Meal time

I have five children, and generally one or two other kids that stop by at meal times! Try two crock pots. Or one large one. I also do a lot of casseroles, just double it...lasagna, shephards pie, etc.

I wouldn't bother much with recipes--instead cook like our grandparents did. Buy what ever kind of meat is on sale. For instance, say chicken is on sale. Buy the largest one you can. Supplement with a big salad, and a second veggie (whatever is on sale) and maybe potatoes. Use the leftover chicken (and veggies) to make a casserole the next night -- chicken ala king, chicken tetrezzini, curried chicken, creamed chicken, chicken pot pie are all good ways to use leftovers. The less chicken you have, the more vegetables you will need to toss in. If you are clueless about how to cook any of these meals buy a good basic cook book-- my favorite is the Doubleday Cookbook--has lots if ideas for using up leftovers. Most of these recipes are flexible. On day three, boil up the chicken carcass to make stock and have soup. You can make dumplings, or put in brown rice, or vegetables. Mix up some whole wheat muffins (this takes about 2 minutes). Freeze any leftover soup for some night you don't want to cook. Other ideas are chili (who needs a crockpot--just throw everything on a pot on the stove), spaghetti, lasagne, french toast (great way to use up stale bread), pot roast (just use a dutch oven in the oven if your crock pot isn't big enough), stew. Remember, we all need more fruits and vegetables than protein, so don't sweat not having more than 2 oz of meat per person. Fill them up on salad and other veggies and whole grains. Bon appetite!

Thanks for giving me a new perspective on this "cooking" issue. I'm really not much of a cook, but I can do the basics. Instead of focusing on each meal separately, I should cook like I'm feeding troops. I think I should invest in a stock pot. I liked your idea of thinking about how my grandmother cooked for 13 children. She certainly didn't have two weeks worth of recipes she followed. We had 7 children in my family and I remember now that my mother quite often threw together a big salad just before we sat down to eat.

You can try savingdinner.com There, you can purchase menus and grocery lists, I think 6 months is about $10. The meals are diferent and very healthy. I used to do this when it was just DH and I. They have a menu for 2, which was great. Allrecipes.com is my new favorite. You can search for a topic and then read reviews on 100s of recipes. You can keep your own recipe book there. You can also customize meals to fit the size of your meal, and then print off a grocery list. Super convenient. Good Luck. I have three, and am trying to keep up right now. I have dreams of a huge family, though. How exciting for you. Jill

Hi! We are not a large family yet (just 4 of us for now) but we hope to be a large family one day. I came across a cookbook called Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough. The idea is "how to cook for a day and eat for a month." Basically you pick one day to do your cooking, freeze the meals, then thaw them as you need them. The recipes are great and they make multiple servings. For instance one recipe makes 2-13x9 casseroles. The recipes are great freshly baked and great thawed and reheated. There are different sections of the book; the 30 day meal plan, the two week meal plan, and the ten day holiday meal plan. It also has shopping lists for each of the plans and explains how to make your own lists and how to prepare the food to make bulk cooking easier. There is also a list of foods that freeze well and those that don't. I have done the 30 day meal plan for several of my closest friends after they had babies. The grocery bill was only $200 and they had food for a month or more. I can't say enough about this book. I love it! FabFamilyof4Laura

Our family grew very quickly, and it didn't take long to realize that at every mealtime we didn't have enough to go around! Since then, I have found that by doubling all my recipes, I can feed my family of nine, soon to be ten. Most of my children are under the age of four, so I'm sure in the next few years I will be tripling my recipes. I invested in a larger crockpot, and love it! I also asked for larger baking dishes, and cookware for Christmas, when mil asked for gift ideas. Many times, I will make an extra casserole, or double whatever I am making and freeze the extra for later use(helpful when I know I will be out of town, having Grandma babysit, etc). I found many great websites that have simple, fast crockpot recipes. Try doing a google search. For casseroles, and dishes that have many ingredients, I will cook the seperate ingredients ahead and freeze it(example:Cooking and cutting up chicken breasts, turkey, broccoli, etc, and freezing in individual bags/containers). I find it is so simple to throw a quick casserole together. I also don't hesitate to use paper plates often. On days when we are rushing to activities, it is well worth the $$, in the clean-up time it saves! I also use them when we have company. I love to set a nice table and prepare meals, but don't do it everyday anymore. If you have older children, allow them to join in the fun of preparing meals! My oldest both enjoy cooking. I often designate lunchtime, or breakfasts to them. Great training for their adult years! I'm sure I could think of many tips for mealtime. I strive to keep things as simple as possible. Congrats on your growing family!

Hi......I know this is a really old thread but I just got here. Anybody else have great ideas?? I cook for 8 including 4 who eat like pigs. I too love Allrecipes.com and buy what's on sale. Lots of pasta and foods in season. We were recently given sacks of apples from a neihbors tree and made enough apple crisp to last a few days. I try to make lots of things from scratch to save money. We love homemade pizza and breads. I do have a stock pot that I use for chili and homemade chicken and noodles. I have to make that much so dh can have leftovers to take to work. I am currently having a milk crisis, we go through 10 gal. a week and I am finding it hard to keep it in the fridge. I started using powder milk for cooking. They also go through 3 gal. of juice or koolaid in one day. I try to push water but they don't go for it very often.

I bought really cool water containers that hold 2 gallons of water and dispense easily even for little kids. I buy nothing else to drink but milk. It took awhile but my kids have adjusted and love drinking it from the fridge. I can't afford for them to drink all kids of Koolaid and juice that is filled with sugar anyway.

have any of you been to dream dinners? it saves my life. i go once a month and prepare 14 entrees in less then 2 hours. i have to double (or triple) all the recipies. when you get there, everything is set up at a station. you assemble the meals, put them in the large refrigerator, and move on the next entree. everyting is already chopped, mixed. say you are preparing a lasagna. the noodles are there, grated cheese, cooked hamburger, sauce and you just assemble. when i get home i put everyting in the freezer and pull out a meal every evening. i absolutely love it and my kids have eaten practically everything i have made. go to dreamdinners.com to see if you have one in your area.

I looked up Dream Dinners and that is a great idea, but how expensive is it? Does it only do the entree and you then have to come up wtih sides? How cost effective is it?

honestly, it may seem expensive at first glance. i spend about $400 a month. the meals last me all month between alternating them with grilled cheese & soup and pizza when parents go out for a no kid dinner. so the 12-14 meals last all month basically and yes you have to add side dishes. they may come with some rice or noodles, but thats it. and the meals arent skimpy. they are also high quality meats too. a meal they says serves 12 serves my 13 and enough for lunch for myself for a day or 2. honestly i feel its worth it. maybe you could try out the 6 meal trial and see id you like it. i love it and it is worth every penny to me.

i was thingking about this topic. of course we moms think about what to fix for dinner everyday. i have a girlfriend with 8 kids and she is the queen of cooking fo cheap. she buys the mixes from schilling/mcCormik. so she buys a couple of pkgs of say, alfredo sauce, adds twisty noodles, some chopped chicken, cuts some oranges and calls it done. she doesnt do alot of side dishes and they always drink milk. she goes through 10 gallons a week!

We have 5 kids (3 teenagers/young adults and the various friends that come with them). I just take our old favorites and triple them (writing the equivalents in the cook book) where I use recipes. I'm queen of stretching the grocery budget. Soups (at least once a week) and Casseroles (use a lot less meat), and at least one meatless night. I also don't buy alot of prepared snacks (too expensive) rather we have fruit, homemade cakes or cookies. Juice is also a treat here - I'd rather have my kids eating fruit. We did buy a large fridge with the built in water/ice dispenser because water is their primary fluid, with milk as the other drink of choice. We average 6-8 gallons per week and we have one on Soy.

Tudu- where did you find the water containers? Is is something you fill up from the tap and put in your fridge?I think that's a great idea and my kids would probably drink more water that way ( we're saving up for a fridge with ice/water in the door ,but that's a long way off!)

one thing I've started is having a menu roughly planned out for a month. The day before I go grocery shopping I fine tune it,and plan out the week's menus based on what I have on hand, what's on sale, etc. Then I shop strictly with that list.. I also buy lots of ingredients for baking in bulk at the amish town store. We have two large freezers and keep lot of venison and chickens on hand (we butcher chickens in the spring and freeze them). As one previous poster said, I can make a chicken, roast, etc. last about 3 meals. The first day is the chicken with potatos and veggies(usually on sunday), then a casserole, the third day would be a soup with leftover chicken, veggies,and rice or beans. It works out well so far!