It takes us a little under an hour to drive to the city where there’s the closest Costco and other larger stores. One of the ways we are trying to be more frugal is making less trips to town, so I made a menu plan for a month of meals before my big shopping trip, and I wrote a very detailed shopping list so that I could buy as much as possible in that one trip. We need to buy perishables such as fruit, eggs, and milk before the next big shopping day, but there is a wonderful local grocery store where we can get those things, and even if they cost a bit more than Costco, saving the cost of gasoline more than makes up for that price difference.

To make up my menus, I used my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook, a new cookbook in my library (written by a former Cook’s Illustrated editor) called Perfect Recipes for Having People Over, and a couple of my Cook’s Illustrated magazines.

Breakfast and lunch for each day of the week repeats the same old, same old, but we don’t worry about getting too fancy there as getting the day started and having school make speed more important than ambience. We always have side dishes with our meals which I did not write in (i.e., fruit and chips or pretzels with lunch, etc.) There are some meals, such as on Saturday and Sunday, that I did not put on the menu as we usually have lots of leftovers from all the cooking we do, and it leaves a bit of flexibility to leave some blanks. Sunday nights we just have a snack since lunch that day is usually a bigger meal and later than the rest of the week. I tried to intersperse easy dinners with some that take a bit more preparation. We enjoy good food and fixing a few more complicated meals is a labor of love. I am pleased that my children are generally not too picky when it comes to eating. I like to introduce them to new flavors sometimes, and we emphasize how important it is to be grateful to God and to the ones who make it possible for them to eat so well…both the cook and the Daddy who pays for it all. At dinnertime, the younger boys are usually anxious to be the first one to say “thank you” to those who worked to prepare the food.

Here is a month’s worth of meals, just as I wrote it on my menu planner (which I found online here). Asterisks denote a recipe from one of the resources I mentioned:

Monday
B – Oatmeal
L – Peanut butter and jelly on homemade whole wheat bread
D – Tostadas (shopping day!)

Tuesday
B – Eggs and toast
L – Burritos
D – Lamb stew*

Wednesday
B – Cereal
L – Bagels and cheese
D – Sliced ham

Thursday
B – Bear mush
L – Egg salad sandwiches
D – Coq au vin*

Friday
B – Granola (homemade)
L – Leftovers
D – Pizza

Saturday
B – Pancaakes
D – New York steaks

Sunday
L – Chinese chicken salad

Monday
B – Oatmeal
L – Peanut butter and jelly
D – Party at friends’ house

Tuesday
B – Eggs and toast
L – Burritos
D – Meatloaf

Wednesday
B – Cereal
L – Bagels and cheese
D – Chicken chili*

Thursday
B – Bear mush
L – Tuna sandwiches
D – Manicotti*

Friday
B – Granola
L – Leftovers
D – Pizza

Saturday
B – Pancakes
D – Grilled burgers

Sunday
L – Mexican Pulled Pork*

Monday
B – Oatmeal
L – Peanut butter and jelly
D – Chile Rellenos

Tuesday
B – Eggs and toast
L – Burritoes
D – Beef Pot Pie*

Wednesday
B – Cereal
L – Bagels and cheese
D – Black bean soup*

Thursday
B – Bear Mush
L – Grilled cheese sandwiches
D – Pork with garlic hoisin sauce*

Friday
B – Granola
L – Leftovers
D – Pizza

Saturday
B – Pancakes
D – Sausages

Sunday
L – Bake-ahead pizza*

Monday
B – Oatmeal
L – Peanut butter and jelly
D – Macaroni and cheese with ham

Tuesday
B – Eggs and toast
L – Burritos
D – Taco salad

Wednesday
B – Cereal
L – Bagels and cheese
D – French onion soup*

Thursday
B – Bear mush
L – Tuna sandwiches
D – Stir-fry beef

Friday
B – Granola
L – Leftovers
D – Pizza

Saturday
B – Pancakes
D – Grilled chicken

Sunday
L – Sloppy Joes*

Monday
B – Oatmeal
L – Peanut butter and jelly
D – Reuben sandwiches*

Tuesday
B – Eggs and toast
L – Burritos
D – Skillet penne and sausage*

Wednesday
B – Cereal
L – Bagels and cheese
D – Whole grain waffles (I just realized what a bread-laden day this will be…may make a change )

Thursday
B – Bear mush
L – Egg salad sandwiches
D – Easy chicken enchiladas*

Friday
B – Granola
L – Leftovers
D – Pizza

Saturday
B – Pancakes
D – Birthday girl’s pick, and breakfast may have to be changed since she is my pancake maker!

I should mention that Steve and I don’t always eat the same as the kids. For several years we have been eating fairly low-carb, so I sometimes make different meals for us, which sounds more complicated than it is as I have many easy-to-fix things for us for which I always have ingredients on hand.

After I started writing this post, Jo was flipping through the ATK cookbook and decided she wanted to make a coffee cake for tomorrow’s breakfast. There are a couple of children who will be very glad that they don’t have to eat bear mush tomorrow .

The 5-year-old daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth was killed in a tragic accident when she was hit in the family’s driveway by a car driven by her older, teenaged brother. The little girl was one of three girls the family adopted from China. Their ministry Shaohannah’s Hope has helped many other families pay for international adoptions, including some friends of ours.

Please pray for their family, particularly the young man who was driving the car. We also have a long driveway and we know how easy it can be to miss seeing little ones when driving a large vehicle.

I ran across the Dervaes’s website some time ago, but this video is new to me. I find their urban homestead fascinating. I know a lot of folks wish they could move to the country, but watch this and be inspired at how this family uses just 1/10 of an acre to grow much of their own food plus sell some to local restaurants. On their website they tell more about other ways they live frugally. This quote is from their site:

No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
~ Booker T. Washington ~

We put up a clothesline just last week to cut down on the expensive propane use. We bought small fans to keep from running the air conditioner too much. We are planting a garden. Are you making any changes in how you live this summer?

(Bonnet tip to Chris Ortiz for the video.)

This guy will glow in the dark for some time to come, with four different visits to the radiologist for x-rays. The good news is that even though the break goes into the elbow where there are several growth plates, it is healing just fine and he will be able to throw just as well as he could before, which for a Friedrich is not so great, but we still have fun, whether throwing a ball or just sitting and reading a book. Or falling off a trampoline at a friend’s house. The smug little smile is because he broke his right arm which means he gets out of regular math and writing, but Mom is clever at thinking of other diabolical ways to keep him busy.

This is his first, and only (I hope) “tattoo.” While he’s looking rather Popeye-ish, maybe I can get him to eat some spinach. Actually, his appetite has increased while he’s been on the mend, even for unusual dishes. I made Indian lamb stew and couscous for dinner last night and he ate two bowls. Tonight he had seconds again for dinner, and topped it off with strawberry-rhubarb cobbler. I wish I was having a growth spurt and could burn all those calories.

Last year at this time (how many writings have begun with those words?) I had an article published in Faith for All Life magazine on everyone’s favorite topic: sending our daughters away to college. I have just put it on my website, with my own title, so that it can either bless or irritate—or, as I’m sometimes told my bold opinions do, make you think.