This is probably one of the questions we get asked the most when we tell people that we work at BGC and care in a home for 8 children at a time.
How do you feed them all?
And the answer is that it is not always easy.
Especially when we are working in our boys cottage full of hungry teenagers who seem to be bottomless pits!!
BGC is blessed to have amazing resources when it comes to groceries. We get to ''shop" and order groceries each week from a wonderful supply pantry that is stocked full of delicious foods and other kitchen and household items. Just about everything you could want from fresh produce, to herbs and spices, to breads and other baked goods are all either donated or given to us at discounts. Each cottage has a monthly budget to shop within and each week our carts are delivered to us like a bountiful harvest. Its actually quite spoiling to the house parents who never have to venture into a grocery store unless we want to for extras. (And I do go to the grocery myself quite frequently being that I'm back in Texas and get to shop at HEB!)
As far as menu planning and meal prep goes Pinterest has become my best friend. Before we left for BGC several months ago I knew that meal planning was going to be a challenge when preparing for so many kids and so I began to gather tons of resources in recipes and ideas on one of my favorite websites. If you haven't tried Pinterest it is a great resource for many reasons, but it has become invaluable to me for meal planning. I have gathered together literally hundreds of recipes and organized them on the site into different categories such as crock pot meals, chicken choices, easy breakfasts, and taco night!
When I am ready to plan for the week I print out one of my meal prep sheets that I made and go through all of my recipes on Pinterest filling in each meal according to the needs for that particular day. For example, I usually plan a crockpot meal if possible for Sunday lunches.
While things do sometimes change around here, I try to at least have an idea in mind for what the week will look like when it comes to meals. This helps with grocery planning as well as takes some of the stress off of me come meal time. If I have that part of the day laid out and ready to go then I don't have to worry.
(And it totally helps that I am married to a former Nola chef!
He is such a big help in so many ways, but especially in the kitchen!!)
A lot of days we try to do a breakfast that we can prep ahead (as I showed in a former post where I highlighted a breakfast casserole we like to make seen here: http://missionmommyjourney.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-day-in-life-on-ranch.html).
But some days, especially now that the kids are out of school for the summer, we can be a little more laid back and are not so pressed for time. I like these days because we can enjoy a more family style, big breakfast like I remember eating when I was little. When we don't have to be so rushed to grab a quick, easy breakfast before heading out the door, I can try fun new recipes and entice the kids out of bed with the smell of bacon cooking and homemade waffles baking!
One of our fave new breakfast treats are these Bacon Pancake Dippers found here on Mission Mommy's Pinterest page:
We had great success with this recipe and it was fun to prepare and eat!
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| Pour pancake mix in long strip the length of cooked bacon, add bacon over the top and cover with more mix before flipping! |
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| We had ours with Silver Dollar pancakes. |
Campbell and Alton agree the Bacon Pancake Dippers
were a hit!! In fact, all the boys gobbled them up!
What's not to love?
Now that summer is here and the boys are no longer eating lunches at school this means one more meal to plan and prepare! We usually do a more simple and quick lunch as the boys are almost always on the go. Whether its dashing home from their summer apprenticeships on campus for a quick bite, grabbing it to go before they head off to summer jobs or just enjoying a lunch at the cottage before taking part in some of the many activities going on this summer here at BGC like ball camps, our kids are busy! So, lunches have to be fast and easy
for me to make and them to eat in a hurry!
Meals like this Chicken, Bean and Cheese Burrito are a breeze to whip up and the boys devour them!
I always know I have made something good when they come back for seconds and thank me for a good meal!
Dinner's can sometimes be hectic too, between afternoon pee wee football games, and evening outings or work schedules, but if possible we try to gather as many of the boys as we can to sit down for a family supper.
I like doing meals like this Lasagna Soup that I can make ahead during the calmer mid-day and keep warm in the crockpot until dinner. Of course I got the recipe from Pinterest and you can find it here:
The old saying, The way to someone's heart is through their stomach, is true. Planning and preparing meals for a group this large may be a daunting task but it is well worth it if I can put a hot meal in front of a kid who may not always have been blessed with something so simple. If I take the time to sit down and eat it with them, then the blessings just multiply.
The Lord himself prepared a meal and sat down to eat it with His nearest and dearest and He instructed us to do the same. Though meals with this crowd may be far less reverent, its nothing short of communion when we are able to come together, thank the Father for our blessings and share together something so intimate as a meal.
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