Last week of September already! Still looking for that “slow down time” button. In the meantime, here’s my Meal Plan for this week!
Fall is officially here! In my world that means- yummy comfort food! Soup is my go-to comfort food and you will certainly see a homemade soup at least once a week from here on out- fair warning.
Meal Planning tip of the week:
Shop your home BEFORE planning!
Before you sit down to create your meal plan, take a quick look through your refrigerator, freezer(s), and pantry to see what you have/what needs to be used. Keeping an inventory of these areas makes this process super simple. Not that I would know. Here is a free printable that I really should implement myself!
I’m not talking a “take everything out and organize your food every week” type of inventory. Just a quick look through to refresh your memory.
Refrigerator
Start at the refrigerator to see if there are any leftovers that you could use in a meal and make sure there are not any items expiring soon that need to be used. Leftover mashed potatoes? Potato soup or shepherds pie could be a meal idea this week.
This is also a great time to quickly get rid of any bad food.
Freezer(s)
If you are anything like us, you have multiple freezers and what is in those freezers can be easily forgotten. Sure, I know the basics (venison, beef, pork, chicken, vegetables…. etc) but going in and seeing exactly what we have makes my life so much easier. For us, I never have to buy meat (lucky duck, I know!) but if you do regularly buy meat, you know it isn’t cheap and this is a great time to make sure you aren’t buying something you already have at home.
Don’t just look for meat either, maybe you have a freezer meal in there that could be made one day, some bread to go with soup another day or some fruit that could make a simple dessert another night.
Pantry
Once you have gone through your cold food inventory, head into the pantry. Let’s say you have some frozen taco meat, tortillas from the pantry, and vegetables in the refrigerator. Taco night! This is also a great time to check expiration dates and make sure you don’t have a half of a box of dry pasta dying in the way back of the pantry. Not that I’m a stickler on expiration dates. In fact, not even close. But that topic deserves its own post for another time. Either way, it’s a good idea to rotate your food as much as possible.
After you have gone through the food in your home, you can sit down and create your Meal Plan and shopping list. You will be surprised how much money you save when you shop your home first!
This week, I am using up a lot of what I have lying around. We happen to have lots of leftovers in the refrigerator this month and lots of garden vegetables that need to be used up. Plus, squash is ready (insert happy dance)!!!
Meal Plan 9/24-9/30
Monday, September 24
Tuesday, September 25
Leftovers
Wednesday, September 26
Shepherds Pie (this is a basic recipe but I just throw together what I have- this is a “memory meal” for me)
Thursday, September 27
Friday, September 28
Southwest Taco Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
Saturday, September 29
Sunday, September 30
Butternut Squash Soup and Beer Bread
There it is! A month of meals! Now that I have completed posts for a whole month of meals, I’d love to hear if these meals are helpful to you and if you have any ideas to make them more helpful. Would posting my meal plan on Sunday be better? I’d love to hear your feedback!
Thank you for stopping by the homestead!
Until next time,
Melissa
Be sure to check out my other meal plans for more meal ideas!
I enjoy your blog a great deal. It’s very interesting to see the different meals that you prepare for your family. Growing up as a chef in a higher-end restaurant, I am very familiar with having to make up menus for the week following the week you’re in. It’s important to note that I carried that practice over into my family life when I worked a day job. I then knew what had to be brought up from our freezer, what things had to be brought out of our pantry, and what things needed to be purchased at the store before I return home from work. Now that I stay home during the day and run business during the evening hours I’m usually not home for dinner. Listen turn means that I have to make sure to prep and have everything ready during the daytime, so that my family doesn’t have to worry about making dinner in my absence. My pantry isn’t nearly as extensive as yours as I’m sure, but I have a pretty wide palette of food that I provide to my wife and children. I wish that I had more land and which I could properly Homestead and raise more vegetables, but in addition I wish I had room to ethically raised healthy livestock. I only believe in eating grass-fed beef, pastured pork, free range chicken, and as many different varieties of wild game that God provides for me through hunting. I don’t have much advice to provide you, but I don’t think you need much anyways. Love your posts, and love your meal ideas. Interesting Lee enough I am preparing a brine for a couple of your chickens that you sold us. Tomorrow I’m going to roast them whole, and finish the skin off with a hanging poor of hot oil to crisp the skin up. I will send you pictures of the end results for you to share with others if you choose to. I’m very health conscious these days, so I’m always looking for a healthier hack to already existing recipes. I tried to flavor things using less salt, or natural salt. It’s important to me to use fresh ingredients as well as other ingredients that are preserved. Any ideas on how to can things at different offseason times of the year would be greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so very much for your reply and kind words! It really encourages me when I hear back from my readers. Your wife is so very lucky to have you helping/cooking in the kitchen- I know many who would love to have their husbands input on meal ideas, let alone help/cook! We seem to have the same ideals when it comes to raising animals. We also only want to raise grass fed/pastured/free range animals. This proves difficult with only 5 acres of land- we could have more steers, for instance, but we don’t want to compromise our pastures. Homesteading sure is hard work and I do hope you are able to live your dream some day! As far as canning on the off-season… I try and can things when they are in season and fresh. I feel that canning anything during “off times” or when the quality maybe isn’t there, is a waste of my time. Personal opinion of course. If I am going to take all the time to can/preserve, I want to make sure its high quality. During Wisconsin’s off-season, I can meat that we harvest, stocks, soups from vegetables I previously froze, etc. So there is always something to can, just not as busy as during the peak canning months. I hope this helps you and good luck with your endeavors!
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