It has been almost a week since I lasted made a blog post. It has been a tough week full of tough decisions. Inflation and gas prices are taking a toll on my family and there is nothing I can do about it. I didn't make a menu plan this week, hence no Meal Planning Monday post. Instead I went to a food pantry and also signed up for the free kids meals/snacks from our local library. The food pantry is hosted by a church and the library program is hosted by the Children's Hunger Alliance. I didn't want to do a blog post because of my pride. I hinted around at food pantries by doing a post on how to use one efficiently, but I was just avoiding putting the truth out there. Pride is definitely something I needed to overcome.
So I have decided that I need to walk the walk and be honest about how to make ends meet in this situation. The best way I know how to deal with any problem is to make lists. So here is a list of the foods we were given and I have been using to feed our family this week.
From the library we got a bag for each child and they included 7 meal packs, each containing shelf stable foods that need no cooking. In each pack received:
- Boxed 1% milk and shelf stable cheese product sticks
- Jerky or Soy (Wow) butter (I assume they gave us this instead of peanut butter because alergies)
- Craisins or apple sauce pack
- Crackers or a little bag of tortilla chips and a little packet of salsa
- 100% juice box
Each pack contains protein, carbs, dairy and fruit for one child for a meal. Now I will be honest, it would be an adjustment for sure if I tried to pass this off as dinner, it is so unlike anything we have ever had as a meal. None of us liked the Wow butter, so will be trying to find a way to use that. They also didn't like the 1% milk, but that's ok, I can use it in lots of recipes in place of regular milk. The rest we have been having as snacks. If someone was still hungry after eating or got hungry between our even more modest than usual meals, they could grab a snack. Snacking is not something we do regularly, so the kids really like this new development.
From the Church we received:
- 1 box of spaghetti, 1 can of sauce
- 2 cans of green beans, 1 can of corn, 1 can of peas, 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 2 boxes of Rice a roni
- 2 boxes of Betty Crocker scalloped potatoes
- 2 cans of chili with beans
- 1 pound bag of rice, 1 pound bag of pinto beans
- 1 jar of apple sauce, 2 cans of fruit cocktail
- 1 box of Bisquick
From the store I bought:
- eggs
- margarine
- 2 loaves of bread
- cabbage
- 2 packages of hot dogs
On Monday we had oatmeal with some applesauce and craisins stirred in and an egg for breakfast, kids ate lunch at school and we had ramen with peas, a boiled egg, and for dinner had the spaghetti, green beans and garlic toast. I put the pinto beans to soak overnight.
On Tuesday I put the beans in the crockpot and we had peanut butter toast and an egg for breakfast. Kids were wondering where their bananas were. For lunch the kids ate at school and we had the last 2 packs of ramen with peanut butter Thai style and some fruit cocktail. For dinner I made 1 box of rice a roni with some of the canned peas mixed in and we had some of the refried beans, biscuits and corn. We ate a lot of the library snacks after dinner.
Today we had the oatmeal with applesauce and craisins again and an egg, the kids ate lunch at school and we had egg salad sandwiches, some of the crackers from the library and some fruit cocktail. For dinner we had vegetable fried rice with some of the plain rice. I also warmed up some beans for anyone who wanted some, this is actually our regular recipe so not a "new" food to get used to. I also made fry bread. Once again we hit the snacks from the library pretty hard.
For Thursday we will have the oatmeal combination again with an egg. Lunch kids eat at school, we have any leftover fried rice mixed with any leftover vegetables, a boiled egg a peanut butter sandwich if we need it and some more fruit cocktail. Dinner will be biscuits, regular rice mixed with refried beans and flavored with taco seasoning and one of the cans of chili with green beans on the side. I hope this goes well, not sure if we will like the chili. If we just can’t eat it, I’ll make hot dogs
For Friday toast and eggs, lunch at school or leftovers, dinner will be hot dogs, fried cabbage and scalloped potatoes, biscuits
Saturday Pancakes, scrambled eggs and applesauce for breakfast, box mix Mac and cheese and hot dogs for lunch, for dinner stuffed cabbage soup using rice a roni and the canned tomatoes, biscuits
Sunday we will have pancakes, scrambled eggs and any leftover fruit for breakfast, lunch and dinner will be cleaning up whatever we have
Next week I’ll also have to replace the oatmeal and peanut butter as well as getting new things.
How are you all doing? Please share in the comments!
~Sarah
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