Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Breakfast, Lunch.... and Maybe Kinda Sorta Dinner

In my attempt to become more organized I have decided to schedule the menu. Now I know this isn't a fantastic revelation - many, many families do this. Steven's grandma did it - she had pancakes every Saturday, sticky buns on Sunday, etc. I know Steven's mom can still name off her mom's breakfast menu. When I first heard that she did this I thought, "hmmm. that's really clever, but not something for me probably. I don't like breakfast, and I eat whatever I'm in the mood for."

You guessed it - those thoughts were pre-children. When Isaiah entered the picture I could still handle things, 'cause heck, it's one kid. But as we have added children to the brood I realize what a valuable tool this menu schedule is. (Guess how many children Steven's grandma had... that's right... 4)

I know over the years as the number of children have increased I have found myself more and more prone to doing the easy unhealthy choices of foods on the days that are really crazy - and even on some days that are not. The healthy eating style I had when it was just Isaiah has dissolved into whatever is fast and filling - if it ends up being healthy too, well that's an added bonus.

This summer I am going to be watching a few elementary-aged kids. Their parents needed a good safe place for their children to go and I needed some extra income - plus since they are older they can totally help me keep track of the younger ones - especially after we move out onto the plantation. I know that I will not want to think about what to feed all of these children each day, and I also decided that if it's good for breakfast, then it also has to be good for lunch! So we will now have 2 standard eating schedules for the week (specifically M-F, 'cause we never know what we are up to when the weekend comes). A lot of the things on the menu are very easy and simple and a few of them are recipes I've gotten from other moms of other blogs.

Monday:
Breakfast - Eggs and toast
Lunch - Mac & cheese (not the boxed kind!)

Tuesday:
Breakfast - granola and fruit
Lunch - pizza (will try to make this homemade more often than not...)

Wednesday:
Breakfast - pancakes (hope to eventually make it to the whole wheat level, but right now... no)
Lunch - sandwiches

Thursday:
Breakfast - english muffins and yogurt
Lunch - chicken nuggets

Friday:
Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - tacos

So if you come to visit us on any of these days, you now know what you're going to be eating! What about dinner? Well, I'm getting better at thinking of the week as a whole and then planning out what we will have each evening, but I can't do a set schedule for it yet - I guess I have to leave some room for my flighty nature somewhere, ya know?

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