Friday Encouragement

Birthday Girl

It's birthday time..
We had Miss A over for cake and ice cream to celebrate Nesiah's birthday!


Nesiah got lots of cool socks for her birthday! 

When you have a none verbal child, it can be hard to find an ice breaker when taking the child out in public. We find that fun socks are an excellent conversation piece, plus they are cute!! 

Big sis baked and decorated this cake! It was a gluten free layer cake with a peanut butter filling. Very Yummy!

Not Your Typical Once A Month Freezer Meals Part 1

I read the blogs. I search pinterest. I studied, mulling and figured. But reality is, most of these recipes don't work for my kids. The foods needed don't work with what is available for me.

We use a lot of food bought at the amish/mennonite bent and dent stores. (There are tons in my area) We also buy food in bulk from a foster parent food program. We get our venison from relatives who hunt but don't need all the meat. We also can a lot of tomato products.  This makes it a bit more complicated to follow your typical OAMC plans, but it allows me to cook for way less money.

Dietary restrictions, the only one we have is gluten intolerance. We have found using potatoes and rice pasta are good substitutes. When I find a good deal on GF pasta, I stock up. I recently bought 30 bags of rice pasta for .75 each!  We can get fairly inexpensive produce from local produce stands, plus we grow some of our own. (not much, I simply can't keep up with a garden)

So I have in my basement, 2 large shelves of home canned goods, 3 shelves and 3 totes of bulk items from the Food Program, and 3 freezers.. a large, medium and small freezer.  

                                        

                                           

Medium and small freezer, prior to purchasing my large upright freezer!

I share all this to help you understand how it all works for me. In order to fit my budget, I use what we have... It is not your traditional "make a list and go to the closest Aldi's" OAMC.