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Big Family Food and Fun: September 24-30, 2023

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Here’s our post sharing our Big Family Food and Fun: September 24-30…

Big Family Food and Fun: September 24-30, 2023

This week started out with the biggest, best bang! We had heard that our beloved York University Singers were going to be performing in a church just three blocks from our house. So we messaged the director and asked if we could please feed the crew at the Castle that evening after their performance. It was the first we’d hosted something so big here, and it was a dream!! But first, breakfast. And lunch.

Sunday morning’s breakfast was Baked Oatmeal that had been created the night before by one of our housemates.

While everyone was eating, I got a huge batch of White Chicken Chili started in our roaster so that it could slow cook all day and be ready to feed the big crew. I had already made two huge pots of regular Chili so they were ready to warm up at dinner time.

When we left church that morning, we stopped at Sam’s since it’s on the way home so that I could grab last minute food items needed for our huge meal.

For lunch that day, I had put Simple Ham and Hashbrown Casserole in the crock pot. We ate it with green beans before moving full force into dinner mode.

We got tables and chairs set up all over the house and outside. The crew arrived just after 6pm and started making their way through the food lines. Of course, I forgot all about taking pictures of the big buffet of food we’d set out because I was too busy giving hugs. Wow, I’d missed these “kids.”

We set up a Coffee Bar in the living room so Elias could make people Lattes or whatever they requested. :)

Here’s what the buffet looked like by the time I remembered to get a picture. :)

We served two huge pots of Chili, a roaster full of White Chicken Chili, grapes, strawberries, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, plus cinnamon rolls and corn bread (made by a dear friend here in Lincoln whose son is in the choir), plus a table full of desserts.

I had made Frosted Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Peanut Butter Cookies, and these Cupcakes. One of our housemates had made two beautiful desserts very similar to this Death by Chocolate recipe. It was a huge hit!

Truly, Sunday evening was a dream for me. I loved hosting these young adults!

Monday morning I was…tired. :) For breakfast, I got out yogurt and the Peanut Butter Honey Granola I’d made last week.

I don’t remember what we did all day?? Dishes. Yes, I did wash a lot of big pots from the day before. :)

That night for we enjoyed the last of the whole chicken I’d smoked the week before with pasta and Alfredo sauce. Plus I steamed carrots and warmed up leftover broccoli. I made lots, but we ended up having a beautiful crowd of 18 people at our house that night so it still ended up being barely enough. :)

Therefore, Matt made several rounds of popcorn for a snack before we got the littles ready for bed. It was just what we needed to finish filling everyone’s bellies. :)

Look at the little sweetheart in her princess dress – filthy faced and tired after a long day of play. :)

Tuesday morning I whipped cream to go with strawberries.

Plus I made 12 Sausage-Egg-Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches.

We took our 5 littlest to one of our favorite parks to play for a while that morning. They enjoyed cheese and crackers plus fruit/veggie squeezies while we were there.

That afternoon, the kids got out of school early so Brayden, Kiya, and Keith all got to go to help serve at the Community Food Distribution. I asked Elias if he’d go along with me to help with Keith and he was happy to help. (His muscles got used quite a few times while we were there too!)

Keith and Elias got to hand out bags of snacks during distribution time. Brayden handed out dishwasher soap (which he thought was a little bit silly – but you never know what might get donated for volunteers to hand out). And Kiya and I handed out prepared sandwiches.

We were blessed to come home with two bags full of extra food donations – a wonderfully nice perk that we weren’t expecting when we started helping with this. We got mostly bread products that day, which helps stretch the grocery budget!

Before leaving home that afternoon, I had put Baked Potatoes into the Crock Pot to cook. One of our housemates was kind enough to set out all the toppings at dinnertime since I wouldn’t get home until 5:45ish. We filled our plates with potatoes, leftover chili, ham, cheese, sour cream, butter, and peas. Plus we finished off the Applesauce the kids and I had made last week.

Brayden left to have a piano lesson with Justus. When he came home, I found him doing this:


I wish I could express how amazing it is that he is able to read this book to his siblings. Reading and learning are a struggle for him and he has come so far!!

One of the fun things we came home with from the Food Distribution was a bag of McDonald’s biscuits. So on Wednesday morning I made Sausage Gravy to go with the biscuits. Plus I cut the leftover baked potatoes and cooked them with eggs. It was all so delicious!

Wednesday night, I smoked Chicken Thighs and made Smoothies (so the kids would get spinach in them). I also buttered/toasted some rolls and got out potato salad we’d received at the Food Distribution.

One of our housemates had been gone all day but brought back a delicious Apple Crisp that her cousin had made. It was a perfect dessert that night.

Thursday Matt and Elias went to York to work on our houses. Malachi helped me take the five littlest to Walmart for a few final WIC produce items for the month. As we headed out, he struck up a conversation with the greeter. I thought it was sweet so I snuck a picture. :)

I had slow cooked a roast all day, and we ate it with leftover carrots and peas, plus buttered corn and grapes. Mmmmm, roast!

Friday morning I made a big batch of French toast and let the kids choose toppings: peanut butter, apple jelly, butter, and applesauce.

Our Bonus Boy (4-year-old former foster son who is a biological half brother to some of our kids) was visiting and has a very limited list of foods he’ll eat. I went through this list again to be sure I had food on hand for him. Then I made a huge batch of Mudballs because he loves them (and so do the other kids!).

I had found sausage on sale at Walmart the day before so I browned all 8-pounds that I bought. Then I bagged it up in meal-sized portions for the freezer.

For dinner, I grilled a bunch of Hamburgers and threw Sweet Potato Fries in the air fryer.

Saturday morning we packed a picnic lunch to take to the zoo: hoagie sandwiches, fruit, chips, fruit/veggie pouches, and treats that we’d received from the food distribution.

At the zoo, we watched the zoo keepers feed the penguins.

Then we had lunch with the flamingos. :)

Kiya, Acacia, and Josie had a little conversation with a peacock. :)

We were so exhausted when we got home at naptime. But unfortunately, the toddlers fought sleep. Ack.

Meanwhile, Matt and I had decided the evening before that we could use a bit of a break and had planned to order pizza for dinner that night. We’d never ordered from Costco before but knew that the price was good and that the pizza was tasty so we gave it a try!

10 out of 10, highly recommend. We had a Pizza Picnic at one of our favorite parks, and two of our housemates joined us. One of them even went to Costco and picked up the pizza for all of us so that we wouldn’t have to lug all of the kids there. Fantastic! We ate and the kids road their bikes and scooters until time to get home to bed.

Next, I wanted to show this this fun picture. Grapes? Yes. It’s a picture of grapes. Exciting, yes?

It’s just that Kiya was helping me gather items to take to the park to enjoy with our pizza and she helped get the grapes pulled off their vines and into the bag. Then she asked if she could be the one to take the picture. (I hadn’t planned to take a picture, but she sees me prepare food all the time and then snap a photo, so surely I was going to feature her grapes!?)

You bet I’m going to feature her grapes. I’m so thankful for any one-on-one time I can snag with any of our kids. And small as it sounds, my Kiya-Mom grape prep time was really sweet.

We came home from the park to a party that Elias was hosting. He and his friend Ross just launched their first song and there was a Launch Party happening at the Castle!

It’s Yeti on Ice – Double Jointed if you care to look it up on any music platforms you use (Spotify, Apple Music, etc).

He has a lot of great friends and it was so great to see so many of them milling about the house when we got home!!! Plus all of our older boys were here – a double bonus. :)

We got the kids to bed (somehow, because there was a party going on and no one wanted to get to bed!) and I headed there myself. What a great week!

Oh! Total grocery spending for September: $1220.

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The Castle Pantry

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Would you like a peek inside our Castle Pantry?

First, I need to express how thankful I am that God gave us this house, our “Coppinger Castle.” For less than the cost of a much smaller, less functional (for our needs) house, God gave us this place.

It features over 9,000 square feet of usable living and storage space for us, which is fantastic to help us stay as organized as possible as we strive to love people in and out of our home.

Who lives at the Coppinger Castle?

Here’s the latest photo of our family, taken at an apple orchard Fall, 2023. There are 15 of us altogether. Our two oldest sons are married and live with their wives in Lincoln – so we are blessed to see them often. Our other nine kids live at the Castle with Matt and me. Plus we rent out our third story suites to some lovely people. So currently, 16 people live at the Coppinger Castle. It is amazing and yes, a bit crazy. ;)

Beyond our family and our housemates, we often have guests. You can see samples of what this looks like here and here.

Our Castle Pantry is a beautiful example of a space God gave us to help us to be as functional as possible while feeding many people every day. Ready to take a look?

The Castle Pantry

Our “pantry” is an entire room just off the kitchen. (You can see photos of our Castle Kitchen here.) It features two walls of shelves, plus a full sink, additional refrigerator, upright freezer, and an extra stove/oven.

I have yet to use the stove/oven because I haven’t needed it thanks to having this beast of a stove/oven in our Castle Kitchen. Come Thanksgiving, I’m guessing this extra oven will come in handy. ;)

The extra fridge and freezer in the pantry though? They are 100% helpful and necessary. They are full all the time with much of the overflow that doesn’t fit in our kitchen fridge. (We have a third fridge/freezer in our basement that is almost always full too.)

Why so many refrigerators and freezers?

Well, as I said above, there are currently 16 people living at our house. Even when there were “only” eleven of us, we found that we needed this much fridge/freezer space. Buying in bulk, stocking up when items are on sale, and keeping a large supply of basic food on hand is extremely helpful and saves a lot of money.

So all of our refrigerators and freezers are full most of the time, and I find that I run to all of them frequently while feeding this many people every day. I am so thankful for God’s provision.

What’s on the pantry shelves?

So much food. And also kleenex and ziplock. ;) Here’s a boring, ugly picture of one wall of shelves. This one is a catch-all shelf and it isn’t fun to look at. Keep scrolling though because…

Our main wall of shelving contains all things food. I try to keep it organized in categories, though you’ll see that it isn’t perfect. It’s functional though, which is what I’m going for.

You’ll see that I basically have a grocery store in my pantry, which is extremely helpful as I plan and prepare meals. I can go to our shelves, fridges, and freezers and get what I need to feed us all well. I can also look at it and see what we are getting low on so that I know what we need the next time I go to the store. (Here’s how I make a grocery list without making a grocery list.)

There it is, the Castle Pantry. I am so, so thankful for this space and for God’s provision to fill our shelves!

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Lunches I Packed September 18-22, 2023

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In an effort to keep the kids from being burned out on the same packed school lunch over and over, I try to get creative and pack a nice, healthy variety. Here are the lunches I packed September 18-22, 2023.

Lunches I Packed September 18-22, 2023

Monday: Kiya had picked an Annie’s Parmesan Mac and Cheese at the Food Distribution where we volunteer each week. She requested this as a special lunch, so I cooked it Monday morning to put into the kids thermoses. They were so excited! But at the end of the day, neither kid enjoyed the taste of this one. Now we know. :)

At least they enjoyed their pear (which I packed in a container in an effort to keep it from getting smashed in the lunch bags.

Tuesday: Brayden had a field trip that day so he got to have a special lunch (our field trip tradition!). He got a turkey and cheese sandwich with chips, applesauce, crackers, and juice. Kiya’s lunch wasn’t “special” but she loved hers too. She got a pumpkin muffin, applesauce, carrots, and peanut butter.

Wednesday: I packed the kids a large helping of Whole Milk Yogurt that I’d gotten in an Azure Standard order two weeks ago, fresh strawberries, granola bites, and pistachios.

Thursday: I pulled food from the freezer I’d baked a few weeks ago and individually packaged for lunches. They each got a slice of pizza, a peanut butter snack bar, and a fruit cup.

Friday: It was Fun Friday! So the kids got their choice of sandwich, chips, an applesauce, plus some of the Little Bites we’d been given at the Food Distribution.

Now that the weather is cooling off a little bit, I’ll probably start packing more hot lunches in thermoses. This will give us more options to keep up with having a nice variety of foods to pack!

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 17-23, 2023

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Ready for Big Family Food and Fun: September 17-23?

During the past few weeks, God has filled up our Castle with additional housemates. Amazing! You can read the details about this here. We filled our final third floor room last Sunday. :) :) There are 16 of us living in our house now, but I’m only counting 15 in our “who ate the food” fun because the baby is still mostly drinking formula and figuring out purees. :)

Our five housemates sometimes eat with us and sometimes eat on their own depending on schedules, needs, work, and outside plans. Meanwhile, anyone who drops by to hang out with our older boys or anyone who comes over for any reason is welcome to eat here too.

So I always make a large evening meal, knowing that we’ll be feeding anywhere from 11 to 20 people. There’s always enough and if there’s too much: LEFTOVERS!!

Leftovers for Lunch

It’s pretty chill at lunchtime here, and there’s always this and that in the fridge that needs to be eaten up. So almost every day for lunch, everyone fends for themselves (well, Matt and I feed the littles, of course). This is easy, helpful, and a great way to keep from wasting food.

Here’s a silly photo of Anna and Brayden. Anna was wearing one of our housemate’s glasses and was so very proud.

Here’s what our week looked like!

Food and Fun: September 17-23, 2023

Sunday morning I set out the tail end of last week’s goodies for breakfast: Snickerdoodle Bites, Peanut Butter Honey Bread, and Pumpkin Donuts. I love finishing off tidbits to clear out space and to avoid waste!

We had a big day planned that day! After church we were going to eat lunch (at the church building) and then drive two minutes to an Apple Orchard. We invited another family plus several young adults to join us. Altogether, there were 28 of us. I love things like this!

Saturday night I had baked a double batch of these brownies to go with our lunch.

I put 14 Brats and 24 Hotdogs on our smoker before church. While they were cooking, we put together other lunch items to take with us: watermelon, grapes, chips, carrots, and water.

We put the cooked Brats and Dogs into crockpots and plugged them in once we got to church so they’d stay warm. After church, we quickly set out a buffet and enjoyed our meal together.

The Apple Orchard opened at 1:00, and it really was just two minutes away from the church building. So off we went to enjoy picking apples together!

This outing was everything I hoped it would be, with our huge crew enjoying the sunshine, time together, and apple picking!

Eva captured this photo of Kelsey and Acacia. I can’t stop staring at it.

We were way past naptime when we wrapped up, but we were able to get a photo with all 15 of our family members. It’s so rare and wonderful for all of us to coordinate schedules and be together like this.

Naps were extra good that afternoon. :)

Somehow I had managed to throw Easy Crock Pot Fajitas into our Instant Pot that morning so they slow cooked all day and made dinner super easy. I had never used our Instant Pot as a slow cooker, but both of our Crock Pots were full of Brats and Dogs that morning so I attempted it. It worked!

The meat (organic, grass fed fajita meat provided by one of the gals living with us right now) was absolutely incredible.

Malachi built this Fajita Burrito Masterpiece:

Monday morning I baked a double batch of Pumpkin Muffins (minus the chocolate chips). This made 24 muffins, and by the end of the day we were down to 6. I love watching food disappear! I made sausage links to enjoy with the muffins. Plus I got out our Pampered Chef apple-peeler-corer-slicer to cut apple rings for the kids.

After we got Brayden and Kiya to school, Keith and I headed to the Food Distribution site to help set up for Tuesday’s food giveaway. This is SUCH good one-on-one time for us and he loves being a helper!

I’m not sure that this is what Ms. Kathleen had it mind when she asked us to put the snacks out on the table. If you can’t build a tower of muffins, what even is the point? (Truly, Keith couldn’t see any other way to display these. I had to sneak in later to re-adjust the table.) ;)

Lunch was leftovers. :) Dinner was simple and delicious! I made Ham and Cheese Melts on buns they sent home with us that morning when we were setting up food. I had Colby jack, pepper jack, and Havarti cheese slices so I made an assortment with these sandwiches.

We enjoyed them with corn on the cob, spaghetti squash (cooked like this), watermelon, and peas.

After dinner, I sliced more of the apples we’d picked at the orchard and we ate them with Caramel Apple Dip. I hadn’t made that dip since last fall, so it tasted extra good!

Matt borrowed our neighbor’s leaf blower and Keith helped him clean up the parking lot area in our back yard. Keith takes every job very seriously. And I’m not sure if you can tell, but he’s wearing a spiderman hat someone had made just for him. It didn’t come off of his head for the entire day. :)

Tuesday morning we loaded up the kids and headed to Costco. My goal was to get stocked up on basic baking ingredients – which I did. But I also bought frozen pizza because I like having it on hand. AND, the strawberries and raspberries were still priced really low. So I got 2 containers of raspberries and 16 more pounds of strawberries. I’m out of control. :)

Raspberries make a great snack, but they taste better when you first put one on each finger. :)

That afternoon, Brayden, Kiya, and I went to help with the weekly Food Distribution. We got home at 5:30 tired, hungry, and in a hurry because Brayden had a piano lesson with Justus at 6:00. Thankfully, Malachi had baked chicken for sandwiches and Elias had build sandwiches and already fed the little ones. The rest of us grabbed ours and I didn’t even care about adding fruits and veggies because it was a bit hectic as we transitioned back home. :)

Wednesday morning I made Eggs in a Nest for breakfast with strawberries and Whipped Cream.

For a mid-morning snack, I cut more strawberries into what was left of the whipped cream. Keith, Anna, Acacia, and Josie helped me eat it. :)

We were preparing for a huge meal on Sunday in which we were planning to feed around 50 York University choir members. So during naptime, I went to Aldi to get a few things we needed for our family and a few things we needed for the choir meal.

It was the final evening the Lincoln Zoo was going to be open in the evening before next spring, so we took advantage and headed to the zoo that night.

I had packed hotdogs for us to eat there, along with fruit cups, carrots and ranch, and cold drinks. One of our new housemates joined us. Of course, the littles all love her and it appears that she’s never going to be allowed to eat a meal with our family without a child on her lap. :)

Thursday was a very full day. Matt was gone all day in York, I had two meetings scheduled, and some of our kids had extra behavior issues that needed to be dealt with. And that was just before 8:15am.

I sent our school kids off (one of them still in tears) with our neighbor who was gracious to walk them to school for me because I had already started my morning that was full of meetings for our littles. Case workers came, someone from our Early Development Network came – it was good and necessary but exhausting.

Why am I sharing this? Because while I love food and sharing food and all the fun that we have, it’s all mixed in with some very real life, very big challenges too. I think that’s why I love sharing about the rest of it so much. It reminds me of all the goodness God gives and all the fun we have each day. :)

So back to the food and fun…

I’ve been getting bags of organic pears at Aldi and they are perfect right now! They are small, making them great to hand out as snacks. Here’s Josie, looking as sweet as can be with her tasty pear.

One of our housemates provided us with a farm-raised chicken and I tried my hand at smoking it. I rubbed it down with Redmond’s Seasoning Salt and smoked it on low heat for the entire afternoon. Meanwhile, I made Mashed Potatoes in the Crock Pot and just before time to eat, I steamed broccoli. I love meals like this!

We had all those strawberries, so I had no choice but to make Strawberry Shortcake for our dessert after dinner.

No one complained about this choice of desserts.

I was continuing to prep to feed the York University Singers on Sunday so when I baked the shortcake, I also used oven space to make a double batch of Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.

That evening, I also stirred together an extra large Easy Breakfast Casserole. Then on Friday morning I slid it into the oven to bake while I had my God time. When the kids got up, the casserole was ready and we ate it with strawberries and shortcake. (The cake is about as sweet as muffins, so I figured it would be a perfect side plus fun for the kids to feel like they were eating cake for breakfast!)

I got a little bit too ambitious and made a batch of Peanut Butter Honey Granola. (I wanted to make the most of the hot oven, plus I always like to try and get ahead.) It mostly worked out, but with trying to get kids fed and off to school I let it stay in the oven a little bit too long. It’s extra toasted. :)

That afternoon, I cooked seven pounds of hamburger meat in my Instant Pot like this. Then I turned it into two huge pots of Chili for Sunday.

As I finished that up, all kinds of crazy hit the house as we had some friends from out of state who were in a hurry but needed a place to shower. Yep, come on over! Meanwhile I was getting ready to have a rare night out at an Adoptive Moms Support Group (life giving and needed!!). We ate a super simple meal, taking full advantage of our air fryer to enjoy “French Fry Friday.” Tonight it was fries with nuggets.

Saturday morning we ate good ol’ cereal as we were getting other food items made.

The kids washed the remaining apples we’d picked on Sunday at the apple orchard. I cut them and cooked them down to make applesauce. (I used this quick method.)

It made a huge bowlful that we can eat all next week!

We had been invited to a party to watch the Husker football game that afternoon and had been asked to bring dessert. We made Chocolate Cupcakes with hidden spinach. The spinach was then perhaps counteracted by the candy pumpkins I put on top, but aren’t they cute?? :)

I also made a big bowl full of Strawberry Fluff to take to the party to share.

We ate leftovers for lunch with Caesar salad. As we were wrapping up, our neighbor John brought over this huge bucket of apples! They were from a tree on his family’s property and hadn’t been sprayed. The remind me of our apple picking days at our favorite orchard closer to York. We enjoyed bags and buckets of those apples year after year and eventually became friends with the Claytons, owners of the orchard. We miss this! How grateful we were to receive this bucket from our new friend in Lincoln.


After an early nap, we loaded up and headed over to our Husker Game Party. During half-time, we all headed outside to enjoy a pinata the host had set up for all the kids.

Go, Kiya, go!

The kids definitely didn’t care about football, ha. They actually only barely cared about the food. But they had been talking non-stop about how we’d been invited to swim while we were there. So finally we got them all ready, with the help of Justus and Kelsey, and let them have what will probably be one last outdoor swim of the season.

Knowing that they’d hardly eaten before that and that they’d be starving after time in the pool, I quickly made a late dinner plan for when we got home. Indeed, joy turned to hungry melt-down as we left the party. We gave them all a handful of peanuts that we had in the van (phew!) and I hurried to make a pile of French toast with sausage when we got home before bed. You’ve never seen such small children put away so much food at one time. :) :) :)

And that was our week!

P.S. Total grocery spending so far in September: $1100 and we are VERY stocked up on basics right now.

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7 Days of Low Cost Breakfast Ideas from Costco

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Here’s an entire week worth of low cost breakfast ideas from Costco!

Can you get the ingredients for these breakfasts at any grocery store? Sure. Do whatever works best for you! I have personally found that buying in bulk at Costco and enjoying their high quality mixed with great prices is a great combination to save lots of money on wonderful meals!

Download a free grocery list here.

Get ready to buy the few ingredients needed to make these breakfast ideas! Many of the ingredients can be mixed and matched so you’ll get great bang for your buck!

Download a free grocery list here.

7 Days of Low Cost Breakfast Ideas from Costco

First, take a look at the seven day menu. Doesn’t this all sound tasty?

  1. Oatmeal with Berries
  2. Homemade Granola with Yogurt
  3. Eggs and Smoothies
  4. Biscuits and Gravy
  5. Pancakes and Bacon
  6. Blueberry Muffins and Eggs
  7. Warm Vanilla Soother and Toast

Ready for the recipes and details? Take note as you make a grocery list that many of the ingredients needed in these breakfast recipes can be mixed and matched. So if you buy these ingredients, you can make multiple recipes and have a wonderful variety of breakfast meals!

1. Oatmeal with BerriesYum

What to buy at Costco:

  • Old Fashioned Oats
  • Your favorite Berries

Costco has awesome prices for both. Their oats comes in 10-pound packages so it will go a very long way. (I usually keep some in a canister in my kitchen for easy access, and then freeze the rest to keep it fresh longer.)

Make it easier:

Here are some fun oatmeal recipes that your family might love!

2. Homemade Granola with Yogurt

What to buy at Costco:

  • Old Fashioned Oats (maybe you’re buying it anyway for the above-mentioned oatmeal!)
  • Coconut Oil
  • Honey
  • Yogurt
  • Look through the recipes below to learn about any additional ingredients you’ll need for individual recipes. Remember when you see the ingredients at Costco – you’ll be able to make several recipes worth of granola or other goodies with these ingredients. This makes it worth paying for and saves money in the long run!

Recipes you’ll love:

3. Eggs and Smoothies

What to buy at Costco:

  • Eggs
  • Frozen Fruit
  • Milk
  • Fresh Spinach

Recipes you’ll love:

Scramble or fry eggs to enjoy while you sip your smoothies. You’ll be nourished well and ready to start your day!

4. Biscuits and Gravy

What to buy at Costco:

  • Flour
  • Butter
  • Sausage
  • Milk
  • Baking Powder
  • Salt

Recipes you’ll love:

It’s amazing how inexpensive it is to make biscuits and gravy at home compared to buying it at a restaurant. And it’s hard to beat homemade!

5. Pancakes and Bacon

What to buy at Costco:

  • Flour
  • Baking Powder
  • Milk
  • Butter
  • Eggs
  • Maple Syrup (a little goes a long way!)
  • Bacon

Recipes you’ll love:

6. Blueberry Muffins and Eggs

What to buy at Costco:

  • Flour
  • Coconut Oil
  • Brown Sugar
  • Baking Powder
  • Milk
  • Blueberries
  • Eggs

Recipes you’ll love:

7. Warm Vanilla Soother and Toast

What to buy at Costco:

  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Cornstarch
  • Maple Syrup
  • Bread
  • Butter

Recipes you’ll love:

I love how simple these ingredients are and how you can use them in so many ways to make great meals. Enjoy these 7 breakfast ideas, and consider making them for dinner too. Breakfast for dinner is a favorite!

Get our free grocery list to make this easy!

Download your free grocery list here.

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Lunches I Packed September 11-15, 2023

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Here are the lunches I packed September 11-15 for my kids to take to school last week!

Monday: Cheese, crackers, grapes, pistachios, and pickles (Kiya) cucumbers (Brayden)

I’ve been buying Balanced Breaks, which I shared about on this “What I Buy at Costco for School Lunches” post. They are convenient and fun, but not frugal. (<—but I still keep them on hand because sometimes we need convenient more than we need frugal)

Since I had a few extra minutes to pack this day’s lunch, I left the convenient packs in the fridge and instead sliced some cheese and packaged up crackers for the kids. I put the crackers into plastic containers, otherwise they’d get smashed in baggies in their lunch boxes.

Tuesday: Cottage cheese, fruit cup, carrots/peanut butter and Spinach Cupcake (for Kiya), and cucumbers and peanut butter pretzels (for Brayden)

It’s cheaper to scoop peanut butter into a container for Kiya to use as dip with her carrots. But I keep the Jif Natural peanut butter cups on hand for a quick-to-grab option.

Wednesday: Turkey lunchmeat roll-ups, strawberries with Cheesecake Parfait, and Snickerdoodle Bites.

We had pounds and pounds of strawberries in our fridge from the super sale I took advantage of on Saturday. So it was fun to include those with parfait for the kids’ lunches.

Thursday: Tuna salad with crackers, applesauce cup, cucumbers and cheese stick for Brayden, pickles for Kiya 

I had an extra minute on Wednesday so I mixed up the kids’ tuna salad for lunch the next day. This was so nice the following morning as we were getting them ready to head out!

Fun Friday Lunch: For Brayden: his leftover Hamburger Helper, cucumbers, applesauce, and Pocky’s (that we were given as the Food Distribution when we were volunteering); For Kiya: PB&J, chips, applesauce, and Pocky’s.

This is the day I always give them a treat in their lunch, and often chips also. They love Fun Friday Lunch day! ;)

Feel free to leave a comment sharing more lunchbox ideas!

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 10-16, 2023

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Fall is in the air for sure, and we are loving it! Care to see take a look at the food and fun our big family enjoyed last week?

How did we go from 11 to 14?? Read about that here.

Big Family Food and Fun: September 10-16, 2023

In preparation for the new week, on Saturday afternoon during naptime I made a double batch of Banana Bread and quadruple batch of Zucchini Bread/Muffins.

Sunday morning, I packaged up three of the loaves of bread to give (along with a package of diapers) as gifts at a baby shower that was being hosted after church that day for three new babies. I then froze some of the Zucchini Muffins and put the additional loaf of Zucchini Bread and Muffins into our glass containers to enjoy for breakfasts this week.

There was a “young adult” lunch being hosted after church also, and we were asked to provide salad for the group.

Sunday evening, we smoked marinated Chicken Thighs, made Cheesecake Parfait to go with all the strawberries I’d picked up on sale, and steamed green beans. We’d been gifted a big bag of rolls after Sunday’s lunch at church, so we buttered and toasted them to round out our meal.

Asa ad Eva joined us, plus we caught our neighbor John working in his flower garden and he came over and ate with us too. :)

Monday morning after we got Brayden and Kiya off to school, Keith and I headed to the Food Distribution site I shared about here. He and I had a lovely time working together with the other volunteers to set up food for the Tuesday distribution day.

We got home around 11 and had an early lunch/snack outside before Keith and Anna got picked up by the bus for pre-school. We finished off this Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip from the fridge with some chips and grapes.

Monday afternoon during naptime I made a triple batch of Snickerdoodle Bites to have on hand for snacks as needed. It is so helpful to have these available to give to the littles when they need something to hold them over until mealtime.

For dinner that night, we made a huge pile of pancakes with sausage, eggs, strawberries, applesauce, syrup, and whipped cream. This kind of meal always goes over well and it tastes so good at dinnertime! However, I don’t make it often because it’s a bit of a high maintenance meal when fixing plates of firsts, seconds, and thirds according to preference for each kid. (Some want peanut butter, applesauce, syrup and whipped cream on their pancakes. Some want just butter and syrup. And oh yeah, whipped cream please. Some want…) :)

For breakfast on Tuesday, I made 8-cups worth of oatmeal and set out berries to add to bowls if desired.

The problem with having bathrooms in every bedroom

As some of the kids were eating, I began to wonder where Anna and Josie had gone. Suddenly water started pouring through this kitchen light. Ohmygoodness. The two missing girls were running the water in their sink and flooding the bathroom, which came through to the kitchen. Ack.

Matt took care of the water mess in their bathroom while I took care of the water mess in the kitchen (I needed to mop anyway. Heh.)

Look how sweet and innocent she looks just minutes later as she reads a Bible to her baby. :)

We’ve stopped being surprised by the insanity that happens regularly at our house. We are surviving. The kids are learning (hopefully). And seriously, I got my floor mopped (and cabinets wiped down).

We walked Brayden and Kiya to school, then loaded up the other five and went to Menards. Sometimes they run in four different directions in the parking lot. Sometimes they do this:

Like little angel babies.
People in the parking lot were all like, “awwww, aren’t your kids so sweet?
Are they always so well behaved???”
Matt and I start to sob.
Just kidding. I held it together and handed Matt a tissue.
Just kidding. There was no time to cry or hand out tissues. The kids had started to run amok.

We did Matt’s Menards thing, then loaded up again to burn off some energy at a park before Keith and Anna got picked up at home by the bus for preschool. We snacked on cheese, crackers, and grapes while we were there.

Keith had packed his scooter and helmet into the van to enjoy at the park because he’s practically an adult now.

That afternoon after school, Brayden, Kiya, and I went to the Food Distribution to help hand out food to people in the community. This was only our second week doing this and we still have a lot to learn about how it all works. But we are being kindly trained, and aside from knowing how this helps people, the best thing I’m seeing is how good this is for Brayden and Kiya.

A little side encouragement: Find ways for your kids to serve, to look beyond themselves, and to care for others. Serve with them. Let them serve with you. Make this a high priority.

At the end of the day, we came home with many wonderful items that will help stretch our food budget. (As I shared here, I learned last week that volunteers are able to take food home also, as long as there is plenty.) We got several packages of greens, apples, milk, breads and buns, and mineral water.

We didn’t get home until 5:40 and Matt, Elias, and Malachi had been holding down the fort with the rest of the gang. I’d put Creamy Layered Enchiladas into the crock pot before leaving for the afternoon so that dinner would be ready when I got home. I’m not sure where I went wrong, but they only turned out sort of so-so. We ate them, but we didn’t give them a high rating this time like we usually do.

It’s possible that we didn’t really care about dinner anyway because there was too much excitement going on outside! Our neighbor, John, grows an incredible flower garden in his yard that we all get to enjoy. He was honored that night to be featured by an organization showcasing his flowers, so dozens of people were coming over and walking through.

Not only that, but John is very talented with his harmonica and voice, so he was offering musical entertainment while people enjoyed his flowers. We didn’t need an outing that night. The “outing” was right across the street!

John insisted that we all come over for the treats he had laid out, but we waited until the event was almost over so that we didn’t add chaos to his big night. The kids were spoiled with sweets and juice while we listened to more of John’s music and visited with more of our neighbors. We are finding that God landed us in a fantastic neighborhood and we continue to be grateful.

Wednesday morning, I cut some of the huge loves of wheat bread we’d received from the Food Distribution, toasted it, and smothered it with peanut butter and honey. I cut it into chunks and we enjoyed it with applesauce.

Of the 16-pounds of strawberries I bought on Saturday, we were down to 6-pounds and they were getting a bit squishy. So I cut them onto cookie sheets and froze them for smoothies.

Later, after they were frozen, I transferred them to gallon-sized freezer bags.

Wednesday’s big Azure Standard pick-up

As you know, I’ve been involved with Azure Standard in York for years. This is the first month I put in an order for the Lincoln drop. We came home with a very large supply of food because I hadn’t ordered for many months and needed to stock up on several Azure favorites. (Here’s a list of what I like to order from Azure.) I was blessed to have some referral credit to help pay for this haul (thank you!).

We got organic whole wheat pastry flour, yogurt, frozen corn, green beans, and peas, frozen hashbrowns, several varieties of canned fruit, and some boxes of Einkorn cookies as a special treat.

The hashbrowns came in a huge frozen brick so I transferred them to gallon-sized freezer bags – 8 in all! Our freezers are full and we are well stocked up. Very thankful!

For dinner that night we made a bunch of burgers on our smoker. Keith helped me load the smoker with pellets, taking his job very seriously.

Then we packed up our burgers and took them to one of our favorite parks for a picnic with grapes, pineapple, and yep, a salad like this. As good as this meal was, no one cared much about eating because they were too excited to ride their bikes and scooters on the trails. :)

Even little Josie got in on the action. She was the only one I could snap a photo of because everyone else took off so fast!

Thursday morning we made a bunch of Breakfast Sandwiches like this. We warmed them in our air fryer to enjoy then froze the few leftovers.

After we took the kids to school, Matt and I loaded up the five littles and headed to Walmart to pick up some WIC items, pull-ups, and diapers. We got home in time for a meeting with our Case Worker for BabyBoy#11. Then the bus came to pick up Keith and Anna. Phew, it was quite a morning!

I was excited to find cases of tomato sauce on clearance at Walmart. They were so cheap I bought five cases! It’s almost Chili season after all. :)

Matt had made plans with Elias and Malachi to stay with the remaining three little ones so that he could take me to lunch. So sweet! Here’s the most (un)impressive picture of our meal.

For dinner that night, we had Crock Pot Taco Pasta with salad, pineapple, and watermelon. We ate outside, then went for a walk before bedtime.

For breakfast on Friday morning, we ate Yogurt with Granola and berries.

Matt went to work in York that day so Malachi helped me get the kids to school, then we took the youngest five to the zoo.

I loved seeing how Acacia was looking up at her bigger brother here. :)

We stopped for a snack/lunch before loading everyone up to get home in time to meet Keith and Anna’s school bus.

For dinner that night, we pulled everything random out of the fridge to clear it out. No one really ate a balanced meal, but at least we didn’t waste food.

After dinner, I mixed up a double batch of these Pumpkin Donuts. I brought the kids in one at time (well, I tried – it was hard for all the little ones to wait their turn) to help me cut out the donuts as I rolled out the dough. We cut them into apple shapes to celebrate the coming of Fall.

While my hands were covered in flour, Acacia grabbed my phone from my back pocket and snapped dozens of pictures of our kitchen floor. But she also go this burry photo of me cleaning up after our donut mess. Ha!

Saturday morning, we fried the Pumpkin Donuts in coconut oil on the griddle then drizzled a little bit of glaze over each one.

We ate them with scrambled eggs and blueberries.

Then we headed out for what ended up being three full hours of fun.

First, we went to a library story time that was a special “Sensory Story Time.” It had been recommended to us by a specialist because several of our kids have sensory issues and can become overstimulated. We were VERY impressed with the program and hope to go regularly. (Those are weighted puppies the kids are holding.)

When that ended, we headed outside to a Community Garden Party (which happened to be just outside this very library). There were several tables set out with activities and everyone got to choose an apple.

They got to watch some fun plant-themed science experiments.

Then we got to tour the garden with scavenger hunt papers where the kids tried to locate various veggies, flowers, and insects. It was all SO MUCH FUN. We couldn’t believe that they all lasted the entire morning, but we didn’t load up to head home until well past lunchtime.

The apples had only held them off for a short while so we had some very hungry children when we got home. Therefore, there are no pictures to prove my ridiculous lunch. But the minute we got home, I simply grabbed every last leftover from the fridge to fill their hungry bellies. We ate a very weird combination of buttered pancakes, green beans, grapes, and chips with white queso. :) :) :) No one complained – they were all too hungry!

We spent the afternoon getting our final third floor room ready for the renter who was planning to move in that evening. So I took the night off for dinner, baking several frozen pizzas. We ate it with salad and clementines.

Just for fun: The floor in this suite was a gross mess when we moved in. Matt took from nasty to this…

Then this…

Then this…

And the final look is this:

There’s another space in the room large enough for a queen sized bed and night stand. Plus there’s a full bathroom attached to the room (as there is with all of the rooms we’ve rented out). I explained a bit more about our plans for renting out our third floor suites here. As of Saturday night, the rooms are full of wonderful people and we are thankful!

We are only just beginning to learn what God has planned for this Castle He gave us. We thank Him constantly for His provision.

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Lunches I Packed September 5-8, 2023

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Here’s a look at the lunches I packed for my kids to take to school last week. :)

Lunches I Packed September 5-8, 2023

There was no school on Monday because of Labor Day, so lunch at home looked like this, plus grapes and spoonfuls of peanut butter to fill their bellies.

Tuesday I packed Simple Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip with chips and a pear cup. This is a great way to sneak in protein because there are beans blended into the dip.

We’d been given two big containers of croissants, so I used them on Wednesday to make the kids Tuna Salad Croissant-wiches for lunch. I sent their favorite banana applesauce squeezie, plus cucumbers for Brayden and carrots with peanut butter for Kiya.

Thursday I woke up and realized I hadn’t done anything the day before to prep the kids’ school lunches. So I grabbed food from our freezer that I’d prepared for grab-and-go lunches. This was so helpful that now I’m trying to figure out what else I can make, baggie up, and freeze for quick lunches so it can be this easy more often!

The last time I made pizza, I froze leftover slices in baggies, so the kids got pizza in their lunch Thursday. I had also frozen Peanut Butter Snack Bars so those went into the lunchbox too, plus carrots and peanut butter for Kiya and cucumbers for Brayden, and a pear cup for each.

Our Fun Friday lunch looked a little bit different this week…

Brayden’s Hamburger Helper

I shared here how Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I helped with a FoodNet Food Distribution on Monday and Tuesday of last week. (And how we hope to do it every week!) Volunteers get to take food also if there is enough, which is a bonus I wasn’t expecting.

The “Jr Volunteers” were given the opportunity to choose any two items from the table that they wanted and while I gave a half-effort to steer the kids in a healthy choice direction, I also wanted this to be fun for them. So I let them pick whatever they wanted.

I expected them to choose something sweet. But Brayden discovered one lonely box of Hamburger Helper and he couldn’t stop his excitement over it. “Mom!!! It’s that pasta I used to always eat before I came to live with you! I love that pasta! Can I get that please??”

As I’m typing this, I’m suddenly crying over the Hamburger Helper. My sweet, precious son. Where there was intense trauma and loss during Brayden’s first years of life, that box of pasta holds happy memories for him. He just wanted a taste of it again.

This was not the time for me to lecture him about the dangers of MSG.

“Yes, Brayden. That is a perfect choice for you today after you did such a good job helping give people food.”

All week he kept looking at that box of pasta in the pantry, making sure it was still there, asking when I would make it for him. Fun Friday, Buddy. Fun Friday.

Brayden on Friday morning:

I packed his thermos full of his beloved Hamburger Helper, and he asked if he could eat a bite with breakfast. Sure, why not?

He loved his bite, but was then the taste of it suddenly triggered a heavy load of sadness (that manifested in defiance because he doesn’t know how to process all the extreme feelings he experiences).

Sometimes we feel like we just can’t win. Always we remember that God already won.

So that’s the story of how Brayden took Hamburger Helper to school in his Friday lunch and of how much we constantly have to seek Jesus as we care for the needs of our trauma babies. In case you’re wondering, we made it through our rough morning and he did love his lunch later that day.

Kiya requested PB&J with chips for her Fun Friday lunch, plus I gave them each a peach cup and a packaged cake we’d received from the food distribution.

Phew, what a week! (I think we can all say that every week, ha.)

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124 Brunch Food Ideas and Recipes

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Need some brunch food ideas? Here are 124 to look through and choose from!

Recently I decided to host a simple brunch for our Sunday Lunch guests. I had so much fun brainstorming different food ideas that I decided to share them here for easy access.

My initial Brunch Food Ideas list looked like this:

  • Egg Casserole
  • French Toast Casserole
  • Muffins
  • Yogurt-Granola Parfait
  • Omelet Muffins
  • Fritatas
  • Quiche
  • Homemade Poptarts
  • Raspberry Bars
  • Iced Coffee – coffee bar
  • Fruit Tray with dips
  • Veggie Tray with dips
  • Cheesecake Parfait
  • Smoothie Station
  • Bagels and cream cheese spreads

Then I decided to be more detailed and make big lists of recipes in each category. All said and done, I compiled 124 recipe options for you to work with. These are all simple and good. Enjoy!

Egg Dish RecipesYum

Is it even a brunch if you don’t have an Egg Casserole of some kind? :) These are some great options to choose from:

French Toast and Bread Pudding

These are great because you can make them ahead of time:

Muffin Recipes

It might be fun to make several varieties of muffins to set out along with a beautiful, colorful fruit arrangement, quiche, and drinks!

Breads and Rolls

Make a variety of these to slice and serve with an egg dish and fruit:

Other Fun Baked Goods

These recipes will make your brunch extra special:

Cheesecake or Yogurt Parfaits

These are as beautiful as they are delicious!

Fruit with Dips

Prepare a tray filled with any variety of these fruits to go with your fruit dips: strawberries, blueberries, green grapes, red grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, honey dew melon, orange wedges, apple slices

Chips or Veggies with Dips

Veggie platters are beautiful because they add color variety to your buffet. These dips make veggies more fun to eat:

Salads

Here are some ideas for making your salad special:

Smoothie Station

Borrow blenders from a couple of friends, then set out a variety of frozen fruits for people to choose from:

  • Pineapple
  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Bananas
  • Mango

Along with liquid choices:

  • Whole milk
  • Almond milk
  • Coconut milk
  • Orange juice
  • Yogurt

And some extras like whipped cream and fun straws. Let everyone make a smoothie just the way they like!

Coffee

Your guests will love it if you serve coffee in any of these fun ways!

Hot or Iced Tea Options

These look pretty in glass serving dispensers…

Hot and Cold Drink Treats

These ideas are unique and always go over well:

Share your favorite brunch menus!

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 3-9, 2023

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We added a few extras to our home this week. What?!?! Yep, our Big Family Food and Fun just got bigger. (And “funner.”)

Our household grew this week

I mentioned here that Matt was getting the suites in our third floor ready to rent out. We thought these rooms wouldn’t be filled yet for several months, but God had other, better plans. We thought we’d just rent out two of the rooms and keep the other one open. But God had other, better plans.

He worked out the details and all of a sudden, all three rooms are full! (Well, one person hasn’t moved in yet but she’s got her spot reserved and will move in next week.) We are so thankful for who God brought into our home. It’s all working out to be a win-win!

UPDATE as of 9-17-23: We currently have two of the rooms occupied by sweet single gals and one room filled with a mama and her two young children. :)

Our arrangement with our renters is that they have no obligation to eat meals with us but that they are more than welcome to eat with us if they would like. We love having our table full, and now extra full. :)

So there’s our household update. :) Now on to our Food and Fun from last week:

Food and Fun September 3-9, 2023

Sunday morning I set out three varieties of bagels I had picked up at Aldi. We toasted them in our air fryer and spread on cream cheese, enjoying bowls of applesauce on the side.

When I had breakfast set out and went in to see what kind of bagels each kid wanted toasted, I found Kiya reading a book to Anna and BabyBoy#11. Kiya LOVES to read and is becoming very good at it. :)

On our way home from church I ran into Sam’s and grabbed two rotisserie chickens for our lunch. Of course, I can’t just run in and get chicken. I grabbed a few other things we needed: applesauce, peanut butter, yogurt, spring mix, and tortilla chips. I threw them all into the messy back of our van and we headed home for lunch.

While I was putting together the sides to go with our chicken, we set out the Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream and animal crackers I had made for dessert. The littles saw it and started treating it like an appetizer. Good grief. ;)

To go with our rotisserie chickens, I had made baked potatoes in the crock pot, Caesar salad (mixes from Aldi), watermelon, cantaloupe, and Hawaiian rolls. It was such a simple but delicious lunch!

We invested in an espresso machine a few weeks ago and Elias is our local barista. He made us all iced lattes to enjoy once we got all the littles down for naps/rest time. BLISS.

That evening, we were blessed to go back to our friends’ house to enjoy their pool. Of course, we were so busy having fun (and keeping children safe in the water) that I didn’t get many pictures. Here are the girls when we “made them” get out of the water to eat.

Ms. Barbara and Mr. Steven had put together a most wonderful dinner of BLT Salad, grapes, peanut butter and jelly sandwich makings, chips, and cookies. We felt so loved and spoiled. Then back into the water we all went!

They sent us home with a huge bag of homemade waffles which we enjoyed for breakfast the next morning with applesauce, syrup, and peanut butter.

We had been given a lot of garden tomatoes, zucchini, onions, and squash and I needed to cook them before they went bad. I washed and chopped everything and put it into a pot to cook into a sauce.

Mid-morning Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I went to help at a church that offers a weekly food distribution. They did a great helping Ms. Kathleen with any job she gave us to do. (More details about this below.)

We got home and pulled leftover rotisserie chicken out of the fridge for lunch. The kids sat at the picnic table outside and ate chicken with dips plus oranges slices, carrots, and cucumbers. Then I got out cold grapes and spoonfuls of peanut butter to finish off our meal.

We kept the kids outside after lunch to wear them out before naptime. It got hot so I pulled out frozen Go-gurts for a treat to cool them off.

It was too hot to bake, but I needed some extra fillers for lunchboxes, so during naptime I baked a double batch of these Peanut Butter Snack Bars to individually wrap, freeze, and add to lunches as needed.

That afternoon I finished simmering the sauce I had started that morning and blended it up. I chopped up a few grilled burgers we had leftover from last week and added it to the sauce to make it meaty.

Meanwhile, I prepped two garden fresh spaghetti squash we’d received and cooked them in our Instant Pot. I also boiled a pound of regular spaghetti noodles and warmed up some leftover Cream Cheese Corn from last week. I wasn’t sure how the kids would do with this meal because the sauce was different than they are used to. But they all gobbled this up – and the littlest kids loved the spaghetti squash!

I had promised the kids that they could have leftover Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream and crackers if they ate a good dinner (again, because I didn’t know if they’d eat the veggie-filled sauce and spaghetti squash) and indeed, they all ate a good dinner and were rewarded with their special treat!

Since it was a hot night, we set up the sprinkler for the kids to play in before bedtime.

Justus and Kelsey had come over to do their laundry so it was extra great to have them for a few hours that evening.

Tuesday morning we ate toasted bagels with fruit and got Brayden and Kiya off to school. Then Matt and I loaded up the five littlest and headed to a library story hour that was featuring a special Heavy Equipment Experience. The parking lot was full of all kinds of trucks and “worker vehicles.” It was Keith’s dream come true!

That afternoon, I went to Walmart to pick up formula and baby food for BabyBoy#11. Then right after school, Brayden, Kiya, and I went back to the church food distribution.

Community Food Distribution

Allow me to explain more about what I learned this week and what this is. A few weeks ago while we were at a fun Literacy Festival with our kids, we stopped at a booth and I learned about FoodNet. This is an organization in Lincoln that receives donations from local grocery stores, bakeries, and restaurants who give food that they can’t sell but don’t want to throw away. There are multiple distribution sites all through the city all week long who give this food to people in the community.

After hearing about it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Matt and I have such little spare time, yet this was something I felt God leading me to check into more. (I’m not sure if you know this about me, ha, but I love food and feeding people.) I researched it and prayed about it and God prompted me to involve our kids in this. This was a way we could serve with them and help them look beyond themselves.

I called one of the distribution sites and we arranged for the kids and I to go there on Monday since they had the day off of school. (Bless Matt and the boys for keeping the littlest four at home while we did this.) Monday is the day they receive a lot of the food and get it sorted and bagged. The kids loved helping with this, and so did I!

Then on Tuesday, right after school we went back to help distribute the food. Brayden and Kiya were put in charge of handing out treats to people as they came through the line. I was put in charge of handing out bunches of bananas, melons, and grapes. We loved every minute of it! Hopefully we can make this a part of our weekly routine if we can make arrangements for everyone at home. (Tuesday, Malachi was Matt’s side kick to help make it happen.)

What we didn’t know is that volunteers get to take food too, as long as there is plenty. The goal is that no food gets wasted and thrown away! So we ended up coming home with a huge box plus two bags full of food. We got a variety of breads, croissants, bagels, and English muffins plus bananas that I can turn into smoothies or banana bread. You can see some of it below. We also got broccoli, apples, peaches, a sweet pepper, and some salad fixins. Oh, and some sweet treats that the other volunteers were happy to give Brayden and Kiya. :) What a fun and unexpected bonus to help us feed our family and others!

We arrived home with our goodies around 5:30 and it was a bit nuts in our kitchen. ;) Before I left, I had put Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole into the crock pot (using the rest of the leftover rotisserie chicken from Sunday) so it was hot and ready to eat when we got home. We’d received a Caesar salad pack at the food distribution so I threw it together and that was dinner that night. (Along with a treat of some frosted cookies the kids were given as a “thank you” for helping that they shared with everyone at home.)

Phew. What a crazy lot of fun that day was. :)

Wednesday morning we took advantage of the croissants we’d been given the day before. I scrambled eggs with cheese and cooked bacon to make Croissant-wiches. Wow, they were good!

I had tuna salad in the fridge so I used more croissants to make tuna sandwiches for the kids to take to school for lunch.

Then I took a few minutes to open and break the over-ripe bananas we’d been given. I put them into freezer bags and into the freezer to use later for smoothies.

Dinner that night was in part compliments of one of our newest “tenants.” Everyone renting from us is a wonderful fit and some are even willing to make us a huge pot of the best mac and cheese!

We enjoyed the mac and cheese with smoked sausage and stir-fried veggies before heading to the zoo for about an hour before bedtime. We saw the red panda (he’s not always out so it’s always super exciting when we see him!), giraffes, and a few other animal friends. Then we enjoyed the free cookies they were handing out to zoo members before heading home for the night. :)

I have a confession

I wanted to make oatmeal on Thursday morning…and I couldn’t remember how. :) :) :) :) :)

I mean, I knew to boil water and then add oats, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember the ratio of water to oats. And I didn’t know how long it would take to cook. Has it been a full summer much, Laura?? Why yes, thank you. It has.

Anyway, on Thursday I googled how to make oatmeal. (Yes I know there are directions on the package but I buy in bulk and had transferred my oats from my package.) In case you need to know this: 2:1. Two cups of water for every one cup of oats. You are very welcome.

So we had our oatmeal and I stirred in baby fruit puree (that I have in abundance because we get it from WIC thanks to BabyBoy#11). And the kids gobbled it up!

Our morning outing after we got the two older littles to school was to walk to a park we hadn’t checked out yet. It was a perfect toddler/preschool sized park.

It was all good except that there are no potties there and someone (it wasn’t me) peed on the slide.

We decided to head home, but we did go ahead and eat the snack I’d packed so that those in our crowd with wet pants didn’t also become hangry.

We had juice, cheese/crackers, and applesauce. Aside from the pee, it was a lovely outing.

Lunch was leftovers. For dinner that night I went to a bit more “trouble” than I usually do because I had a bunch of over-shredded-weird-texture chicken in the freezer that I didn’t know what to do with (but couldn’t stand to waste). It had been in our freezer for many months and I needed to use it!

This week, I remembered this Chicken Patty Sandwich recipe, which calls for ground chicken. My weird chicken wasn’t exactly what the recipe calls for, but whatever. This is how we adapt recipes, use what we have, and avoid wasting food.

I made four pounds worth of these sandwiches, plus a blender full of these smoothies.

This was a very high maintenance meal, plus it made a huge mess, so I won’t likely make these very often. But the sandwiches did taste very good and we have leftovers so we’re getting two meals from one mess. :)

After we cleaned up, we loaded kids into the van and headed to one of our favorite parks to get the last of the ants out of our pants before bedtime.

Friday morning, Matt headed to York to work so Malachi was my side-kick for the first few hours of the day and then Elias took his spot when Malachi had to leave. Malachi and I decided to see if we could manage walking to “The Mill,” a coffee shop that is 0.8 miles from our house.

It turned out to be a lovely walk, and we were all very proud of ourselves for making it happen. (Keith especially, because he did great on his bike.) I stayed outside the shop with the babes while Malachi and Keith went in for a coffee. Then I took the girls in to potty before heading home. Because guess what?

This big 3-year-old is learning how to use a big girl potty. She is very proud, as she should be!

Lunch was leftovers – which is becoming pretty normal around here.

For dinner we had French Fry Friday! We used the rest of the croissants we’d been given earlier in the week to make delicious BLTs. I air fried our French fries, and sliced up oranges. It was a great way to wrap up our school week!

Saturday morning we ate scrambled cheesy eggs with yogurt, granola, and blueberries.

Impromptu Shopping Trip

Mid-morning we dropped Brayden, Kiya, and Keith at a park for a birthday party. Knowing we needed to pick them up an hour and a half later, we decided to take the youngest four to pick up a few groceries.

Ha, “a few groceries.”

I filled a cart at Costco, because I picked up some staples and then saw that berries were SUPER on sale. Strawberries were just $2.89 for 2 pounds!! Organic raspberries were only $2.29 for 12-ounces. I got four packs of raspberries and 8 packs (two flats) of strawberries. So now we have 16-pounds of strawberries, hahaha. The price and quality was too good to pass up!

We loaded the littles back into the van and headed to Aldi where I grabbed milk, salsa, cottage cheese, and salad kits for a lunch after church the next day. I also bought 6-pounds of grass-fed ground beef, breaking my meat price point. (It costs 4.99/pound.) I decided that I’ll stock up on “regular” ground beef if I find a sale, but when I can afford it, I’ll buy the good stuff. There’s a very big difference in quality for just $1.50/pound difference. We eat less beef overall now, so I can mostly buy meat at this price point and “allow” myself to buy better hamburger meat when I can.

Besides strawberries and raspberries, salad, meat, and milk, we also came home with potatoes, almond butter, avocado mash, olives, peach cups for lunches, chips, sausage, frozen fruit for smoothies, bananas brats, tuna, grapes, pancake mix, hotdogs, tea, and a few other goodies. I’m wondering if this will be our final watermelon of the season?? Sniff.

So far in September, I’ve spent $419. We are very well stocked up on everything we need and I am thankful for the abundance.

For dinner that night we ate leftovers from the fridge before rushing out the door so we wouldn’t miss Art in the Garden, a special feature that day at Sunken Gardens. We got there just as it was ending so we were thankful we could still see what it was like, with all kinds of art booths set up throughout the garden.

When we got home, I had promised the kids we would enjoy a special treat with some of our fresh strawberries. We had been given an angel food cake at the Food Distribution on Tuesday so I cut up strawbrries, whipped some cream, and it was all so delicious after our walk!

Keith wanted to help and took his job of adding strawberries to each plate very seriously.

And that’s a wrap!

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