Many Mouths...No Fillers

The first meal I converted everyone to Paleo was dinner.  This may seem daunting when you have many mouths to feed.  It can even be more daunting when you are not using grains or legumes as fillers.  A lot of large families depend on bread, rice, pasta, or beans as cheap extras to keep the budget down and tummies full.  Unfortunatly, those are all big, fat "no's" around here.  But I do have a simple cure for this problem...PROTIEN.

Yes, protein.  Protein at every meal.  Protein is more satiating than our carb-y, starch-y friends.  Your kids will be fuller, longer and require less to fill them up.  When dinner time comes around you will feed them protein and veggies.  They will be full and satisfied.

Here are some mealtime protein ideas that feed a crowd:

Roast, beef or pork
Chicken Legs
Chicken Thighs
Burgers, beef or turkey
Turkey Breast

We also do a lot of chicken breast, but I'm trying to move away from that for various reasons.

Today was one of those crazy, busy days.  We have extra kids and lots of mouths, and I have to work until 5:00.  What's a busy, working mom of many to do??  Utilize that crock pot of course!  This morning I cut up two onions into fourths, threw them in the crock pot with a pork loin, salt, pepper and water.  Set on low and leave!  The kids were instructed to scrub up potatoes when they got home and put them in the oven.  They were also to pick out a veggie and a frozen fruit.  I will often pull out some frozen fruit if I think we may need it.  If we don't use it (ha ha!) we will take it in lunches the next day.

When I got home, the pork loin was done.  The potatoes were done.  The green beans were cooking and the fruit was defrosting on the counter.  One happy mama, many happy mouths!!

Just an FYI, my kids still eat white potatoes.  I don't typically, but I forgot to remind them to make sweet potatoes for Mike and I.  Not the end of the world, but as you can see, I only ate half.  I still LOVE white potatoes!  I eat them when I'm out, but I just don't eat them at home anymore.  I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes either, but I've found a great middle ground.  Now you'll all have to wait and see what that is.  ;)

Aside from frozen fruit, there is always mixed lettuce salad available. I buy tons of this and keep it available.  I take a salad in my lunch for work everyday and have one nearly every night with dinner.  It is another acceptable filler.  If a child complains they are "still hungry" then they are encouraged to eat a salad.  A few of my kids will eat a salad every single night.  BTW, the pork loin was AMAZING!!!