Meal Plan 7/6

Welcome to a post vacation week here at the Frugal Village Homestead.  That’s right, last week we were in the mountains enjoying time at a beautiful lake.  Now we are home, mostly unpacked, and diving into the rest of July.

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

1.  Princess is helping with the local kids program each weekday morning for July.  She’s also helping with vacation Bible school evenings this week.  So she’s pretty busy, but luckily both things are within walking distance from the house.  I’ve got a 2 day trip midweek, and Yankee Bill is gone Thursday through Saturday.  Sunday Buddy is heading off to camp for a week.  I’ve also got physical therapy and chiropractic appointments sprinkled in there.  Who said summer is relaxing?

2.  I only got about half the garden planted due to my arm/shoulder problems from the pinched nerve, and what is there doesn’t seem to be happy with the weather we’ve been having–a lot of it is just kinda hanging out and not growing much.  I do have lettuce ready, sugar snap peas, Egyptian walking onions and the English Peas (the kind you shell) should be ready soon.  Sounds like I need to make some salads.

3.  The freezer is pretty full of meat still–I have a lot of ground beef left from my 1/4 cow, and tons of venison sausage, as well as some pork cuts, venison stew meat and a couple of bags of frozen chicken and a whole frozen bird.  There isn’t a lot of fridge stuff to use up since we cleaned out pretty good before vacation–but I do have some luncheon meat that should be used an some extra cheese.

4.  Yankee Bill doesn’t really cook while I’m gone, so I usually have some frozen things for him to use.  There is still a frozen lasagna that didn’t get used the last trip.  If I grab a pizza to toss in there he should be good till I get home.

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: Spaghetti with Sausage & Sauce, and a Salad

We brought a package of Venison Cheesy Sausage along with us for vacation that was thawed and not used.  I cut them into chunks this morning and tossed them into the slow cooker on low with a jar of store bought sauce.  I’ll make a salad with lettuce, onion and sugar snap peas from the garden.

This is my venison meal for the week.

Tuesday & Wednesday: Frozen Salisbury Steak and Frozen Lasagna

Buying frozen meals is still cheaper than Yankee Bill taking the kids to eat out the whole time.

Thursday: Baked Chicken, Sugar Snap Peas and Mashed Potatoes

I’ll pull the chicken out to thaw in the fridge starting today–it should be good by Thursday.  I’ll bake that in the oven, steam some of the garden fresh snap peas, and use the last of the potatoes that are growing eyes down in the basement for the mashed potatoes.

Friday: Breakfast for Dinner–Waffles and Bacon

Yankee Bill doesn’t particularly like breakfast for dinner, so we plan this “treat” for when he’s not at home.  I’ll fry up some bacon (from our 1/2 pig of course) to add protein and yum factor.

This is my pork meal for the week.

Saturday:  Tacos

Princess wanted us to make Tacos at the cabin for vacation and we never quite got around to it.  I’ll defrost some ground venison and make some.  I think I have a couple of boxes of shells in the cupboard-if not we can slightly shift gears to burritos, I know I have those.

Sunday: French Bread Pizza and Salad

It’s just Princess and I, so I thought a smaller kind of pizza might be nice.  I have a loaf of French bread in the freezer, so we can make this quite easily.

This is my meatless 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” & “Living with a Meal Plan“