Welcome to another week at the Frugal Village Homestead! The temperatures have dropped, the leaves are starting to fall, and it feels more like late October then mid November around here. Cooler weather always means the return of hearty soups, comforting casseroles and roasted vegetables. Mmmm!
So this is what I’m working with this week when I’m organizing my meal plan:
1. We’ve got soccer practice at 5:30 two nights every week till the season is over, dance starts again and is at 7:30 one night, Yankee Bill plays pool 1 night, I’ve got to teach class (pressure canning) on Thursday night, and we’ve got both the middle school and intermediate school open houses this week. I’ll be out and about for various appointments on two days as well, and then on the weekend we’ve got soccer games, Yankee Bill has a ride and we have all the church stuff as well. Phew. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
2. My fridge is jam packed full of odds and ends from the garden and canning sessions (ie the overage that didn’t fit in jars). I need to use some of it up! I know for sure I’ve got 2 zuchinni, baby peppers, cooked beets, lettuce, partially dried tomatoes, regular tomatoes, eggs, spicy V8, cooked beets, a few green beans, about 5 kinds of jelly and a jar of green tomato mincemeat that didn’t seal. Oh, and a couple of dozen eggs.
3. The garden has kale, chard, pac choi, green onions and beets–which will hold for a while, and peppers, eggplant, beans and squash that won’t.
4. I promised Princess I’d teach her how to make chicken pot pie this week. So that’s got to go on there.
5. 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: Chicken Pot Pie with Salad
That knocks my promise to Princess out of the way early in the week, and the salad can use up a bunch of the veggies.
Tuesday: Homemade Pizza with Salad and Pickles
The weekend is going to be chaos, so we’ll get pizza out of the way early this week. If I actually get the dough started on time, then it’s a pretty easy meal to put together and quick to eat (since we have evening activities). I’ll use leftover salad and some of the several kinds of pickles we’ve got sitting in the fridge.
This is my meatless meal for the week.
Wednesday: Ham & Lentil Soup, Homemade Bread with Jam
Wednesday is going to be super busy with all of us in a million directions, so a crockpot soup is perfect. It’s ready “whenever” and folks can dish some out, eat, and go! Since it’s turned a bit cooler I’ve been craving lentil soup anyway. I’ll probably do a version where I toss in some cubed potatoes and a bit of carrot as well. The bread is because I’ve gotten completely out of the habit of baking my own bread and I need to get back. Plus maybe if I put jam with it I’ll use up some of the half jars leftover from canning!
This is my soup, my bean and my pork meal for the week. Wow, that’s a 3 in one!
Thursday: Spaghetti and Venison Meatballs with Roasted Squash, Onions and Peppers
We’ll bake some homemade venison meatballs earlier in the week–that way I can just toss the sauce into the crockpot around midday and let it all heat and meld together. I’ll set the veggies to roast on a timed cook (nice stove feature!) right before I leave the house to teach my canning class–it will shut off and stay warm/keep cooking a bit until Bill comes home from work and can pull it out of the oven. Then all he will have to do is boil the spaghetti and feed the kids. If I toss some of the partially dried tomatoes in the sauce (sort of like sun dried tomatoes) and use the squash and peppers from the fridge it will help clear things out considerably!
This is my venison meal for the week.
Friday: Shrimp Stirfry with Rice
I’ve got to fit a fish in here somewhere, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got frozen shrimp downstairs. I’ll be able to use up a bunch of garden veggies and anything left that I didn’t use up in the salads and roasted vegetables earlier in the week. The whole thing can be served over rice as a one bowl meal.
This is my fish meal for the week.
Saturday: Bratwurst, Skillet Potatoes and Chard
We’ll just grill or saute the brats I have in the fridge and serve them with some mustard. I’ll use some potatoes (we were given a huge amount by a friend who grew them) to make some sort of skillet potato dish, most likely with bacon grease and onion. Mmmm. The chard will be sauteed or steamed lightly.
Sunday: Eating Out.
We’ll have family in town and I think we’ll be doing dinner out on Sunday.
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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .
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