Dinner at our house

Every few days Kyle has some thing or another fall apart on his bike. We were at WalMart today to buy another inner tube for him and took a look at the bikes. As it happened, there was a boy bike just his size on clearance! Kyle was super excited to find the new wheels in the garage when he came home from school today.

At this moment there are 4 small pork roasts(simmering in Kraft Honey BBQ sauce, vidalia sweet onion dressing and a red onion), in the crock pot for dinner tomorrow night and some in the freezer for another night.  Costco had them on sale for $1.99lb.so the 4, prepackaged roast were only about $15. Upon hearing how many children we have, people often ask about how I feed this brood. I recently figured out that the average dinner meal for the family costs about $17, not counting electricity. Of course now that I have replaced the heating elements on the stove, have gone to using my electric skillet as often as I can and cooking with the crock pot at least once a week, I am thinking, (hoping), I am using less electricity for dinner. For most meals I cook about 3-4 pounds of meat. I add protein to meals by putting quinoa in things like rice pilaf,  I use broth instead of water for gravies and sauces and many other dishes. I throw black beans in here and there and use smashed pinto beans in sauces to thicken them and add protein. Most of the kids like soy beans (edamame).  3 of the kids have life threatening allergies to peanuts and tree nuts so I don't use any nuts at all in our home. Veggies can be a problem with some of the kids so I get a little sneaky with them. I add pureed veggies to sauces, veggie broth wherever I can, sneak extra veggies in small amounts into fresh salads, pasta salads. I serve at least 3 fruits or veggies with dinner every night, very few canned. A great new discovery is that most of the kids like butternut squash! All the kids must choose at least one vegetable every dinner. Some of the kids eat all the veggies served! So every dinner meal has a meat, several veggies and a side dish, (rice, potatoes, pasta etc). I rarely cook from recipes exactly except for things like breads but I would love to hear some new ideas for dinner from our friends!