Single Mom Tips: Handles for Traveling with Kids

When you are out and about with multiple kids, things can get a bit tricky!  Especially when you may have kids with special needs or kids from foster care who don't understand the need to stay close and stay safe.  Having a child run out into the street on your watch can be a terrifying experience. When you have more kids than you do hands, holding hands no longer becomes a valid option, so what can you do:


We have these handles they come in multiple designs and you can add many handles to accommodate more kids.

 

Amazingly my kids hold on to these handles, apparently they don't realize they could just let go and run off, LOL!  Must be something psychological, but I wont complain :).  You can either hold your end of the handle or they easily clip onto a shopping cart or stroller.  At the beach I clip it on to my beach bag so they can hold on as we walk down to the ocean.

I also prefer these to the "leashes" many people use.  There are a lot of people who are very against them, I admit I used to not understand it, now I TOTALLY get it and if that works for your kid by all means use it!  These handles just feel better to me and I think help teach the kids some responsibility to stay safe.

SINGLE MOM TIPS: Breakfast Organization

In our house breakfast is done individually depending on when the kids get up.  The key to breakfast is easy, easy, easy.  We just do not have the time and I don't have the energy to do a big breakfast on weekdays.  On the weekend we do the whole shebang, but M-F is simple meals.  Generally my youngest two are up first so I help them get their breakfast.  My oldest is nine and able to prepare most of the breakfast choices himself, but depending on what is for breakfast I will prepare it and have it set out for him when I am getting the littles.

Each week I offer certain choices for breakfast and place them on the menu.  In the evening I will ask what the consensus is for breakfast, generally I try and get them to all agree on one thing.  However, since most of the breakfast items are quick and easy it is not a big deal to prepare more than one of the choices.  I try and lay out any of the items we will need on the counter for the next day (unless they need to be in refrigerator/freezer).

I have one shelf dedicated to breakfast items in my kitchen, this includes cold cereals, oatmeal, cream of wheat, pop tarts and any other shelf stable breakfast item.  My oldest is nine and able to prepare any of these items himself (and will prepare for siblings, if asked).  I try and limit the cereal choices to 2-3 at a time on this shelf (extras are stored in the pantry) and only keep what is being offered for a choice that week on the shelf.

Bread items are stored in a drawer in the kitchen:  English Muffins, Bagels, Bread.

I use the weekends to make up extra servings of breakfast items that can be frozen and reheated: pancakes/waffles, muffins, breakfast sandwiches, burritos. These are really easy to take out of the freezer and heat in toaster or microwave in the morning.  Some of our favorite recipes are listed below.

I have a plastic cup with lid and straw for each kid.  I pour them a cup of juice the night before and place in the refrigerator.  Once the juice is gone they can refill with water on their own for the rest of the day until dinner.  Having the drinks prepared in the refrigerator is nice. Since I have two little ones who sometimes want to get up SUPER early, I can send them down to get a drink and put on a TV show while my slow achy body gets awake and ready for the day.  Using the cups with lids and straws in the morning came about after one too many spills happening in the morning when we really don't have the time to mop!  I try and use regular cups at dinner.

More Tips/Tricks to make the morning easier:

1. Fill a large shaker with a cinnamon/sugar mix that can be put on buttered toast/bagels/Eng. Muffins and kept on the breakfast shelf for easy access.  They also sell a premixed cinnamon/sugar spice shaker at the dollar store that is handy and can be refilled with it runs out.
2. If your kids like butter on their pancakes/waffles try melting butter in the syrup over the stove before putting it on your food.  This way there is no need to try and cut and spread the butter on everyone's plates but they still get the butter taste.
3. Use a pizza cutter to cut waffles and pancakes to save time.
4. Make a kid level drawer with plastic bowls, plates, silverware, cups so kids can help set the table or get their dishes out in the morning.

FAVORITE RECIPES:

 

Baked Oatmeal

Oven Pancake

Pancakes/Waffles

Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins:  My kids LOVE these and have no clue its filled with Veggies :)

Breakfast Burritos

Oh and I don't think I've ever showed you MY favorite area of the kitchen.....a Coffee Bar, just for mom!  Cause lets be honest, nothing is happening till I've had my coffee :)

Chicken Nuggets Recipe

These Chicken Nuggets are awesome!  They taste pretty similar to Chick-Fill-A which my kids love.  I make double the recipe and freeze some for lunch/dinner later in the month.

What you will need:

4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts
2 cup milk
2 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
4 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder (can be omitted)
peanut oil or canola oil

Directions:

Whisk the egg and milk together and pour into a Large Ziploc bag or bowl.  Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  Place chicken in milk mixture and let it sit for 3-4 hours in the fridge.
In a gallon size ziploc combine flour, powdered sugar, salt and pepper. Shake to combine.
Put about 2 inches of oil in a pot. Over medium high heat let the oil get hot. It should sizzle when you drop a bit of flour in the pot.
Take the chicken from milk and place in the flour mixture. Shake until nuggets are completely covered. Place about 6-8 nuggets into oil and cook until golden brown, this doesn't take to long depending on how big your pieces are it should only be a couple minutes. I have a small basket I used to drop them in the oil or you can place them in and turn them over with tongs or fork Drain on a paper towel and repeat until all nuggets are cooked.
 

Making More Meals: Shredded Chicken

MAKING MORE MEALS

 

One of my favorite cooking tricks is to make a large amount of something that can be used for several meals during the week or frozen for use later in the month.

 

 

SHREDDED CHICKEN:

Did you know you can shred chicken with your mixer???!!!!  It has revolutionized my life.  All you need to do is cook some boneless chicken breasts however you want, thrown them in the mixer with the bread paddle attachment, and turn it on for about a minute or so.  BAM, shredded chicken.

So here is what I do.  When boneless skinless chicken breasts are on sale I will buy several family size packs.  I usually marinate half of them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  The other half I marinate with taco seasoning.  Sometimes I will do a few in teriyaki or other Asian flavoring.  Once they have all marinated I will like a baking sheet with foil (one for each "flavor") and bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.  Put about 6-8 chicken breasts in your mixer with the bread paddle and let it mix for 45 seconds to a minute.  You can keep the shredded chicken in a Ziploc bag.  Feel free to freeze it at this point or leave a portion out for a meal during that week.

Once you have the chicken, what can you do with it:


Chicken Caesar Sandwiches:  Place shredded Chicken in a slow cooker with a bottle of Caesar dressing and shredded parmesan cheese.  Leave it for a few hours and scoop onto buns.

Creamed Chicken sandwiches:  Place shredded Chicken and can of condensed cream of chicken soup and pack of crushed buttered crackers in slow cooker.  Leave it for a few hours and scoop onto buns.

Chicken burritos, quesadillas, tacos:  Use shredded chicken in all your Mexican dishes!

Use it to top your Salads or Pizza.

What are some of your favorite recipes with shredded chicken?

Single Mom Tips: Kids Lunch Edition

Our Mobile Therapist was over yesterday, he told me to go relax for awhile and he would run the therapy session.  He didn't have to ask me twice, I ran as fast as I could!  After enjoying some soup (and by soup I mean Shrimp Ramen Noodles---they are just SO good) for dinner in peace and quiet, I began to get started on my monthly lunch prep.  As I was working in the kitchen, the Mobile Therapist came out to chat and he was amazed at my system.  I started thinking of all the little things us Mom's do to make our life easier and thought it would be a great idea for some blog posts!  My goal for 2014 is to get systems in place for everything, so it all runs smoothly!

Today I'm going to talk about how I do school lunches in our house.  Right now I only have one school age child who needs a lunch every day (but I always try and set my house up as if I have more since you never know who will be here the next day in the world of foster care.  My younger ones also have "lunch bunch" three days a week at preschool, this is where they can stay for an extra hour after school and eat lunch/play.  On the other two days a week we are often out running around doing errands or appointments.  I found I ended up grabbing food while we were out and wasting money and not eating healthy.  So now I try and have all of us pack a lunch Monday through Friday, if we don't end up being out we can always eat it at home!

Our LUNCH fridge, Excuse the awful unfinished basement :)

 



In our basement I have a "mini" fridge, although its bigger than a dorm sized fridge.  You could easily find a full sized fridge on craigslist to use for this or maybe a shelf in your regular fridge.   This little fridge I found on sale at home depot and it is the perfect size to keep lunch stuff in without having anything else in there to distract little hands.  I keep a basket in the top where the lunch bags stay.  In the morning the boys go down stairs, get their lunch bags and make their lunch.  They take one item from each bin/basket and they are on their way!

Drinks- We have these water bottles that are reusable and are easy to fill up at the beginning of the week.  Matthew takes one a day and puts it in his lunch box, at the end of the day he puts it in the dishwasher.  Matthew isn't a big water fan so I sometimes put lemonade powder in or a juice/water mix.  Lunch bunch doesn't allow drinks, they give them water.  I keep some water bottles in the car if we are out and about for lunch.

Water- Free, Lemonade Powder $.05

Sandwiches-  My kids LOVE Peanut Butter and Jelly they will eat it every meal if I let them.  My school age child is allowed to have PB at school but the preschool does not.  To make it easy I just use 'sun butter' on the sandwiches, so as not to upset the preschool or cause any allergic reactions :) You can buy it in bulk on Amazon.    I also mark on their sandwiches that it is Sunbutter- Allergen Free, PB Alternative.....otherwise the preschool gets all crazy at lunch bunch!  Now despite the fact my kids love PB&J I LOATHE making them, all that sticky gooey mess, ugh.  So instead of making sandwiches every day I make them once a month...that's right once a month I make at least 60 PB & J sandwiches (and about 30 Ham and Cheese).  I will usually buy 3 loaves of bread and a bulk size of tortilla shells or if I see any rolls/bread/tortilla on the day old shelf for a good price I will buy them all!  I spread out the bread and shells and go down the line factory style spreading the sun butter/pb and jelly.  I roll up the tortillas, cut everything in half put them in the cheap sandwich baggies from the dollar store.  Then I put the sandwich bags back in the bag the bread or tortillas came in and stick the whole thing in the freezer.  In the morning the kids pull out a sandwich and stick it in their lunch bag, the sandwich will keep everything cold till lunch and be defrosted and ready to eat when lunch time comes around.

PB- $10/month  Bread-$10/month  Jelly- $10/month  90 sandwiches breaks down to about $0.33 per sandwich which can be even cheaper if you buy the items when they go on sale.  I average about $0.15 per sandwich, we stock up on PB/Sunbutter and Jelly when it goes on sale and this is a great way to buy bread that is on the day old shelf and use it up before it gets stale!


Fruit-  Our fruit bin contains fresh fruit like apples, bananas, or grapes in ziplock baggies.  I also will put applesauce, dried fruit, fruit snacks, fruit cups or fruit "chips" in the bin occasionally if something is on sale.  I also have little containers with caramel or sunbutter or our greek yogurt and honey dip in the bin.  The boys pick one item from the fruit bin (and a dip if they want) and place it in their bag.

Fresh Fruit- $0.10- $.25 a piece

Vegetables- The vegetable basket has fresh carrots, celery, and peas in ziploc along with ranch and sunbutter dips in small containers.  I also have veggie chips and dried veggies available if I see them on sale.  Again the boys pick one and put it in the bag.

Fresh Veggies and dip- Avg $.25 a serving

Snacks-  Ah, now we are getting to the fun stuff!  Snacks!  I typically look for snack foods on sale and will fill this basket up accordingly; goldfish, chips, teddy grahams,, yogurt, etc.  You can buy a larger size for cheaper and then break it down to portion size in baggies.

Snacks- The most I will spend on snacks is $.25 a serving, I prefer it to be around $.10.

Desserts-  We are still working our way through Halloween candy over here!  We are so close to finishing that up!  In addition to the candy, I have things like pudding, cookies, brownies, etc in this basket.  Most of the desert items are homemade. Ill make a double batch of cookies or brownies so we have some for after dinner and the rest for lunch.  If I have a coupon and something is on sale I'll grab them for the basket.

Desserts- Most of the desserts are homemade and a serving would cost me less than $.10 to make.

TOTAL COSTS:  So we are looking at about an average of $1.25 or so per lunch.  In reality by buying things on sale and stocking up it probably costs us closer to $.75 per lunch.  This is way cheaper than buying everyone fast food meals and a whole lot healthier.  Not to mention the effort on my end is minimal as I just check the refrigerator at  the beginning of the week and replenish what is running low!


What about you do you have any great time/money/sanity saving tips?  Id love to hear them in the comments or if you would like to write a guest post contact me through the form on the right.

Next week I'll be posting on easy lunches for us busy MOM's!  :)

Top 10 Tips for dating the single foster/adoptive mom

1.  I'm looking for someone who will effortlessly fit into our busy complicated lives.  You must be able to go with the flow, you will not be the number one priority...depending on the week, you may not be number 2, 3, 4, or 5 either.  Not only am I taking care of myself and the kids, but I have to deal with birth families, caseworkers, agency workers, CASA's, GAL's, Judges, Therapists, Counselors, School Guidance Counselors, Teachers, Principals, Doctors, and a variety of other specialists.
2.  I spend my day taking care of everyone's needs no matter how small, I have no more energy to take care of you.  Please do not be needy, If I don't respond to your text or call you back.....I'm busy and if I'm not busy it is probably because I let the kids have a roll of tape and told them to have fun so I could lie down for the only 15 minutes of peace I am getting today, so I'm going to relax (or watch The Real Housewives of Wherever).
3.  I am surrounded by real crisis and trauma, if you want to talk about how awful your cushy life is go somewhere else.  Same goes for your solution to world problems, instead of telling me how your going to save the world or everything that is wrong with the "system",  why don't you just come up with a solution to get my kids birthparents a job and decent housing....that I might be interested in.
4.  If I tell you about the problematic behaviors of my kids, please don't tell me 'Boys will be Boys' or some other cliché remark.  I'm not an idiot, these kids problems go way beyond not wanting to share their toys or getting dirty in the backyard.  We're on a date so odds are whatever I just told you is the tip of the iceberg, peeing off a balcony onto the people below us or throwing a DVD player at a baby didn't seem like appropriate stories for a first date.  I'm also not looking for parenting suggestions....unless you happen to be a child psychologist specializing in loss and trauma.  (On a side note:  any single male child psychologists specializing in loss and trauma who are halfway decent looking.....feel free to call me!)
5.  I spend all day making decisions, I want someone to make decisions for me.  I could care less where we go for dinner, I've been eating macaroni and cheese for a week straight.  Any movie that isn't G rated will be just fine with me (as long as you buy me the large tub of popcorn with extra butter).
6. Finding a babysitter is like finding a needle in a haystack.  Even if I can find one who has passed all background checks and is still willing to stick around after having experienced an evening in my house, odds are I will not be able to drop everything and go out to dinner with you with an hour notice.  If we do go out it will probably have to be relatively close to my house so I can rush back when the kids lock the babysitter out of the house or set a coloring book on fire.  Furthermore, you will be lucky to get one evening a week so don't push it or complain that you can see me enough...see tip #1.
7.  Getting the kids to bed is a complicated torturous matter.  The likelihood of me falling asleep while I put the kids to bed at 8 is very high, so don't call me late unless you've texted to see if I'm up.  If I am talking to you on the phone, the likelihood that I will have to quickly hang up after hearing large crashing noises and "MOMMY!!!!" is also very high.  Don't take it personally if you don't hear back from me.
8.  Privacy is important, I probably wont be able to tell you everything you want to know.  If you are out with all of us, you will be stared at, there will be whispers and when a clerk asks you if they are all yours, just say "Aren't they great!" and move on.  If you're embarrassed easily, I'm not the girl for you, a typical trip to the grocery store involves having to use WIC, at least three tantrums complete with a child screaming "You're hurting me" when I'm at the other end of the aisle, and a pat down for stolen candy in pockets.  I will then proceed to pack all the kids into my Lexus SUV at which point someone will tell me to stop having kids and using their tax dollars to scam the system.  I will smile and wave, because its all I can do.
9.  My kids may share pieces of their story with you, it may be horrific and shocking, just listen and be there for them.  Then tell me so I can determine what needs to be done next.  Remember tip #8 and don't tell your church prayer group to pray for so and so because x,y,z happened to him. 
10.  These kids are cute, I get it!  However, many of them have attachment and trauma issues due to their past.  They can manipulate and triangulate with the best of them, please check with me before, during, and after anything.  I have to be viewed as the sole authority figure and caregiver, do not give them something to eat or let them watch a TV show without checking with me first.  Defer to any and all decisions I make.  If you don't agree or don't want to do that, head right out the front door.  Feel free to go straight to Children Services where you can go through the LONG foster/adopt training and licensure process, wait an indeterminate amount of time and get your own kids to help deal with trauma and loss.  I will then happily come over and fill them up with candy while they watch inappropriate cartoons on TV and tell them how all your rules are silly :)