It’s Mid-Century May! I love this month. For a special treat, I will be adding posts of the recipes I use for these menus (from my vintage cookbooks) and linking them to the menus. And since Mother’s Day is this month, I am adding notes on what I make for nursery meals to these menus. If you like the recipes or the nursery meals as a feature, let me know in the comments!
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Mid-Century Meal Plan For The Week Before Mother’s Day
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Monday’s Meal Plan
Breakfast
- Orange juice
- Hot cereal with top milk
- Poached eggs on toast
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
So, nursery breakfast. I try to time this so that I can serve the hot cereal to them as soon as they wake up. Then I serve the juice and eggs and toast. My little ones get fruit or juice, buttered toast, and hot cereal with top milk — no eggs or breakfast meats. I usually serve them their egg at dinner or supper so that I can cook the egg more (for food safety).
As far as cost, eggs are the cheapest protein, still, and I make bread so that is also a minimal expense. Milk and bread and butter are the big non-negotiables on my menu and are served with every meal. I also buy real orange juice, which is a splurge
Lunch
- Egg salad sandwiches
- Cream of tomato soup
- Peanut butter cookies
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
For my little ones, this is the main meal of the day. Instead of egg salad, they get a hard-boiled egg and bread-and-butter. Instead of peanut butter cookies, they get sliced bananas and graham crackers. And they also get a serving of buttered green beans. I always serve the soup and the vegetables and the main dish first! I wait until they are about half-done to offer bread and butter.
Cost-wise, we have more eggs, more bread, vegetables, and peanut butter. I try to stay under $2/lb for vegetables and vegetables. I use canned tomatoes for the tomato soup.
Dinner
- Goulash
- Buttered greens
- Bread and butter
- Sunshine salad
- Strawberry-rhubarb pie
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
So nursery supper is served in the kitchen while I cook. The little ones get a bath, put on pajamas and bathrobes, and eat supper. Tonight, supper is cheese sauce over toast (made especially for their supper), and a baked apple, which is baked next to the pie.
Goulash uses either ground beef or leftover meat from a roast, onion, canned tomatoes, and potatoes or macaroni. It’s pretty inexpensive. Greens are not cheap, but they are necessary for health. Sunshine salad is carrots, lemon gelatin, and pineapple. Rhubarb is in season, so I use it a lot this time of year. I buy food and plan meals based on cost per pound of food, with a running total in my head of what kind of quantities of each thing I will need to keep my family fed for a week. And then, if I have money from my budget left over, I add to my stock of shelf-stable staple foods so that I have a backup pantry.
Tuesday’s Meal Plan
Breakfast
- Stewed rhubarb
- Hot cereal with top milk
- Soft-boiled eggs
- Toast with butter and marmalade
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Nursery breakfast today is stewed rhubarb, buttered toast, and hot cereal. No marmalade or soft-boiled eggs (or coffee, obvs!).
Lunch
- Vegetable soup
- Bread-and-butter
- Banana pudding
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
So, for this one, I save some of the vegetable soup for the little ones’ supper, but I make creamed liver, buttered potatoes, and more buttered green beans. They also get carrot sticks, and the ubiquitous bread, butter, and milk. If they finish all their liver, then they get a serving of plain pudding with sliced bananas.
I admit to making my vegetable soup out of all the cheapest vegetables in the market, so it changes a lot. I add beef shank to my homemade stock, and make this one of my cheapest meals.
Dinner
- Pork and vegetable pie
- Whole wheat bread and butter
- Radishes and green onions
- Baked custard
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
So there is really nothing in this meal that I would feed to the little ones, except baked custard. Their nursery supper will be vegetable soup (planned-over), toast, crisp lettuce, and fruit gelatin.
This meal was originally veal and vegetable pie, but pork is now much cheaper than veal, so pork, potatoes, onions, and carrots make this a cheap but filling pot-pie.
Wednesday’s Meal Plan
Breakfast
- Orange juice
- Hot cereal with top milk
- Bacon curls
- Cinnamon toast
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Nursery breakfast today is crisp bacon, plain tbuttered toast, orange juice, and hot vcereal. Bacon is ok if it is really crisp, and bacon gets a lot of children to eat when they otherwise might not.
Lunch
- Tomato soup
- Cheese sandwiches
- Applesauce
- Snickerdoodle cookies
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Nursery dinner is all of this plus a scrambled egg and buttered cabbage. Bread and butter instead of cheese sandwiches. And plain sugar cookies instead of snickerdoodles.
Dinner
- Braised stuffed heart
- Baked stuffed potatoes
- Buttered spinach
- Bread and butter
- Tossed salad
- Chocolate marshmallow pudding
- Coffee for adults milk for children
Tonight, the children have a (very) small broiled steak, a baked potato, and a whole-wheat bread and lettuce sandwich, with a fruit cup for dessert.
Thursday’s Meal Plan
Breakfast
- Stewed prunes
- Hot cereal with top milk
- Scrambled eggs
- Toasted English muffins
- Marmalade
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Nursery breakfast is toast, stewed prunes, and hot cereal.
Lunch
- Creamed egg and asparagus on toast
- Carrot and raisin salad
- Sliced peaches
- Old-fashioned sugar cookies
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Nursery lunch is pretty much the same. They get creamed eggs, buttered asparagus, bread and butter, carrot and raisin salad with no mayo (too rich).
Dinner
- Pork chops and sauerkraut
- Mashed potatoes
- Buttered beets
- Bread and butter
- Sliced cucumber salad
- Strawberries with top milk or cream
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Potato souffle (leftover cream sauce and potato from the mashed potatoes), cottage cheese, bread and butter, and fruit gelatin for nursery supper.
Friday’s Meal Plan
Breakfast
- Tomato juice
- Hot cereal with top milk
- Soft-boiled eggs
- Toast
- Butter
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Nursery breakfast this morning is just no soft-boiled eggs!
Lunch
- Eggs in tomato cases
- Cottage cheese and watercress sandwiches
- Fruit gelatin
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
For the little ones, the tomatoes are sliced and served with crisp lettuce as a salad. The sandwiches are parsley sandwiches (bread, butter, and chopped parsley). Creamed fish and buttered potatoes are served as their main dish
Dinner
- Pan-fried fish fillets
- Creamed potatoes
- Stewed tomatoes
- Whole-wheat bread and butter
- Tossed salad
- Tapioca cream and rhubarb
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Nursery dinner tonight is a baked egg, cream of spinach soup, and sponge cake fingers like I serve with tapioca cream, but plain.
Saturday’s Meal Plan
Breakfast
- Orange and grapefruit juice
- Hot cereal with top milk
- Fried eggs
- Toast
- Jam
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
This morning, the little ones have juice, cereal, and buttered toast. I don’t like to feed them fried things; when I do, I always assume that they won’t be digested well, and therefore don’t really count them nutritionally.
Lunch
- BLTs
- Potato chips
- Ice cream sundaes
- Soft drinks
The little ones eat scrambled egg, crisp bacon, and buttered potatoes, with sliced tomatoes, crisp lettuce, bread and butter, and orange ice for dessert. They get chocolate milk as a treat instead of soft drinks.
Dinner
- Joe’s Special
- Garlic bread
- Caesar salad
- Brownies a la mode
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
This is the teens and adults “night out.” The little ones have potato soup, toast, rennet custard with fruit, and go to bed on time. The older teens and adults stay up (or out) late. But the dinner is planned so that if the teens have friends over, there will be something enticing. (It also appeals to the adults!)
Sunday’s Meal Plan (Mother’s Day)
Sunday Breakfast
- Grapefruit juice
- Hot cereal with top milk
- Buttermilk waffles
- Bacon curls
- Syrup
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
No waffles and syrup for nuresery breakfast, but the little ones get crisp bacon, since it is Sunday. I also make maple butter for their toast as a Sunday treat. Otherwise, they get the usual juice and hot cereal.
Old-Fashioned Sunday Dinner
- Beef pot roast and gravy
- Mashed potatoes
- Creamed asparagus
- Whole wheat bread and butter
- Wilted lettuce
- Fresh strawberry pie
- Coffee for adults, milk for children
Proper, fall apart pot roast is fine for little ones. I use the leftovers for the little ones also. They can eat everything on this menu except the wilted lettuce (they get crisp lettuce) and the strawberry pie. I don’t feed little ones pie crust. Instead I bake little cups of strawberries and rhubarb, and serve them with a baked custard.
Sunday Supper
- Sardines on toast
- Baked rhubarb with cream
- Milk for all
Nursery supper for Sunday is almost always milk toast, leftover stewed fruit or warm applesauce, and rice pudding.
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!)
Looking for More ’50s Housewife Resources?
I love your Mid century May~What is Joe’s Special?
Where can I find the actual recipes? Not just the menu?