Many times I am asked, “how do you feed all those kids?” My answer is often, “I don’t know???” But really, there is a method to all this seeming madness. How to feed a large family is maybe even easier than you think.
Feeding a large number of people day in and day out is simple. Simple ingredients. Uncomplicated recipes. Lots of volume. Haha. No, really. That is the answer to the question of how to feed a large family.
Our kids do have their favourite foods, and they also have foods they can hardly bear to eat, but consume anyway. We’ve tried to teach them that food isn’t to be wasted, and to honour the person preparing their food by just eating it. Don’t get me wrong, though. Sometimes we have brief complaints, but those are always nipped in the bud by my husband.
So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of making the meals. Right now, I have everybody at home, so I’m feeding at least 7 people every meal, every day. What I do is make a large supper every night, and we eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. This is all mapped out in my planner that I leave out somewhere where they can all see.
This past Friday, I made a meal plan. Breakfast, lunch and supper for each day until this next Friday. Our breakfasts are always simple. Eggs, toast or oatmeal. Lunches are leftovers, and suppers are something new each day. I find with homeschooling, I don’t have the time or energy to come up with something interesting each lunch time. Plus, lunch meat is expensive and not that healthy. Not that I don’t ever buy it, but it’s not something that stays in my fridge.
For snacks, I buy nuts and fruit. Sometimes buying crackers or chips, too. See, I’m not that healthy. Ha.
What I’ve decided not to do is go back to the store during the week for food other than milk. This saves a lot of money. Planning meals saves me a lot of money and stress, too. It is way more stressful not knowing what to have for supper, than having 2 cartloads of groceries on a Friday morning at the grocery store. It is.
As far as dessert goes, you already know that I make that often enough. Otherwise, you wouldn’t see many dessert recipes on the blog, right? My family is always hunting for a little something sweet after supper.
As far as shopping from flyers or coupons, I simply don’t. I could maybe do better with finding exactly what is on sale for the week, and tailoring my meals around the sale items, but I just don’t. We don’t eat a lot of meat as a course, it’s almost always a part of something as a flavour, so I feel like I don’t need to know that steak is on sale. You know? My dream is to have a chest freezer and buy a quarter beef. That would be so awesome, just to have meat at the ready. Someday.
I think I’ve failed many a time by buying duplicate items that were on sale just because they were cheap. I actually believe that buying just what you need for that week saves money. It saves mental space, too. I don’t have to look into my pantry and wonder what I’m going to do with all that tomato soup.
I really hope that my rambling has helped or encouraged you to. Just because you may have many mouths to feed, doesn’t mean it has to be stressful. Even if you only have 4 mouths to feed, I believe you can benefit a little from this little article on how to feed a large family.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!
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