Friday, December 10, 2010

Large Family Meal Preparation (HELP!!!!)

If you are hoping for advice you came to the wrong place.  We became a large family rather quickly.  In 5 years we have gone from 1 child to 7 children and  now soon to be 8 children.  Our kitchen did not grow with us, although it is a nice kitchen and I am grateful to have it.  Below are pictures of our kitchen.




We are a very tidy and organized family, which has been a blessing.  There is just not much usable counter space.  I can't imagine trying to work in this kitchen if the counters were covered with junk.  I have to keep ALL(except a coffee pot and electric skillet)of my small appliance in a cabinet.  There is just NO counter space.  I use the coffee pot and electric skillet daily!!  We have a very small closet/pantry.  I would love to do more cooking from scratch but I just don't have a place to store items or counter space for preparation.  Reorganize the kitchen?  Any suggestions?

So here is my question to you.  How do you do meal preparation??  I am already having to double recipes.  Even though our children are small they are consuming a good amount of food.   What do you use to prepare meals in?  Do you have industrial size appliances?  Crock pot?  Electric skillet?   We tend to purchase inexpensive small appliances and they just don't seem to be holding up well with all the use.  Any suggestions? 

5 comments:

  1. A crock pot is my friend when I dont have time and want a good meal. I have a cookbook filled with meal you can make in a pot. Also, my new friend is a bread maker...while it does take up some space on the counter...it allows us to have bread ever day...and it makes a large 2 lbs loaf (that would last a day for you :) You can look at or copy some of the pot recipes in that cookbook if you want.

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  2. We added 5 kids in 3 years. :) I don't have a lot of space either. 10 of us in 2000 square feet. I have no industrial appliances and just use the standard stuff everyone else uses. I'd be happy to share some recipes if you'd like. I have tween/teen boys so I do a lottttt of cooking:)

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  3. Ok, I need to hear from Sunshine too!

    The funny thing is I was going to email you about recipes! You guys are a tad bigger than we are...but we double recipes too!

    I was in need of some good meals ideas as well...so please pass them along to your friend Cynthia....

    Love you girl!

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  4. My family is often serving groups of 30 or more in our home. We have found in serving these groups often that we make 5-6 meals on a Saturday and freeze them.

    We bought a deep freezer and have been able to stock up on these meals.

    The website below has some great ideas on freezing meals and how to prepare many in advance.

    http://moneysavingmom.com/

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  5. My newest and very best friend is our 22 quart roaster. We have 6 children who all eat a good amount of food as well. We originally got the thing because our oven fail... The day before Thanksgiving... and nothing that needed baked was done. This thing bakes, slow cook, and roasts, and only cost us 80 bucks!!! I love this thing and have used it many more times since we got it last month, now just looking for more meals that we can make extra large to freeze! :)

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