They freeze well, too.
Creme Caramel
Creme caramel sounds fancy and scary but it really isn't. Learn the technique and you'll be making creme caramel, pots de creme, and creme brulee in no time!
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