A few weeks ago, I made a dinner for our church business meeting.  I had to scour the internet to look for the amounts of food that I would need.  Some of it was difficult in finding. After I made the meal, I knew I wanted to post the amounts of food that I made, in hopes of helping someone else out for the future.  That is what we are here for—to help one another.

This was the menu that was planned:

• fried chicken
• calico beans
• macaroni and cheese
• cheesy potatoes
• green beans, bacon, and french fried onions
• tossed salad
• rolls
• pineapple upside down cake
• oreo cookie/pudding dessert

For the chicken, we ordered it from a local deli.  You should plan on about 2 pieces per person.  We ordered 90 pieces and had about 6 pieces left over. enough for everyone.

Calico beans

• 2 large 10# cans of baked beans–**see note
• 4 regular size cans of butter beans
• 4 regular size cans of kidney beans
• 3 # hamburger, cooked beforehand
• large bag of bacon bits from Sams Club–I used about half
• ketchup
• mustard
• vinegar
• brown sugar
• salt
• molasses

I wish I would have the exact measurements for the sauce, but I cook with taste.  I started with about 3/4 bottle of ketchup, 2 T vinegar, 3 big squirts of mustard, 1 cup of brown sugar, and the rest was by taste.  Mix that up separately and taste it. You want it tangy because the bean mixture is going to be tomato and will help make it less zingy.

***Now for this amount, I had about 1/2 of the beans left.  Next time, I would recommend 1 less can of baked beans.

Green beans

• 2 large #10 cans of green beans***see note
• the rest of the bacon bits from the beans
• 1 large bag of french fried onions sprinkled over top.

**we had only eaten about 1 can of green beans, I would use only 1 can next time.

Macaroni and cheese

Cook 3 boxes of shell macaroni, cook almost until done.  In saucepan, melt 2 sticks butter and thicken with flour.  Add milk and whisk. I sprinkled in some chicken bouillon for some extra flavor.  I then added about half of a large bag of shredded cheese from Sams Club.  I added about half of a can of cheddar cheese   for more creaminess. That is the large #10 pound can of cheese you get for Nacho making, you can get it at Sams Club.  If you are going to cook this in the oven, make sure that it has plenty of liquid.  The noodles absorb and it will by dry if you don’t make it right.  If you need to add more milk, do that.  Taste the liquid and make sure that it tastes cheesy enough.  I would just cook this on low in the oven around 300 degrees just to heat it slowly.  That way you will avoid burning it or making it too dry.

**these amounts were about correct, only a little bit left over, about 1/2 of a box of pasta.

Cheesy potatoes

I used 4 bags of southern style diced potatoes.  To that I mixed up the following mixture:

• 2 containers of sour cream
• 2 cans of cream of mushroom
• 2 cans of cream of chicken
• 1/3 of that large #10 can of cheddar cheese
• 1/4 of the bag of shredded cheddar cheese–from the macaroni
• 1 onion diced up finely

Mix all of that and cook on 300 degrees until heated through.

****Next time, I would probably do 3 bags of potatoes, as there was enough leftovers.

Rolls

I went to Sams Club and bought their pull apart rolls.  I bought 2 boxes of them.  The only flaw that I noticed was that you had to “pull” them apart.  some of them in the middle were mushy.  I would probably recommend buying the rolls that you can get in bags over by the Deli.  Firmer and already separate.

Butter–only used 1 stick of butter

Salad

I bought 7 big bags of salad from Sams Club, 1 pkg of cherry tomatoes, 1 bag of cucumbers, and the rest of the cheesy from that large shredded bag.

Plenty of salad—too much, guess people are not into salads (smile)  I would recommend using only 3-4 bags.  I added all the tomatoes, cut up about 3/4 of the bag of cucumbers–from Sams Club, and then topped it with cheese and 3 bags of croutons from Aldis.  I could of used only 2.

Dressing, we used almost 1 full bottle of ranch, about 1/2 of french, and 1/3 of Italian.

For dessert I made 3 full size pineapple upside down cakes.  I could of gotten away with just making 2.

I covered a piece of cardboard with tin foil to use as a platter for carrying the cakes.

Another person made 2 pans of oreo cookie/pudding dessert.  Almost all of that was gone.

For 50 people, I would recommend 4 pans of 9×13 desserts.  Choose one chocolate kind and one vanilla kind.

This worked out well, our family ate the leftovers so nothing went to waste, but I put in the amounts I would recommend for someone who doesn’t have a large family to feed afterwards.

Pray this is a blessing and helpful advice, to help not to waste food for ministry gatherings.

 

 

I never thought much about the realities that large families face when trying to raise their “large brood.” When my husband and I chose to have a large family, we just did it. We didn’t give it much thought, we just knew that we enjoyed them. Somehow, somewhere, with the Lord’s help we manage and life if fun.

But I have become reminded more that our “normal” is NOT the normal of most families. I just take things for granted and think it is just the way it is, but in reality, most people never get to experience the things that we do.

The first thing that is noticeable different is the NOISE level. It can be really loud in our household. Things have gotten much quieter over the years, but I remember years that there was always a baby crying or a toddler throwing a fit or just children being loud through play.

I think that maybe we watch and read too many unreal books and movies with large families and we look at what is put out and it seems that all the children are peaceable and quiet. No one throws fits, everyone is happy, the children are quiet and life is good. But NO!!! Life is not like that. The reality is, that children cry, a 2 year old is going to throw a fit, and I guarantee you that if you have any boys, they will be loudness.

When I had my first 4 children, it was much easier to work one on one and have that “perfectly controlled” obedient child. But when the Lord gave us 6 babies almost one after another, life got crazy. I mean crazy!!! It was loud. Babies cried, toddlers cried, the preschoolers were almost always arguing over a toy, it was rough.
My husband and I would drive out to go run some errands and it was pretty much assumed that someone would start a meltdown in their car seats, for no reason mind you, but it was inevitable. We even had one that would start crying and then put her hands in her mouth and vomit while we were driving!!! Oh my goodness, we tried to keep that one happy while out.*smile

Family trips to make memories, almost always ended in sadness. Someone would meltdown over this, that, or who knows why. I proceeded to take the family photos at the apple orchard, take pictures at the park, and photos while sledding. I have pictures of at least one crying in every photo. What are you going to do? Nothing, I was making a memory.

When you have a household full of little ones, expect it to be loud. Forget about any quiet time, unless it is nap time and normally that is your rest time as well. Play times with lots of little ones is GOING to be loud. That is just reality, lots of little ones equals lots of noise.

Meal times are loud. I gave up for the longest time, because it was just LOUD! I mean LOUD!! You couldn’t even get in a sensible quiet conversation with anyone because it was just that loud. Little children seem to have zero concept of being quieter when confined to a room that doesn’t allow the sound to bounce anywhere but back at you.

BUT………………………….

Do you know what? My children are growing. We CAN drive anywhere, even 18 hours in a vehicle when making a move to another state and have NO MELTDOWNS!!! We pack up our children and do an awful lot of exploring and driving. We sometimes have them sitting for hours while we get to our destination, and we do it!!! MELTDOWN FREE!!!
Dinner times at our table, are enjoyable. It is nice now when our little ones can carry on a conversation about something fun in their day. Sure they tend to raise their voices or multiple ones talk at the same time, but we are a family work in progress. It is getting better and it is fun.

The noise level isn’t that bad anymore. I have found the beauty of headphones and my Blackberry. (smile) I took a lesson from my teenagers who like to walk around at times with their headphones in and I thought to myself, “hmmmm, I am going to try that.” Do you know how nice it is when I am spending some time doing writing, that I can pop in my headphones and listen to music to “drown” out the extra noise? I especially enjoy it, early in the mornings when I listen to my bible teaching. I watch it on my laptop or phone and use my headphones as to not disturb the rest of the household. It is very calming.(smile).

I have even learned the blessing of having them at night. My husband is a light sleeper and I hate to have the television on, if for some reason I am up to disturb him. I started listening to my bible app as I fall asleep and you know that I can STILL hear my children when they wake up. Even if I have trouble falling back asleep, it is nice to just pop in my headphones and restart the sermon I was listening to and drift back asleep without disturbing my husband.

A blessing in something as small as headphones.

Welcome to the series………My Large Family Controlled—-to the best of my physical ability—Chaos—because there is always something. Keep watching for more.

 

part 2