This is why I don't bring you...

↑ dankbar ↓

Today at 3:47 am

Some supermarkets have different chicken/meat on sale each week. Maybe you can add in some more into the menu plan.

Also there are recipes where you can stretch the chicken/meat so you don't need at least 9 chicken legs or 9 chicken cutlets per meal.

If you do chicken & stir fries veggies, and add in spaghetti or rice in pot.

If you do pasta and meat sauce.

If you do sloppy Joe mixed with veggies in a pita

Patties mix the ground meat with some bread or crumbs and eggs and maybe some grated veggies insides so you use less meat.

Schwarma, salad, fries, dips in a pita so you don't need so much of schwarma to fill entire pita only a third of pita is filled with the chicken.

Soups are filling then people don't need so much chicken after that.

Like split pea soup has proteins as well.

Even if they fill up on veg soup not so much chicken needed after that

You can do a filling soup with a bit of chicken or meat inside as meal. Like cream of chicken soup, you can even make it with zucchini, instead if just flour to sneak in the veg.

You can make pasta with spinach or sautéed California veg and add in melted cheese.

Macaroni can be mixed with cottage cheese

You can do lukshen cheese kugel has farmer cheese in it.

Lasagne with veggies and cheese.

Mock liver made with peas and eggs. With bread and fresh veg.

Avocado egg salad with bread and veg

Falafel balls, chumus Israeli salad and pita

Frank n buns, and French fries and corn.

Pack of frank shouldn't be so expensive as pack of chicken

Tuna patties stretches the tuna and makes a warm food.

Cut up a pack of franks, cook and mix with potato hash. Then you need only one pack of frank for your family instead of everyone got like two frank when served with a bun, then you would need more like 3 packs.

You can do sushi rice bowls with veggies with canned salmon instead of cooked salmon. Or even if you do flake cooked salmon you don't need entire slice fish for everyone if you have some fish flaked plus rice, avocado, carrots, cucumbers, crunchy onions, maybe lettuce.

French toast

Last edited by dankbar on Sun, Dec 15 2024, 3:58 am; edited 1 time in total

↑ MommyPhD

Today at 9:43 am

amother Orchid wrote:

What's there to wonder?? So many places for money to go. And you have no idea how much they are making and what jobs they have. And you have no idea their expenses.If I make 60k and my husband makes 24k that still leaves us at 84k before taxes and we don't make ends meet.

add in many dental issues that I have and we are broke....

We both work full-time and have a special needs child, pay full tuition, all of that. But still have money for some extras. I'm just saying, I think it makes sense for her to wonder, especially if her husband is withholding access to their finances.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Today at 10:40 am

amother Powderblue wrote:

If you serve spaghetti what is the protein served along side it?
Plain spaghetti isn’t supper.
Hugs, op this is hard, but you’re an amazing mother trying to provide for your kids.

So if it's spaghetti, it's usually for meatballs/meatsauce. It's not usually served by itself. I have 1 kid who will not touch spaghetti-shape noodles--prefers the penne/rotini/macaroni.

If not meat sauce we provide cheese.

We have made Baked Ziti/lasagna, but only 1-2 kids like it. So it's a lot of effort for only satisfying 1-2 kids.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Today at 10:50 am

dankbar wrote:

I've tried sloppy joes--I have some kids who just eat the buns.
I've tried most of the things on this list and I have 1-2 kids who just won't try it (oral motor/sensory issues), 1-2 who will take a bite an go eew then I still have to figure out what they will eat, 1-2 who might like them, but then it's been a lot of effort to satisfy 1-2 kids.

Hot Dogs are my kids' shabbos food. We live out of town where we don't get a ton of variety of fleishigs, not that my kids will eat them. One of my pickier kids will eat schnitzel, but that is primarily a shabbos food. We don't do much fleishigs during the week.

I don't have an issue getting my kids to eat veggies. I have a hard time getting them to eat foods in combination.

amother

Mayflower

Today at 11:01 am

amother OP wrote:

I don't know prices in the US, but is there a good reason (e.g. price) to buy spaghetti over other shapes? Spaghetti is hard for little kids to pick up on a fork and some may be too tired to try it by dinnertime. Can you try the same recipe, but with macaroni or fusilli? They're much easier to stab with a fork.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Today at 11:21 am

MommyPhD wrote:

We both work full time, I do have full-access to our finances.I know where the money is going, but not sure why everyone else affords things that we can't. I really don't get it.

This wasn't about what we can afford, it's about his expectation vs reality. I can't make food without buying food, but when I get the foods my kids will eat he complains that the bill goes up.

amother

↑ OP

Today at 11:23 am

amother Mayflower wrote:

Yea, we mostly make penne/rotini/macaroni/shells. I have a few kids who have asked for spaghetti on occasion so we've done that. I think I have found that for some reason you get more yield from a box of spaghetti-which doesn't make a ton of sense since it's by weight.

amother

Fuchsia

Today at 11:27 am

I’m a little confused. You make a list of foods your kids will eat- like bagged salad and mini cucumbers, but then say you won’t buy it because your kids will eat it up. Then you’re asking for ideas of things your kids will eat. You already know they will eat that. You need to get your husband on board with the foods you know the kids eat instead of making yourself ragged trying new foods that have no nutritional value that they will eat. And they need more protein. Carbs like pasta are made to make the kids crave more food. This is becoming a power struggle and soon it will be a power struggle with the kids too as they get older and smarter. I’m sorry you are facing this with your busy life.