The other day I went on my off-week grocery run. Grocery shopping is a major endeavor with a mega family. More often than not, even on a “small” grocery run, you either fill the cart to the brim, or need a second card. Since I am not keen on enduring that mania weekly, I do my main shopping every other week. It helps to have a meal plan, since you are buying for 14-ish days, and it keeps you focused on what you need. Even with that, we go through at least 12 gallons of milk a week, and there is no way to keep 24 in our house, even though we have 3 refrigerators (we live in a converted 2-flat that has 2 kitchens plus we have a fridge in the basement). So, that means a bi-weekly “milk run” where I pick up our weekly moo juice and a few odds and ends we’ve run out of and can’t wait until my next major shopping trip.
A 6 for $10 cereal deal is awesome, even when it is generic. When it’s Kellogg’s, that’s even better. Our local store was running a sale, and despite not planning to buy cereal, I picked up a few boxes. My plan was to come home and make sandwiches for dinner. As my kids saw me walking in with Corn Pops and Frosted Flakes, they were immediately overcome. They’d much rather have that. And as I looked at that box of Froot Loops, I realized I’d rather have that too…as well as the prospect of making dinner and serving everyone in under 10 minutes. So, we ate cereal, and it was wonderful.
Do you know that it’s a (sad) fact that many of the kids in America get most of their daily allowance of vitamins through breakfast cereal. So, in case anyone thinks of wagging a disapproving finger.
I love making huge meals, and having my kids swoon as their forks hit their lips. But there is something to be said for taking a night off. I don’t have any guilt about it, and neither should anyone else. Now, if you’re kids are eating cereal 7 days in a row–and presuming you can afford other food in your house–that may be a problem.
And the question of the moment is…how much cereal did we go through? For our 8 kids and 3 adults, we polished off 3 whole boxes, and a bit of a 4th. And we went through about a gallon of milk. Considering some other meals, I think we fared rather well with that one.
