What I think about when I bowl...

For our anniversary, The Elder purchased a Boogie Board for me. They use them at his work to take notes with and he thought I may enjoy one. What do I do with it? This is what I did at bowling while waiting for my turn. If I plan it out, I don't have to think in the morning.

Menu for Week 5 of Taking the "100 Days of Real Food" Mini Pledge (14 weeks)

Once again we have to plan at being at the hospital most of next week. I used several of the meals I made for The Elder's lunches for work. Hopefully surgery won't be canceled this week like it was last week.

Week 5: Try two new whole foods – Try a minimum of two new whole foods that you’ve never had before

I have tried many things in my time. Without going to a specialty store, I don't think I could easily find a whole food that I've never had. So, I am opting to interpret this in a different way. I think we will eat 2 whole foods that AJ or the FAMILY has never eaten. Honestly, that will be a lot easier. Although we have already tried several new things since we have started.

What are the 2 new whole foods? Eggplant and turnips. Yes, I know they are both vegetables. We tried lentils for the first time last week. Quinoa was already introduced to our diet. I am not introducing any new grains at this time because they can be costly for a family our size.

Meal plan is:

Eggplant Parmesan using homemade breadcrumbs, Pasta with sauce, and Swiss Chard.

Quinoa and Sweet Potato Enchilada Casserole and  Apple Dumpling Cinnamon Rolls. I will use coconut oil in place of the canola oil.

Chicken Stew with Turnips and Mushrooms. I may serve this with some quinoa or brown rice because The Elder is never full with "just soup".

Chicken Stir Fry over Brown Rice


Loaded Baked Potatoes - Bacon, Cheese, Salsa, Sour Cream... The difference is, I use raw bacon and bake it with the potato. Works out well. Serve broccoli on the side.

Chicken, Vegetable, and Brown Rice soup. I will use whatever vegetables come with the CSA basket this week. I know there will be Turnups, carrots, and some type of green. Plus I will add in some peas, green beans, and any other veggies I find in the freezer.

Pasties - I notice that the CSA this week is also suppose to have Rutabagas in it. There we go! A 3rd new whole food this week!  I will use butter instead of lard. I may make some with chicken too and use them for lunches or to go into the freezer. Maybe add Parsnips?

They wear pjs on Sunday bowling nights.

For lunches, we will eat some Pasties and anything else I have time to make or space to pack. Otherwise we will eat in the hospital cafeteria. Where will we keep it? We will either keep it at my parents house (20-25 minutes away) or in a one of the hospitality houses the hospital has. One we can reserve a room and the other is first come, first served with special consideration tot hose who drive further than others. We are about an hour away in good traffic, so we are low priority. The other one has rooms more often and you can reserve them. It also costs a little more a night. With both, you can only stay 5 days unless you are a NICU parent (Shirley no longer is in there) or another long term situation.

The minions will remain with Julie and eat whatever is easiest for her. We have some boxed foods (I know, I know) as well as plenty of freezer meals (ones I made). She actually specifically requested the boxed items because she always forgot to grab a freezer meal the night before or early in the day last time. Is it the best thing for the minions to eat? No. Still, this poor woman is taking care of 5 kids who are 7 and under. One is Autistic. So if she wants that to make the weeks she has here easier, then we can do that for a week.

I will still make the full sized meals above. That way we have some to take and we will have several more freezer meals to add to our stash. Who knows, maybe Julie will want to try one.

How it's going - Week 4 of Taking the "100 Days of Real Food" Mini Pledge (14 weeks)

Tokyo on the "computer bag".

It's only Tuesday and it's already been a unique week. I have to admit that I ate fast food (Jimmy John's) yesterday for lunch. No chips. I had tea to drink. I have no clue what sandwich I ate. I know it had mustard and some sort of meat and veg.

The Elder holding a fussy Shirley.

 We took Shirley in for her pre op testing yesterday. We had her xray done, they took vitals, I let them know she had an on and off stuffy nose. The nurse looked at her and said it was fine. The then sent in one of the surgeons who will be working on her heart. He went through things and then asked about if she was sick, cough, runny nose, fever... I told him she had an on and off runny nose (not bad) and then a green bugger popped out of her nose. That is not what we had been seeing prior, but it was there. That green little booger is what stalled her surgery. Since the surgery can wait a little bit if needed, they felt it was better to wait. If Shirley was put on a ventilator and she had a cold, it could become much worse. Not something you need when recovering from open heart surgery. Especially when you are just shy of 2 months old. Surgery has been rescheduled for next week.

Colonel Sanders moved her chair into her brothers' room.

 Once again we were caught off guard. What are we going to do? It's not easy for us to find care for the minions. Luckily Julie was able to change out her vacation days for the days needed next week (now minus one day).

We put a plea out to our friends and family for some help with week 2 of Shirley's stay. If I don't have to, I don't want to have to come home every night, stay till I can get the boys to school and come back home when they get out of school. We have had some friends come to our aid. Right now we are trying to piece that all together since some people can only do a few hours, some can only take 2, some 1, some can do an over night for one night. The Elder and I are very grateful. We are shooting for a back up plan of staying in the hospitality house the second week of our stay. Only because they can house all 7 of us. The school has agreed to make an exception for missed school and send homework home if it comes down to it. That will be last resort.

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 I did get several meals made for the trip. My Easy Lunchboxes lunch bag kept everything cold and it was still frozen solid when we arrived home. So I put it all (4 meals) in the freezer for next week.

Keeping our fingers crossed that the sniffles go away. I am not sure Julie's boss will be so understanding and nice if they have to reschedule it again.

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 Since my food budget was already used this week, I didn't want to buy more food. At the same time, I didn't want to use what I had because a lot of thought went into kinda healthy (and some not) food for the minions while we were gone. Luckily I have my CSA and the freezer meals still. Yes, I like to cook (some day's its a chore) and even while "resting" I would cook a few meals a week. So that is what is saving us this week.

Tonight we had Chicken Parmesan and CSA Kale.

The other meals will be

 Lentil "Loaf", Spaghetti Squash Au Gratin.  and Spinach

My local chicken for the week is a Whole chicken. So I will bake it and have CSA Squash with Baked Apples.

Chicken, CSA Carrot, Parsnip, and Veggie Noodle Soup. I will use the chicken carcass to make the broth.

Stuffed Pork Rolls (freezer meal) with Mashed Potatoes, and Carrots and Parsnips (CSA)

White Lasagna with Broccoli

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I suppose I should start thinking about next week... Try 2 whole foods I haven't had before. Umm... This shall be interesting. Since joining the CSA I have had food I have not had before. Swiss Chard and Celery Root. I never had Rainbow Lentils before. I picked those up at Sam's Club 2 weeks back. Coconut Oil. And there are a few others.  Looks like I will need to be looking for something that's easy to travel with.

I will have to think about that. I will be shopping Friday this week. I expect I should have meals figured out by then. I will also post what is in the containers below for dinners at the hospital for next week... Hopefully.





Oh Miss Shirley, No more ucky nose!

Update and Week 4 of Taking the "100 Days of Real Food" Mini Pledge (14 weeks)

Week 4: No fast food or deep-fried foods – No fast food or any foods that have been deep-fried in oil.

Normally this challenge would not be an issue, but this week it will be. The day this challenge starts (Mondays for me) we will be leaving for a 10 day stay at the hospital. 5 of those days we can stay on site at a hospitality house the hospital has. The rest will be spent either in limbo between home taking care of the minions, at the hospital (an hour from home), or sleeping at my parents' house (20 minutes past the hospital).

Ready to go to the cardiologist.

Wednesday was Shirley's cardiologist appt. They did a heart echo and noticed some changes as well as an obstruction in her heart. So we went from surgery being in another 4 months to being in 4-8 weeks. Shirley's cardiologist told us that he was going to review her case with the rest of the team and get back to us.

Later that night we received a call asking if we could come back into town to attend a surgical consult the next day.

Thursday afternoon for the surgical consult.

Thursday afternoon the surgeon came in and told us that things had progressed much quicker than anticipated. Shirley already took the medicine that helps with her valve. Her purple spells have become longer and harder to come out of and there were a few more things. The team felt that she was putting on weight well and they wanted to do the surgery soon. They felt it was in her best interests to not delay it. By soon they meant in 5 short days. The expected stay time is about 10 days.

Needless to say this was a bit unexpected. We went from shock to panic. The hospital Shirley will have her surgery at is an hour away by highway. What were we going to do with the other kids? This is pretty short notice. Luckily Julie was able to save the day again! She is able to cover 8 days of that time. We are extremely grateful. We don't have many options when it comes to people to care for the 5 other minions.


Back to the challenge:

With careful planning, we could meet this weeks challenge. Local meat (week 3) part would not come into play except for a meal, maybe 2. Although that was what we were doing anyway. I can still stay away form soda (week 2). I know The Elder won't. He likes his soda.

Another issue is storing things.  The hospitality house has a shared kitchen. I just don't want to be spending my normal amount of time in the kitchen when my daughter is in ICU (first few days) or then in her room. We can stay 5 days in the hospitality house. Then we can use my parents fridge to store meals for other days, but we will bring that days meals with us to the hospital.


Had I known sooner, I would have purchased some more Easy Lunchboxes. We have used them on car trips before and I know they stay closed and are sturdy. Although I think I will order some anyway and have them shipped to my parent house. I could use them for part 2 of our stay. In the mean time, we will use the few we have and pack larger containers with some food.



Now I need to figure out a meal plan that won't break the budget. I already hit budget with getting foods easier for my friend to prepare. My brain is drawing a blank. I figure I will use the salad bar in the cafeteria several times because it is an easy way to get fresh fruit and vegetables. I just don't want to often. We spent $50 a day eating while Shirley was in NICU when she was born. Not to bad, but it adds up. So does housing costs ($45 at the hospitality house, but we would rather pay it and be closer), and gas to and from my parents as well as home on days we need to go back to keep the kids covered near the end.

Tomorrow I hope to have a menu.

Week 3 menu planned out -

Learned from my mistake and planned what day we eat each meal.

I have finally figured out next week's menu. The problem was, I had shopped on Friday instead of on Saturday. I had made a rough plan since I knew what was going to be in my CSA basket. I lost my list. I realized it once I got to the store. I had no intention of packing the 3 girl back up once I was there. To keep in budget, there is no going back out unless it is under $5 total. So I won't plan on picking anything else up. I keep finding recipes where I am off just one ingredient that can't be just dropped or easily substituted. This is a little frustrating.

Sometimes a Lunchable becomes a bribe if we are out later than expected.

The goal is to USE my CSA vegetables to add to a current freezer meal or to use to make a meal. I don't want a lot of leftovers from the week before again. I had some from last week, more than I thought. I still have half my kale, half my brussel sprouts (becoming a snack now), my celery root (used for the soup this week), a few carrots (which I am now over run with), and 3 leeks.

Dinner:

Vegetable Noodle Soup with Chicken.
Using up those veggie from last weeks CSA. The goal was to not make meat the focal point. I think this work. Celery root, carrots, kale, parsnips, and some spinach.


Freezer Meal: Chicken Parmesan Casserole with whole wheat noodles. Broccoli. Swiss Chard with Parmesan Cheese. 
I won't be using the white wine in the Swiss Chard recipe.

Freezer Meal: Mu Shu Pork.
Add the cabbage that was given to us by a friend and some extra carrots.  The Elder will take leftovers for lunch.

Roasted Buttercup Squash with Bacon Pasta -
Whole milk will be used. I will use butter instead of olive oil. Also I will be using Parmesan cheese instead of Romano. Also I am unsure of what type of pasta will be used. I will use whatever I have in the pantry. Luckily I picked up some bacon for breakfast. I guess it will go for this instead.

Crockpot Creamy Fun-Guy Soup with homemade Whole Wheat Biscuits 
This will be Saturday when I go back to the Farmer's Market. I have everything but the mushrooms. I noticed a table with locally grown mushrooms. I had thought about picking some up, but decided not to since I had no plan for them and it would have used the last of my grocery money. I wish I had now. Oh well. I will not be using cream, just whole milk.

Vegan Lentil and Rice Loaf with Rosemary-Roasted Beets and Carrots
I am a little nervous about this one. Only the rice and carrots are part of our normal diet. I will serve this with PB&J served as back up (out of sight and served after dinner). I know I should not throw this curve ball at my family, especially with picky eaters and a child with ASD who has texture issues. I am not sure if he will eat it or not. We will try though. Sometimes I am surprised.  I will be using brown rice in this one. Also I think I will make patties as suggested in the comments. I think that would make it more appealing to my family.

Quinoa and Sweet Potato Enchilada Casserole.  Serve with some sort of Chicken or Beef. Avocado slices.
I know The Elder will be going nuts without his beloved meat by this point. So I will some how add some meat to this on the side.

Helping mama cook.

Lunches for the girls (and maybe daddy too):

Potato and leek soup.

Homemade Hash brown with Spinach and Carrot

Sweet Potato Corn Cakes
Made with no green onions and no cayenne pepper.

School Lunches:

Sandwiches with Apple Slices, Cheese Stick, and Carrots (hummus)

French Toast Dippers, Yogurt, and Apple Slices

Tortilla Chips, Salsa, Cheese Stick

Loving our green eggs!

Breakfast:

Homemade Hash brown with Spinach and Carrot

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

Green Eggs, Banana Bread Toast (Aunt Agnes made the bread) with Peanut Butter and Banana Slices.

This is what happens when you tell baby "No".

Our CSA for week 1/17

This is what came in our CSA box this week! Now, I have to admit that I still have some carrots and a celery root from last week.  It looks like I have some sort of a squash, carrots, apples, beets, sweet potatoes, swiss chard, and some sort of herb.

In hope of the minions taking more of an interest in food (or maybe to make my shopping expierence more chaotic), I allowed each child to pick out something at the indoor Farmer's Market. This is (mostly) what they chose. Baskets are 3 for $10. So each walker picked out one and then I picked out the potatoes and tomatoes. I had 2 minions pick apples and 2 pick carrots. Next week we will go for something new.

Random: Karl cutting out flashcards. Why? Because he wanted to and he asked me to include this.

My pack of 2 drumsticks walked off apparently.

The CSA once a month meat pick up also came today! Just in time for Week 3 of the 100 Days of Mini-Pledges. This chicken is raised local (a little over an hour away) and processed there. I decided we will use ONE of the chicken packages a week. Not a lot of meat when I use the thighs and the 2 drumsticks, but that is ok. The goal was for the meat to NOT be the center of attention. I am thinking soups for those 2 packages. We will still buy other meat as needed.

Tonight I will work out a menu... and a way to figure out how to store all this...

Week 3 announced - Taking the "100 Days of Real Food" Mini Pledge (14 weeks)

We are getting ready to start week 3 of the challenge.

• Week 3: Meat – All meat consumed this week will be locally raised (within 100-miles of your hometown). Meat consumption will also be limited to 3 – 4 servings this week, and when it is eaten meat will not be presented as the “focal point” of the meal. Instead meat will be treated as a side item or simply used to help flavor a dish.

Random lunch. Vegetable chicken soup with rice bears. Meat taking a lesser role in the meal.

While we do have access to local sourced meats here, I have to admit that it just isn't going to happen 100% this week... or in the next several weeks. Not until taxes come back and we purchase the 1/2 pig and 1/4 of a locally raised cow. It would just blow my food budget out of the water. I can't do that.

What I CAN do is, I can use less meat, purchase 1/2 our eggs from the CSA, and make 1 or maybe 2 meal per week with local meat. The CSA had an add on chicken package. It is not a lot for a family our size and it is only once a month. Still, in the end, the goal is to eat better and to take baby steps. So we do what we can do.

We fumbled a lot last week. Some was due to poor time management and some was due to failure to write down our meal plan. We do better when the menu is on the board. This week we will remember to do that.

Tomorrow I will have a better idea as to what we will eat after I see our CSA basket. I also get to take SEVEN children to the Farmer's Market tomorrow... alone. *gasps* Actually I am not expecting it to be much different than taking my 6. The extra is a 13 year old who has high functioning autism. Very similar to Clark. So I think it will be ok. The winter market is a lot smaller and less people. I think there are maybe 8 vendors total and they are indoor.