I find it unrealistically restrictive that the only place where villagers can eat is in their own house. How about letting them either take some provisions from home (like fruit or bread) that they can eat anywhere, or letting the player build say a picnic table or hut in the woods where they can go to eat while they're out in the sticks?
Something like
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:rastplatz_mittelpunkt_uckermark.jpg -- I'm sure this kind of thing must have existed in the Middle Ages already.