the new school year meal plan

Boring minutiae...it helps me to think "out loud" though...

It's not really much different from what we've been doing. Sorry to sound so impressive in the title. I did actually post some dinners for this week over on the right there for the first time in months. We are trying a few new things....

....pretty much the same breakfast every day, but a good one. The night before I put some bread in the breadmaker and Irish oats in the crock pot. I make hot cocoa (shh..it's Ovaltine, really) in the morning and scramble some eggs. Everyone is loving the big, hot breakfast and it's been very easy to do.

...the fruit and veggie plate. I'd been wanting everyone to eat more fresh foods, but it was always such a pain trying to come up with enough variety to please some and still keep favorites for the picky ones. So I picked up a big divided platter at wally world and each morning after breakfast I fill it with a selection of whatever we have in the house...cucumber sticks, baby carrots, peach slices, strawberries... When winter comes and the selection is smaller, I'll probably also use some things like raisins, applesauce cups, pickles, olives, etc. I put the plate out at lunch time and everyone is expected to eat something off of it. I leave the plate out all afternoon and let everyone graze as they want to until dinner.

...watching the grocery budget. Who isn't? I have started trying to get some good, homemade bread or rolls on the table each night at dinner so that I can be stingier with more expensive meat. We are now having a soup and bread meal on Friday nights and we are still having "brinner", breakfast for dinner on Sunday nights. These two meals are pretty low-cost to make. And I've been rationing milk, which costs just about as much per gallon as gas now. The big kids get milk in their cocoa at breakfast and milk at dinner. I think this is plenty. We eat a lot of yogurt and cheese too, so I think they get enough calcium. They can have juice with lunch. Tea at tea time. Water the rest of the day. I buy fewer snack foods than ever. We usually have a homemade goodie for tea time, otherwise there's the fruit and veggie tray, string cheese, yogurt, popcorn, nuts, granola or cereal bars, tortillas with melted cheese or peanut butter, and any leftover rolls/muffins/homemade bread is up for snack grabs.

Other than that, things are about the same. I'm using the seasonal dinner meals I gathered last year, though now I'm started to round them out with some better side dishes. We still have a lunch menu...it's embarrassingly easy. Lunch has to be quick to put together around here, but I try not to use too many convenience foods. We do use some though.

Sunday- macaroni and cheese

Monday- sandwiches (turkey, tuna fish, peanut butter)

Tuesday- snack lunch---popcorn, crackers and cheese, peanut butter celery, maybe some hummus or other kind of dip

Wednesday- nachos (just taco chips with beans or leftover chicken or something, cheese melted on top, lettuce, tomato, black olives, maybe avacado)

Thursday- frozen burritos

Friday- veggie burgers, fries

Saturday- salad bar- all the salad fixings I can dig up

Ok, I gotta run. We are watching a grown up movie tonight, woohoo!