Welcome to another week of food here at the Frugal Upstate Village Homestead!
Thank goodness my schedule is staring to clear up a little bit-at least from the sports related stuff. Of course the rest of life continues to march on! Here are the things I need to think about this week:
1. Field Hockey is over, which frees up a lot of time on Monday & Wed nights. We still have dance in the evening on both those days-but that is after suppertime.
2. Soccer ends this coming weekend, so they are having a pizza party Wednesday night. No cooking that night! There is also a Halloween Party for scouts on Friday-so a quick dinner and plan on eating tons of junk over there.
3. I’m running my errands on Tuesday-so I’ll probably be home right around dinner time. That’s a good day for a crockpot meal–I never feel like cooking after being gone all day.
4. There is a lot of leftover trout (it was a huge fish) from Thursday, leftover chicken and the carcass from Saturdays dinner, and tons of baked beans left from Sunday. I’ve also got a few hot dogs that have been hanging about and need to be used up.
5. There are turnip tops and some carrots in the crisper drawer from the garden that need to be used soon. I’ve also got plenty of turnips ready in the garden-bottoms and greens-plus carrots, cabbage and chard.
6. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one fish meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week.
Taking all that into account here is my game plan:
Monday: Trout Alfredo over Pasta with Turnip Greens
I’ll make up my Mock Alfredo Sauce and mix in the leftover flaked trout, then serve it over some angel hair pasta. The turnip greens will be simmered with some onion and red pepper and served on the side.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Tuesday: Irish Beef (Venison) Stew with Irish Soda Bread
I’ve got a review/giveaway coming up using the new Ninja 3-in-1 cooking system and I need to make a couple of recipes that use it–so Irish Beef Stew fits the bill. I will use venison from the freezer instead of the beef-why go out and purchase beef when I’ve got delicious red meat in the freezer? I’ll use carrots and turnips from the garden and add in some of the potatoes our buddy gave us. I’ll be able to put the entire thing together in the morning before I head out and then have dinner ready when I get home! I’ll just have to whip up the Irish Soda Bread which takes about 45 minutes, so that’s a great pairing. Of course, if I’m tired we can just have plain old bread 🙂
This is my soup meal and my venison meal for the week.
Wednesday: Pizza Party
We’ll be at the soccer pizza party, so no need for a dinner plan
Thursday: Spinach Lentil Dahl over Rice
Dahl is an Indian stew typically made from lentils and generously spiced. I get the impression it’s sort of like saying “soup”–there are many, many different recipes that all fall under that heading. This one is made with lentils, onions & spinach as well as yummy Indian spices. The thick stew will be served in a bowl over rice.
This is my meatless and my bean meal for the week.
Friday: Chicken & Gravy over Rice with Steamed Carrots
Friday will be a bit busy with the Halloween party and all, so quick and easy is great for the meal. There is a lot of meat left from the chicken this weekend-I’ll just make up some gravy (from a package!) and add in a bunch of the chicken. That will be served over some rice (from my bulk rice bucket–cooked in the rice cooker). I’ll just scrub, slice and steam some carrots from the garden to go on the side. Easy peasy–and tasty.
Saturday: Homemade Pizza
Since we didn’t eat pizza on Friday we’ll have it on Saturday. Using my favorite Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe of course.
Sunday: Cheesy Bean and Beef Casserole with Coleslaw
I have a ton of baked beans left-and they came out a bit too sweet. If I rinse them off I should be able to use them in this bean & beef casserole without the sweet coming through too much. I’ll take some of the small heads of cabbage left in the garden (those are the ones where I used my little trick to make additional cabbage heads) and make some coleslaw. The fresh crunch & zip of the coleslaw will help balance out the cheesy/bean/beef/potato comfort food.
So what’s on your meal plan this week?
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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .
I love meal planning because it makes making meals so much easier on busy week nights. It’s also a great way to save some money. As somebody who used to frequent restaurants far too often, I am trying to get more into meal planning myself.