Meal Plan 10/20

Welcome to a crisp fall week at the Frugal Village Homestead!  I’ve been terrible about meal planning for the last month or so, but I’ve made a promise to myself and am firmly back on the wagon as of today!

Here’s what I’ve got to plan around this week:

1.  We are in the thick of our busiest time for afterschool/evening activities for the kids.  Play rehearsals.  Soccer. Confirmation Class.  Boy Scouts.  I’ve got kids running in and then back out again with barely time for supper on Monday and Wednesday nights (so keep it simple!), Hubs is out for pool on Thursday.  Then on Saturday we’ve got Youth Group, Soccer, Volunteering and a Birthday Party.  Saturday will be rough schedule wise!

2.  The weather has turned pretty durn cold.  We had our first really hard frost last night.  Heaters and pellet stove are running and my feet are cold.  High today is only 53 (with a low of 43) and the high for the week is only 60.   Plus they are talking about a Nor’easter heading our way mid week.  So cold, wet and disgusting out for a few days.  So warm comfort food is really what I’m looking for this week.

3. For fresh vegetables in the fridge I’ve got a stalk of brussel sprouts, sweet potato and some winter squash I purchased at the farm stand, carrots I’ve picked from the garden, mung beans I’ve sprouted, snow peas from a fall planting and the last of the green tomatoes (which I’m very tired of looking at in my crisper drawers).  Oustide I’ve got chard and two types of kale still growing, along with a bit of broccoli.  There are beets, carrots and Jerusalem artichokes still in the ground.  I’ll have to mulch those thickly with straw soon, but I should be able to dig them up for most of the winter!

4. There is some leftover chicken and gravy in the fridge from Sunday’s lunch.

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: Venison Stirfry over Rice

Carrot, snow peas and Mung Bean sprouts will make a nice stirfry type dish with some venison.  I’ll just cook up a pot of rice and have an easy meal that I can feed my soccer player before he dashes out the door tonight and everyone else whenever they eat.

This is my venison meal for the week.

Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie and Fried Green Tomatoes

I’ll take the leftover chicken and gravy and turn it into chicken pot pie.  Basically just plus it up with more veggies and gravy if needed and then make a “crust” out of biscuits.  Since I’m aching to use up the green tomatoes I’ll do some fried green tomatoes to go on the side.  That’s a bit of a messier and more time consuming recipe (just because the frying takes time & effort, even if I use my Fry Daddy) so my fairly unencumbered Tuesday night is a good time to tackle it.

Wednesday: Cici’s Pork Chops and Sauerkraut, Rice and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I can make the pork chop dish in my crockpot so it can cook during the day.  The recipe calls for stewed tomatoes, but if I’ve got any red tomatoes hiding in the crisper drawer I can toss those in as well.  Then I just need to mix the Brussel sprouts with some olive oil, salt & pepper and then roast them.  Mmmm.

This is my pork meal for the week.

Thursday: Split Pea Soup with Homemade Bread

Split pea soup is an awesome meal to have on a cold blustery day.  I will either use up any leftover pork in there, or I’ll pull out one of the smoked hocks from my organic pig I purchased.  The soup is pretty complete on it’s own, but I like to pair it with bread.  I’ll also most likely have leftover rice from Wednesday–so folks can eat it over rice if they like.

This is my soup, bean and pretty much a meatless meal as well.

Friday: Broiled Lemon Butter Fish, Roasted Potatoes & Sweet Potato, and Stewed Kale

I’ll just broil frozen fish with some lemon butter on top, roast potatoes and sweet potatoes together in a casserole dish, and cook down some kale with ham broth, onion and hot pepper flakes.

This is my fish meal for the week.

Saturday: Spaghetti with Meatballs and Salad

I’ll make meatballs from scratch and serve with jarred spaghetti sauce and pasta.  Because I feel guilty if I don’t have a vegetable (and spaghetti sauce really doesn’t count) I’ll add a green salad.

This is my beef meal for the week.

Sunday: Homemade Pizza

Using the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe.

This is another meatless meal.

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