Tuesday May 14

Today was a full and busy day. The two younger boys worked on some laundry this morning. Thomas and Matthew completed a construction job today that's been long and drawn out, fitted in between door jobs. Austin was out with the lawn crew.

I was up earlier than usual. After breakfast, I read with the boys until the midwife came. All seems to be going as a normal pregnancy should.

After my checkup, the boys had scattered. Melvin was mowing the lawn. Between mower breakdowns and rain, the lawn was looking pretty hairy. More hairy than pretty.

Christopher was watching chicks and trying to see how many hatched. He also emptied the dishwasher. (Click here to see a video of the chicks.)

I worked on making menus for the next couple weeks and getting a shopping list ready. Then I made a list of some food prep that could be done.

The last few months I've been using Eat at Home meal plans, simply because of pregnancy brain. It was too difficult to plan and Tiffany has all the thinking done for me. Actually, I did alternate my own meal ideas with hers but leaned heavily on her plans.

Now that I can think again to some degree, I decided to make my own plans for the next couple of weeks and see if I can whittle the grocery bill down.

Last year was not a real profitable garden year so my freezers and canned food shelves are quite empty. That does not help the grocery bill! Especially with six big eaters. My appetite has returned so that includes me.

After lunch we headed to school for program practice at 12:45. It's that time of year again. Practice every day this week and Friday evening is the performance. Next week we'll be FREE.

While the boys practiced (for an hour) I crawled into the back seat of the van, curled up and slept. If you've never tried pregnancy at age 46 you should! Ha ha. It is quite difficult.

After we were home and I rested a bit more, Christopher and I tackled some things in the kitchen. He started working on a breakfast casserole. Then he had to go do the milking early so Melvin finished the casserole.

I got a batch of bread mixed and rising, then worked on supper and other things. There were leftover mashed potatoes from Sunday that I reheated;

I fried burger, onions and cabbage together

and made a fruit salad with apples, canned pineapple, frozen blueberries and yogurt. Sweetened with a bit of maple syrup and flavored with vanilla.

The cow has really upped the milk production this spring. I turned a gallon of it into vanilla pudding, sweetened with Sucanat.

I want to make some freezer meals so I fried a couple packs of hamburger for that venture.

And a pound of bacon, baked for another potential breakfast casserole.

The fresh baked spelt bread.

It takes more bread with the guys getting their own breakfasts and lunches. With my poor coping skills at present, there are fewer leftovers as well for lunches. Plus Austin wants more finger foods to eat "on the run" with his lawn care job.

I felt pretty good about how much I accomplished single handedly. The boys were all gone to Kid's Club for the evening. But. ..if I do that much, it just kind of sets me back physically. One day up, the next day down. One step forward, two steps back.

Thomas spent the evening working on a chicken coop. The chickens have been in the fenced-in garden area but if we want to plant a garden they need to move. Plus the chicks need something with a "roof" so hawks and owls can't get them. AND we want something that we can move across the lawn or field to let them pasture feed.

The boys came home around nine o'clock, ate their supper and we called it a day. Kitchen cleanup waits till morning. That's the way we roll around here. Not the best way but hey, you can't always have the best, you know.

Meal Plans

A few people have said they get inspiration from my meal plans so I will continue to share them. 

Amanda from The Fundamental Home has been a big inspiration to me and I use her method of planning. She has blog posts explaining her method in detail. Recently she also made a video series with detailed instructions. 

She spends $65 a week for her family of six. But... their family dynamics are not nearly like mine so I haven't been able to spend that little. It has been a tool for me to know how to shop for the best prices though. 

Amanda says to make yourself a menu, like restaurants have, to help you with meal planning. For myself, I've used Google Docs to create lists of many foods we enjoy. Separate documents for salads, breakfasts, main dishes, soups, and etc. Meal planning is a breeze when consulting these lists.

Check the pantry, freezer and fridge to see what your inventory is. Look at the menus to see what you might make with the ingredients you have. If you need any additional items to make these meals, add them to your grocery list. After purchasing these items, look for things on sale. Try to incorporate these into your weekly plan. 

Oh, just go visit Amanda. She explains it very well.

Here is the menu for Jan 9 -13, 2019.

Breakfast	Dinner
Sausage, salsa, fried eggs	Hearty hamburger soup Caesar salad
Baked supper omelet	Beef Roast Mashed potatoes Coleslaw
Pancakes	Tomato soup Hot dogs
------	Tuna salad Quinoa salad
------	Potato bar Lettuce Salad
Scrambled eggs	Chicken chowder Waldorf salad
Re-fried beans Fried eggs	Beans Cornbread Coleslaw

You might notice that about every other meal is a soup dinner. We like soup. Winter is a great time to eat soup. It is also a very frugal option. 

More eggs are coming in from our chickens. So exciting!

A few breakfasts are missing. Thomas & I plan to be gone this coming weekend to a seminar at Penn Valley. The boys will get their own breakfast. Breakfasts will likely include another item such as fruit and/or yogurt besides what is listed.

We'll be gone Friday eve through Sunday noon, Lord willing, so I'll leave some meals ready for the boys (or are they men?). They know how to cook but they don't choose to when I'm gone. 

This past weekend we were gone to a seminar as well. The Marriage Enrichment seminar. Four couples from here went, leaving behind 16 children. 

A basket of goodies we found on our bed at the Marriage Enrichment seminar

I think all but one of the children got together at my sister's house for Sunday lunch. Melvin decided to make a large pan (equivalent to two 9 x 13 pans) of rhubarb crunch to take along. My sister and husband were gone too, so this was a bunch of young people. The oldest was 21 and the youngest 4.

A number of the recipes are linked to the ones I use or something similar. To thicken soup I use cornstarch instead of flour. Pancakes are made with buckwheat flour. Bread for hot dogs and tuna salad is made with spelt flour.

For the potato bar- Bake potatoes. Fry burger and season it with taco seasoning. Make a cheese sauce. Then layer the potato, meat and sauce on your plate and enjoy.

I linked the Caesar salad to the dressing I make.

Have a blessed week, feeding your hungry family.