Meal Plan 3/22

Busy times as always at the Frugal Village Homestead.  I wish the weather would make up it’s mind–sometimes we’ve got lovely spring weather, other days we are bundled up in hats and gloves and the gray skies are spitting snow at us.  Ah well, as the French say “C’est la vie”. . . That is life.  At least in Upstate NY!

These are the considerations for this week:

1. We’ve got all our usual activities–Pool for Yankee Bill, Scouts for Buddy, trying to fit in a couple Karate classes for Buddy & I, guitar lesson for me, piano for kids. . . and then we’ve got 3 long play rehearsals for both kids as tech week is next week. Oh–and Princess volunteered to help at STEM night at the school as well. That means two nights I have to get dinner ready for the kids early so they can head out for rehearsal, one night I’ve got to squeeze dinner in between rehearsal and other evening activities, and then on the night I finally have both kids home the hubs is gone. Oh–and the kids have a 4 day weekend. So basically chaos.

2. Personally I’m headed to town (that means an hour round trip plus actually doing the errands and lesson I’m there for) at least 2 days. I’ll probably wind up in town on Friday with the kiddos to do something fun. I’m thinking roller skating. We may pop by to see Grandpa as well. All that is to say 2-3 days that I’m either not going to be home till right about supper time or else I’ll be running around and tired when I get home (ie not in the mood to cook anything complex).

3. Easter Dinner is at my dear sweet Mother in Law’s house–so I’ll be making a side dish (to be assigned) but don’t have to worry about the cooking for 8.

4. I already pulled out some things to defrost: 1 small pork tenderloin, a pack of 4 pork chops, 4 chicken breasts, 1 lb ground venison, sweet Italian sausage, corn, beets and purslane. In the fridge I’ve rehydrated a mix of peas, carrots and green onions that should get used. I’ve also got some homemade mustard dressing that was a bit tart that should get used for something (maybe a marinade?), salad vegetables and a bunch of celery (I plan to dehydrate but plenty for a meal).

5. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one beef meal, one fish meal, one pork meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Homemade Pizza

I never made pizza last week, so it just seemed like a good thing to make.  With my Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe of course!

This was my meatless meal.

Tuesday: Baked Mustard Chicken with Beets and Rice

I’ll marinate the chicken breasts in the homemade mustard dressing for the day, then I can bake them up pretty quickly and serve with a pot of rice and my frozen beets (warmed and tossed with a bit of butter and salt of course).

Wednesday: Cici’s Pork Chops, Green Beans and Dinner Rolls

I love my mom’s Pork Chop recipe!  Mmmm–pork, tomatoes & sauerkraut.  It’s a meal that works well in the slow cooker, so I can set it to go all day.  I can also set up the bread machine with the timer so it will be all ready to go and then just start in the late afternoon so I’ll have rolls all ready to just form and pop in the oven.  The green beans will just be warmed & served.

This is my pork meal for the week.

Thursday: Shepard’s Pie with Salad

I’ll use the ground venison in the pie along with the veggies that I rehydrated and top with homemade mashed potatoes.  It’s really a meal in itself–but I probably will put a green salad along with it for some extra veggie goodness.

This is my Venison meal for the week.

Friday: Garlic Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Corn and Parmesan Noodles

Hmmm. This will be a very bland looking plate, even if it tastes delicious! The pork tenderloin is quite small, but Yankee Bill won’t be home for dinner this night so it should work.  I was thinking of just encrusting it in bread crumbs and garlic and then baking it.  I’ll serve with the frozen sweet corn and toss some noodles with butter, Parmesan cheese and a bit of parsley for the starch.

Saturday: Leftover Soup

I’ll have to see what kind of bits and bobs are left over at the end of the week–I’ll just whip things together into a soup.

This is my soup meal for the week

Sunday: Easter Dinner at Nana’s

and I don’t have to cook for Easter!

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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .