Everyone is now on board with trying to live on a limited food budget IF they can feel like they have a say in what we are eating. I think that is completely valid and fair. If I am asking my kids to overhaul their diet so that I can save money and try to prove to myself that I can feed my kids healthy food on a very limited budget then they should have a say in that.
Everyone is willing to keep on this path if I offer a variety of options - not necessarily at the same time, but as often as possible.
We are going to be eating either a meal or a snack every two hours (approximately) from 8:30 am - 6:30 pm so that no one gets to that hangry point. (Hangry = angry because one is hungry.) (The boys will have their last snack a bit later as soccer does not get out until 8:30 pm.)
That's basically it. I sat down yesterday with some cookbooks and came up with some new snacks to offer. I also am going to be doing some new things for lunch. (Think beans and rice type stuff.) I am trying to offer filling foods and also foods that will allow the kids to feel like they still get to eat junk, but because I am making it from scratch, is a much healthier version. (Think angel food cake with frozen organic strawberries.) I also gathered input yesterday from the kiddos as to what they would like to eat this week. Everyone provided that information and I let them know what snacks I was thinking of offering. Once everyone was on board with the menu I went to the store today to get food until Saturday. (Don't ask how much I spent. That is for another post altogether although I do wish this month would end, so that I could start anew with my food budget.)
I feel like I have been in the kitchen a lot of today trying to either cook a meal or make a snack. I am not too keen on that especially because I cannot homeschool the kids AND spend all day in the kitchen. I have some ideas on how to fine tune the amount of time I am meal prepping and preparing, and if they work I will post them.
One of the amazing things about this whole project (besides how much money I am saving) is the fact that once the kids detoxed from the processed crap they were eating (which was quite the struggle - let me tell you) they no longer ask for it. Elizabeth - the junk food queen - came up to me this afternoon after I had come home from running some errands and let me know that she grabbed some walnuts for a snack - on her own - with no prodding from me. That girl would have fought me tooth and nail with tears and flailing two weeks ago if I had offered her such a snack. The kids are eating 100% whole wheat sandwich bread (which was something they would not have gone near with a 10 foot pole before) and are loving it. (I tried making sandwich bread up to this point, but they did not really like it, so I relented and bought them bread, but not the white bread they were eating before this whole project.)
Another really cool thing is that they aren't even using their own spending money on junk food. I told them that they could each buy themselves one junk food every week, but that in order to eat 1 portion of it they had to eat a healthy snack first. I have taken the kids twice to shop for their snacks and all four of them walked out with nothing because they couldn't find something that was filling for the money they were going to spend. (Actually, I take that back. Sarah bought 1 Greek yogurt one of those times.) Now, I am not stupid enough to think that if my kids go to your house and you offered them Cheetos they wouldn't devour the whole bag, but they don't choose to have that kind of stuff in our house and I am truly thankful for that.
It is amazing how much our life revolves around food. I guess it always had, but now that we are trying to consciously eat our food and be mindful not only of cost, but of where the food is coming from and the quality of food we are buying it has become the main topic both in our minds and in our conversations. On the one hand if one more child asks me what there is to eat or what I am feeding him/her today I could just scream, but on the other hand the fact that I am providing some of the answers I am without resistance (100% maple syrup instead of the sugary processed stuff we used before - is just one example) I also feeling like shouting for joy.
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Instead of posting our weekly menu on the side bar of the blog I have decided to change it up and post what we are eating daily. Because today is almost over I am just going to let you know what we did today:
Breakfast: Pancakes with maple syprup
1st Snack: Almonds & Walnuts with a piece of fruit
Lunch: Baked potatoes with toppings
2nd Snack: Banana Bread
Dinner: Tacos
3rd Snack: Angel Food Cake with strawberries
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