Today is a workday and I am a bookkeeper. I spend most of my time on a computer when I am not homesteading. So, for a lot of you yesterday was your Monday. For me it was a homesteading day and I cooked about 3 lbs. of sweet potatoes that I purchased from the local farmer. (I told you about in a earlier blog.) They were probably some of the best tasting sweet potatoes I have ever had! I also worked on my affiliate sites, and social media. And I have some telecommunications clients I freelance for and I worked on that as well.

The other thing I did yesterday that falls into our Homesteading in Place structure, is that I went grocery shopping. Right now, we feed six people every day. Monday – Friday the kids have breakfast and lunch at school and that relieves three of the mouths part-time. I pack my lunch for work 4 days a week, my oldest daughter works, has an internship and goes to college (She is 17 years old). She takes care of her own schedule and either packs her food or purchases something in town with her own money. My ex-husband also lives with us and he is at home full-time so he eats his meals at the house.

The breakdown for meals is as follows for my family.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Total per week
Me	7	7	7	21
Daughter 1	7	7	7	21
Son 1	2	2	7	11
Daughter 2	2	2	7	11
Son 2	2	2	7	11
Ex-Husband	7	7	7	21

If you would like to see where I got recomindations on how much per week you can click HERE

Let us look at dinner. Really, I plan those meals. Everyone eats dinner. That is seven meals per person per week.
If each person is supposed to consume 8 oz. of meat in a meal then I have to plan for and buy 84 lbs. of meat a month. That is really a lot when you look at it that way. If you are homesteading and you have cows, or you hunt and you have deer in the freezer this helps mitigate this cost. However, I do not have either at the moment. My homesteading and growing / canning garden vegetables will help us in providing nutritious meals to my family.

You can go about meal planning several ways. Whether you are homesteading or not, you should plan your meals. This will save you time and energy each month and if you have kids you will not have to hear the dreaded, “What’s for dinner?” each night. It helps with cost versus price of each thing that you consume and have to buy.

The other way I cut cost is portion control. I make everyone’s plates at my home for dinner. Now I know that not all people agree with this. Some think that I am still waiting on my children and ex-husband. Honestly, this is not the case. I make the plates from the smallest eater to the largest and not the other way around. My 9-year-old will eat a lot less than his dad or 17-year-old brother.
I look at it as a math problem. If I have, eight portions of food cooked for dinner and I am feeding six people. How many can I really feed? Well, surprisingly the 9-year-old will eat about ½ a portion, my 13-year-old will eat about ¾ a portion, my 17-year-old son will eat 1 ½ portion, my 17-year-old daughter will eat 1, I will eat 1 and my ex will eat up to 2. This is if they were left to their own devices.
(.5+.75+1.5+1+1+2= 13.5)

When I portion control everything, the problem becomes simpler.
(.5+.5+1+1+1+1=5)

Then if anyone is still hungry, they are welcome to finish what is left. But this way I have ensured that everyone has received enough protein to fuel his or her bodies.
Remember the end goal is to save as much as you can, without sacrificing health and wellness.

What kind of diet do you eat?

Well, we eat all things and try to have as balanced of a diet as possible. That being said we also lean toward a high protein low carb diet. And we are doing our best to ease into a diabetic friendly diet because both my ex and I have diabetes in our family.

We are big meat eaters, however each month we try to have a few meals without meat. The downside is that normally those meals are high in carbs. I am posting our last 30 days of meals below. If you have any questions on this meal plan please feel free to ask questions and leave your comments below.

 

	Sunday	Monday	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Friday	Sat
		4-Sep	5-Sep	6-Sep	7-Sep	8-Sep	9-Sep
Breakfast
Lunch
Snack
Dinner		BURRITOES	STOGANOFF W/ ROLLS	CHICKEN /W POTATOES	HAMBURGER HELPER-TURKEY	CHICKEN PASTA BROCCOLI	STEAK & BEAN BURRITO BOWL
	10-Sep	11-Sep	12-Sep	13-Sep	14-Sep	15-Sep	16-Sep
Breakfast
Lunch
Snack
Dinner	PORK CARNITAS	MEAT LOAF	SWAII	CHILLI	PORK CHOPS	RANCH BURGERS & FRIES	PIZZA
	17-Sep	18-Sep	19-Sep	20-Sep	21-Sep	22-Sep	23-Sep
Breakfast
Lunch
Snack
Dinner	SALMON BURGERS	POTATO SOUP	SPAGHETTI	POT ROAST	SAULSBURRY STEAKS	FRIED CHICKEN /W MASHED POTATOES	RIBS/ HAMBURGERS/ HOTDOGS
	24-Sep	25-Sep	26-Sep	27-Sep	28-Sep	29-Sep	30-Sep
Breakfast
Lunch
Snack
Dinner	LEFT OVER BBQ	STUFFED BELL PEPERS	COUNTRY FRIED STEAK	CORN BEEF	SLOPPY JOE	LASAGNA	CHICKEN POT PIE
	1-Oct	2-Oct	3-Oct	4-Oct	5-Oct	6-Oct	7-Oct
Breakfast
Lunch
Snack
Dinner	PARMISAN CHICKEN W/ PASTA & RED SAUCE	ONE POT CHEESEBURGER CASSEROLLE	PULLED PORK	CREAM OF MUSHROOM CHICKEN	BURRITOES	HAMBURGERS & FRIES	BREAKFAST

The meals in Blue are cooked in the crock pot to give us a break from the kitchen.

The meal in orange is my son’s birthday and a speacial event.

I will be posting my recipies as I have time. I will also be making youtube videos on my two favorite ways to store food, canning and my vacume sealer!

And as always thank you for reading and being a part of our homestead! ?

** Here is my challenge to you. For the next 30 days wright down what you have for dinner each day and how many people eat. That way when it is time to sit down and make your meal plan you will have dinner ideas, and a jumpstart on the foods you enjoy! ?