Meal Plan 4/1

Welcome to this week’s meal plan.  I promise you–this is not an April Fools joke!  I’m just late :)  This is a fairly lame meal plan–the week is totally crazy.  But at least I’m trying!

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

1.  It’s spring break.  That means our schedule has gone haywire.  I’ve got one child gone visiting family in another state, so we are down to 3 for supper.  On the other hand I’m trying to do some fun things with the other kiddo so they don’t feel that their spring break is a complete bust–and that includes friends sleeping over and day trips that keep us away from the house a couple of times.  Then on top of that my sister had to go out of town unexpectedly so I’m helping my mom watch my nieces (3 & 6) during the days since there is no school and no daycare.  That’s a bit of a wrench in the dinner plans as well.

2.  It’s still stinkin cold, which is no fair.

3.  This weekend is of course Easter, which means a family dinner on Sunday.

4.  In the fridge I’ve got a bit of the homemade pasta that I made with the girls that has to be used up (linguine).  There are salad greens and a few store tomatoes that actually looked half decent.  There are a few leftovers (creamed chipped beef from the church potluck and chicken chili) but they are only enough for a quick lunch, not enough to convert into another meal.  We’ve got beef, pork and venison in the freezer from bulk purchases/hunting season.  There are also a lot of frozen corn and greens that I should have been using up all along (we’ll actually be able to grow greens here in another month or so).  The snow is finally down enough that I can actually get to the garden rows where the radishes, beets, carrots and jerusalem artichokes are buried under mulch.  I could have gotten to them with a bit of digging earlier, but I really didn’t want to bother with the snow!

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: Pizza at Grandma’s

Buddy had a friend over and I wound up having to run into town for an errand at the last minute.  Grandma was watching the boys and offered to buy pizza-who am I to refuse?

Tuesday: Eating Out

So I watched the nieces all afternoon and Grandma had offered to take us all out to a local place for supper.  Again, who am I to refuse?  I had fried fish for dinner–at least the portion that my Niece didn’t gobble up (note to self, she really preferred the fried fish to her own chicken fingers)

I could count this as a fish meal–but really only for me.

Wednesday: Crockpot Pork Roast with Rice and Greens

We will be out again for a big chunk of today, so I’ve got a pork butt roast defrosted.  It will go in the slow cooker with some homemade cream sauce over it, and probably some carrots.  That way it can just cook all day while we are running around.  Then I’ll start a pot of rice in the rice cooker when we get home and warm up some of the frozen greens.  Easy, healthy, filling.  Hopefully tasty.

This is our pork meal for the week.

Thursday: Chicken Pot Pie

I’ll use some of my home canned chicken and dehydrated vegetables (probably add in fresh onions) in a homemade crust.  Maybe I’ll get fancy and make little individual pot pies.  Since it’s meat, carb and veggie all in one I don’t really need to add any sides, but I may make a quick salad.

Friday: Eat Out

I know, one of the eating-est out meal plans ever.  I promised Buddy a special day out–chances are we will be gone all day.  Depending on the schedule we will either eat out or make something super simple like Mac ‘n Cheese from a box or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Saturday: Linguine with Sausage Alfredo Sauce and Greens

This will use up the pasta (which I may cook up earlier in the week and then reheat).  I have some jarred Alfredo sauce in the cupboard (it’s great for emergency meals–pasta plus alfredo plus tuna/chicken/etc from a can = supper) but time allowing I may make it from scratch.  The sausage is from the big batch of venison Italian sausage a friend made (I really want to learn to make my own).   The greens will be again from the freezer.

Sunday: Easter Dinner at Grandma’s

Not sure yet exactly what I’m bringing–most likely my homemade rolls and dessert, but we shall see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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