Feeding 5 Boys

My sister in law was asking for details about how we do lunches & our system of bins for the boys’ food. So since I took the time to write that down, I thought I might as well share that here too — since everyone’s always asking how I feed 5 hungry boys. 😉

So when each of our kids turned about 5 they started making their own lunches on Saturday for the week -- which was a big mess to clean up when they were little (but at least it was one big mess one day instead of lots of little messes every day). 

They usually did peanut butter & jam sandwiches for school, or might have leftovers instead of a sandwich, then on the weekends they have more choices for turkey, tuna, etc.  We had them do a sandwich, a fresh fruit, a fresh vegetable, and an "other."  Others include applesauce, raisins, a pack of peanut butter crackers, a gogurt, granola bar, fruit cup, etc. And once in a while I throw in something else to mix it up, like a pudding cup. 

Earlier this summer my kids were really going down on all the "others" for snacks throughout the day, then we wouldn't have them when it was time to make lunches. So I started to put a portion of them down on the regular shelf that they could snack on, and set some aside on the top shelf where they knew not to get things down, so I wasn't buying way more than normal. 

Oh yeah, we used to say the kids had to ask us before eating food from the fridge or pantry, because we didn’t want them to eat the ingredients for dinner recipes for later in the week, and we didn’t want them to go overboard on treats. But a year or so ago I decided we needed to give them fewer restrictions so they could make good choices for themselves. So we told them the top 2 shelves in the fridge and the pantry are not available (that’s where we keep ingredients for upcoming meals and any foods that Michael & I want to save enough for ourselves to eat), and they don’t need to ask first for the things on the other shelves. That has worked out pretty well (once I started setting aside the “others” so they wouldn’t eat them all the day I got them). 

Oh, and for several years we’ve done this thing where each boy has a small bin in the pantry with his name on it. Because the boys used to eat oatmeal every weekday for breakfast, I would buy each boy their own box of cereal and each one their own box/bag of a snack (nilla wafers, granola bars, graham crackers, etc.), and they would write their names on them and put them in their bins. The idea was that they could do what they wanted with them — eat them all in one day, or make them last the whole month — it was totally up to them. But I don’t replace them until the next month.  Since then many of the boys have switched to cooking eggs for themselves for breakfast most days, but I still get them cereal & snacks for the month.  (And if they complain about not getting cereal everyday, I let them know they’ll have some more at the first of the month). It has worked pretty well to add a little variety without feeding them sugar cereal every day of their lives.