Christmas Devotionals: An Overview

I can't believe tomorrow is December 1st! Before we jump into our daily Christmas Devotionals I wanted to give a quick overview. In the next 24 days our family will be covering the story of Jesus birth. We begin with the prophesies of Jesus birth and continue all the way through the story of the Wise Men visiting young Jesus in Nazareth.

The majority of our scripture references come from the King James version of the Bible in the book of Luke. We also read in Micah, Isaiah Mathew and the book of Psalms in the KJV. Most of you likely have access to the KJV but you can click here to access these scriptures online. There are a few scriptures that may not be familiar to some of you in the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price in the books of Alma, Helaman, Abraham and Moses. These scriptures can also be accessed online if you click here for the BofM and click here for the PGP.

With a little bit of leg work we were able to use the links above to find translations of the scriptures we read together in our children's native languages. Its not super easy as the entire site ends up translated rather than just the scripture passages. But Since Brad and I have some knowledge of Mandarin and Russian and we can also use Google Translate to help us navigate, we were able to find most of the scriptures in translation. And if your kiddo (or you) is old enough to navigate the site themselves it gets much easier.

Here is our scripture list for the month:

Abraham 3:27, Moses 4:2, 1 Peter 1: 18-21
Helaman 14:2
Isaiah 9:6
Micah 5:2
Alma 5:50
Psalm 98:4-9
Alma 7:10
Luke 1: 39-42, 44, 46-48
Luke 2:3-5
Luke 2:6-7
Luke 2:7
Luke 2:8
Luke 2:9
Luke 2: 10-11
Luke 2:13-14
Luke 2:15
Luke 2:15-17
Psalm 95:6
Mathew 2:1-2
Mathew 2: 10-11
Luke 2:1-17


Stay tuned for the corresponding Christmas Carols and daily activities we do with our devotionals...

Feeding the Locust Day 6

Day 6- Peanut Butter Breakfast Bars and French's Onion Chicken

Breakfast: Peanut Butter Breakfast Bars and Bananas

Let me just start by saying this is hands-down one of our favorite breafasts. Everyone gets excited to wake up to the smell of these breakfast bars. And I love how hearty and filling they are. Not to mention they are actually quite quick and easy to prep. Anything that can come fresh out of the oven with the short amount of prep time I have in the morning is a win.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats

1 cup flour

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup beaten eggs (about 5)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13-inch glass baking pan with cooking spray. Combine oats, flour, and sugar in a large bowl. Cut in peanut butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in beaten eggs and chocolate chips. Press mixture evenly into prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and cut into bars. (we serve ours warm but they are great refrigerated as a snack too)

This meal works out to just $0.50 per person. Another reason this is one of my favorites! The average serving is 2 breakfast bars, 1/2 banana and 1/2 cup of milk. This is a power breakfast that does not take much to fill you up and hold you until lunch with ease.

Dinner: French's Fried Onion Chicken and Broccoli Roni

This chicken is so easy to make and SO good. Even my picky eaters who complain about onions in other foods gobble this meal down and ask for more.

Ingredients:

6-8 thawed boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup French's fried onions

Pasta Roni White Cheddar and Broccoli

butter (amount depends on how many boxes pasta)

milk (amount depends on how many boxes pasta)

fresh broccoli

The original recipe I saw for this included an extra ingredient and step that I omitted. I don't even remember what it was. Maybe egg? But all I do is put the french fried onions in a zippy bag, crunch them into little pieces and sprinkle them over the chicken on a foil covered cookie sheet. That's it. Just sprinkle the onions on, maybe pat them down a bit to make them stick and stay on top of the chicken. And then bake at 400 until cooked through (ours takes about 25 minutes). It's that easy.

Just follow the instructions on the Pasta Roni box and steam some broccoli and you're done!

This meal works out to $1.35 per person. One serving includes one small chicken breast (or 1/2 of a large breast, pictured), 1 1/2 cups prepared pasta and 3/4 cup steamed broccoli. 

Legos and Bare Feet in the Night: kid-driven toy clean up

We are finally on the down-hill slide with toys. It has been a long 15 years of noise making, light flashing, mess making toys. With everyone getting bigger we are finally starting to transition away from the little plastic play things and we are seeing more footballs, roller blades, and bicycles. We used to have enough toys to keep a complete set on 'rotation' in the cupboards in the garage. I no longer have a Toys R Us hiding in my garage cupboards. But, we still have our fair share of toys left in the toy room .

One of my least favorite parts of the natural way kids play is what I call the 'tossed salad.' No matter how many kids, no matter their ages, no matter the training, the toys all manage to intermingle and become a disorganized mess. There are always pieces from a board game, legos from another room, chess pieces, a couple of random playing cards, action figures, hot wheels tracks, you name it, it's mixed together into the same bin (or in the middle of the floor).

Over the years I have figured out it is not worth the effort of hounding people all day everyday to put things away 'where they belong' when it comes to little toys. It's like an evil Easter egg hunt and it just kills the fun of playing with the toys to begin with. True creative play should involve dinosaurs driving cars, a block maze for ping pong balls to be rolled through, Lego creations that take several days to create, and hand made board games that required the dice and pieces of other games to count spaces moved. Play just isn't as fun if you can't get out of the figurative and literal 'toy box.'

So, we do require the toy room and game room to be tidy. But real toy organization only happens every two weeks. I have found this allows enough time for the creative play they need while not allowing things to get too far out of hand.

This is more clean than usual... But this would be 'tidy'. Even on a great day like this when it appears they have put everything away:

Cars in the dinosaur drawer, pretend kitchen toys in the animal drawer, blocks in the tool toy drawer...

Pencils, crayons, and other supplies mixed together, card games mixed together, board game pieces out of their boxes...

So, step one in our kid-driven toy clean up is simply 'tidy.' This would be different in every home but for us it basically means nothing on the floor, toys generally in the right place (hot wheels tracks cannot remain on the stair handrail), projects on the tables in a semi-orderly fashion, etc. This is probably where most families are. But at least once every other week we make sure the toys actually get put away. And mom does NOT do this part of the job.

The secret to this is in every preschool I have ever seen and it is so simple: pictures. I simply take pictures of how each compartment needs to look to have the toys actually put away. I laminate the pictures so they are sturdy and easy to keep track of. When I announce it is time to clean up and organize the toys, the boys can simply go and do it. They look at the laminated cards for each cupboard or drawer and they make it match.

The contents of each drawer are pictured.

I was lucky enough to be able to size the laminated cards so that they slide into the handle grip of the drawers keeping them visible without being permanent.

It took a small amount of teaching to show them they actually need to open each drawer and check the contents inside. And my part of this training was to hold them to the standard I expected later (it was so tempting to grab the one or two things they missed the first few times). But organization has become independent.

The open cubbies also have pictures of the expected organization for clean up day. These cards just sit inside the left corner of each cubby.

Most days they get close. On clean up day the kids make sure all the pieces are returned to the correct boxes and the card games are complete.

The magical and beautiful side effect of this every-two-week exercise is: they are actually starting to realize everything has a 'real' place. And since they are the ones who have to put everything back in the end, I have started hearing things like, "Put it back where it goes so we don't have to do it later." Ha! Point for Mom!

Beyond PB&J day 5

Day 5- Chicken Caesar Pitas

Ingredients:

2-3 frozen chicken breasts

2 Dole Caesar Salad Kits

2 pkg Sandwich Pockets

Fresh straberries

pretzel sticks

trail mix

granola bar

Sometimes I am on top of things enough to cook the chicken the night before. But, more often, I am able to pull this one off in the morning. I simply place my frozen chicken breasts into a pot of water and bring to a boil turning the chicken occasionally until cooked through (mine takes around 15 minutes). Once the chicken is completely cooked I cut it into chunks with kitchen shears and place in the refrigerator on the cutting board until cold. Meanwhile I empty the contents of the salad kits into a large bowl reserving the dressing. Once the chicken is cold I place it on top of the salad and pour the dressing directly onto the chicken. Toss the salad until evenly mixed. Scoop the salad mixture into the sandwich pockets. Ta-da!

Strawberries are one of the fruits I have noticed need press and seal wrap to be sure they don't leak.

This lunch works out to $1.39 per person. Each lunch includes 2 Ceasar pitas, one serving sliced strawberries, 1 cup pretzel and trail mix mixture and one granola bar (chocolate chip pictured).

Progress Report and an Invitation

Well, so far I have kept up with the daily posts! I hope y'all are enjoying a little peek into our home. Maybe you've even tried something yummy? I still have a nice backlog of posts just waiting to go up. So stay tuned... more mom hacks, recipes and sneak peeks are on their way.

I have decided the month of December I will be sharing our daily Christmas devotionals. This is something I created a couple years ago that I am eager to repeat.

Each night in our family, holiday or not, we come together at the end of the day to read scriptures, watch a short video (some are inspirational, some educational and some just silly and fun) and have a family prayer. This happens all year. But during the month of December we change things up a bit and I think some of you might like to join us?

Each night in the month of December we read in scripture about the story of the birth of Jesus. We enjoy some form of activity connected to the scripture and listen to a Christmas song or carol that goes along. I shared a couple of these way back in 2014. (click here to see the post) This continues December 1-24. It's our way of trying to remember each day what our Christmas celebration is really about.

So, if you are interested in following along or just curious about what we do, stay tuned this Christmas Season for our daily devotionals.

Mom hack- A load of difference

When the new boys came home I noticed we were suddenly doing too much laundry. I knew the laundry would increase by two bodies. But we were running out of one specific item far too often: towels. I'm not sure how it started. Nathan and Aiden were instructed on how the laundry works. But people started using towels only once and placing them in the hampers.

And like wildfire, the concept spread. Having 6 out of ten family members putting towels into the hamper every single day was wreaking havoc on the laundry. And no one wanted to claim ownership of the problem. The old saying applied perfectly to our situation: "Two mysterious people live in my home: somebody and nobody. Somebody did it and Nobody knows who." When asked they all claimed to have hung up their towels or gave the excuse, "Someone used my towel and didn't hang it up so I had to get a new one."

Similar to our cup problem, I was loosing my mind over towels.

So, yet again, a new system was born.

Each of the boys now have their own color towel (the girls already had their own color towels and they were not overusing them). We only have 2 towels of each color. So, if a towel is placed in the wash the backup towel has to last long enough for the dirty towel to make it through the laundry. And I purposefully only do the towels together about once or twice a week. If something really messy happens I make an exception. But daily use does not warrant daily washing.

Just one back up towel for each person. That's it. One towel on the hook in the bathroom and one in the cupboard.

This also allows for natural consequences and individual responsibility. If you don't hang up your towel, it will be cold, wet and smelly the next time you need it. No sympathy. If you use someone else's towel, they will find out and rat you out. If you leave your towel on your bedroom floor, you might end up needing to do the walk of shame, soaking wet in your underwear, to go get it. And if you have put both of your towels in the wash at the same time, you can air dry.

Sound harsh? When it's the difference of 5 or more loads of laundry a week, I can be harsh. This simple little adjustment has literally made 'loads' of difference.

We have already had one family member learn the hard way what happens to towel when it is left on the floor. He claimed to not mind the smell, at first... This issue was quickly resolved and now everyone's towel makes it to the hook.

To help little hands that struggle to make their towel's stay on wall hooks I got these mattress clips. When attached to the side of the towel they make an easy little loop for the kids to see, access and hang. The clips are super easy to remove when restocking fresh towels and they don't get in the way of drying little bodies. They have made a big difference in independence for the littles.

Feeding the Locust day 5- 30 days of cost effective breakfast and dinner

Day 5- Open Faced Egg Muffins and Southwest Skillet

Breakfast: Open faced egg muffins and fresh fruit

This breakfast gets a few dirty looks from my picky eaters. They don't like tomatoes. But if I let them slide the tomato off they gladly gulp down the rest of their breakfast so I stick with this one. In a family of 10 you cannot make everyone happy all the time. And I don't make special orders. Eight out of ten family members love this meal. Two picky eaters tolerate it and always leave with a full tummy.

Ingredients:

6-8 English muffins

1 tablespoon butter spread

8 eggs

2 green onions, chopped 

2 large tomatoes, sliced

shredded cheese

fresh fruit (pears shown)

Toast English muffins, lightly butter and place on baking sheet lined with foil. Scramble eggs and place over English muffin halves. Place one tomato slice on each muffin with eggs. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of tomato and top with green onions. Broil on high until cheese begins to bubble. Remove from oven and serve.

This meal works out to $0.87 per person. One serving is two egg muffins and one serving of fruit.

Dinner: Southwest Skillet

I love this meal for the variety it offers. We do a lot of chicken in our home (you probably noticed already). This meal offers a nice change of pace. This meal can easily be doubled and tripled without a hassle so it has grown right along with our family.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1-3 b boxes four cheese corkscrew pasta roni **
3/4 c milk (double or triple for additional pasta)
2 Tbsp butter (double or triple for additional pasta)
1 can corn, drained **
1 cup salsa **
shredded cheese
Pillsbury crescent rolls
fresh green salad

** I use the same amount of turkey regardless of desired servings. With one box of pasta I only add 1/2 a can of corn and 3/4 cup of salsa. Two boxes or more of the pasta can handle the full can of corn and cup of salsa.

Prepare crescent rolls according to package. While they bake, brown ground turkey in a large skillet. Add ingredients to the skillet (with browned turkey) from Pasta Roni according to box instruction. During the last minute of cooking time pour salsa and corn into center of skillet and stir. When cooking is complete, sprinkle with shredded cheese and allow to stand 3-5 minutes for sauce to thicken and cheese to melt.

This meal works out to $1.52 per person. One serving is approximately 1 1/2 cups pasta mixture, 2 crescent rolls and a side salad**.

**Daddy made the meal pictured and forgot to offer salads. The salad is included in the price even though it is not pictured.

Beyond PB&J- Day 4

Day 4- Teriyaki Bowls

Teriyaki bowls are simple and sweet. Thanks to our handy Thermos containers they stay warm all day. The kids all look forward to this hot lunch every time I make it.

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts

2 cups uncooked rice

1/2 package snap peas

2 cups baby carrots

2 green onions

Kikoman teriyaki glaze

Graham crackers

Gogurt (frozen)

Plastic fork

Begin cooking rice. Quarter the baby carrots and boil the carrots and snap peas together until tender. Drain. Pan fry chicken breasts As the chicken is browning, cut it into strips. Once the chicken is cooked through and browned, add the cooked vegetables and about 1/4 cup Kikoman Teriyaki glaze. Stir to coat. Turn off heat. 

If using Thermos containers for school lunch: Spoon about 1/3-1/2 cup cooked rice into thermos. Drizzle a small amount of teriyaki glaze onto rice and stir. Spoon chicken and vegetable mixture into thermos on top of rice. Spoon additional rice on top of chicken and vegetables and close container.

Putting the Gogurt in their lunches frozen and inside a separate container (away from the warm thermos) keeps the Gogurt cool long enough to make it to snack time.

I was in a hurry and forgot to take a picture of the complete lunch box. The teriyaki 'bowl' (thermos) is sizable and hearty so it stands alone as the lunch. The graham crackers and Gogurt are for snack time. Usually the kids get into the car at the end of the day still munching on crackers or their teriyaki bowl. This may look like a small lunch, it is not.

At a mere $0.85 per person this lunch helps balance out some of our big pasta salads that blow the budget limit. One serving is about 1/2 a chicken breast, 3 full baby carrots (quartered), 6 snap peas, 3/4 cup cooked rice, 3 sheets graham crackers and one Gogurt. 

Clothing is not Carpet- Staying on Top of the Laundry Mountain (Part 2)

This is a two part series. If you missed part one click here.

Part 2-getting the laundry from the machines to the bodies.

Laundry hack #5- from the dryer to the hanger. I have a hanging rack in my laundry room that is divided by person. I do not touch the clothes more than once. When I reach into that dryer and pull something out it is next touched by the person who is putting it away. I have found that if I ask require my kids to hang their own clothes it just doesn't happen. I have tried many approaches to this one. If I want the clothes hung, I have to put the dang hangers in myself. But, once I do, the clothes magically make it to their closets! Fascinating.

Empty hangers await me on the bottom hanging rack. Fresh clothes get immediately hung in each person's section.

Names are on the dividers so they can indeed retrieve their things without mom's help. They can even help each other when they are feeling charitable..

The other little time-saver of this step is I match all of the outfits for my kids who have not yet demonstrated the ability to dress themselves. My teenagers can look like fools ...unique... like every other teenager since the dawn of time, if they want to. But I make sure my little guys look decent by matching up their bottoms and tops on individual hangers. This way I can ask them to go change their clothes all on their own knowing they will come out looking acceptable. This helps cut back on the number of hangers and maximizes closet space. As an added bonus it also helps my sensory sensitive kiddos not feel overwhelmed by their wardrobes and the task of choosing something to wear.

Laundry hack #6- individual baskets. Every family member has their own basket for items that do not get placed on hangers. Undies, socks, soccer clothes, jammies, etc. all get folded and placed in their basket. Again, I only touch it once. When I reach into that dryer and fold something, the next person to handle it is putting it away. I also do not sort or group the folded laundry. The kids all know they are responsible for putting the clothes together in their drawers. The only one who needs reminding is Jacob. But all it takes is, "Remember, the undies go in the undies spot, socks in the sock spot and jammies in the jammie spot." They all keep their drawers pretty decent.

Top left is Justin, top pink is Caity, Mom and Dad share the top right, Amber is middle left, Ty middle, Nathan middle right, Drew left bottom, Jacob middle bottom, and Aiden bottom right. Everyone knows their spot. The girls have pink baskets to ensure grubby little brothers don't mess with them.

Laundry hack #7- individualized underwear and socks. Each person has their own pattern for socks and underwear making sorting a breeze. I do not flip socks right-side-out for people or match them in pairs. They must be identifiable both inside and out. Each individual is responsible for arranging their socks when they put them away. With 20 feet in this house making 140 dirty socks per week or more, I cannot spend time sorting socks.

Socks are identifyable both inside out and right side out. Top left is Nathan with the blue Hanes. Ty is the Keds. Amber is plain ankle socks. Drew has grey soles and Aiden has grey soles but Aiden's socks have 3 little grey lines on the toes (Drew's are also smaller but that is not different enough to identify a single sock). Jacob is the only one with long socks because of his leg braces.

Underwear. When you have 6 boys this can be tricky. So, solid fruit of the loom with the grey waist band is Drew. Solid Hanes with the white waist band is Jacob. Hanes with the red and blue waist band is Ty. Skinny stripes is Nathan and wide stripes is Aiden. Brad still finds this very challenging to memorize. I can almost do it blindfolded. 

Laundry hack #8- the all call. When it is time to put laundry away (usually at bath time each night) all of the kids come meet me in the laundry room. I hand them their basket and their clothes that have been put on hangers. They go empty their baskets into their drawers, hang the clothes in the closet and  collect any empty hangers from their closet. Then they bring the empty basket and hangers back to me in the laundry room.

And the cycle begins again...

Feeding the Locust Day 4- 30 days of cost effective breakfast and dinner

Day 4: French Toast Sticks with Sausage and Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

Breakfast: French Toast Sticks, Sausage links and Fresh Fruit

This is another speedy no-prep breakfast that is easy for school mornings. I know it is not health food. But my kids love it and think it is a special treat. Remember, with a 7 week meal plan, they are only eating this meal once every two months or so. I don't mind having frozen, processed, high calorie meals here and there. 

Ingredients: 

Krusteaz French Toast Sticks (in the freezer section near Eggo Waffles)

Banquet Frozen sausage links (we like the maple ones)

Fresh Fruit (grapes shown)

Syrup

Dip cups (this is what makes the meal fun!)

There is no real recipe here. Just follow the instructions on the boxes. But the main part of this meal that makes it exciting for my small people is the syrup in dip cups. There is a tactile element to the meal that puts a smile on their little faces. I have used powdered sugar on one or two occasions when we shockingly were out of syrup. They all complained about missing their silly little dip cups. The sugar was no substitute.

This meal works out to $0.98 per person. One serving is 4 sticks of french toast, 2 sausage links and about one cup of grapes.

Dinner: Crock Pot Pulled Chicken Sandwiches, Chips, Watermelon and Green Salad

This meal is super easy and makes fantastic left overs. The meat is excellent hot or cold. I also appreciate the ease with which I can increase the number of servings because of the extra sauce. If we have company I can just put a few extra chicken breasts in the crock pot.

Ingredients:

8-12 (or as many as your crock pot can hold) boneless skinless chicken breasts

KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce

8 oz cherry cola

1/4 cup brown sugar

12 hoagie rolls

1 bag of your favorite chips (we like the Hawaiian Sweet Onion)

1/4 large watermelon sliced

1 bag fresh green salad 

Pulled BBQ Chicken: Place frozen chicken breasts into crock pot. Pour entire contents of KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce over chicken. Pour 8 oz of cherry cola into the BBQ sauce bottle. Gently swirl to mix cola and remaining BBQ sauce without causing soda to foam. Pour soda and BBQ sauce mix over chicken. Sprinkle 1/4 cup brown sugar over chicken. Cover and cook on low setting 6-8 hours or until chicken shreds easily.

Remove chicken from crock pot to shred. Drain off sauce to desired consistency (I remove about half)  and return shredded chicken to crock pot stirring gently to coat chicken with sauce. Scoop desired amount of chicken into hoagie rolls and serve with sides. Our favorite way to eat this meat as leftovers is cold on Kings Hawaiian rolls. Yum! It also happens to be really good scooped onto wheat thin crackers.

This meal works out to about 1.89 per person. One serving is a full hoagie roll sandwich, single serving of chips, 3 slices of watermelon and a side salad.

Clothing is Not Carpet- staying on top of the laundry mountain (Part 1)

Laundry.

It feels like a four-letter word.

If I could only pick two words to describe my life right now they would be dishes... and laundry... sigh.

But! I have managed to figure out a few tricks to keep the laundry monster under control. In a family of 10 with an over abundance of BOYS we cycle through a lot of laundry. And it all looks the same. So I have found a few ways to get everyone involved keeping the workload as minimal as possible for mama.

This post is divided into two parts: part 1-getting the laundry from the bodies to the machines and part two- getting the laundry from the machines to the bodies.

Part 1- Getting laundry from the bodies to the machines

Laundry hack #1- we have only two categories for laundry sorting: white and color. We just don't do light and dark, delicate or iron only. Most of our clothes are hand-me-downs so bright colors and color bleeding are not a concern. The simplicity of two options for laundry sorting is all my little neanderthals can handle. I often find whites in the color bin and colors in the white bin as it is. Keeping sorting simple is a requirement.

Laundry hack #2- hampers near every shower. The most likely place for laundry to sneak out of someone's possession is the bathroom floor. From the 18 year-old to the 6 year-old if there is not a designated place to drop the clothing as it comes off their body it will not likely make it to another location. Keeping hampers close to the shower increases the odds of the clothes making it inside.

Laundry hack #3- cold for colors, warm for whites, heavy duty for all. Again, we don't do delicate and iron only. Church shirts and bras get washed right along with everything else. Our loads of laundry are always big enough to require the heavy duty setting. I rarely pre-treat stains either. The chances of an outfit surviving one of the boys and being handed down to the next are slim. We wear the clothes until they either don't fit or tear off of people. Only the strongest outfits survive. The amount of hand-me-down clothing we receive from friends keeps us afloat. If I were purchasing clothing myself I am sure I would have a different opinion on this one. But the simplicity of the laundry settings means even my pre-teen kiddos can start and switch a load of laundry to help mom. This is huge.

The fact that the washer has a 'C' and a 'W' makes it so much easier. I just told my kiddos the 'C' I wrote in black marker is for colors and 'W' is for whites.

Laundry hack #4- Laundry settings so simple, the dog could do it if she had opposable thumbs. Because we have an age range of 6-18, and chronological age doesn't necessary mean anything for many of them, we require very simple instructions that can be followed successfully regardless of age or maturity. I have written in permanent ink on my washer and dryer the catch-all settings for colors and whites. This way if I ask someone to help they stand a chance of success. But, all joking aside, setting the cues to a level the youngest can understand makes it possible to ask random kids passing through my presence to go switch the laundry.

Both my machines have the settings marked on them to take the 1,000 questions out of the equation. "Mom?! What setting do the colors go on?!" Just look at the machine, sweety...

With daddy and a couple of the teens and pre-teens throwing a load in every once in a while the laundry mountain usually stays in the baskets and off the floor. It is, however, a daily battle...

Beyond PB&J- Day 3

Day 3- Pineapple Tortellini Salad

Ingredients:

tortellini pasta (we use Buitoni from the refrigerator section, the original recipe called for 19 oz frozen tortellini pasta)

2 orange bell peppers

1-2 English cucumbers

1/2 medium red onion

16 oz cherry tomatoes

12 ounces diced ham

1 (14oz) can pineapple tidbits in 100% pineapple juice

1/2 cup mayonaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup pineapple juice (reserved from the can of pineapple tidbits)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 loaf fresh french bread

butter spread

granny smith apple

granola bar (honey oat shown)

plastic fork

Cook, drain, rinse and cool tortellini pasta. Slice bell peppers, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes into bite size pieces. Thinly slice and dice red onion. Dice ham. Place pasta, ham, vegetables and drained pineapple tidbits in a large bowl together (be sure to reserve the pineapple juice for the dressing). 

To make dressing combine in a small bowl mayonnaise, sour cream, pineapple juice, sugar and Dijon mustard. Stir until well blended and smooth. Pour dressing over pasta and vegetables. Gently toss until pasta and vegetables are evenly coated. Refrigerate until cool. Serve cold.

This is one of the lunches that requires a tight seal or the press and seal to cover.

I forgot to show what is in the blue container: 2 slices of buttered french bread. 

This lunch works out to $1.48 per person which is a little high for the budget so it is one that is strategically placed in the month. My big boys get more pasta than the little ones. An average serving is about 2 cups prepared pasta mixture, 1 apple, one granola bar and 2 slices bread with butter. The nice thing about this pasta salad is it is usually enough for 2 full meals which saves me prep time. It is also very sweet so my picky eaters will overlook the vegetables they don't like.