Two and a half weeks until our big move! Here’s what we ate all week as we’re getting ready…
Food we’re working with
I’m dwindling down our food supply, only buying fresh produce and dairy products as needed so that we hopefully have fewer boxes/coolers of food to move later this month. Here’s a picture of my pantry shelf at the beginning of this week. I’ll share a new picture each week as it empties out!
You can see our freezers last week here, and compare them to this week’s pictures:
What we ate all week
My goal at the beginning of the week was to clean out the fridge. I used leftover spaghetti/meat sauce to make Lasagna Casserole on the stovetop. Then I warmed up leftover green beans and that was that.
While Matt was scraping and painting our house one evening, I pulled out lots of random tidbits from the fridge. It was only 4:30 but everyone was hungry, so I decided on an early dinner/snack.
I plated it up, then carried it all out to the porch for the kids to eat “free-for-all-style.” THIS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA. There were too many little hands dipping into the ranch, too many kids who didn’t want to share a plate, too many people screaming – and by the end of our meal, I might have been one of them. Blech. From now on, I’ll continue to make individual plates for each kid so we can avoid so many food messes and fights. :/
Since we’d eaten so early, around 7 I made some buttered toast from Jaimie’s leftover homemade sourdough (SO YUM) and carried it outside for the kids to eat before getting ready for bed. There were no food fights this time as I simply handed each kid a piece and they munched as they played. (Yes, we ate with dirty hands. I might be tired.)
The next day, I pulled these two packages of chicken breast from my freezer to thaw. LOOK at what a great price I got on these! It pays to ask the meat manager at your local grocery store if he has anything he needs to get rid of. :) I got these chicken breasts for $1.00/pound!!!
I put the chicken into the crock pot to make Chicken Tacos for dinner.
This was our first watermelon of the year so everyone gobbled it up! Josie ate five pieces, even trying to eat the rind. :)
There was a lot of salsa chicken left over because I’d cooked 6 pounds of meat in order to save time later. So I divided the leftovers into bags for the fridge and freezer to use for other quick meals.
I shared last week that Kelsey and I took the kids to a playground one day and had a picnic. Here are some photos Kelsey got of the kids playing. SO FUN!
Acacia and Josie often grab hands as they walk. I pray they are always the best of friends.
Not to be left out, here’s our Baby Boy#11. I wish you could see his huge smile! We were being silly in the mirror one morning and his smiles were so big that I snapped a picture!
Back to the food. :) I made quesadillas for lunch one day with leftover salsa chicken and spinach.
Keith has been asking for Mudballs for weeks and I was finally able to make a big batch with him one morning before everyone else got up. (Ugh, he wakes up EARLY! But I try to appreciate the one-on-one time it gives us.)
We also made a big pan of brownies to take to Asa’s birthday party later in the week.
One day for lunch I made 5 cans worth of tuna salad. We made it into sandwiches and we ate it with chips and guac.
I’m working on a post that shares fun ways that I save money on meat. But here’s another example of a great deal I got. These chicken thighs just cost $2.84/pound, which is fantastic for this high-quality meat. I marinated it to smoke that night.
This chicken is seriously the best ever. I made cream cheese corn, baked beans, and steamed broccoli and carrots as sides. After a long day of packing and chasing kids, this tasted incredible.
I’ve tried to get some baking done in the mornings before all the babies get up. My goal is to put some muffins and bread into the freezer so that we can enjoy them after I pack my baking pans and mixer. I made 2 dozen Pumpkin Muffins one morning (and forgot to take a picture). The next morning I made 2 loaves of Banana Bread and 2 dozen Bran Muffins.
For lunch, I had thawed two packages of Brats that I’d gotten marked down for just $1.92/package. How amazing to feed 11 of us (5 adults and 6 kids that day) meat for just $3.84!! Our smoker was giving me fits so the brats took a while to finish cooking. We ate leftover watermelon and carrot sticks while we (im)patiently waited for them to be ready to eat. :)
We were blessed to go to Lincoln at the end of the week for Asa’s big birthday bash that he and Eva hosted in their yard. Many of these people will become part of our new community after we move. It was great to become more acquainted with some of them!
Saturday we did lots of yard work at our house, so hamburgers really hit the spot at lunchtime.
Half of our family was gone at dinnertime, so I just made two quick frozen pizzas and served them with grapes.
I’ll leave you with this gem: We’ve been cleaning out our basement and came across Matt’s boom box from the 80s. The kids have enjoyed trying to figure out how it works. :) :) :)
We’re ready to start a new week! As the days go on, I’ll have to get more creative as I use up the food we have on hand. I’ll share those pictures next week. :)
The post Big Family Food and Fun: June 4-10, 2023 appeared first on Heavenly Homemakers.