This Mom's Menu for the Week of July 23rd

We officially in back to school mode around here.

My 3 oldest kiddos will be starting school this Thursday and my youngest starts preschool in just a couple of weeks. All of my kids are going to new schools and in case that wasn't stressful enough, they are all going to different schools as well.

Eli and Vanessa, my oldest will both be Freshman in high school. Vanessa is my step daughter and lives with her mom most of the time, so she will be going the school in her mom's district.

Trenton, my middle son, is moving to middle school this year. He is only in the 5th grade, but the school system we are in starts middle school at 5th grade. I'm not sure how I feel about that ...

I am sure that there will be plenty of back to school photos in next weeks post, so consider yourself warned.

So what about the kids meals?

Since summer is winding down, I have been doing a lot of thinking about how I can keep my kids sugar and junk food intake to a minimum. I've also been reflecting on how our summer went since I kept the kids pretty low carb.

I learned so much this summer about how food affects my kids behavior. When Lucas (my rambunctious 4 year old) is away from sugar and junk - he is an entirely other child. His behavior is unbelievably better. Since he is only going to be in ½ day preschool, he will still be eating at home. I am going to do my best to keep him on the low carb train.

I have also considered having him allergy tested, as I have noticed some skin issues that he has have really cleared up since he has been eating better.

Eli, my oldest, was probably the least affected by eating low carb. I didn't really notice any huge improvement in any areas. I am honestly kind of relieved, because as an almost 15 year old boy - he is the child who I have the least control of.

Trenton, my 10 year old, had some negative issues, which were mostly my fault. It had nothing to do with how he ate - but more how he perceived what he was eating. He felt really deprived and almost fixated on the things that we were not eating. Then, when he was given the opportunity - he totally binged on these items.

I have talked with him a lot the past couple of weeks, and I think that we are well on out way to clearing up some of these perceptions.

So, going forward, I have some very fluid plans but nothing set in stone (which I kind of think is the best way to approach this).

I am going to have the boys eat breakfast at home. I plan on keeping the fridge and freezer full of high fat, low carb breakfasts. I am going to encourage them to eat as much breakfast as they want in hopes that they will fill up and not be quite so hungry at lunch time.

That's because I am going to allow them to eat school lunch (gasp - I know)

Trust me - I am not thrilled about this, but I am also not a dummy. I know that my kids will eat what they want when they are at school and there isn't much I can really do about it.

I, of course will always give them the option to take a lunch. To my surprise, they were both able to come up with a few suitable options for a packed lunch.

Suppers, and meals at home will still be low carb and most importantly high fat. My hope is that by backing off a little, making sure that they have high fat, low carb meals they will have less room for some of the junk food.

Probably just wishful thinking, but we shall see.

So, with all that said, you might notice that this weeks menu is a little different. I considered going back to my previous menu posts of only sharing suppers. I honestly don't eat breakfast (other then coffee) most days, I rarely snack and Lunch is almost always leftovers.

Without the kids meals included, my meal plan is pretty boring. On the other hand, you guys made it clear that you want the complete meal plan.

So as long as you are prepared for boring - I will keep sharing our complete meal plan. Deal?

Here are the links to the recipes we are using this week:

Instant pot crack chicken - I eat this over top of broccoli and it's amazing!
Chicken and waffles - this is by my kids request as their "last supper" before going back to school. I didn't add it to the breakfast section, but I plan on making extra waffles and sticking some in the fridge for breakfast options. We also have used the waffles as bread for sandwiches!
Butter chicken - I actually cook this in the instant pot as well. Just toss it all in and cook for about 10 minutes, then saute to reduce the liquid some.
Green Chili Chicken Bake
Texas Chicken Nachos
Sausage Pancake Muffins
Orange Cherry Muffins
Crackers
No Churn Mint Chip Ice Cream