Blueberry Jam

I made blueberry jam.  It is a beautiful thing, looking at eight jars of black yumminess sitting on my counter, still warm from their magical preserving bath.  Eight cups of hand picked, organic, raised four miles from my house kinda local blueberries that I lovingly crushed and turned into jam.
All I can say is...

Yuck

I used pectin like everyone else does, only this time I thought I was smart.
Low sugar, the box said.
No sugar needed recipes, the box said.
At least 25% less sugar than regular recipes, the box said.

Ok, we all know I am not drinking the aspertame kool-aid  substituting anything for natural sugar in my house, so I was pretty sure I was going to need some sugar.

Four and a half cups later...

Yes, we all can do the math on that one.  That means that roughly half, HALF, of each one cup jar is sugar.  I tasted it, hoping against all logic that it would be ok.  That it would still taste like a sun ripened blueberry.
Wrong.
So wrong.
Might as well have drank the kool-aid, sorry Dees...
Damn.

Eggs again, but better

Photo credit

You all know my thing about eggs don't you? My hubby makes raw egg, raw milk shakes in the morning so I felt like the price I was paying for my eggs was worth knowing they were good. So how could these eggs get any better?
Well..... I am a huge advocate for getting to know the people you are buying your food from. So I was talking to one of the owners of the Downtown Grocery the other day, and mentioned that I could not find anyone to share a case of eggs with me in order to get the 10% case discount they offer. That would have dropped my eggs down to $4.50 a dozen. Yes, I know that still seems like a lot, but I have good math to back that one up. Besides, when you consider that we go through a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs in the morning, and that feeds six of us for less than a dollar a person. Try doing that at a restaurant on a Sunday morning!
As I was saying, I was telling Blaine that I had not found anyone to share a case, and as many eggs as we eat in a month, there is no way we are going to eat 16 dozen eggs, 10 yes, but a case, afraid not. So, Blaine tells me that if we are eating 10 dozen a month, why not just come out to the farm and he will sell them to us wholesale.
Are you kidding?
Nope.
Then in the same week (because of the same man) I found an organic milk supplier that charges $5 a gallon for certified organic milk. Sooooooooo, long story short, I raised my milk by $1 a gallon, but dropped my eggs by $1.50 a dozen. More eggs, better milk, and come out $0.50 ahead? I would call that a Frugal Friday! What I want to know is, are you on a grocery budget? Do you stick to it and pay only cash, or tally up your receipts when you get home and try not to cry?

Starting tomatoes

Nothing like a little green in your house when everything outside still has a touch of brown. It seems like I started our tomatoes only yesterday, and the little darlings have got real leaves on them now. My husband searched high and low (at our local Fleet Farm) for heat mats so that they would get a good start. He ended up splurging on large pots filled with organic compost from our neighborhood ginseng farm so that I would not have to transplant the little guys before they were to go outside. All told, we spent less on heat mats than if we had ordered them from a catalogue, didn't pay shipping, and got trays with 70 expandable pots in them, included. I ordered tomato seeds from Territorial again, and all 30 of them germinated. This gives me the 16 or so I need and plenty to bless my friends with. I plan to reuse the pots and trays again next year, needing only to get dirt to fill them. This way I don't add to the landfill or recycle pile, shop local, and save myself more money next year. My tomatoes are not as big as last year at this time, but these are shorter day ones, so no fear. Next time I will show you my other green beauties...Come to think of it, I may be able to part with a couple more, say, if you were related to me and felt like making a trip up here in a couple weeks to get them... (hint hint)
What about you? Are you itching to be outside? Have you started anything growing in your window?

Chicken Bone Broth

I love making broth. I love how easy it is, how it smells, how it tastes, and how it is pretty much free. Lately every time I roast a chicken, I have thrown the bones back in the oven while I am cleaning up the kitchen. After they brown, I cool them and throw them in a bag in the freezer. Then, when I have a spare moment ( you know, while I am eating bon-bons and watching mexican novellas...) I make broth. Seriously, this is as easy as it gets folks.
Yesterday I was going to make gumbo and found that I was out, so I thought this would be a perfect Frugal Friday post. Here's what you do, follow closely, it's tricky.

1. Grab the chicken bones from your freezer, or the pan you just roasted it in and put them in a pot of water.
2. Add whatever veggies you have in your house. I typically use the tops of my celery, an onion cut in half, 3 smashed garlic, and some carrots. I don't peel anything, skins an all in the pot. Maybe wash them though...
3. Add 2 bay leaves, a small handful of peppercorns, and some parsley or whatever herb sounds good.
4. Boil on low for... well, however much time you have. I have done it for 3 hours, and I have done this in the crock pot overnight. When it first gets going, you need to skim off the foam, that stuff is gross.
5. Strain through a cheesecloth lined colander and refrigerate or freeze for later. I like to freeze mine in pint jars so I have 2 cups at a time. If I know I am making something that requires more, I freeze close to a half gallon. If you are really frugal, you can pick of the meat that is left from the bones at this point. I tend to pick mine over really well before hand, so there is usually not much left to add to the broth.

When this cools down, it will look something like chicken jello, this is normal, it will turn back into liquid when it is reheated so no worries there. We eat a fair amount of chicken, so it seems like I am never at a loss for broth. What is your favorite frugal recipe?

$5 eggs on a budget

I'll admit, paying $5 a dozen for something that comes out of a chicken's butt seems a bit crazy. Roll with me on this one. Please bear in mind that this is what we do, in no way am I saying that if you don't do things like I do are you a bad person. This works for us, and blogging is just a way for me to share that, not make people feel bad because they can't or don't eat like we do. Believe me, we went through years where we ate a lot of .60 eggs because that was what we could afford, and we were just fine.

Enter my shopping post for this week. Just doing a quick calculation, I figure I make bread at $1.47 a loaf. I bought bread similar to what I make in my own kitchen last week, and it cost me $3.19! That $1.72 difference is how I budget for our eggs. As to why, we eat a lot of eggs. Our whole family will eat a dozen on Sunday mornings and a loaf of bread. That is breakfast for six people for $6.45. Yes it could be much less if I bought conventional eggs, but my husband is rather fond of shakes made of raw eggs and raw milk. Not my favorite, but I don't worry about these eggs carrying some nasty bug like I do conventional ones, and pasteurizing them just seems like they are taking out some of the health benefits...

So there you go. I love that you are commenting on things, it makes me think more about the choices I am making when feeding my family. Sorry the post was so long in explaining, but I have never been accused of saying things the quick way, lol.
How bout you? Are there areas of your household where you have cut back on something in order to afford something else? Do you budget your grocery bill, or just buy whatever looks good?

Crepes

We love breakfast in our house. Some of us are ready to eat the minute we get up, some others take an hour to warm up to the idea. No matter what time, breakfast style is always a welcome meal. This morning we had crepes.

Unless your first thought on reading this is yuck, you should be making these babies. Especially if you are like me, and have a hard time paying 8-12 dollars for a plate of them. I made my own, used a jar of home canned organic peaches (and one banana) and had a troupe of smiling kids (and mom) headed out the door in regular time. Ok, I am never on time, but I swear these are so easy and good, there is no reason not to add them to your breakfast favorites. This is the recipe I use from Nourishing Traditions, I am sure your favorite cookbook has one as well.

Crepes
2 c flour (I use soft white wheat that I grind and store in my freezer)
2 c buttermilk
3 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 t salt
1/4 c melted butter

You can soak your flour overnight in the buttermilk, but I forgot, so...
Stir everything together, and then add water until it is the consistancy of cream (or creamer if that is what you are used to looking at). Put your pan on to medium heat and then brush with butter. Set out your plates, open your fruit, dig for your powdered sugar, mix up any extra filling, go wake your daughter up for the third time... By now the pan should be hot.

Pour 1/3 c into pan and grab the handle (using potholders if necessary) and roll the batter around coating the bottom of your pan. Let this cook for 2 minutes and flip. You can use a large pancake turner or if you have asbestos fingers like I do, grab the edge which should be peeling away from the pan, and pick the whole thing up and flip it over. Cook for 1 more minute and put on the plate. Butter your pan, add 1/3 c batter again, and now turn to the crepe on the plate. We like ours filled with fruit and a mixture of Neufchatel cheese and honey. Roll and top with powdered sugar. Throw plate to first kid and flip crepe in pan. Get second plate and kid into chair, repeat. My kids know by now that when Mom is in the kitchen and in her zone, stay outa the way!

Other popular filling choices are pb and banana, applesauce, sour cream and jelly, just jelly, eggs, eggs with stuff in them... you name it, the options are endless. I have even made a "lasagna" of sorts with layers of crepe, ham and cheese, and broccoli and cheese repeated in a pie plate. Talk about pretty when cut! The cost of this breakfast, even with the jar of organic peaches was less than one plate at a restaraunt, and I fed five out of the six of us with leftovers. Can't beat that with a stick, can you? What is your favorite frugal breakfast idea?

Frugal gift giving

"Happy birthday, Mom!" This was my greeting this morning from the usually grouchy #2 as she got ready for school. "My gift to you is Love." How appropriate is that, on a frugal Friday, love? Easy to give, no need to wrap, always in stock, and free.
At least for her...
How many of us give love with a price tag? I know that I have been guilty of it's not fair thoughts, I give so much and what do I get back thoughts, I deserve something too thoughts.
Oooo, Satan is tricky, huh?
Whispering in my ear. Telling me to give my love to others, at a price.
Dear Lord, thank you for the lesson from my beautiful daughter. Help me to always give the ultimate gift that I was given.
Thank you for the quiet lesson.

Enchilada Casserole

Since no day of the week starts with R, I guess Friday will have to continue to be my place for adding new recipes to the blog. This is my version of, "Ratfarts, the tortillas didn't come out near big enough or round enough for enchiladas", enchiladas. I love Mexico and its food, but I don't like to take kids to a restaurant, and certainly don't like to pay the bill. This is a go to recipe when I have a bunch of leftover things in the freezer, you know, a little beans here, a little rice here, end of a bag of corn, type thing. All these measurements are approximate. If you don't have an ingredient, no biggie, just makes the casserole a bit smaller. The rice and meat are interchangeable, so if you have a vegetarian (not here) or just a little bit of meat left over and you are tired of chicken salad, this is a very easy way to use it. Kinda reminds me of when we were kids an leftovers got added to white sauce and poured over toast... only way better...

Enchilada Casserole
One batch of homemade corn tortillas (or about 16 store bought ones)
2 cans enchilada sauce
1-2 c cooked chicken, turkey, or beef
1 c corn
1 c beans- black, pinto, whatever
1-2 c brown rice
1 1/2 c sharp cheddar, or your favorite cheese blend

To assemble
Pour 1/2 can sauce into the pan you are baking this in. I am using the same pan that I made my tortillas in because I hate to do dishes. Shred 5 tortillas on top of the sauce layer. In the bowl I mixed up my tortilla dough in and still have not washed, mix meat, corn, beans and rice. My beans and corn are even still a bit frozen at this point. Spread 1/2 of this mixture on the shredded tortillas, pour the other half of the can of sauce over that and top with a bit of the cheese. Repeat process with 5 more tortillas, other half of mixture and 1/2 can of sauce. Shred last 5 tortillas and pour last 1/2 can sauce over that. Now top with cheese. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, or until bubbling and your family has asked you for the thousandth time if supper is done yet! We top this with plain yogurt and Cholula hot sauce. Typically I serve lettuce on the side as well.

Waffles

My poor Schwan's man. Every time I hit on something new that works, I drop yet another product from my order. Good for me, but at some point he is going to start taking it personal... One package of waffles is $5.39 and I make that last for 2 weeks by only allowing each kid to have 2 at breakfast, one time a week. I felt like I was sending kids to school hungry, and it killed me to pull the box out, knowing that I could make better ones. I have now made 5 batches of waffles for pennies, and can't believe I didn't start sooner. This morning, I made a batch of whole wheat, two batches of kamut, and one batch with unbleached white flour. The kamut were my favorite.

Belgian waffles

1 3/4 c flour (white, wheat, kamut, oat or a combination of any)
2 T sucanant
1 T baking powder
1 3/4 c milk
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well, combine wet ingredients in a large measuring cup. If you add the eggs last, you can combine and measure all at once, less dishes... Whisk the wet into the dry just until combined, there will be lumps and let it set. This is an important step for me, because I grind my own flour, the grain needs a few minutes to absorb some of the liquid. If I was smart, I would soak them the night before....
Preheat your waffle iron (gotten on sale with coupon at Kohls for $18) and pour 2/3 cup batter (or whatever yours takes) on and cook. We top ours with our neighbors syrup that I buy by the gallon in the spring, or whipped cream and fruit.

Thanks for the turkey

Ok, I swore I was not going to fix turkey this year for Thanksgiving. To tell you the truth, I just don't find it very exciting. We can have turkey any time of the year. Thanksgiving is a special day, why not challenge myself to make something new, different, special (read HARD) on this wonderful holiday?
When you get free turkey, however, it makes it hard not to. We found out last spring that our neighbors raise chickens, so we asked if we could add ten to their flock. Sure, if you come help when it is time to butcher, was their reply. Now if that doesn't take a girl back to her childhood.... We agreed, July came and we helped butcher 75 beautiful four to five pound birds. They cost only $6 a bird, and we knew where they were raised, what they ate, how they died, and how fast they were into our freezer. Our order of ten somehow magically grew to twenty and we were in chicken heaven. We knew they were going to do this again, since the family didn't even take any they had raised for themselves, so we cheerfully told them to call us and we would help with their chickens in November.
Fast forward to this last Saturday. Only 25 birds and nine turkeys total this time, seemed like cake. We started at 8:00 and were done and freezing them all three hours later. Here is where I get really grateful. That wonderful family decided to take only six of these birds. The young couple who came to help their aunt and uncle, took six.... hmmm, what are we doing with the other 13? "Those are yours, and take a turkey breast as thanks for helping. Are you staying for lunch?"
What was I going to say, no?
Now I have 13 more birds, and these were a bit bigger... 9 POUNDS! And what did I pay for this beautiful bounty of birdom? $6 a bird. Yup, you heard me. To sweeten the deal, they threw in a turkey breast as thanks, fed us lunch, told they would be happy to do it again next year, and did I want all the other backs and necks for soup.
You are reading one happy post...
Want to read some other grateful posts?
Head on over to Laura's at Heavenly Homemakers

Girls morning out

There are days I really need to connect with other women on some level besides just being a mom. Usually when I get together with my friends, it is for something that revolves around our kids, cooking for them, playing with them (although I am kinda the joke of our group, only attending playgroup once a year), or some activity. If we make a lunch date to go out, we spend $5 and hr on a babysitter, 7-10$ on lunch, and still end up discussing our kids.
Well, a group of us have come up with a different idea. Our YMCA has personal trainers to the tune of $38/hr. None of us can justify spending that on a pair of shoes, let alone an hour to work out. There is another option, however. We can pay $50 and a whole group of us can go. Because I am a volunteer in the aerobics department, my childcare is free, and I spend $12.50 (less than a lunch date, and doesn't cost me a pound of guilt) and work out with a fun group of women. We have our workout in common, but we are so busy disliking the trainer for making us sweat, that we don't have time to talk about the kids. I am sure this is the state of mind I am supposed to be achieving in yoga, you know, no thoughts about the day, but this way I really can't think about anything but how bad my butt hurts, and when is this exercise going to end. We laugh and sweat together for cheap! Even if you only do it once a month, what a great girls morning out.

No need to knead

Ok, so my attempt at the pan noodles was a disaster, but that never stops me from trying to make it at home. Take out or canned is always more expensive and rarely as good as what I can make in my own kitchen. Take bread for example. You know that chewy bread you get with your soup at places like Panera? How about that awesome panini they have at one of those small places you are dying to have lunch with your friends at. I made this recipe and it about killed me not to eat the whole loaf! I had to be satisfied with the heels, but since it is round, there were 4 of those....
This recipe was published in the NY Times last year and has made the Internet rounds since then. I just decided to give it a try with AP flour despite being a whole wheat kinda girl, and it was incredible. I advise you make this on a day when you have soup on the menu, and if there is any left over, paninis the next day. I would!

No Knead Bread

3 cups flour
1 pkg yeast (.25 oz or 2 1/4 tsp)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups water

1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with a towel and a plate. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. I like to put mine in the microwave as it is above the stove, and then turn on its light.

2. Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. You can cover loosely with plastic wrap, I didn't, and let rest 30 minutes more.

3. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-to-8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic), I used my Le Creuset knock off, in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Carefully lift dough (it will resemble something out of a horror movie) and put it into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

4. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: 1 big loaf.

Oyster Stew

Ok, I have to confess, I don't actually eat this one. I make it, every Christmas Eve, and a few odd days here and there as the weather gets colder. Those little oysters really are quite pretty as they ruffle up in the hot pan, swimming in butter, but.... just not my thing. So, we made it last night with these phenomenal cheese, tomato and basil paninis. Supper on in about 12 minutes.

Oyster Stew
1/8 c shallot or onion, minced
2 tsp butter
8 oz can oysters
1 c half and half
1/2 c milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cook shallot in butter until soft, add oysters and simmer until the edges begin to look ruffled. I can't really say how long this takes, maybe a couple minutes. Add half and half and milk all at once and slowly reheat, do not boil. You can add parsley for looks, but salt and pepper to taste since the oysters do give it somewhat of a salty flavor.

Pumpkin

I was blog surfing the other day, something I find I don't have much time for, and I found several posts about pumpkin. Normally I would have been drooling into my computer, but these were scary posts.... about.....A PUMPKIN SHORTAGE! How can this happen you ask? One blogger blamed it on loss due to a cold snap in pumpkin land. I don't know if this is true and I have not gone looking for any at the store to confirm the shortage because there isn't one, at our house at least.
Back in February when I was drooling over seed catalogues, #3 said to me, "Mom, we HAVE to grow pumpkins so we can have pie!" So he picked out the seeds, and then in the spring, he "helped" me plant them. We were a little concerned about the dry weather this summer, but our neighbor brought over a wagon of soybean straw to put around the plants as mulch and here we are in October and we have loads of beautiful round orange pumpkins. We have so many different ones, we invited our neighborhood to come help themselves to some too.
So, what do you do with a pie pumpkin you ask? Easy as... well pie! Cut it in half like this.
Now scoop out the seeds, and place it cut side down in a baking pan or roaster. I can fit three pumpkins in my turkey roaster at once. Then put it in the oven for two hours at 350, much like cooking squash. You may want to check it every once in a while, but when you see the tops starting to cave in, you know they are done. Pull them out, scrape them out and mash up what looks NOTHING like canned pumpkin. Measure it into quantities of your favorite recipe, mine is two cups, and throw it in the freezer. Done! Six pumpkins gave me enough goo for ten pies. I will probably do ten more as we eat a lot of pumpkin things, but that will still leave me with some for the neighbors. Yay! Later I will post what I did with my first batch of fresh, organic, home grown, frugal pumpkin.

Apples, Apples and More Apples

I commented before about how much I love a good deal and apples and here I am again, with more apples and a better deal! My wonderful neighbors have three apple trees and this year they have been particularly blessed with apples. In turn, they bless the rest of us with apples by the bucket. I don't mean kids bucket, or ice cream bucket, I mean good old five gallon feed pail buckets! Our family loves apples, apple pie filling with french toast, apple butter and apple crisp. More than anything, we go through gallons of apple sauce over the course of the winter. We love it plain, with sugar, cinnamon, cream, in bread, to replace 1/2 the butter in baked goods and whatever else we can do with it. I wish you all had e-smell so that you could enjoy our house as much as we do. To top it off, I have a vanilla scented pod in my warmer.... Like pie a la mode.... mmmmmmmm pie.....

Garden follow-up

Wow, it has been a while since I have written about the garden project and boy have things changed. I never get tired of seeing the new green spring out of the ground in late April, and that is just the weeds! Remember the potatoes? Well, here they are now...
Here is the rest of the garden too, pay no attention to the weeds, that is 2700 feet of love! I am so excited to start eating out of it on a regular basis. We have been in the lettuce patch for a while, and every once in a while I steal a baby carrot from the row.
Now I can go pick peas to go with those carrots and I have spotted baby tomatoes coming too. I have a feeling that now things are really growing, I will have to do a couple updates on this one...

What's for dinner...

Ah, the age old question that makes every mom want to cry and wish they were fabulously rich so they could order out, at least at some point or another. Usually I am on top of things and have my menu done on Saturday and written on my calander from Flylady, so I can stock up for the week. Well, my menu is done, but the stocking portion just has not happened. Maybe it was because I was too excited for my my date on Saturday night, or that on Sunday, my back decided to spazz out. Maybe it was swimming on Monday, or Biathalon on Tuesday or the thought of swim again on Wednesday, or the fact that it is summer and the idea of hauling four kids to the grocery store is some sort of torture in itself. At any rate, the shopping has not happened, and it is supper time. What's the solution? Kitchen sink soup! You heard me, and yes it is what it sounds like. This dish starts with me firing up the computer and opening the fridge and freezer doors and a lot of staring. Eventually, I am inspired. Part of an onion in the drawer, oooo some peppers, here is that sausage I bought three months ago to make pizza with, wow, when did I freeze that zucchini? While this may seem a strange way to cook, if you put your four year old on stirring duty and let him dump in herbs, he thinks it looks like the best meal he has ever eaten. Guess I'll call hubby to pick up a loaf of fresh Italian bread and head out to the garden for salad. Oh hey, here is some tortellini....

Posts, Posts Everywhere

We did it! 80 bazillion posts later, we have surrounded our yard with what looks like the start of a stockade. What a job that was! I say that somewhat tongue in cheek since my part of it was relatively easy compared to what my hubby did. We had someone come out with a tractor to drill holes since our first attempt didn't quite produce the results we wanted. (read as- rented a machine with not enough power to dig, or a long enough bit to dig deep enough) This put our project up to about a 9 on the cuss-o-meter scale from the start. Only installing our own crown molding was more painful. After some discussion about how the other 86 holes were going to go, we made the decision to pay someone to do what clearly was going to take us that many years to accomplish, and by then our kids would be out of the house and we would be too old to hunt let alone with a new puppy.
Tractor came, and in the same amount of time it took us to do 5 holes, did all the holes! We were ecstatic! String the line, let's start planting posts, no problem right? That was 2 1/2 weeks ago. Between schedules, rain, wind, rain and more wind...(makes the string move) it took a while to get the rest of them in the ground. My job was holder, clamper, water getter, cheerleader and string mover. I have to say, I sweat much less than hubby who was raker and tamper, using a 40 lb iron bar and a lot of sweat and muscles. It never ceases to amaze me what an incredibly strong and resourceful man I have married. God couldn't have given me a better one, and I know that I wouldn't have found such a guy without His awesome hand. Posts are up, hard part is done, and I am overjoyed at the money we saved doing it ourselves. Hard work! Works for me.

Grocery budget take 2

Ok, week two of the budget. If you read the last week, you were a) shocked at how much I spent, like I was b) wondering what possessed me to not keep track before or c)... well, there is no c. So off I went, newly determined to stay on task this week. Here is what I spent.
Big box (dried and canned items) $18.50
Local grocery big box $29.03
For a total of $47.53!
Now, before I get too excited about this, bear in mind last weeks lump spending of $295.09 which about put me over the edge when I added it all together. So, now I am up to a total of $342.62. This would be an outstanding total, for a whole month, not 2 weeks! Take a look at my menu to see what I will be making this week with my purchases.

Grocery budget.... not!

Ok, I just updated my grocery budget post and I gotta say... looks bad, looks bad coach. I knew we were a bit off target, but had no idea how much is spent on food. To be fair, this week is a bit of a stocking up week on items we order only once a month or so. The Schwans man comes the first week of the month, and my Country Life order is rather hit and miss about every 3 months or so. If I had not had those two whoppers we would have been much closer to target. I guess I will just have to keep in mind, the end of the month is where the real numbers come out, and since this month is just to get an idea of what we spend, better to be realistic than idealistic, right. Still I have to shake my head and wonder where all that food goes... oh ya, 4 healthy kids...