Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: January 26-February 1, 2025 post!
On Saturday, January 25, we were all still recovering from a longggggg week of Influenza. Kiya was the only kid who didn’t get hit with it, and she was very helpful since I was laid up on the couch for so many days. She mixed together some Tuna Salad for our lunch on Saturday.
For dinner that night, I slowly managed to make Spaghetti. I’m not much of a fan of pasta, but as my appetite came back after not eating much for days and even weeks (because we’d had a stomach bug before Influenza), Spaghetti sounded really good to me. All of our littlest kids really like noodles, so even if they didn’t want sauce, they gobbled down plates full of noodles with Parmesan cheese along with Green Beans or Corn.
Malorie started her semester of online classes, and I walked into the kitchen that evening to find Acacia learning Anatomy with her. :)
Big Family Food and Fun: January 26-February 1, 2025
Sunday morning, I made a pot of Tapioca Pudding because again, it sounded really good. We stayed home from church that morning because our coughs were pretty bad and we didn’t want our kids to spread germs.
Lunch was easy because a week ago after our Burrito Bar, I’d stirred together this Burrito Casserole. I slid it into the oven to bake the last part of the morning, plus put the last of our White Queso into a small slow cooker to warm up. We all either made Smothered Burritos or enjoyed the casserole as a chip dip. We got out salsa and guacamole to go with this too – I’d just forgotten to get those out yet when I took this picture.
Dinner was fun because at Christmas time, we’d been given a gift certificate to daVinci’s. We used it Sunday night to order pizzas. Plus Matt made a small cheese pizza for the kids who wouldn’t want fancy pizza.
Monday was a refreshing restart. All six school kids were well enough to go back to school – something that hasn’t happened since before Christmas break, phew! As an added bonus, the day was sunny with temps in the 50’s.
My energy was still very low so we didn’t do much that day besides REST after all the kids left for school and Auggie went down for a nap.
I filled a crock pot with Cheeseburger Soup for our dinner, which was a hit with everyone and we finished all of it.
Tuesday morning, Auggie had both a Speech Therapy appointment and a Neurology appointment. It was the first I’d been out of the house in over a week. I ate a Breakfast Sandwich between appointments in an effort to be filled with protein to make it through the morning.
We had a box of bacon in the fridge that we needed to be finished off, so that afternoon, I baked 8 pans of bacon. I wiped out the last of the box, and we ate bacon that night for dinner stirred into Mac and Cheese with either Peas or Steamed Broccoli. This provided us with a lot of cooked bacon in our fridge for grown-ups to warm up for breakfast or lunches as needed.
This week, Malachi moved back in with us! He’s been living across town in an appointment with his cousin. But they both decided to make a shift so Malachi is back. We are all (Malachi included) very excited about this!
Both Little Sweetheart and Arrow have been able to come over this week per their usual schedule of spending time with Lolli and Pop. Here’s Arrow enjoying a (plastic) donut. After all, grandparents are supposed to give their grandkids lots of sweets, or so I hear? ;)
Dinner on Wednesday evening was Meatball Subs with buns and cheese, Pickles, and Pineapple Fluff. All the kids ate very well that night, something I’m so thankful for after our very rough month.
Thursday morning, I made a pan of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars and scrambled a dozen eggs with cheese.
Mashed potatoes sounded good, so the kids took turns “helping me” peel potatoes before leaving for school. They were so excited about this job, but as it turns out, peeling potatoes is harder than they thought. At least they were willing to try. :)
With so many kids’ needs, I finally finished the potatoes mid-morning (took three hours from start to finish, ha) and got them into the crock pot to cook all day. I also pulled out ground chicken from the freezer to make Chicken Cheeseballs for dinner later.
That afternoon, I made two pans of Chicken Cheeseballs. I froze one for another time and baked one for dinner.
This was such a tasty meal: Chicken Cheeseballs, Mashed Potatoes, and Buttered Peas.
Friday morning Anna helped me load the dishwasher. She loved feeling grown up doing this job for me. She even got to push the buttons to run it when she was finished.
It was another gorgeous day outside, so kids played after school and soaked up some sun.
I had picked up a lot of fresh produce at the store that afternoon, so we had a fruit plate with Burgers for dinner that night.
I had found slider-sized burgers marked down at Sam’s a few weeks ago, and they are perfect for our crew since the little ones can’t eat a full-sized burger. We ate 17 out of 18 of these Burgers that night plus Baked Beans, Fruit, and Pickles.
Saturday morning I made Blender Pancakes – a rare treat at our house. I then spent the morning getting ready for the next day’s Sunday Lunch. I planned to bake one of our $10 hams, so I made a big pan of Party Potatoes to go with it. We were hoping for a large crowd, so I also made a small crock pot of Baked Beans and steamed Green Beans. I had Peanut Butter Brownies in the freezer, so I pulled those out for our Sunday dessert.
We ate leftovers for lunch that day in an effort to clean out the fridge. Brayden was excited to help me warm up spaghetti and meatballs.
We spent the rest of the day resting, cleaning, and heading into our Sabbath Saturday/Sunday. And that was our week!
