With four growing children in the house constantly burning energy and seeking the opportunity to refuel their growing bodies, the challenge becomes keeping them fed in a healthy sustainable way.
Living off of $150 a week for food for six people including a thirteen year old boy who eats more than the other five people put together at every meal can be a challenge. Last year it was $120 but over the last year as food prices rose, out food budget was forced to rise with them.
We make 98% of our meals from scratch and work hard to avoid "snack foods" or prepackaged meals.
When we lived on the farm, I would put out platters of veggies for the children to graze on all day and recently, we have begun to revisit this idea. So, I buy the big 15lb bag of carrots and the children now know that carrots are the one thing that they can eat as much as they want of without worrying about running out. Where, before, I would come in to find that the precious bag of organic tortilla chips bought at Trader Joes for a week's worth of school snacks had been demolished, now I come in to find the chip bag in tact, carrot skins on the counter and contented children chomping away like a Looney Tunes episode just shy of the "What's up, doc?"
When we started laying out veggies for snack again, there was hemming and hawing about it- "WHAT!? Carrots? Apples? Raisins? AGAIN- that isn't snack- why can't we have potato chips like a normal family!?" and we simply would say "I think it is so nice to have such good food available all the time? I feel so lucky to have that, don't you?" and they would grumble a bit. But, it really didn't take long for them to realize that this was what was available for snacks and now it is second nature and I often come into the kitchen to find my son's hand in the carrot bag.
Now, it is chronic -- putting out plates of cut jicama, carrots, broccoli, apples, oranges, etc. I add little bowls of mixed nuts and seeds and some dried fruit (like dried plums- which I still cannot bring myself to think of as "prunes" without images of constipatees straining on honey-buckets filling my head). Sometimes, we will put out some homemade or even store-bought dressing for dipping or some almond or peanut butter. One of our personal favorites are crisp apple slices (like a Pink Lady or Honey Crisp) dipped in almond butter- serious yum!
The cheapest recently has been carrots and red delicious apples so there have been a lot of those but once in a while we want to make things a little special so we will get a jicama which the kids and I call "Earth Apples" because they taste like an earthy version of an apple to us. But sometimes, if we want to be extra fun with our snack- and if strawberries are in season, we will get some of these delectable sweeties and a little whip cream and make Gnome Beards.
To make this you take a strawberry, cut off the green and on that level flat area created by cutting off the green, you put a dollop of whip cream. If you are fast enough, you can flip the strawberry over so that the pointy end of the strawberry points up like a red gnome hat and the dollop of whip cream points down like a white fluffy gnome beard and it looks like a gnome whose beard has taken over his whole face and you pop it into your mouth before the cream drips!
This, of course, is super decadent and isn't usually something we do but it is still fun.
We easily go through 10lbs of carrots a week and at least that many pounds of apples. We stay on budget and we know that every time the children are hungry in between meal times, there is something that is healthy for them to put into those growing bodies.
I am sure that there are many families that do more elaborate snacks and I, myself, crave something naughty and delicious like Cape Cod potato chips but we do the best that we can with what we have.
$150 is a lot of money and when you take into consideration that the average family of 4 spends $800 a month on groceries and that our family of 6 spends around $650 and eats fresh, from scratch food- Earth Applies, carrots and raisins as regular snack foods makes not only nutritional sense but financial sense.
--Of course, when you feel decadent, there is no conversation starter quite like "I had Gnome Beards for snack today, what did you eat?"
The cheapest recently has been carrots and red delicious apples so there have been a lot of those but once in a while we want to make things a little special so we will get a jicama which the kids and I call "Earth Apples" because they taste like an earthy version of an apple to us. But sometimes, if we want to be extra fun with our snack- and if strawberries are in season, we will get some of these delectable sweeties and a little whip cream and make Gnome Beards.
To make this you take a strawberry, cut off the green and on that level flat area created by cutting off the green, you put a dollop of whip cream. If you are fast enough, you can flip the strawberry over so that the pointy end of the strawberry points up like a red gnome hat and the dollop of whip cream points down like a white fluffy gnome beard and it looks like a gnome whose beard has taken over his whole face and you pop it into your mouth before the cream drips!
This, of course, is super decadent and isn't usually something we do but it is still fun.
We easily go through 10lbs of carrots a week and at least that many pounds of apples. We stay on budget and we know that every time the children are hungry in between meal times, there is something that is healthy for them to put into those growing bodies.
I am sure that there are many families that do more elaborate snacks and I, myself, crave something naughty and delicious like Cape Cod potato chips but we do the best that we can with what we have.
$150 is a lot of money and when you take into consideration that the average family of 4 spends $800 a month on groceries and that our family of 6 spends around $650 and eats fresh, from scratch food- Earth Applies, carrots and raisins as regular snack foods makes not only nutritional sense but financial sense.
--Of course, when you feel decadent, there is no conversation starter quite like "I had Gnome Beards for snack today, what did you eat?"
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