Meal Plan 5/22 - Frugal Upstate

Yes, I know it’s Wednesday. You should feel blessed–I didn’t even get one OUT last week 😉

We have hit the hectic season of spring. There is all the end of year school stuff for the kiddos (Princess has 2 more weeks of school, Buddy a month–so there are trips, concerts, dance recitals, parades). There is all of the garden and yard stuff, which is time and weather sensitive–if you put off planting your spinach for two weeks you might not get a crop before the heat hits and it all bolts! And on top of all that my Mom just retired and moved to our town this weekend–which is wonderful but has added a bunch of “helping mom get moved in and settled” type tasks. (note: my mom is young & vibrant–so it’s not like she’s feeble or anything–I just want to be there to make things easier)

Long story short–chaos rules supreme. I’ve been shoveling mulch, playing chauffeur, pulling weeds, planting perennials, etc etc etc. . . But hey, despite it all we have to eat and the better I plan, the less stressful it is. My big goal this week is to use up some of the things that have accumulated in the fridge. Seriously. There is not room to put another thing in there.

See–I told you it was packed.

These are the considerations for this week:

1. My mom is now in town–since she is buried in a sea of boxes I’ll assume she’s going to eat with us a lot this week.

2. Our 14th Anniversary is this week–we planned to have dinner and a movie on Tuesday night to celebrate.

3. Regularly scheduled dance and scouts this week. I skipped my photography class for the Anniversary dinner, but Yankee Bill still MAY have to play pool one night. We also have the chorus concert. I’m driving my mom to her eye appt and to the DMV–mostly cause she doesn’t know her way around yet. So I’ll be in town 2 days this week. Because the weekend is a 3 day, I’ll also plan for the fact that we are having a big BBQ at our house on Monday.

4. Memorial Day weekend is the “safe” planting day for us here in zone 5b. So I’ll be out in the gardens a LOT the end of this week and this weekend–and with the long daylight I frequently don’t realize we are at suppertime–so meals that are either easy to throw together or premade are good.

5. Good chance of rain the rest of the week-Wed, Thur, Fri–but the weekend is supposed to be sunny and a bit cooler. I better not plan on any grilling until the weather clears up!

6. As always my goal is to have one venison 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: Pork Curry over Couscous

I defrosted a package of bone in pork chops (from my 1/2 organic pig), cut the meat off the bone, cubed it and browned it in my big skillet along with a chopped onion. Then I added frozen green beans and purslane (from last years garden), water and some of the “Vermont Curry” (mild) cubes that I like. Served it all over some leftover couscous (which was incredibly bland–I made it with plain water last week instead of bullion. Mistake.) I boiled the leftover bones in some water to make stock and refrigerated it.

This was my pork meal for the week.

Tuesday: Anniversary Dinner/Leftover Pizza

Yankee Bill took me out for a lovely anniversary dinner, Cici (my mom) brought over some of the leftover pizza we had bought from moving day and fed that to the kiddos while we were out.

Wednesday: Chicken Soup and Biscuits

I’ll mix the pork stock I made on Monday with the chicken stock I made last weekend (from the rotissere chicken I bought from the new town butcher shop), and add in some of the odds and ends of vegetables that are cluttering up my fridge. I’m actually going to toss it in the slow cooker as soon as I’m done writing this post. Hopefully this will clear things out a bit in the fridge and give me a quick and easy meal for before the concert tonight.

This is my soup meal for the week.

Thursday: Slow Cooker Salmon Noodle Casserole with Green Salad

This is an experiment. I’m going to make what is basically a tuna noodle casserole–but with canned salmon. Then again, I saw a recipe for Scalloped Potatoes with Salmon that also looked good–so it’s going to be something with canned salmon that can be cooked in the slow cooker since I’ve got a busy day. I’ll need something to cut the richness of the main dish (whichever it is!) so a green salad seems like the right thing. I’ve got lettuce in the packed fridge, and I’ve got a few greens starting to come in the garden (plus a few in the lawn) so I’ll be able to put something together.

This is my Fish meal for the week.

Friday: Venison Parmigiana over Spaghetti with Sauteed Greens

I’ve got a bit of time on Friday, and the weather isn’t supposed to be nice enough to be working outside, so I guess I’ll make my Venison Parmigiana. It isn’t horrendously time consuming but you do have to bread & fry before adding the sauce and baking, so it does take a bit extra. It will be served over pasta and, since I’ve got Chard & Spinach coming up, it will be served with sauteed garden greens on the side.

This is my Venison meal for the week.

Saturday: Quiche (Dandelion Green & Cheddar Cheese) and Salad

I picked the dandelion greens a little while ago and I NEED to use them up–so today I’ll just boil them in a couple of changes of water (to reduce the bitterness) then they will be good in the fridge for a couple of days. I will probably make the actual quiche one evening this week so that it will be ready whenever we feel like it on Saturday.

This is my Meatless meal for the week.

Sunday: Homemade Baked Beans

We are having a big BBQ on Monday, so I am thinking that I can make baked beans on Sunday as a main dish and then I can use them as a side dish on Monday at the BBQ. I’ll put them together in the crockpot–and if we don’t feel like beans that night and want to do something else we just leave the beans for the next day-no problem!

This is my Bean meal for the week.

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