A Few Changes

Brandon and I am making a few changes for our family, or at least we are trying. We have been through the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class before at our church, but unfortunately it didn't really take. Now we aren't money-blowers or extravagant spenders. We don't even eat out much. BUT--we also aren't budgeters either. Considering that my employee at my store brings home more money than I do, as almost all profit goes back into the business, and as a result, we are living on one income, we NEED to be on a budget. So Brando has taken it upon himself to put together a budget for our family. We are also considering taking the Financial Peace class again for a refresher. We have friends who have gone through it with great success. And while we don't agree with Dave on a few principles such as Life insurance, we know that his plan for paying off debt really works. So, we are making an attempt.

As part of that budget, I am doing more meal/menu planning. This is my first week and so far it has actually made my life easier. The initial planning of what we would eat and then the list-making was stressful for me, as I am not naturally all that good at organizing (which we will get to in a moment) but once I got that part down, not too bad. This set-up is changing our meal time as I am making meals that I can easily adjust for brandon and me too. Usually he and I eat around 10pm, after the kids have gone to sleep. And usually, we eat junk. The kids eat much better food, but they are low on variety. Part of that is due to the super-restricted diet, but part of it is also lack of planning on my part. So, I am trying to kill lots of birds with one stone with this meal plan. So far, it is working well. Here's what we've had this week:

Beef tips, green beans (from my garden), and rice. Green beans and rice were new to the kids. And both boys tried both. Kyan loved the rice and ate the green beans once I put salt on them. Braylen ate beef, rice, and green beans, largely because he is a good eater, but also because he was promised he would get to go swimming if he did. Kynsie resisted and stubbornly refused to even taste her dinner. She would subsist on crackers and fruit if we would let her. It is past time that we help her expand her tastes a bit. It was not fun, but she did not taste dinner and did not get to go swimming. :(

Last night we did GFCF Pepperoni Bread stix for the kids (canned bread stix for us) with marinara sauce to dip in, and organic salads. It was a much better. Kynsie refused to try the bread stix so brandon put a bite in her mouth and she actually loved it. She then proceeded to eat 3 of them and even tried her salad! Miracle! Kyan ate his salad too and of course the bread stix. Braylen did too--no surprise there. So--definite progress. AND Brandon and I ate at a reasonable time for 2 days in a row. Woo-hoo!

Tonight we had rice bread crumb breaded all-natural chicken breasts fried in olive oil. Corn on the cob--mainly for us, kids really get minimal corn in diet and we figured they wouldn't eat it--we were right. Also had peas and carrots and the kid's french fries. Kynsie was not excited about trying peas and carrots, but she did it so she could have a GFCF cookie. Poor thing gagged on peas and on chicken--she is super sensitive to textures in her mouth, but SHE TRIED. So she got the cookie!


I know that food is not particularly interesting to many of you, but I have come to realize that many other moms of kids with autism who also eat GFCF foods read our blog. I am a big believer in not re-inventing the wheel, and I like all of the tips I can get. Saving money, saving time, saving stress, and getting our kids to eat more of a variety is helpful for all of us. So I will do my best to pass along what works for us. I took pictures (weird I know, but I think posts are naked without at least one picture) but my uploading cable isn't here. So tomorrow I may just post tonight's dinner photo. But I will also try to post about the book I am reading on organization and how it is presently helping me with clutter-monster that has consumed my house. More to come!