Pulling in the Reins

Although our family isn't as big as some, and is by no means a Duggar family, having 5 kids at home and hopefully more in the years to come does mean we budget and do things a little different than normal.
As our kids have gotten older we have realized that the 1# package of ground beef and small handful of spaghetti noodles to make dinner isn't enough anymore.  Last night for example my 6 year old ate 4 slices of pizza- equal to as much as my husband ate!  So we have not only had to adjust how much
food we prepare for meals, but also side dish compliments to help fill everyone up.  It has been a mental adjustment while shopping as well.  I'm always looking for a good deal and have recently gotten more cost-aware and bulk buying aware.

Luckily for us the majority of our kids are good healthy eaters and not very picky.  The flip side of this is having to rein in the amounts of certain foods they are allowed to have for budget's sake.  Oranges for example are one of the favorites at our house!  We've had to limit the kids to 1 orange a day.  Otherwise a huge bag of oranges would only last us 3 days or less.  At first you might think, why limit a healthy food? Not only because of the cost, but we also want them to have a balanced diet.  Since our family rarely buys any processed foods (mac & cheese and gogurts are about the only processed food types we buy) we make a lot of our meals from scratch and have a balanced healthy diet of all the food groups. 
So at our house we have the traditional go-to snacks of: apple, orange, banana, strawberries, yogurt, string cheese, carrots, and peanut butter on a spoon

sometimes we have or allow: homemade sweet bread such as banana, pumpkin, zucchini etc, crackers, homemade cookies/brownies or other treat.  If we have or allow these they are usually available after a healthy snack.

Other than a weekly pizza night we usually don't eat fast foods.  I think the balanced diet we provide for our family keeps us healthy.  Not to tempt fate but we rarely get sick.  It's been years since I've had to take any of my kids to the Dr. because they were sick.  Other than a small cold, occasional allergies or maybe the flu once a year we're a pretty healthy family.  This is in large part to our healthy eating choices I'm sure.

I challenge you to work on eliminating processed foods, fast foods, and reduce refined sugars as much as possible then add more fruits, veggies, and homemade meals and see how it affects your family for the better!

As I recover from my c-section I plan on getting back into the swing of more cooking, organizing, canning, and fun!  Please let me know if there is something you would like to learn more about and I will be happy to work on posts related.