Today I thought I would write about what it is like to keep a family of eight from biting each other out of hunger. I read several blogs written by moms of many, so a lot of this is not new information, but maybe y'all don't read the same blogs. Also, this is really long and needs pictures too. I don't think I have any though.
First, let me say that I am terrible about clipping coupons and really working the circulars to save money. I'm not going to talk numbers here, but trust me when I say our grocery spending is not insignificant. Now, I could get that number down, I know, but time is money in some regards and I have no desire to spend hours scouring ads and going to five different stores and so on. Also, although we are terrible at it, I try not to buy a bunch of processed food. And we all know that is what a lot (most) of the coupons are for. You're not going to see a coupon in the Sunday paper for buy 3 pounds of apples get 3 pounds free I don't think.
Okay, boring part over (I guess?).
Breakfast: About two years ago I changed the way we do breakfast. I was giving the kids cereal every day for breakfast. And inevitably, the kids not at school would be asking for a snack about twenty minutes later. I'm not a morning person to begin with, and pleas for more food while I'm still trying to remember my own name do not help me put on a cheery face. And if the little kids at home were hungry, then the kids at school were probably hungry too. So, I decided we needed more protein and more substance in general. Now we have eggs almost every morning, with biscuits and sliced ham or bacon, or eggs and waffles. Taylor (10) doesn't love eggs, but she knows she doesn't get a choice. That is one reason we usually still have biscuits or some other carb though--to help fill her belly at least a little bit. So on a normal week we will go through two dozen eggs in five days. I still do cereal about once a week. I need a break! We do the same kinds of breakfasts on the weekends, sometimes with more food. Today they had peanut butter toast and a banana, which is not the best breakfast, but still better than cold cereal I think. Cooking breakfast has actually helped me get in the habit of eating breakfast more often too, which can only be good. Lily (3.5) doesn't always eat what she's given and Ben (21 months) sometimes misses the main meal and gets something else when he wakes up.
Lunch: Lunch is boring and plain and will probably make some of my more health-inclined friends cringe. I pack lunches in the morning for the school kids. They could do it themselves the night before, but I don't mind doing it and I like controlling portions. They get a fruit (applesauce, grapes, fruit cans, oranges, apple slices, or carrots (Timmy (6) doesn't like a lot of the fruit options)), peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chips. I use natural peanut butter and try to get natural jelly when I can. The chips are whatever is on sale and a small amount. They know if they come home with fruit still in their lunchbox but no chips I will not be happy. Fruit first, chips last. They are allowed to buy their lunch at school once a week. It is $2.50 a lunch, so more often than that would break the bank. I obviously can't see how much they eat then, and I know none of them eat all of the food they are served. I'm not losing any sleep over it. I'll admit I like the small break when several choose to buy on the same day. The kids at home eat the same thing for lunch. I usually skip lunch (bad, bad, bad) or just snack. I am way particular about my food and get bored with the same thing really easily. Good thing my kids aren't like that! On the weekends we eat leftovers a lot. Sometimes Travis will grill something for lunch on a weekend day. We go through 2-3 loaves of bread a week.
Dinner: I try to plan meals a week at a time. Sometimes I share my menu plans here. I try to serve a protein (almost always meat, but we're working on it) and vegetables and sometimes a starch or carb, but also sometimes more vegetables or fruit. I really try to avoid using cream of something soups and casseroles too often, but they definitely make appearances. Right now our kids still eat smaller portions, or at least some of them do, but we are approaching the need for making more at dinner and it is going to get tricky. I dream of a double oven and six or eight burner range. Last night we had hamburgers, beans and fruit. We used two pounds of ground beef and that was just enough to make burgers for all of us. One large can of beans was just enough. I sliced two cantaloupe and two small watermelons. We'll eat that through the weekend, although my kids have wiped out that much cantaloupe at one time before. If we eat pork tenderloin we need two to feed all of us. I usually make two boxes of macaroni and cheese if we're all eating (although I really only serve the box kind to my kids when we're going out because I don't like it and they love it). One pot roast feeds us one time, maybe one serving will be leftover to eat. I use two pounds of beef or turkey for chili and that only serves us one time, and last time Travis didn't even get any. My kids love Steam Fresh vegetables, but it takes us two bags for the whole family. Spaghetti is a favorite meal around here. We use 1.5-2 pounds of meat, the bulk size of sauce and a pound of noodles. Everyone gets a serving and a smaller second serving and there is usually none leftover. Soups are good because we do actually have leftovers from those usually. For a chicken meal, I'll use five breasts usually. One for Travis, one for me, and the kids split the others. But this will change soon because they are eating more. I look for meals that are easy on preparation because we have four kids doing homework after school and at least one or two activities in the evening during the week.
Snacks: I try to have fruit on hand as a first option. We go through 5 pounds of apples in a week probably. Some of the kids love yogurt. A bag of grapes will be gone in a day if I allow unlimited grazing. I do let them eat animal crackers or dry cereal for a snack. I get animal crackers and goldfish at Sam's and it will last a couple of weeks maybe. The applesauce and fruit cans are for lunches only and last about a month. The kids get one snack in the morning and one snack in the afternoon.
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Milk: We are averaging 3-4 gallons a week. I let Ben drink as much as he wants. Lily gets about 3 glasses a day. The other kids only get it at one meal most of the time. I don't drink milk and Travis drinks it sparingly. We choose to continue to drink whole milk, which is part of the reason I limit the big kids. I really wish milk prices would go back down.
So, I cook a hot breakfast 5-6 days a week (Travis often helps on the weekends). Lunches are the same almost every day and on the weekends we let the kids make their own. Dinner is cooked at home from "scratch" most nights but not all. By the end of a typical week we might have 3 or so servings of leftovers. I go to the store once a week, usually. We try to average about $200 a week for groceries, including diapers and toiletries some weeks. Try being the operative word. I know there are families out there doing better than us. We're working on it. I would love to eat out once a week, but that is usually not in the budget. Travis really helps a lot, usually grilling/smoking something once a week and helping with meal prep when he can.
So, I think we probably only eat the equivalent of one or two more servings than the average family most of the time, right now. But as I said, the kids are getting bigger and wanting to eat more and I'm going to have to start doubling some things.
What is your most challenging food issue at home? What is your family's favorite meal?
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