Who knew that the hardest part of being a housewife is figuring out dinner every. single. day.? Apparently, vintage home ec did, because I have SO MANY cook-from-scratch dinner ideas from before 1950. WHOLE BOOKS of a dinner (and breakfast. and lunch.) for every DAY of the year. It makes planning dinner so much easier — and more delicious.
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Vintage Menus For President’s Day
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These are meals that I make for my own family.
It’s Lent, but I have a lot of children who aren’t of age for fasting, you’ll see milk at every meal still, and eggs at breakfast (for the little ones). To accommodate strict fasting, I eat less (a piece of toast with my morning coffee, a piece of toast at lunch), but I eat the main meal with the rest of my family to avoid disrupting the routine. With these menus, it is easy to accommodate everyone’s different fasting for Lent.
Although I love to cook 1950s menus, I usually use 1940s and 1930s recipes because they use far fewer prepared foods and are mostly made from scratch.
Monday Menus (President’s Day)
Breakfast
- Oatmeal with top milk
- Boiled eggs
- Bran muffins
- Sliced bananas with cream
- Coffee for adults, cocoa for children
Lunch
- Hearty tomato soup
- Lettuce sandwiches
- Bean salad
- Baked apples
- Tea for adults, milk for children
Dinner
- Cranberry juice
- Chicken fricassee
- Rice
- Buttered asparagus
- Tossed green salad
- Hot garlic loaf
- Cherry lattice-top pie
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Tuesday Menus
Breakfast
- Cranberry juice
- Hot wheat cereal with top milk
- Scrambled eggs
- Toast with butter and jam
- Coffee for adults, cocoa for children
Lunch
- Mushroom soup
- Bread and butter
- Lettuce salad
- Peaches in gelatin
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Dinner
- Spiced peach cocktail
- Pork chops with country gravy
- Whipped potatoes
- Buttered peas
- Hot rolls
- Lettuce wedges with Russian dressing
- Cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Wednesday Menus
Breakfast
- Tomato juice
- Oatmeal with top milk
- Soft-cooked eggs
- Toast with butter
- Sliced bananas
- Coffee for adults, cocoa for children
Lunch
- Potato soup
- Hot rolls
- Sauerkraut
- Sliced oranges
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Dinner
- Stuffed celery
- Ham cups with cherry sauce
- Baked yams
- Broccoli with parmesan cheese
- Toasted rolls
- Relish tray
- Toasted coconut custard and sugar cookies
- Coffee for adults; milk for children
Thursday Menu
Breakfast
- Grapefruit juice
- Oatmeal with top milk
- Shirred eggs
- Toast
- Coffee for adults, cocoa for children
Lunch
- Vegetable soup
- Bread and butter
- Green salad (for adults)
- Cherry gelatin
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Dinner
- Marinated olives
- Meat-stuffed cabbage rolls
- Rice
- Parsleyed carrots
- Oatmeal muffins
- Date-apple salad
- Baked prune whip with custard
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Friday Menu (Fasting)
Breakfast
- Orange juice
- Oatmeal with top milk
- Scrambled eggs
- Toast with butter
- Coffee for adults, cocoa for children
Lunch
- Fish cakes and spaghetti
- Bread and butter
- Raw vegetable sticks (for children); green salad (for adults)
- Tapioca pudding
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Dinner
- Tomato juice cocktail
- Baked Sole Thermidor
- Paprika potatoes
- Frenched green beans with onion rings
- Rye bread
- Cole slaw with sour cream dressing
- Maraschino-cherry cake
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Saturday Menu
Breakfast
- Hot wheat cereal with top milk
- Shirred eggs
- Toast
- Coffee for adults; cocoa for children
Lunch
- Split pea soup
- Texas toast
- Sliced tomatoes
- Tossed salad
- Milkshakes
Dinner
- Olives and cheese-stuffed celery
- Eggplant parmesan
- Marinated mushrooms
- Baked garlic bread
- Iceberg wedges with Italian dressing
- Fruit and cheese tray
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Sunday Menu
Breakfast
- Fruit cups
- Dates in wheat cereal with top milk
- Sausage links
- French toast with syrup
- Coffee for adults, cocoa for children
Old-Fashioned Sunday Dinner
- Chilled pineapple juice
- Roast pork
- Scalloped potatoes
- Glazed carrots
- Whole-wheat rolls
- Bing-cherry salad
- Boston cream pie
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Sunday Supper
- Toasted oyster rolls
- Celery, olives, and cranberry sauce
- Baked pears with ice cream
- Cocoa for all
If you would like, you can check out the rest of my mid-century dinner menus. And if you make the menus, share a pic on Instagram and tag me! (Are you following me on Instagram? I share a lot of vintage homemaking quick wins over here!)
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