How Much Food a Family of 12 Eats on Survival Mode

Now again I know I’m lacking in the planning and preparing of healthy well balanced meals department and I have goals to be better. But I’m still just trying to keep everyone alive, so until I have more time and energy to spend on that, here is what a typical week of meals looks like:

Breakfast: I need something fairly fast in the mornings, so for Monday through Friday we’ll have: cereal, toast and yogurt, instant oatmeal, toast and applesauce, pancakes, toast and eggs, frozen waffles. And typically Sunday I make German pancakes. We’ll usually eat the majority, if not all, of a family size bag of cereal. A loaf of bread for toast, 2 or 3 containers of yogurt or applesauce, and about 15 eggs when we go those routes. And about 25 or 30 pancakes and frozen waffles if that’s what’s chosen for breakfast, or a triple batch of German pancakes.

Lunch: Now that the oldest 4 boys are in school I don’t have to worry that much about lunch, since we qualify for free and reduced lunch I don’t have to make their lunches. I’m so thankful for this! Though when everyone was home for the summer we’d have: pb and j sandwiches, quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches, frozen pizza, chicken nuggets and fries, mac and cheese, or even cereal. We’d go through about 2 loaves of bread per sandwich day along with 8 oz of cheese or about half a pint of jam and 1/3 pint peanut butter. We’d get by with about 3 frozen pizzas or a bag of chicken and a bag of fries, and about 4 boxes of macaroni and cheese. Now that it’s just the youngest 6 for lunch we’ll go through a loaf of bread for sandwiches, 1 1/2 pizzas, and a package and a half of hot dogs (the older boys don’t like them, but the younger ones do.)

Snack: My older boys eat lunch before noon, so when they get home they are hungry and demand snacks! I know we could be healthier, but right now we have: a bag of pretzels, animal crackers, or veggie straws, 2 boxes of graham crackers and milk, 3 or 4 sleeves of crackers and about 8 oz of cheese, about 8 apples and 4-8 oz of cheese, 8 bananas and half a bag of chocolate chips (Mr. Banana Heads), 2 or 3 containers of vanilla yogurt, 12 oz bag of frozen berries, and about 8 oz of granola (parfaits), and about 32 gogurts.

Dinner: This one is hard to say what we have and just how much we eat, like Jacob said,”Sometimes we have chicken pot pie and sometimes we have cereal!” If we have a casserole type of meal like chicken pot pie, tator tot casserole, or chicken enchiladas we’ll eat a 9X13 pan worth. If I make soup in the crock pot I’ll usually double the recipe and freeze half and have it with 24 Rhodes rolls. If we have breakfast for dinner we’ll eat 24 muffins, 18 eggs scrambled, a small bag of hashbrowns for one meal or the same amount of hashbrowns and eggs with a ham or bacon in it for breakfast burritos, or about 15 Belgium waffles. Salad is hard to tell but yesterday we ate a rotisserie chicken, half of a big Costco bag of lettuce, 1 Roma tomato, and about 15 hard boiled eggs with about 10oz. of shredded cheese.

Side dishes: I’m bad at side dishes, it’s one thing I’d like work on. Usually I’ll warm up a couple cans of corn or green beans, or cut up apples or make a fruit salad.

It will be interesting to see just how much food we will eat when the majority of the boys are teenagers! I’m going to need two or three carts full instead of one!