9/26

Oh dear, I skipped a few days of lunches there huh? I promise that I fed my kids! LOL! I even took pictures, but I forgot to post them. I just finished prepping lunches for tomorrow so its on my mind right this moment to post these. I'll get around to uploading the 2 days I missed, maybe tomorrow.

For my 7yo (above)
Gluten free chicken nuggets. Locally made GF BBQ sauce (purchased at our farmers market), pear slices. Baby dill pickles, tomato, cheese and basil sticks. Cucumber flowers and some adorable tiny carrots that my DD picked from the ground herself :) Tiny banana for afternoon snack.

For my 17yo (above)
Grilled chicken breast, GF Locally made BBQ sauce, baby dill pickles, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, cherry flavored bumble bar and cheese. Apple.

For my 15 yo (above)
All the same things as my 17yo except he gets a pear.

Often times my meals will repeat. Because we don't do grains I am having to think outside of the "bread box". Also my kids will request repeats. I don't always like to prepare the same meal in a week but if they want something again I will oblige if its easier for me :) For example the other day my 15yo requested that I make egg salad for him. The other two don't like egg salad, so one got a deviled egg and the other got something totally different because she thinks HB eggs are "gross, ew!" heh. (One of the meals I need to upload later!)

Farmers Market

 My husband was hosting a DnD game this morning so I headed over to our local Farmers Market. I wanted to share a typical trip to show you what we get :)

Sorry for the glare, this is in my breakfast nook and there are tons of windows, it is also quite sunny outside.
Our towns Market is pretty new and smaller than most around here. But they do have some pretty awesome vendors here! 
One of the vendors is a local farm who offers a "fill a bag" deal. I use Chico Bags and they let me fill them for $10 each. This is two bags worth. Most of this will be used for dinners around here but the fruit, carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers always find their way into lunches. Usually fruit is not included in their fill a bag policy but today it was, so I put my 17yo in charge of picking out all the fruit while I got our veggies.
Sitting on my table is $20 worth of LOCAL fruit and veggies. There is no way I could purchase all of this in my grocery store for the same amount for local produce. I've priced it!
My 7 yr old is away camping with her Grandparents this weekend and she is going to be SO excited to see that we got a big bag of fresh green beans and some acorn squash. Two of her very favorite foods!

There is also a small jar of grape jelly that I got for $3 (kind of expensive for jelly yes, but organic local grapes and I sampled it and felt my knees shake, I had to get it, LOL!) and the larger jar is also a locally made BBQ sauce. Totally gluten free and beyond yummy! That jar was $6 and the seller included a package of metal skewers too.

One of the things I really like about my towns farmers market is you can purchase "market bucks" they're like little gift certificates in $5 increments, they're good all year. So from May to October they don't expire and all of the Market vendors take them. I find that to be pretty handy especially on the weeks where my funds are a little low. I go on payday and purchase maybe $40 of market bucks and on that day I may spend 15-20 of them. Then the following week when it isn't payday, I still have market bucks that I know I can use at the market when I need them. And if for some reason I don't make it to the Market for a few weeks I know I can still use them when I do make it there.

We try to stick to a cash only budget, especially for things like food and gas. Sometimes I'm not the best at math and my food budget is empty before payday. So its really nice to pre-pay for my produce at the Market and know I can always go shop there even when I don't have cash on hand.

Tell me about your local Farmers Market. Get anything good this week?