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once a month shopping for large family series part 1 planning

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Having a large family means that when it comes to food, I have to be a good planner or we are not going to eat.  I have found that the best way to purchase food inexpensively for our large family was to do our shopping once a month.  That ensures that I don’t overspend too much on the food budget.

How do I go about figuring what to do with all of the meals that I have to make each month?  It starts with this………

What I do is I sit down with my Dinner ideas master list.

I created this list out of sheer survival mode as a new mom.  There were times that I would call my friend and say , “Hey, do you have any dinner ideas because I am so exhausted I can’t even think about what to make for this week.”  Being a mom of many little ones and having all of the household duties on my shoulders, it was a tough time to get through.  My husband was busy making a living to support all of us, it was my job to figure out how to run “this ship” and do it as efficiently and frugally as possible.  I know I could of said, “Honey, would you pick up some $5 pizzas,” multiple times during the week.”  But I knew that as a help meet to my husband, my job was not to ruin us financially because I was feeling overwhelmed.  I just needed to get my head on straight and do it.

I have revamped this list many times over the past years of our marriage.  As we went towards a more homemade, less packaged foods approach, I realized some of our “old” foods weren’t going to be able to be part of our list.  Plus some of our older meals were costly when we were a small family and I knew it wouldn’t be right to keep spending when I could make other meals for a cheaper price.

When times were lean—well especially lean, during layoffs, I tried to write down all of the meals that required a prepared store bought food and learn how to make it homemade.  We have successful made our own ranch powder, taco seasoning, yogurt, steak sauce, cheese crackers, tomato soup, hummus and pita chips, and snack mix.

[gview file=”https://plainandnotsoplain.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Dinner-ideas.pdf”]

 

Each month, I usually take about an hour on my “office day” and browse the internet for new meal ideas.  I keep this list handy when making my new monthly menu.  If we make the meal and it is a successful one with the bunch, then I add it to our Dinner ideas master list for future rotation.

Any meals that my husband or children don’t particularly care for and I can improve upon, I make a note on my copy.  I save a printed copy and put it in my household binder inside a plastic sleeve.

Okay, now that I have planned out enough of our families favorite meals, next up is how to organize them.

 

 

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large family food ideas snacks energy bites

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Here is another large family food ideas for snacks…energy bites

This is something that our family enjoys very much.  Very simple, healthy ingredients.  I can’t even feel guilty feeding it to my children because I know it is good for them. This also works great for those of us who are trying to lose some weight, because it takes away those “sweet” cravings that we have.  When I was losing my 70 lbs, there were times when I just craved junk food.  These energy bites were the key to helping me not gorge on something unhealthy.

This recipes makes about 175 golf ball sized bites.  We store these in our freezer and just grab one when we need a pick me up.

If you want the “smaller family” version scroll down to the end.

 

Energy bites

  • 15 c oatmeal
  • 6 c unsweetened coconut
  • 5 c flax seeds
  • 4 c mini chocolate chips
  • 5 c (40 oz) peanut butter
  • 5 c honey

Place the oatmeal in a large bowl

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Next add the coconutImage00002 Then the flax seeds–you can use either type golden or the darker one…I have used bothImage00003And the mini chocolate chips, you can add regular ones, the smaller ones make the balls more uniform.Image00004

In a separate bowl mix the peanut butter and the honey

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Pour the peanut butter/honey mixture over the rest of the mixed ingredients.  Stir until well combined.Image00006

 

Here are the ingredients that I used.  I used a whole 40 oz jar of peanut butter.  Our honey I get from a local source and they sell it in 1/2 gallon milk jugs.  I used 1/2 of the container.  For next time, it is easier to just pour directly into the bowl, instead of having to measure sticky honey.Image00008 I purchase my items at a Mennonite bulk food store.  This is from the flax seed.  It was 1.5 lbsImage00009 The unsweetened coconut was 1.3 lbsImage00010 The mini chocolate chips was 1.75 lbsImage00011 For the honey I used half of the containerImage00012 The oatmeal we buy in a 50 lb container and the peanut butter was purchased at Aldis.

Ok back to our energy bites……after you have thoroughly combined your ingredients, it is time to roll them into balls. Image00013

This works best if you just slightly dampen your hands.  Then grab some of the mixture and form it into golf ball size balls.Image00015

 

I put them on a cookie sheet and freeze them individually.  After completely solid, I place them in tupperware containers and store them in the freezer.

Energy bites for the “smaller family”

  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut
  • 1/2 cup flax seed
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix as in above and store in freezer

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