Not Back to School

We've committed to doing home school this school year again. Here are pictures of our Not-back-to-school prep. First off is the teacher's supply closet full of art supplies, activities for stations, workbooks, text books, art manuals, games, etc.

The next biggest priority is the teacher's pantry, stocked with 2 weeks of groceries so trips to the grocery store are cut down to twice each month.

 I'm hoping to really streamline our time management skills this year, so we have plenty of the basics (such as milk) and plenty of homemade bread in the freezer along with several days worth of homemade freezer meals. Can I just tell you again how much I love freezer meals? My love affair with them is destined to grow stronger this year! Our top favorite meals from the freezer include chicken pot pie, lasagna, Cafe Rio burritos, chicken enchiladas, meatballs, chili and cornbread, and Shepard's pie. The top shelf of the freezer is our year supply of peaches from our backyard peach tree. There's plenty of fruit for hundreds of lunch smoothies. 

We love to make fruit smoothies a few times a week. We have our essential supply of fresh blueberries, all individually frozen and ready to be thrown into the blender.

Peach/blueberry/yogurt shakes have been a great hit! I love whipping up a healthy shake to accompany lunch. It's such a great way to creatively add a variety of fruits to the family diet. I don't add much sugar to our shakes; I find that the natural sweetness of the fruit and vanilla yogurt are usually plenty of flavor. Besides, Daniel has plenty of energy to spare, without fueling it further with added sugars.

One thing I love about home school is the quality of food. I cringed when I saw the public school lunch menu fraught with 'non-foods'. That's what I call items that are more stocked with preservatives, additives, flavors, and what-have-you than they are with wholesome ingredients. A perfect example is Wonder bread. Look at the ingredients. Most of it is fake. Bread only needs yeast, salt, flour, and water.

The school menu even had added flavor and sugar sprinkled on the applesauce. Really. The menu is loaded with fries, pudding, chips, etc. Look at all those empty calories! The smell of the school cafeteria turns my stomach. Compare that with today's 'school lunch' at home: Chicken curry over rice, fresh broccoli with ranch, a blueberry/banana/yogurt smoothie. Wholesome and simply delicious. There were no leftovers.