Food and a large family.

With 4 teens and 2 adults in the home, the largest expense aside from rent/mortgage is...food.

How to budget food and make good meals for 4 hungry teens and 2 adults.  Processed foods are so salty, but so convenient.  Although, I do like several sites that I am going to try and make better use of:

Six Sisters Stuff, Yumprint, The Pioneer Woman and many books.  I particularly like Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals, The Convenience Cook by Finlayson, Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo and Easy One Dish Meals by Cookbook Resources LLC.

Six Sisters have great ideas and with, well six sisters? Lots of input.  I first discovered them on Facebook with a posting about freezer meals.  Tried it, and learned a lot.  First I learned that order of items is (almost) critical.  Chopping is something you definitely want to do first, so that packaging goes more quickly.

I really have to say that having items in your freezer to just load into your crockpot is VERY convenient and takes some of the thought process out of your day.

The hardest part is finding recipes that don't repeat very often, although my husband and boys would be very happy with that, I like a bit more variety. Then add in seasonality of your eating habits?  It makes meal time a challenge at my house.  I have salad eaters and people who would consider being in a green room close enough.  I have found that fruits are a big hit with everyone and try to have them available for snacking and we even put the fruit bowl on the dinner table, so that there is at least a choice.

Yumprint is a great add-in for your internet window.  I like what they have done.  I browse the internet, stalking recipes and when it detects a recipe-like format on the page, it pops up a little tab.  The interface is easy enough, click the tab, review what it has pulled from the page, edit if need be, and then categorize your recipe.  You can make a menu, or simply track what you have tried and like.  The only real complaint I have, is their shopping list feature.  I have tried several times to use the menu planning and then click the shopping list, but it never seems to combine things properly.

Of the books, it is kind of hit and miss. I will recommend The Practical Paleo because she REALLY thought out the layout.  It is a good book to have even to just read about the tips and tricks of cutting and chopping, not to mention the recipes have been GREAT!  I loved the "Perfectly Baked Bacon" and several other recipes.  Yes some of the textures are different from what you would normally expect, but so far, I have not had any of my eaters, refuse anything I have pulled out of the book.

The next venture will be into window gardening.  I have been watching videos on making window growers out of plastic bottles.  You can buy something already made at WindowFarm.com, however I would like to recycle some items I already have around the house.

Well, that's my crazy for the day.

Have a great one everybody.