Six Eggs

I was recently inspired by a blog post written by my friend and foster-in-law, Kristin.  The post was about feeding a family of 8 on a budget.  She took pictures of her family meals for a month and gave some very awesome frugal living tips.  I have done something similar. 

You can read her post by clicking this link:
 http://tryingtocontrolthechaos.blogspot.co.uk/

If you are curious about what a foster-in-law is and why I have one you can click the link below.  Pretty awesome.   
http://jillr-addingbranchestoourfamilytree.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-thread-from-past-link-to-future.html

My cooking skills have been challenged lately.  In the space of about a year, I have gone from feeding two people to feeding five.  A pan of hamburger helper no longer provides two dinners and leftovers for someone’s lunchbox.  Nowadays, a pan of hamburger helper will feed all of us only if I’ve made a couple of really substantial side dishes.  If  no one is super hungry.  And forget leftovers. They are a rarity now.  It happens occasionally, when I make stuff that the boys don't really like on the nights when Laura is at school.  But it is not our normal. 

A “family sized” can of Campbell’s tomato soup might feed all of us for lunch if no one is super hungry.  The grilled cheese sammies that go with the soup will use up half the loaf of bread.  We’re going through 2+ gallons of milk a week, when two years ago, we’d often throw our half gallon container out because we didn’t drink it all before it went sour.  The other morning at breakfast, I scrambled six eggs with some turkey sausage and cheese.  Kyle, served first, was asking for more before I had a chance to put eggs on everyone’s plates.  Lee said “Six eggs?  What were you thinking?”  Not much more than a year ago, four eggs would have been just enough.  Nowadays, I might as well cook the whole dozen and usually do. 

So…I have done my month of meals, more or less.  I have skipped a few pictures and I haven’t taken pictures of what the kids ate on nights that Lee and I went out.  I do like to cook but anything fancy has completely gone out the window.  Our dinners are basic, nutritious and most importantly, quick.  We don’t do organic, gluten free, fat free, low carb or anything like that.  For the most part, what I put on the table each night is pretty similar to what I grew up on.  I try to keep things balanced and round it out with a salad or some sort of vegetable.  We don’t do a lot of junk food and keep everyone active, so this works for us.  I put pics up and some brief descriptions of what we ate, and I put tips at the end of the post. 

Here are some of my pictures frm our November meals.  Since we had Thanksgiving this month, we ate very light leading up to Turkey Thursday and nothing but leftovers for the rest of the month, so our pictures are a little sparse. Enjoy - and if you enjoy reading this, I would love to put together another post about your favorite meals.  Cheers, people.   

Turkey sausage, canned carrots and crockpot cooked pintos.  Turkey sausage is one of my "I'm in a hurry and I don't have a meat" mainstays.  As you can see, meat is not the star of the plate. 

 

Cowboy beans (canned pork & beans with spices, BBQ sauce and ground lean beef), leftover broccoli rice casserole and cornbread. 

Buffalo chicken, black beans & rice (boxed) and salad veggies

Shamelessly rocking the lack of green.  Leftover sloppy joes, meatloaf, pintos and fries. Sloppy joes and fries were a meal not pictured.   

 No explanation needed on this one.  The meatballs and garlic bread were frozen and the sauce was from a jar.  We did have a salad with this.  We had spaghetti one other time in November with ground Italian sausage. 

Must be in my genes...I LOVE beans and cornbread.  It is absolutely one of my favorite meals.  For the record, I do not serve and have never knowingly eaten squirrel gravy.  

Meatloaf (the real deal), canned corn and boxed scalloped potatoes.  

Cheeseburgers & broccoli rice casserole.  I buy the pre-shaped patties. 

These are my boys' plates.  We had a big green salad with this  but my littles will not eat lettuce, so I give them salad veggies with dip. 

Crockpot BBQ chicken, canned green beans and REAL mac & cheese

Campbell's chicken noodle soup and one of my wraps done up in the grill pan.  Voila!  Paninnis! 

One of my many "fake Chinese" specialties.  This is Ramen and scrambled eggs. 

Hamburger goulash and canned green beans

 

 

Here are some of my tips:

Like Kristin says, we rarely go out to eat as a family.  Lee and I will do “date night” as often as we can and there are the times when we’ll catch a meal out on the fly (usually in conjunction with a medical appointment or something like that) but for the most part, we eat our family meals at home.  The littles are pretty well behaved if taken to a sit down restaurant, but meals out are expensive here and we really don't "do" fast food.  To pay $15 for a plate of food when I have to fuss with restaurant high chairs and trying to keep my boys entertained so they don’t disturb other diners…just not worth it in my book.  I’d rather do tuna noodle casserole at my own kitchen table and save the fancier, more expensive stuff for “adult night” when I can fully enjoy and appreciate a meal out. 

Beans are your friend.  Beans are nutritious, cheap and versatile.  Pinto beans with ham served with cornbread or spicy black beans over rice make a good low meat/no meat meal, and they are great winter comfort food.  I make a pot of beans about twice a month, usually on a weekend day where they can simmer on the stove at a low temp.  I’ll usually freeze half and typically, beans are the main course versus a side.  I am not a vegetarian and I love a good steak, but I do like low-meat meals most of the time.  My meat portion is usually very small in comparison the other things on my plate. 

Tuna Noodle Casserole-my tuna casserole picture got lost, but I make one roughly every other month.  I make this with whatever is on hand…I don’t follow a particular recipe.  The one we had in November was  elbow macaroni, a large can of tuna, a can of mushroom soup, a small can of mushrooms and some Progresso breadcrumbs.  I used onion powder and Pampered Chef Applewood Rub to season it up a little bit.  Pasta and canned meat casseroles are a mainstay for us because they are quick and everyone likes them.  If I really want to save time and know what I'm doing the night before, I will sometimes pre boil my noodles and put my cans on the counter the night before, so that when I get home from work, I can just slap everything together and throw it in the oven.  Yes...I totally look like a Ninja when I'm doing this. 

Frozen Pizza-When we lived in the USA, Papa Johns was a great (albeit expensive) fallback for those "OMG we have nothing for dinner/I don't want to cook" nights.  Online ordering made pizza delivery an all-too-tempting option.  We don't have the same pizza delivery options here.  The base has a good pizza place but it's pretty expensive and the extra stop to pick it up after a long day at work when I'm rushing to pick up kids usually makes it unattractive...I know that might be a lazy way to look at it, but I usually don't want to stop.  We've started keeping a couple of premium quality frozen pizzas (I like DiGiorno) on hand for those "I have nothing to make" nights.  The boys really like pizza, so we're about past the point where one will feed all of us.  One frozen pizza is usually a pretty light meal for us, unless I make other stuff to go with it. 

Meatloaf - I probably do meatloaf about every 3-4 months.  As with the tuna casserole, I sort of throw it together with what I have on hand.  This one was hamburger, egg, breadcrumbs, onion & garlic powders, canned tomatoes, BBQ sauce and A1.  I mix this up and put it in the loaf pans the night before and I don't have this on a night where I'm working late or when Laura is at school since it takes awhile to cook. This is also one of my standby potluck dishes.  It's easy and people like it. 

About convenience foods - I use a lot of them.  The alternatives to doing that are to leave work at 3:30 each day or to eat dinner after 7:00.  My boss probably wouldn’t be cool with the first option and the boys go to bed at 8:00, so I do what I gotta do.  Canned and frozen veggies, boxed potatoes, frozen meatballs, etc.  I do prefer fresh and I do enjoy cooking, but on the weeknights, I just don't have time.  I'd rather put together something balanced and have us all sit down together and have a family meal with relative ease than deal with the extra stress of chopping and dicing.  

About prep work - I really try to plan things out in advance.  I shoot for planning the meals for the week over the weekend, but I like to have at least a couple of days at a time planned out.  I try to do as much prep work the night before as I can - browning or marinating meat, boiling noodles, chopping any fresh ingredients that I am using - but honestly, prep work means I am usually setting cans and pans out on the counter the night before.  I am busy at work, I don't like to sacrifice a nice dinner, and I like to spend a bit of time with my whole family between walking in the door and putting my littles to bed. 

About Fake Chinese - I have another planned post about my adventures in Chinese cooking, but...I gotta say, I have totally mastered what I call "Fake Chinese".  My boys love Ramen and I love Ramen too...it is super cheap and super fast.  But...it is salty and full of calories.  I have taken to boiling dehydrated noodles (I try to use the Chinese noodles but I use plain ole spaghetti in a pinch) with low sodium chicken broth and a little bit of soy sauce and seasoning.  I will add all kinds of things to their noodle bowls - leftover meat and veggies that I need to use up or scrambled eggs.  My boys love noodles for breakfast, but the rest of us like eggs, toast, pancakes and oatmeal first thing in the AM. I will often whip up ramen for the two of them while the rest of us are having more traditional Western breakfast - a package will satisfy both of them if we add some eggs and give them some fruit and/or yogurt (these little dudes EAT).  Rice mixed with Chinese Five Spice and meat or eggs and veggies is a quick crowd pleaser, as are the Ling Ling frozen dumplings (which, in my opinion, are nearly as good as the ones in China).  We steam them, pan fry them or boil them in soup.  Fast and easy.  When our boys joined our family they were NOT used to eating Western food, so the "fake Chinese" and the more authentic Chinese things I make for them seem to be comfort food for them in the way that Mac & Cheese, apple pie, and pot roast may be for some of us.   

Wraps-I make up wraps or burritos in large batches when I have the time.  This month, I did scrambled egg with peppers, ham & cheese and bean & cheese.  These freeze well and can be thawed/nuked for a quick meal.  They are a good side dish with soup or a salad for a light meal. There are some more nutritious options out there for tortillas/wraps, such as gluten free, whole grain, etc.  I usually use the plain old Mission brand…I like the taste and honestly, as long as you don’t eat a ton of tortillas, it isn’t that bad for you. 

Goulash- I am a big pan of the one-skillet meal.  I usually make my goulash with macaroni, hamburger, tinned tomatoes and mushrooms and season with garlic, onion and worse-ter-shire sauce.  Yeah…I refuse to learn to spell that word.  I did not have mushrooms or onions this time – I used onion powder and zipped it up with Manwich sauce.  It wasn’t bad. 

The Crockpot-I have two crockpots an I use them a lot.  I will sometimes use them for beans, but this is not my preferred bean-making method.  My main weeknight use for the crockpot is "Chicken a la Jill" - whatever that happens to be.  Usually some sort of frozen chicken and whatever I have on hand/feel like throwing in.  Typically, that is some variety of "cream of whatever" soup or bottle barbeque sauce.  I experiment with different McCormick seasoning packets or different spices from my pantry.  I usually use frozen boneless, skinless thighs that come in the bag in the freezer section. 

So...six eggs for breakfast doesn't quite cut it for us nowadays.  We are still figuring it all out.  Having a blast.