Life with Hungry Teens (AKA How to Keep your Food)

We have reached the point here where it feels like we are living in a All You Can Eat Buffet but the buffet trays are always waiting for the refills. The food is here but it's going fast. One grocery trip leads almost immediately into the next one. We rarely go out to eat as a family because restaurants aren't going to fill them up.  Where do they put it? My boys have become eating machines. They are almost all taller than me now. I was once the tallest in the home, those days are gone.

When they were younger, I could just buy more vegetables for us and mix the vegetables in with part of the food and they would leave it. Spaghetti night? Mom's is the one with mushrooms, and they weren't going to touch my portion. Now, they'll just move the mushrooms out of the way. It may keep my husband (allergy) from eating my portion but not the boys.

New Tricks for having some for me came to surface today.
Popcorn : I put the butter on give them theirs and then sprinkle mine with Kernels Seasoning, they don't like it, it's safe for now.

Hubbie's Trick for Wings is to keep all the bones in the box with his uneaten ones. EWW! He used to use a discard plate or napkin and throw them out, now he leaves them in his box so the boys don't eat his and theirs. 

One son's trick to keep Dad out of his wings? Lick them all!! first step is to lick all the wings, or fries or pepperoni slices on his pizza. This will prevent Dad from taking "just one" off the slice or out of the box. Taking just one is annoying when some slices only have 1 piece to start. The boys are no longer a fan of just one slice of pizza or just cheese pizza.

Another son's trick to keep his brothers from eating all the school snacks before he makes his lunch box is to now put the next item in the lunch box the second he gets home with the previous days lunch. If they had their way, they would eat all the snacks in one sitting.

What are your tricks for keeping things fair or even? 

The Day of Random Thoughts, or Random Tuesday

Happy Tuesday or as I recall Random Tuesday. Today my thoughts are quite Random. They came to me in my sleep. 

The boys are back to school, yes I was up for the -eat!,wash your face, brush your teeth
-pack your lunch
 -got your homework, 
"I love you have a great day, be nice to everyone", and out they go into the world.
There was a time I was doing it all, I was going to the room shaking the awake, telling them to get dressed, while I made breakfast for them. I've stopped, this year I'm not making lunches. I'll make parts of lunches that are on hand but I'm not packing it.  It's all about the road to independence now.  The time for growing up is here.

Am I really ready for them to grow up? 

School we managed to get a full week in even with weather. I wonder how long this "streak" will last? 

Chairs are perfectly happy this year. The kyootycenter FB page is a buzz with photos between snow and rain and ice. 

Would you ever leave your child to be babysat by someone you've never met before? 

Anyone have any great meal ideas this week? Cheap and easy? I made a lose menu but I'm looking for new. I'm getting some ideas from "Betty's Light Right Start" newsletter, but some involve some more advance planning for ingredients. I'm of the don't go to the grocery store too often mind set. I'm also trying to work our way down our pantry to replace some things with fresher ones. 

Everyone got that Christmas Tree down? or will it be a heart tree? 

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Thinking of Thanksgiving

I know I know I'm not in the USA anymore but we still do the things that became traditions for our kids while we were living there. One of those things was to have a Thanksgiving Meal in November here in Canada too.  The reason I'm starting this post today is I'm curious, what will my American friends be cooking next week. If you aren't American, what will you be cooking this week or next week that you want to chat about, or comment. I like Comments and it's fun to read.
 Some of this:

 maybe gravy?

 definitely carrots, it's a veggy the boys will eat.

 Mash Potatoes!

 maybe lemon pie? or another

As long as there is none of this going on