What We Eat

Between Madelynn's allergy to dairy and watching Food Inc. and King Corn, our diet has changed considerably in recent months. I'm still trying to figure out breakfasts. Lunch is ok, not great, but ok. Dinner has been going well, though.

I've seen homeschoolers talking about what we homeschoolers serve for meals. Everyone knows what public school lunch looks like, but what does homeschool lunch look like. Well, here's what my family has been eating:

Breakfast

We used to rely on cold cereal 5 or 6 days a week. Now that milk is out of our diet (and no one likes the alternatives), breakfast is more often than not skipped. Or, more accurately, becomes brunch. Whole wheat waffles are one of our favorites, as are breakfast burritos. Pancakes are quick, easy, and yummy but I'm looking for a new recipe that is healthier. Through we don't have them often, we also like whole wheat french toast. It's served less often because it requires that I actually have bread on hand, which I often don't have. Occasionally, I'll scramble eggs with stuff in them; stuff might include onions, garlic, sausage, bacon, tomatoes, herbs, etc. The kids don't like the scrambled eggs as much. Some days, breakfast is simply skipped and we have an early lunch. Those days, I usually eat a Trio bar and an apple or banana because I have blood sugar issues and migraines when I skip meals.

Lunch

Like I mentioned before, we often have brunch rather than two separate meals. On brunch days, we'll usually have a snack mid to late afternoon to keep us going until dinner. Snack could be anything from leftovers, to fruit, to granola bars or other baked goods. If we have an actual lunch, it is almost always a sandwich on homemade wheat bread or whole wheat bread from the store. We enjoy tuna, turkey, egg salad, and pb&j. We always have lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions for adding to sandwiches. A sandwich is usually all we have but we'll sometimes have chips, fruit, or a homemade baked good with our sandwich if I have anything available.

Dinner

Dinner is the main meal of the day for us. Lately, dinner consists of salad, a cooked vegetable or two, meat, and a small amount of starch. I tend to pile our plates very full. The salad is probably 1/3 of the plate. The cooked vegetable is another 1/6 to 1/3 of the plate depending on what kind of vegetable it is (broccoli takes more space than peas). The starch is about 1/6 of the plate. And the meat takes up the remaining 1/3 of the plate. Recent dinners have been:

Country style bbq pork ribs, garden salad with sesame dressing, peas, 1/2 a small baked potato

WW spaghetti with homemade sauce, salad, peas, homemade bread

Chuck roast with onions, carrots, and celery, steamed red potatoes, salad with homemade sesame dressing, homemade pumpernickel bread

Steak cooked with bell peppers (green, red, and yellow) and onions over brown rice, spring green salad, homemade onion herb foccaccia

Shepard's pie made with seasoned ground beef (locally raised), mashed potatoes, and organic peas

Homemade hamburgers with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and homemade guacamole and dairy free potato chips

Burritos or salad from Chipotle's with Izzy's for a treat

Dessert

We've been having less dessert than normal, though we did have chocolate dipped strawberries and banana slices this week.