| Thursday, May 19, 2005 |
| Intro |
My first post in my food blog.
I've decided to share my attempts to feed my family healthy food on a lot less money. We are a family of 6, myself, The Husband (TH), Oldest Daughter (OD) almost 13yrs old, Youngest Daughter (YD) 10 1/2yrs old, Oldest Son (OS) 7yrs old, and Youngest Son (YS) age 3 1/2. TH is not very picky, he'll eat most anything I put in front of him. I've gotten him over his aversion to any food that has cream cheese or sour cream in it. OD is slightly picky. She does not like eggs much, or ricotta cheese unless it's in lasagna. YD only hates beans, kidney beans, navy beans, although she will tolerate black beans as well as the usual green beans. OS is like TH, he'll eat most anything I put in front of him. YS is super picky, but he's still in that age. He's gotten to where he will at least taste things before snubbing them. But I've never been one to cook around their pickiness. They eat what I make, or they get their own. Usually they eat what I make ;)
We eat a lot of casseroles. Those just seem to be the winning recipes, not to mention they are super easy on me :) I'd say at least 85% of our meals are one-dish wonders. I don't do a lot of OAMC (once a month cooking) although it is a great way to ensure a quick healthy meal on those days when you're rushed and tempted to do fast food. I enjoy cooking every day too much to do a whole months worth of meals in one or two days. I don't do marathon well.
Now, I do save leftovers for either lunches the next day or sometimes, like tonight, I'll make two casseroles & freeze one. It takes just as much time, energy, and not to mention gas for the stove to cook two casseroles at once as it does to just do one. Now I have an extra casserole in the freezer for another time when life is hectic :)
I do a lot of from scratch cooking. I love making my own breads, muffins, cakes, cookies. You won't find many convenience foods for dinner here. No instant potatoes unless they are to coat chicken or thicken soup. No potatoes from a box of any kind. Not only does from scratch taste better, it costs less and it's better for you :)
I am a menu queen. But it's what I call a Flexible Menu. I'll make a list of 20-30 meals for the month based on what I have on hand, recipes we 've tried & loved, recipes I want to try, & sales. Then from that list I can choose whatever we want to eat that day first thing in the morning & get it started or thawed. I can't stand to have a menu like:
Monday - Spaghetti
Tuesday - Chicken
Wednesday - leftovers
What if I don't feel like chicken on Tuesday? What if life is too busy on Monday for Spaghetti? It just doesn't work for me. I end up moving things around and feeling like I'm failing at menu-ing. But hey, if it works for you :)
I do use coupons to stretch my food dollar. Not outrageously. I don't have tons of time to be clipping & cutting & sorting. I buy one Sunday paper per week, and if I need any coupons from it, I clip them. When I see a good sale, I try to see if I have a coupon to make it even better. I'm not all into 'buying' coupons for a handling fee so I can get 60 pkgs of toothpaste for 3cents each. Not my cup of tea.
I do shop at the commissary (a grocery store on a military base for members of the military and their dependents that sells food almost at cost) for the most part. But if you have an Aldi store, there prices are almost as good as the commissary, only with less variety & almost no name brands. Usually any price I mention that seems absurdly low is probably either from the commissary or Aldi.
We also have two dogs & two cats, so my grocery bills usually include pet items, as well as all cleaning & paper products. I'm not entirely frugal about paper products. I do like the occassional paper plate to save on time (I have no dishwasher...GASP) and I would much rather use paper napkins than to have extra laundry from cloth napkins. With four kids I don't exactly need more laundry ;)
So that's us in a nutshell. More to come in a bit :) |
posted by Heather @ 5:13 PM  |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Do you have a recipe for a homemade chocolate cake and frosting? My friend's aunt made one and it's SO much better than cake mixes. Also any good bread recipies? I have a bread machine but I have several loaf pans. I'm so glad you posted this on MS!
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I love menu's! :D
They give you the flexiably to create without sticking to something. I do mine month by month. I find it's easier for us.
I would love to see your menu's in planned out form and see what I can learn from you. If you can ever use expired coupons let me know. Diana
bluechillies@gmail.com
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Do you have a recipe for a homemade chocolate cake and frosting? My friend's aunt made one and it's SO much better than cake mixes. Also any good bread recipies? I have a bread machine but I have several loaf pans. I'm so glad you posted this on MS!