Meal Plan Monday (A Day Early)

A few weeks ago my big kids were gone. So, I decided to go grocery shopping in the Honda Car. 

 Our first stop was Cash & Carry. I quickly realized that bringing the Honda probably wasn't the best idea around. While it is friendlier on the gas budget, it isn't so friendly on space.
After I dropped the children off (with their lunches) at Tami's house I loaded the back of the car with a 50 pound bag of potatoes, 25 lbs of Oatmeal, 20 lbs of Flour, and 20 lbs of Cane Sugar as well as the other 'smaller' groceries.

 I picked the kids up, we ran a few errands then hit Costco. I knew this was my opportunity to grocery shop and that we were going to have to be creative in fitting groceries and children in the car. I purchased TP (It was on sale), A ream of paper (also on sale), cheese, 4 packages of bananas, as well as our other usual groceries.

 Yes, TP and Paper fit the grocery category in our house. Our current grocery budget is $500 per month. Out of curiosity I divided the budget by the number of people in our house and the number of days in a month.
We are feeding our family for $2. 08 per person per day! Granted this does not include our eggs (from our chickens) or the 1/2 beef my mother in law gave us for Christmas, but it does include toiletries.

It does,however  involve a fair bit of creativity, and it isn't easy but we are doing it. God is faithful, he provides. We got some leftovers from a training at Sean's work and were able to freeze some for future meals and eat a few meals from them while we were at it. Plus I got a bonus night of not having to cook. 

So here goes: 

Monday: 

     Breakfast: Granola and Berry Smoothies

     Lunch: Chicken Salad, String Cheese, Granola Bars

     Dinner: Teriyaki Chicken, Rice, Pot stickers, Asparagus

Tuesday:

    Breakfast: oatmeal with blueberries and slivered almonds

    Lunch: fried rice (we are studying about China this week)

    Dinner: Turkey and rice soup

Wednesday:

    Breakfast; Dutch Babies

    Lunch: homemade pizza, regular and Gluten Free

    Dinner: Taco Soup with sour cream, avocado, and chips

Thursday:

     Breakfast: granola with raspberries and yogurt 

     Lunch: quesedillas

     Dinner: BBQ meatloaf, broccoli, and potatoes

Friday: 

     Breakfast: scrambled eggs and cereal

     Lunch: string cheese, granola bars (homemade), powerballs, and apple slices

     Dinner: Pulled pork (sandwiches or over rice), and brussel sprouts, 

Saturday:

     Breakfast: oatmeal with Craisins

     Lunch: Same as Friday (we have the Whatcom County Youth Fair both days)

     Dinner: Pad Thai

So happy that's done! What's on your menu this week? 

Monks

 We have been learning about the early Christian Church. Monks and Monasteries were a large part of influence of the developing church.
Monks had to promise to give up everything they owned, to obey their abbot and not get married.
Medieval monks followed rules that were written by St. Benedict: Monks should pray, study, and work hard in the fields. They should eat plain food, wear simple clothes and look after the sick and the poor.

Just like the Monasteries, quiet, dark, and cold. 

We grew an herb garden with many of the same herbs that monks used in healing. Now we will work on learning how to use those herbs. We also looked at many of the manuscripts that were Illuminated by medieval monks. We tried our hand at doing some illuminating, it is definitely a tedious and time consuming art.
My favorite parts of this study has been reading, "Trial and Triumph" a book about Martyrs for the faith. Learning more about St. Francis of Assisi has been fascinating.
We decided to finish our unit on Monks by recreating a dinner in the Monastery. We did not use lights, we had the house really cold, and ate split pea soup with ginger ale in silence. Ian was our server so if anyone wanted anything they had to signal to him, and Ian would go get whatever they indicated they wanted. I was surprised that Liberty could eat the entire meal without talking! It was pleasant and gave us a small indication into what sacrifice the Monks made in their devotion to studying the Word of God. My one concern is that Sean will want to eat like this every night! Ruby thought it was the best, she wants to do this at least once a week!  Aaron was the only one who liked the Ginger Ale, so I had to put a stop to his finishing off everyone's drink.
And because I'm cool like that, or just because I didn't know how to end the meal, We turned on the lights and served ice cream sundaes.
What are you doing to bring history alive in your home?

Happy (Meal)

In November we attended a Harvest Party at our church. The children each received a coupon for a free Happy Meal from Mc Donald's. The thing is I know that a Happy Meal alone is not enough food to count for a meal at our house, even for the 4 year old.

Libby's 1st (and only) Barbie

However, we were out running errands and I had failed to anticipate how long we were going to be away from the house. I pulled out the Happy Meal Coupons that some of the children gave me and they were the ones who got to eat!  Just Kidding, I did buy my 2 gluten free children (who did not have their coupons) some french fries.
When we were in the drive through Liberty exclaimed,"This is my first time at Mc Donald's!"While I am not exactly sure that this was true, I honestly can''t remember the last time we ate at Mc D's.
The children were thrilled, albeit still hungry. To add icing on the cake, Liberty got a Barbie in her Happy Meal. She happily let everyone know that she just got her very first (and only) Barbie!
Later, the children individually asked me why I didn't give them lunch that day. Point proven, no nutrition in a meal doesn't count as a meal.