Our family meal plan

When we ate dairy free for Lamb 1's sake, I made up a menu plan for our family. We had visited some friends that had many allergies in their family and she gave me the idea to try to vary the proteins in our meals. Eating dairy free didn't seem so difficult when we had a whole list of possible meals!
Because we often eat leftovers for lunch the next day and sometimes for supper the next day too, I don't plan a new meal for each day. We just eat leftovers until they are gone and then we make something new. Living in a rural area, we have most of the ingredients on hand most of the time. So the way this works is we make something from the BEEF category and when that is gone then we make something from the CHICKEN category and when that is gone we make something from the PORK/MEATLESS until we cycle through all the categories and then we begin again.
Our list started dairy free but recently many recipes from my blogging friends have been added to the list and they are not always dairy free. You will notice that there aren't many really heavy dairy recipes here. I rarely make casseroles/hotdishes because they are usually so heavy on dairy. It's easy for our family to choose something from one category instead of saying, "What should we have tonight?" thinking of all the recipes that we regularly cook. Obviously when we have much produce from the garden or something is on sale then we cook that even if it is out of rotation for our meal plan.



BEEF/GROUND TURKEY
meatloaf
tacos
steak (a treat once or twice a year!)
roast with veggies
hamburgers
sloppy joes
spaghetti
cottage pie (shepherd's pie)



CHICKEN/TURKEY
fajitas
baked chicken with quinoa
barbecue chicken
stir fry
turkey with stuffing
groundnut stew
chicken a la king

PORK/MEATLESS
applesauce pork
baked beans
pork chops
ribs
brats with sauerkraut
ham
pizza
dal
bean burritos
falafal
bubble and squeak
egg roll guts



FISH
tuna noodle casserole
baked fish with french fries
fish with coleslaw
spaghetti with clam sauce
pasta with salmon


SOUP in winter/SALAD in summer
chicken noodle soup
chili with cornbread
vegetable soup
lentil or bean soup



egg salad
chicken salad
tuna salad (both tuna melts and MckMama's tuna salad with pasta)
garden salad
taco salad
Texas caviar


BREAKFAST (usually made on weekends for brunch)
pancakes
french toast
omelets
fried eggs
Huevos Rancheros
egg sandwiches
sausage gravy and biscuits
baked oatmeal (crockpot night before)
oatmeal
possible sides: fruit salad, hashbrowns, muffins

Well Child Visits

Yesterday we took Lamb 1 and 3 for their 5 year and 1 year checkups. I was surprised that Lamb 1 had 3 shots, blood drawn, urine test, vision test, hearing test, blood pressure, and height/weight check. He is finally up to 38 lbs! He'll be in a car seat for awhile at this rate.

Lamb 3 had it easy with only 2 shots, height/weight check, and blood drawn. He lost a lb a few weeks ago when he had croup. He gained that back. He's a little guy. He's 13 months and 17 1/2 lbs. He'll be backwards in the car seat for awhile longer.

We've noticed that our doctor has become more laid back these last few visits as even compared to a year ago. Maybe this is because he now has grandchildren. Maybe this is because he can tell that all 3 Lambs are developmentally doing well and healthy, but they are just skinny. Maybe this is because this is my third boy. For whatever reason, he is no longer concerned about the Lambs weight.

I was concerned that Lamb 1 isn't getting enough dairy. For the last 6 months or so he has refused to drink rice milk plain, eat cheese, or eat yogurt. The only dairy he gets is ice cream and sometimes we have cottage cheese. The doctor wasn't even concerned about this. He said to drink more OJ with calcium, eat more canned fish, eat more veggies, and offer dairy but not push it. The doc wondered if the dairy still bothers Lamb 1 a little and we wonder if the memories of the dairy bothering him (MSPI) would cause him to not want dairy. When the doc saw how skinny he was, he said to let him have a milkshake every day if he wants it. We used to have banana or berry smoothies almost every morning. We haven't done that for awhile. Perhaps we'll try to get back into that habit, especially for Lamb 1.

Lamb 3 was born with a bump on the back of his head, behind his ear. This was quite noticeable as a newborn, but has shrunk as his head got bigger. At birth they told us he would need to have a scan at about 1 year old. Yesterday the doc told us he will keep an eye on it at checkups but not to worry about it.

Lamb 3 was healthy and over his ear infection and croup from a few weeks ago. The labs came back good for both of them. I'm thankful that the Lambs are healthy and checkups are truly WELL child checkups. Lamb 2 turns 3 in a few weeks and then it will be his turn!

Silly Lamb 1

I had some milk to use up before it expired so I made tapioca pudding one night and vanilla pudding the next night. It was all from scratch. I have made tapioca pudding since Lamb 1 was born, but not homemade vanilla pudding. Lamb 1 won't eat any of it even though he knows it is full of sugar. He claims sugar is his favorite food! I know that he had dairy problems, but he loves ice cream now. I tried letting him put chocolate chips on the pudding-he just ate the chocolate chips and left the pudding. This seems so strange to me, we loved it when my mom made tapioca and there were never leftovers no matter if she made a double or triple batch!This same child loves lentils, hummus, and other "different" foods. Oh well, there was more pudding for Ram, Lamb 2, and for me!