Using a monthly meal plan is my favorite way to cook for our family, save money, time, and make sure we are celebrating the saints as often as we can! In this post I am sharing a meal plan with traditional meals for the entire month of February to help your family celebrate Catholic Saints and their Feast Days. In this post you will find a free printable PDF calendar with each day’s menu idea for easy planning.
Why a monthly meal plan?
After my second daughter was born in 2021 I began meal planning by deciding our dinners in advance. There’s many advantages to meal planning such as saving money, saving time, and healthier meals! I had always tried to meal plan weekly for grocery list purposes – but when we suddenly had 2 kids under 2 I realized I just didn’t have the time or brainpower anymore to plan meals weekly. The way I decided to combat my decision fatigue was to plan out our meals once a month. At the beginning of the month I would map out any events we had during the month and feasts/holy days then come up with a meal plan that allowed for a variety of foods and had planned leftover nights.
Its now 2024 and I still use this method to plan out our family’s meals.
Our favorite way to celebrate feast days is with a special meal.
What’s changed is that now in my meal planning process is that I spend a little bit more time tailoring our monthly menu to better align with the Saints we want to recognize. We have also moved towards observing meatless Fridays.
Hi there! My name is Brianna. I am a catholic convert and mother of 3. I am passionate about celebrating the saints and bringing the traditions of the catholic church into our home. You can read more about me and my vision for my blog here.
Tailoring our menu has been such an easy way to bring the traditions of the Catholic church in our home. I have enjoyed the convenience that comes with only meal planning once a month and how easy it makes it for our family to remember and honor the saints. So starting in February 2024, I am excited to start sharing our monthly meal plan with you!
How should you use this plan?
The meal plan I am sharing with you a little different than the one I personally use. I have included a meal for each day of the month, whereas our personal meal plan has 2-3 leftover days per month. After you download the meal plan, I urge you to take a few moments to tailor it to suit your family’s needs. I recommend you consider things such as:
- your family’s monthly/weekly schedules
- any saints or feast that are of particular importance to you that you want to celebrate
- any travel or planned events you have
- how often you are able/want to prepare a new meal
After you have considered your family’s needs you can decide which meals you can/want to make! I hope that having my meal plan as a guide saves you some time and helps your family celebrate the saints more frequently. I would also recommend pairing meals with a story or craft about the saint you are honoring.
How do I create this meal plan?
When preparing this monthly meal plan I start by looking at the saints and feast days for the month.
If you’re new here, I create and share a Saints & Feast day calendar every month. You can grab your February calendar at my post, here.
I then take some time to research the traditional celebrations for each feast. For the Feast days that don’t have a traditional meal, I look at the home country of the applicable saint and select a traditional dish from that country. I take care to including recipes that the whole family will love (I have to balance the taste of my husband, myself, and our three kids!) as well as varying the recipes to include a variety of different meals.
Download the February Meal Plan
You can download the February Meal Plan for Catholic Feast Days by clicking the buttons below.
List of meals for February
See below for a list of the meals I have included on the February calendar. On a few of the meals I have included a specific recipe for your convenience. I recommend you also grab some recipes from your own collection, your favorite cookbooks, Pinterest, or simply ask in the comments and I can share one with you!
Did you know I have a Pinterest account with a board featuring all my favorite recipes? You can check it out here!
February 1 – St. Brigid of Kildare (Ireland)
Colcannon (Potatoes and Cabbage) or Irish spiced beef
February 2 – The Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas)
(Friday – abstain from meat)
Crepes with a variety of toppings
February 3 – St. Blaise of Sebaste
Fried fish with breadsticks shaped like bishop staff
February 4 – St. Joan de Valois
French Chateaubriand (beef tenderloin)
February 5 – St. Agatha
Arancini with meat sauce and side of olivettes
Arancini Recipe from Like Mother Like Daughter
St. Agatha Olivette from Molto Ono
February 6 – St. Paul Miki and Companions
Japanese Chicken Katsu Don and Shumai Dumplings
St. Paul Miki Feast Day Recipe from Saints, Feast, Family
February 7 – Saint Colette
Chicken Fricassée (chicken stew with a creamy mushroom sauce)
February 8 – Saint Jerome Emiliani & Saint Josephine Bakhita
Traditional Italian Pizza
February 9 – Saint Apollonia
(Friday – abstain from meat)
Ful Mudammas (Egyptian Fava Beans)
February 10 – Saint Scholastica
Italian White Bean Soup
February 11 – Saint Gregory II
Carbonara
February 12 – Saint Buonfiglio Monaldo
Minestrone soup
February 13 – Saint Catherine de Ricci (& Mardi Gras)
Pesto pasta with chicken
February 14 – Saint Valentine (& Ash Wednesday)
(Ash Wednesday – abstain from meat)
Italian grilled shrimp
February 15 – Saint Claude la Colombiere
Beef Bourguignon (French Beef Stew)
February 16 – Saint Daniel
(Friday – abstain from meat)
Falafel
February 17 – Feast of the Holy Founders of the Servite Order
Bistecca alla Fiorentina (Italian steak)
February 18 – Blessed John of Fiesole
Chicharrones de Pollo (Dominican Fried Chicken)
February 19 – Saint Conrad of Piacenza
Farfalle in marinara sauce
February 20 – Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco Marto
Stromboli
February 21 – Saint Peter Damain
Eggplant Parmesan
February 22 – Feast of the Chair of Saint peter the apostle
Chicken Marsala
February 23 – Saint Polycarp
(Friday – abstain from meat)
Kırmızı Mercimek Çorbası (Turkish Red Lentil Soup)
February 24 – Saint John Theristus
Italian baked chicken
February 25 – Blessed Sebastian of Aparicio
Beef fajitas with mexican rice
February 26 – Saint Porphyry of Gaza
Grilled Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki and Mediterranean side salad
February 27 – Saint Gregory of Narek
Turkish Kofte meatballs
February 28 – Saint Oswald
Shepherd’s pie
February 29 – Saint Auguste Chapdelaine
French Tartines
