Feeding the Family Archives | Page 20 of 47

Lunches I Packed September 5-8, 2023

September 13, 2023 by Laura 4 Comments

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

September 10, 2023 by Laura 4 Comments

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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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The Coppinger Castle Kitchen

September 7, 2023 by Laura 10 Comments

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Would you like to take a look around our “Coppinger Castle Kitchen” to see how we are using it for our family?

Welcome to the Coppinger Castle

First, this is why we are calling it a Castle. It’s really just a house, but it’s very large and it is God’s gift to us to meet our needs for our family.

When we looked online as we were searching for a house before we moved, we were amazed by all this house offered for the price. And then we saw photos of the kitchen:

This house – and its kitchen – meet our needs and then some. Truly, we are so grateful and amazed by all God provided with this house. (By the way, most of the other rooms in our house hold onto their 1914 beauty. This kitchen was updated just a few years ago.)

Two days after we moved in, our kitchen looked like this:

After about a week of making the kitchen a priority, we figured out where we wanted everything so that we could be efficient and make the most of this beautiful space. We got everything unpacked into its new home, and would you believe there are still some cabinets left empty?! That’s how vast this kitchen is. Amazing!

The Coppinger Castle Kitchen

We decided to organize our new kitchen in a way that best meets the needs of all of us. We need efficiency because there are so many of us and so many little ones. So first, we decided that instead of putting cups, plates, and bowls into high cabinets that the kids couldn’t reach, we would put them in drawers at their level. This way, Brayden and Kiya (and the others as they get older) can help unload the dishwasher and reach their own cups when they need a drink.

It’s worth noting that we’ve also been using lots of plastic instead of breakable dishes. This has been a lovely game changer!!! A few months ago, I bought about 20 large, sturdy plastic plates at Wal-Mart for $0.50 each. I did the same with small, kid-sized, plastic plates. Then I found large and small plastic bowls – all fun colors – all $0.50 each.

Using these frees us to let the little ones help more. These also clean up easily in the dishwasher. So we find that we use them even when we have company. We are saving a lot of money on paper plates this way!

The Dishwashers

And speaking of the dishwasher – um, dishwasher(s) – plural… Having two dishwashers in our kitchen is so beyond incredible with this many people in our home!! At any given time, you’ll see something like this in which they are both full.

We can fill one and start to run it, then turn to the other one and begin to fill it. We can keep up with dishes so much better this way! And I can turn the unloading of the dishwashers over to Brayden and Kiya now if the timing is right (if they are home and not in school at the moment).

The Silverware

I decided to try something with our silverware, and I 100% love it. Before, when we had silverware dividers in our drawer, whoever unloaded the dishwasher had to touch every piece to put it into its proper spot. Then, because we had so much silverware, it wouldn’t stay in its place anyway. It was always a mess.

Friends, I give you my “dump all the silverware into the drawer directly from the dishwasher basket” drawer:

I love this so much! We grab the full, clean basket of silverware from the dishwasher and put away all the baby spoons, sharp knives, and serving spoons. Then DUMP. The rest goes into this drawer. It’s fantastic.

My Baking Area

This is probably my favorite section, though of course, I love all the others too. But looooook! I put all my baking items over in one corner of the kitchen – ingredients, measuring cups and spoons, baking pans – everything. This is SO EFFICIENT and makes it so very easy for me to mix up muffins, cakes, cookies, and bars.

You can see oats, flour, and sugars on the counter. The cabinet right above my mixer holds baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, vanilla, etc.

Here are the large drawers in my Baking Area. The top holds small measuring cups, muffin liners, measuring spoons, and cookie scoops. The middle drawer holds all my baking pans from muffin pans to cookie sheets. The bottom drawer contains large glass measuring cups, funnels, and big scoops.

I quickly mix up whatever I need, then I can slip it right into the oven which is directly to the right of my Baking Area.

Our Cooking Area

And then on the other side of the stove/oven? That’s where I have items to meet our cooking needs. Pots, pans, lids, skillets, and utensils are in the drawers to the right of the stove. This makes everything easily accessible as we prepare our meals.

The Stove

This thing is a beast. It has six large gas burners with a griddle in between. There is one large oven with a smaller oven to the side. We are making the most of all that this offers. We love it!

The Coffee/Tea Area

There’s a small countertop and cabinet section behind the Cooking Area that is perfect for making coffee and tea. We keep our coffee pot and electric water kettle there, plus a sugar bowl. Somehow the straws ended up there too – I guess because that’s where we do “all things drinks.”

Here’s a peek inside the cabinet where we house our coffee, tea, and mugs. There are a few random items in there too, plus spices that I can access easily when I’m cooking at the stove.

Baked Goods Area

Last but not least, we have a section in our kitchen where we put all of our ready-to-eat breads and muffins. The cookie jar is there – sometimes filled with cookies, but often filled with muffins. I don’t always have a vase of flowers there, haha. Those were from my birthday in August. (See how I started writing this post a month ago and am finally getting around to finishing it?!)

And there you have it, the Castle Kitchen.

The initial photo of the sparkly kitchen really sold us on this house. But this is what we prefer our kitchen to look like:

Full of food and people we love.

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Lunches I Packed August 28-September 1, 2023

September 5, 2023 by Laura 6 Comments

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Here are the school lunches I packed last week for my kids!

Your school lunch questions answered:

I try to pack a variety, only packing sandwiches on Fridays for what we call “Fun Friday” lunches with sandwich, chips, and a sweet treat. The kids have a lot of fun knowing that every day’s lunch will be different each time!

School Lunches I Packed August 28-September 1, 2023

1. Monday: Pizza, peaches, pickles, pineapple, and pistachios

The kids and I had a fun time choosing foods that all started with the letter P. It started with pizza and peaches, then we just went with it. ;)

2. Tuesday: Yogurt, granola bites, banana, and a “Spinach Muffin“

This was a fun change – to pack more of a breakfast-y type of lunch. There was a little banana mess smooshed into the bottoms of both lunch bags when they got home. But there’s almost always some sort of mess at the end of each school day. :)

3. Wednesday: Hotdog in a thermos, ketchup, veggies with dips, applesauce, oatmeal bar

I had never tried this before, but it worked well!

I cut four hotdogs into bites and cooked them in water. I put the steaming hotdog bites into their thermoses and instructed them to pour them into the lid of their thermos for easy access at lunchtime. They said it worked great!

4. Thursday: Cottage cheese, pineapple (Brayden), peaches (Kiya), cucumbers (Brayden), Spinach Muffin (Kiya), and Banana Muffin (Brayden)

This one took a tiny bit more time to pack simply because I was putting together different items based on their preferences. But the muffins were already in the freezer so all I had to do was grab them out and put them into containers (to keep them from becoming squished in the lunch bag).

5. Fun Friday: PB&J or Turkey and Cheese sandwich, chips of their choice, grapes, wafer cookie

I had picked up several bags of chips on big discount at Aldi last week so the kids had fun choosing what kind they wanted in their Friday lunch.

Have you packed anything fun in your kids’ lunchboxes recently? Share your ideas!

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Big Family Food and Fun: August 27-September 2, 2023

September 3, 2023 by Laura Leave a Comment

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Our Big Family Food and Fun this week included weekend company, a birthday celebration, and a church party…

Big Family Food and Fun: August 27-September 2, 2023

Sunday morning as I was getting the three little girls dressed, they suddenly started to be twirly and dancy and huggy. I started snapping pictures and they started posing and I got so many cute and giggly photos!

Breakfast that morning – before they were dressed so that we didn’t destroy clean outfits – was leftover goodies I’d made last week: Banana Bread and Chewy Granola Bars.

We planned to stay at church for lunch that day, so I packed up grapes, nacho dip/chips, and brownies to share. (I also took a loaf of banana bread I’d made in hopes that our friend who just had a new baby might be there. She was there! New Baby is precious, and I stuck the loaf of bread into her stroller for her to take home and enjoy.)

Lunch that day was a crazy fun Parking Lot Party after church. There were 150+ who stuck around after church to eat, visit, and play.

We’d taken our Shaved Ice Machine and Elias filled cup after cup for everyone at the party. Take a look below at the precious baby in the yellow dress standing by her brother’s leg. She stood there for the longest time, just being with him while he worked. Josie sure does love her brother. :)

That evening we met up with friends at a park. I packed a picnic (cheese, crackers, mandarin oranges, pistachios, and juice) but only got one picture the entire night! We were having too much fun visiting and playing.

Monday morning we ate more of the same (I had made a HUGE batch of the granola bars), plus apples with this special cheese.

Lunch was leftover 3-Cheese Spaghetti. Dinner was a dish I’d made ahead of time here. I dumped it into the crock pot at lunch time, turned it on low, and it was bubbly at dinnertime. We ate it as a chip dip with watermelon.

Tuesday morning Brayden had tests at school so he informed me that he needed “good sleep and a good breakfast.” I made cheese eggs and sausage (while an unnamed toddler was tantruming on the floor – part of her typical morning routine as we try to help her learn to regulate her emotions).

I got out strawberries and Orange Muffins that I had frozen and thawed.

After we walked Brayden and Kiya to school, we came home and did some cleaning. Anna and Josie “helped” by getting a hand broom and dust pan. The effectively spread around everything I’d swept up and made me do the work twice. ;) But I love that they want to help and that they are learning.

Meanwhile, Matt was upstairs using a power sander in one of our third floor suites that we are getting ready to rent out.

Elias and Malachi helped me with the five littlest all morning since Matt was upstairs working. I actually got quite a bit done in the kitchen that morning since the two guys were chasing kids for me. I made these 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies (multiplying the recipe x6) so that we can eat some now and have cookies in the freezer to use as needed later.

At lunchtime, I cleaned leftovers out of the fridge for all of us to eat. Unfortunately, I left the corn cooking too long and all the water steamed off so the bottoms got blackened. The kids were not impressed. ;)

I had to take BabyBoy#11 to a doctor appointment that afternoon, so before we left I put everything for this recipe into a crock pot (I even managed to plug it in AND turn it on. Go me.)

That evening I plated and bagged all the cookies I had made so now we have four bags of frozen 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies ready to pull out and use as needed.

Wednesday was a bit of a blur. But for dinner that night I made two griddles full of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with an air fryer full of French fries. I also made a bowl full of Strawberry Fluff which the kids loved.

After we got the kitchen cleaned up that night, we drove to the zoo and walked around the garden they feature just outside the zoo. We hadn’t had a chance to do that yet so it was extra special to do this just before bedtime.

Thursday morning after we walked Brayden and Kiya to school, we loaded up the youngest five kids and headed to Aldi. Phew, we filled two carts and that was just with children, ha. Somehow we managed to also put food into our carts, getting our Aldi favorites: whole milk yogurt, whole milk cottage cheese, whole milk, three varieties of bagels, hoagie buns, apple juice, pear cups in 100% juice, and three varieties of cheese slices.

I don’t always like to buy produce at Aldi, but they had really good prices that day and the quality looked better than usual. I bought bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, pears, two varieties of organic apples, grapes, blueberries, and four bags of salad mixes. I also found a 5-pound roast for $1.99/pound so I grabbed it. Chips were on sale for $0.99/bag so I got six bags.

This is what it looks like when the Coppingers “run into Aldi for a few things.”

I ended August with a whopping $1,780 grocery spending total – more than I’ve ever spent that I can remember. I’d feel bad about it except that I don’t – not even a little bit. We went under budget for several months in a row before this month and we had a lot of extra food needs this month. God provides, we make the wisest choices that we can, and we feed a lot of people. Praise God for His provision!

—> This is the grocery budget number I shoot for, but as always, I realize that I may need to make adjustments and increase the number. Stay tuned. <—

It felt so good to have so much fresh fruit on hand again!

I snapped this photo of the third floor room Matt’s been working on all week. Here’s the floor, half-way finished. So gorgeous!

Thursday afternoon our sweet friends, Steven and Barbara, dropped off two lovely loaves of banana bread for us – all sliced and ready to eat!

It was Acacia’s birthday so I put 12 burgers on the grill plus 14 brats.

I made a birthday cake, poking holes into it and pouring pudding into the holes, then topping it with whipped cream. The only thing I made from scratch was the whipped cream. Boxed cake mix and pudding mix for the win this time. :)

She may have turned three, but she’s already mother hen to this baby chick as we try to help him gain strength to sit on his own.

Some of our big kids were able to join us for dinner so I set out a spread of brats and burgers, chips, and fruit.

She figured out how to blow out the candles. :)

Keith was so excited to hand Acacia her gift – a little purse I’d found on clearance for $3.00. She loved it and has been carrying it around everywhere!

Friday morning we enjoyed Ms. Barbara’s banana bread with yogurt and blueberries.

After we got the kids off to school, Matt and Elias headed to York to work and Malachi helped me take the kids to Costco. I didn’t need to shop, I just needed customer service as I had noticed that the last time I was there they rang up four cases of diapers when, in fact, I had only purchased three. Since it was a $45 discrepancy, I felt it was worth getting credit back. Thus, going to Costco became our morning outing. :)

The boys started to get restless so Malachi walked around with Keith and BabyBoy#11 while I got the bill figured out with Customer Service.

Then we had a special treat of Costco Pizza. It was mostly a mess (like, a 12-15 wet wipes to clean up the pizza sauce mess). But it was fun for everyone and $6 took care of that day’s lunch!

As we were loading everyone back into the cart to head out to the van, Little-Mama-Acacia started to rub BabyBoy#11’s back. Goodness, the sweetness.

That night Malachi threw Sam’s Orange Chicken into the air fryer, and I got out cold watermelon and two bags of salad mix from Aldi. It was easy and hit the spot!

When Matt and Elias arrived back at home, they had our former foster son, age 4, with them to spend the weekend. Everyone was overjoyed to be back together!

The kids played and played outside that evening. I thought they might need a little something to eat to fill their bellies before bed, so I took grapes and cheese outside. They all thought that was a good plan. :)

Some dear friends arrived Friday night to visit for the weekend! For breakfast on Saturday, I set out banana bread and muffins, yogurt, blueberries, bananas, and made sausage and tator tots. Brayden had requested hashbrowns but I was out so we decided that tator tots were the same thing. ;)

The kids asked to play cards that morning, and this was the result. Ugh.

We packed up a big picnic for lunch and headed out to the Splash Park for one last hoorah before it closed for the season.

I wasn’t sure I had enough lunch meat left in my packages, so I threw together a container of tuna salad real quickly.

I smoked two pork loin for dinner that evening and served them with green beans, watermelon, buttered and toasted hoagies leftover from lunch, and Cream Cheese Corn. Meals like these are my favorite!!

After dinner, we took our friends on a walk to our beloved Sunken Gardens. Aww, there’s our Kellie with her baby boy. We became friends with Kellie and Ben while they were students at YU. They spent a lot of time at our house during those days and became a part of our family. Now here they are with a baby of their own. It was amazing to have a weekend with them!

Here we are in September, heading from summer into fall. We’re going to soak up every last bit of nice weather while it’s here!

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3 Big Fat Costco Essentials

August 30, 2023 by Laura 1 Comment

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During one of my last grocery shopping trips, I realized that I rely on 3 big fat Costco essentials. I can’t ever run out of these!

Indeed, I’m talking about actual fat. Healthy fats that cost less at Costco and are essentials at my house.

My 3 Big Fat Costco Essentials

Here they are, in no particular order. Ah, phooey. Who am I kidding? Of course they are in order. Butter is my favorite, hands down.

1. Butter

Now that we have such a large household, I find that we go through butter very quickly. We bake with it often and spread it on all of our muffins and breads.

Costco butter comes in a 4-pound-pack and currently costs just $2.87/pound. I haven’t found it for this low anywhere else I’ve shopped. I usually buy two 4-packs each time I shop (once or twice each month) so that I always have a couple pounds in my fridge and extras to grab from my freezer.

What do I make with butter?

Well, how long do you have?! These are some of our very favorites:

Homemade Graham Crackers
Sweet and Simple Butter Cookies
Garlic Butter Shrimp
Stick-of-Butter Rice is incredible and worth a huge mention (though I have recently admitted that I sometimes skip the butter in this recipe in an effort to save money, ha)
Easy {Low} Sugar Cookies
Low Sugar Lemon Melt-Away Cookies
Low Sugar Almond Melt-Away Cookies
Low Sugar Orange Melt-Away Cookies
Low Sugar Lime Melt-Away Cookies
Easy Butterscotch Bars
And then slather butter over any of these muffins and bread recipes

2. Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has been a staple at our house since I discovered its wonderful health benefits in 2005. We use it on our skin and in our recipes.

I love this 2.48 L tub from Costco for just $14.89. What an inexpensive way to get a lot of healthy fat into our diet!

What do I make with Coconut Oil?

These recipes are such good treats and made with this wonderful, healthy fat.

3. Olive Oil

I use olive oil for cooking more than I do for baking, and this Organic Kirkland Olive Oil from Costco is my favorite. It is only $14.79 for a 2 Liter bottle and it lasts a long time, even at my house!

What do I make with Olive Oil?

Here are some of our olive oil favorites:

Cake in a Crock Pot (you can hide spinach in this!)
Seasoned Potato Wedges
Bacon Chicken Pasta
Easy Veggie Stir-Fry
Homemade Pita Bread
Roasted Asparagus
BLT Chopped Salad
Simple Three Cheese Spaghetti
Crock Pot Shredded Ranch Chicken
Simple Cheesy Baked Chicken
Homemade Italian Salad Dressing

Extra Fats

Beyond these healthy cooking and baking fats, we love full fat sour cream, cottage cheese, whole milk, 4% milk fat yogurt, meat, avocados, nuts, nut butters, and cheese.

What are your favorite healthy fats?

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School Lunches I Packed August 21-25, 2023

August 29, 2023 by Laura Leave a Comment

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We pack lunches for our kids to take to school each day. Here’s a look at the lunches I packed last week:

School Lunches I Packed August 21-25, 2023

1. Monday: Beanie Weanies

This was so easy as I opened a can of baked beans, cut leftover hotdogs, and put it all into a pan with a squirt of ketchup. I heated it to bubbly, then put it into the kids’ thermoses.

I packed them an applesauce cup, spoon, and an Orange Muffin to go with their Beanie Weanies. They loved this lunch!

2. Tuesday: Cheese and Crackers

I had hoped this would be a cheater lunch, but when I gave the kids a choice of one of these ready-made Cheese and Cracker Packs from Costco, Kiya told me that she didn’t like either of them. I decided not to fight it, even though I knew she could have toughed it out and I put Brayden’s packet choice into his bag and created one for Kiya with our cheese and crackers. I added a baggie of pepperoni to Brayden’s and a rolled up piece of ham in Kiya’s. Then cucumbers for Brayden and pickles for Kiya and a peach cup for both!

3. Wednesday: Meat and Spinach Roll-Up

I slathered two tortillas with mayo, then added cheese, turkey, and spinach to Brayden’s and ham and spinach to Kiya’s. I scooped watermelon chunks into containers and packed it all with a fork.

Ah, and a napkin. The mayo got messy when I rolled up the tortillas so I knew the kids would get extra messy when they ate these. :)

4. Thursday: Chicken Salad and Crackers

I had made chicken salad for a different meal so I put leftover salad into containers for the kids for their lunch. Plus I put crackers into a different container for them to eat with their chicken salad. (If I put crackers into a baggie, they get crushed in their lunch bags.) I packed cucumbers for Brayden, pickles for Kiya, and an applesauce squeezie for both.

5. Fun Friday: Sandwich, Chips, and a Treat

This is the day I pack a sandwich, chips, and a little something sweet for the kids. Today’s sandwiches were PB&J, fritos were the only chips I had on the shelf, and the mini wafer cookies I’d picked up at Costco. I thought the fruit strip would be an extra special treat, but Brayden “didn’t like his but choked it down.” Ha. Alrighty then.

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That Time I Didn’t Buy Any Produce at Costco

August 28, 2023 by Laura 3 Comments

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What?? I didn’t buy any produce at Costco? How did that happen?

I guess I didn’t need any that day. This is bizarre because I have a terrible time keeping up with fresh produce at our house. We eat fresh greens like crazy (well, we drink them, actually) and we go through fresh veggies and fruit by the ton.

Bananas, berries, grapes, apples, pears, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, salad mixes, spinach, spring mix, kiwi, melon, broccoli, potatoes, oranges – I always get so much produce that I could almost fill an entire Costco cart with produce every time I go. But then there was…

That Time I Didn’t Buy Any Produce at Costco

Last week, I went into Costco, loaded an orange flat cart with items, and not one of those items was from the fresh produce section. Did I just get a couple of items that day? HAHAHA. No, I wish. My cart looked like this, and I got what I went in for and then some.

I mainly went in for cases of diapers, toilet paper, and other non-food items. But then I kept finding food staples on sale because so much is discounted right now during Back-to-School season. Knowing that I didn’t need most of those items now, but that I could buy them at a discount and freeze them for later – I kept piling up more onto my cart.

Did this make me go over my grocery budget this month? Oh yes it did. But will it save me in the long run? Absolutely it will. Plus, it feels really good to be so stocked up right now. This frees me to focus more on helping our kids as they transition into our new school routine. (Our kids’ past trauma makes every transition more intense. Gimme that frozen pizza.)

So hooray. I’m all stocked up!

Except for the produce.

I already had a lot of fresh produce at our house at the time of this particular shopping trip, so I didn’t think twice. Until two days later when – well of course. We’ve eaten up almost all of our fresh produce. (We do have a beautiful abundance of wonderful tomatoes and squash from friends’ and neighbors’ gardens!)

Looks like I’ll be heading back soon, making my August grocery bill even larger. As of today, I’ve hit a whopping $1553 for the month. (This is the grocery budget we shoot for with 11 people at our house.) I’ve gone way over, but there are other months I’ve been under, so it all evens out. Also? We need to eat. I have to buy food. And I strive to be wise with every purchase. :)

Stay tuned for our final August budget number – and to see what my next cart full of produce looks like!

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Big Family Food and Fun: August 20-26, 2023

August 27, 2023 by Laura 5 Comments

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Our big family food and fun this week revolved around our new school routine and extremely hot temperatures.

First, let’s all be blessed to see these two amazing brothers in the matching outfits I found on clearance at Sam’s. Sweet score!

And now onto the food and fun!

Big Family Food and Fun: August 20-26, 2023

Now, if you recall, last week I forgot to plug in the crockpot when I made dinner to leave for Asa, Eva, Elias, and Malachi to feed all the littles when Matt and I went out for our anniversary. So this week, while making a big Sunday Lunch for guests, I was very intentional about plugging in not one but three crock pots. There, my job is done. Lunch will be perfect. I sent this picture to Eva to show that I’d learned from my mistake.

But alas, when we arrived home from church to finish lunch prep, there sat my smallest crock pot. It had been plugged in. But had its owner turned it on? No she had not.

Well shucks. Can’t win ’em all I guess. Lunch that day was a big Nacho Bar, and the cold crock pot was fully cooked taco meat that was supposed to be warm by the time we got home. Nothing a skillet can’t fix in five minutes, right?!

I forgot to take pictures of our fully set out Nacho Bar with it’s chicken, beef, cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, salsa, sour cream, spinach, and chips. It was a tasty lunch! And here’s a picture of the mess after lunch.

Humidity and temps were high that day (and all week) so dinner that night was leftover burgers from last week, rewarmed on the stove plus bowls of cottage cheese with pineapple.

We ate outside, not because the weather was pleasant, but because the kids were all wet. Matt had set up our little pools and a sprinkler for them. We let them all just get wet in their clothes instead of changing to swimsuits. My laundry pile is big enough as it is. :)

Monday morning I made a griddle full of Eggs in a Nest. These are a favorite of our kids! Except for this particular day, two of my kids declared that they didn’t like them. Ugh. I guess these don’t taste good on Mondays?? (Meanwhile, Kiya ate three of them. No one can predict who will eat what.)

I made Beanie Weanies and packed it in Brayden and Kiya’s thermoses for lunch. I left the remainder of the mixture in the pan to rewarm for the four littles at home for lunch.

For dinner that night, I made simple quesadillas with leftover chicken, cheese, and spinach.

We ate them with grapes and we ate in shifts. Everyone was hot and tired after a big, hot day at school. I finished making the quesadillas but then I needed to feed the baby so I just threw food out on the table and let everyone come eat as they realized it was ready. :)

After everyone ate, Matt got the sprinkler set up again so everyone could cool down.

After they played for a while, I brought out some Go-gurts I had frozen. Now, not only were the kids wet and covered in dirt and grass, they were also sticky. Meh, no biggie. We hosed them all down before heading in for the night. :)

Tuesday morning, we ate yogurt and granola before school. After we delivered Brayden and Kiya to the school door, Matt and I walked back with the five littlest and made a plan to find some kind of air conditioned play place so that we could get the kids out of the house. It was 106 degrees that day, but we were going stir crazy. I packed a snack of animal crackers, cheese sticks, and grapes and we loaded up and headed out.

We checked out a fun play place at a church north of town. It’s open to the public all day long. Very cool!

The kids loved running around and playing! Then we sat them down to “snack” on what sort of become their lunch. (Keith and Anna’s bus picks them up for preschool a little after noon, so we feed them early.)

Once we were home and got Keith and Anna sent off to school, Acacia, Josie, and BabyBoy#11 played in the living room while Matt and I dug into the fridge for leftovers for our own lunch. We’ve been given lots of lovely fresh garden produce from church friends and neighbors, and the tomatoes right now are amazing! I warmed up a leftover burger from last week and cut it up with a fresh tomato. Of course we also had our smoothies. ;)

The thought of cooking was not pleasant since it was 106 that day, so I made Chicken Salad Sandwiches with spinach. I cut up a cold watermelon and that was a very refreshing side dish!

After we ate, we took the kids for a surprise treat. We needed another indoor, air-conditioned outing so we found a McDonald’s with an actual Play Place (remember how we tried this before and got let down?!).

We especially loved the cool interactive light table!

Matt downloaded the McD’s app to see what deals we could get. He paid for two cups of ice cream to share and got a free large fry. The kids LOVED this! This amount was perfect for our littles to share, and I think he spent about $5 for everything. And phew, we made it through another hot night with the kids.

Wednesday morning I made eggs, sausage, and toasted buttered bagels for breakfast. Matt headed to York to work on our properties and Elias became my side-kick for the day.

We got Brayden and Kiya to school. Then while Elias stayed in the house with BabyBoy#11, I (bravely or ridiculously?!) took all four of the others outside to “help” me wash our van. It needed a good scrub and getting wet on this super hot day sounded like a good idea.

Keith (age 4) was put in charge of the hose. The girls got washrags to help me scrub. It actually all went quite well for about half and hour. We were all drenched (thank you, Keith) and the van wasn’t perfect but looked better than it did. So we decided it was a win.

We hosed everyone off, changed into dry clothes, drank lots of water, and ate leftover quesadillas cold out of the fridge. Then we put on shoes and went to the library to play with their learning toys. Why did we do this? Air. Conditioning. Plus toys that are different from the toys at our house.

BabyBoy#11 isn’t yet sitting up but this was a good spot to practice.

Three out of five kids melted down before we got all the toys picked up at the library. “Librarian Diane” was absolutely beautiful in how she came and helped. She magically got all three little girls on board to help her pick up blocks while Elias and I dealt unsuccessfully with Keith who was beyond tired. We made it home and tucked all five in for naps. (Preschool was canceled because of the extreme heat. Good timing as these kids needed make-up naps after their big transition into school.)

Dinner that night was straight from the freezer because Mama was tired. I threw nuggets and fries into the air fryer and made a blender full of these smoothies so the kids could drink some spinach with their processed food. ;)

For breakfast Thursday morning, I made this recipe for Chewy Granola Bars x5. These were a huge hit (though we had to eat them in bowls with spoons because I didn’t make them in time to refrigerate/harden them).

Later in the day, after the bars had been in the fridge for several hours, I cut and transferred them to a Pyrex dish for easy-to-grab breakfasts and snacks.

We spent a good part of our morning with one of our Early Development specialists. Our littlest kids, ages 0-3, are serviced by this team for early intervention so that we can get ahead of some of their extra needs. This has been such a gift for our family. Today Keith, Anna, Acacia, and Josie all hovered around the specialist, Bridgette, who had captured their attention with a game. I snuck this picture of them all because they were all being so sweet and fun!

Right after this meeting ended, I had to run off to the elementary school for yet another meeting for another of our kids. As much as we loved our homeschooling years and are prayerfully open to homeschooling again if God leads us to do it, we are so very thankful for all of the necessary resources that the public schools offer for our family to meet our needs right now. We were so cared for in York and we are now being very well cared for in Lincoln.

I got home in time for lunch, frying leftover baked potatoes and serving it with Sunday’s leftover nacho dip and taco meat. I also got out grapes for the kids to ~~squish all over everything~~ eat to their hearts’ content.

The kids are all home from school by 4:00 or a little after, and we sit at the table to get homework done right away so we can get it over with. :/

I’ve found that everyone is super hungry by 4:30 and snacks aren’t going to cut it. So at this point, I’m making very early dinners and then giving everyone a small snack around 6:30 before we start getting ready for bed.

That night I had planned to make a simple meal of this 3-Cheese Spaghetti. But while looking in my freezer for parmesan cheese to go with the recipe, I came across a package of shrimp. Ah, that would be good with the noodles! So I turned the 3-Cheese Spaghetti over to Elias and I made Garlic Butter Shrimp, which was a pretty exciting addition to our meal! I grabbed out bacon crumbles for people to stir into their cheesy spaghetti if they preferred that instead of shrimp, plus made buttered peas and got out watermelon.

Dinner was over by 5:00, haha, so while I worked on dishes, I sent Brayden out to set up the sprinkler for everyone. Today was supposed to be the last of the 106 degree weather, and we knew water was the only way to make it through.

I had corn on the cob in the fridge that we’d bought over the weekend at the farmer’s market and I was concerned that it would go bad if we didn’t get it prepped to eat soon. So after they’d played in the water for a while and cooled off, I took the corn out and had everyone help me get it shucked.

Not understanding that the corn needed to be cooked, Josie and Acacia got excited and helped themselves. ;)

The kids went back to their water play, a neighbor stopped by for a visit, and I somehow managed to give Brayden a much-needed hair cut before we headed in for the night.

Friday morning we had cereal and some of the Chewy Granola Bars I had made the day before. Brayden had to be at school early because he gets to take part in a Ukulele Ensemble – so fun! Lunch was PB&J, which I always forget to add to our menu and always wonder why I don’t make them more often. But then again, the girls get super messy when eating them so…

Dinner was extra fun because some dear friends came and joined us for the evening. We made the corn on the cob plus a big pot of Stir Fry. (We’ve been so blessed with friends sharing their garden produce with us!)

We’d picked up a cantaloupe at the Farmer’s Market and it was extra sweet.

Breakfast on Saturday morning was French Toast made like this – always a hit!

The temps had finally cooled down, so I took advantage by doing some much-needed (or much-wanted, ha) baking. I thawed all the bananas I’d stashed in our freezer and made this Banana Bread/Muffin recipe x4. I also baked a quadruple batch of these Brownies to share at a church fellowship lunch.

We had big plans for an outing that morning, but the plans got derailed by some immediate issues Matt needed to work on at our Castle. It’s such a fabulous place, but it is a historic home, so the age of the house brings with it some issues. Good thing Matt’s so handy!

The change of plans did not set well with our kids, so while Matt was dealing with house issues, I was dealing with behavior issues. Blech. I’m so thankful for God’s provision for us. I have to rely on Him constantly.

Three hours of exhaustion later, and an hour later than planned, we were able to load up and get out the door. Matt and I were both a bit frazzled, but the outing needed to happen so that the kids had a change of scenery. We went to a super cool “Wordstock” literacy event at a park – everything revolved around reading and books.

There were games on the lawn, and of course, everyone got to take home a new book.

They also all got a balloon. Somehow we managed to get all the balloons home without one blowing away or popping?!?!

I had cooked – wait – I had burned some hotdogs in a big pot before we left (who burns hotdogs??). It sort of worked to hide the black parts by putting them burnt-side down. ;)

We ate them at the park after enjoying Wordstock.

Naptime/Rest time was a welcome event for the parents after a morning with extra needs. :) That afternoon, Matt and I worked together to finish that morning’s house issue project while the kids rested and napped.

Oh, but were they napping??? Or were they just dangerously quiet?

Ah, the face of “innocence.”

I used a pizza kit I had picked up at Costco, along with some sausage I had browned to make pizza that night.

I had browned three pounds of sausage, because why just cook what you need for one meal when you can dirty the same amount of dishes and get extra food cooked for the future?

We bathed the three little girls (Anna’s marker turned the water blue), jammied them up, then took a walk to the Sunken Gardens before bedtime.

We got everyone to bed (after making sure all the markers and pens were properly hidden from toddlers and preschoolers). What a week! God is good and faithful. Hope your week was a good one!

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5 Lunches I Packed for My Kids’ First Week of School

August 23, 2023 by Laura 3 Comments

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Since I share all the other food we eat at our house, I thought it might be fun to share the lunches I packed for my kids’ first week of school.

First, here’s why I pack a lunch for my kids to take to school. This works best for us and I feel good about what they are eating each day.

5 Lunches I Packed for My Kids’ First Week of School

Monday I packed them a container of cottage cheese, a peach cup, a baggie of pistachios, and a fun Bobo’s muffin from Costco. This can all be put together ahead of time. In the morning before they put their bags into their backpack, I throw in an ice pack to keep everything cold.

Tuesday they were thrilled to see that I was sending Leftover Mac and Cheese rewarmed and put into thermoses with grapes and a chocolate cupcake with hidden spinach.

Wednesday I made Cream Cheese Salsa Dip which I put into a container and sent along with a baggie of tortilla chips, carrots with dip, and an applesauce squeezie.

Thursday was leftover Tuna Salad that we’d eaten a few evenings before (I made extra that night for this purpose!). I sent a container with crackers for them to eat with their tuna, plus a container of grapes. For Kiya, I sent a chocolate cupcake with hidden spinach. Brayden has become obsessed with cucumbers this summer so I sent him a baggie of sliced cucumbers.

On Fridays last year we started having Fun Friday Lunch. This is the only day I send a sandwich and chips with the kids. Usually I add a sweet treat on Fridays too.

This week, I intended to make Homemade Uncrustables but didn’t get to it. So instead I made a regular PBJ for Kiya and a Turkey and Cheese sandwich for Brayden. I put a few Fritos into snack-sized bags for them, plus sent them a peach cup and a Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar.

It was a fun week of lunches and the kids came home with empty lunch boxes each day! Well, empty except that I ask them to put all their trash back into their bags to bring home so that nothing gets accidentally thrown away (like ice packs and spoons) and so that I can see what they ate and what is working!

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