"Sarinja" > wrote in message
...
> Hi. Thank you for all the replies! Let me clarify a little bit. I have
> a 4 year old and a 2.5 year old. The husband left a year back. He does
> pay some child support; however, with the medical bills piling up (and
> yes, he does help), my budget is about $75/week. It's rough but we've
> already lost our house and don't want to lose anything else, so trying
> very hard to get medical bills paid so we can breathe, again. Even
> though we're separated, we are still working together for the medical
> bills/care of children. And, because of his income/mine, we don't
> qualify for any assistance at all. Medical bills don't count with the
> state.
>
> My biggest stress is *at* the store and *at* dinner time, trying to
> get together something healthy that I will enjoy (I don't have a lot
> of don't likes) and that the boys will eat. It has always been easy to
> make what they like and will eat instead of worrying too much about
> other things. Yes, I know teaching them young helps; however, at that
> age, it's difficult. Get them to eat, then introduce new things. That
> was my way of thinking. The 4 year old doesn't like hardly any meat at
> all. He has been this way since he started solid foods. Getting him to
> finally eat a chicken nugget (bagged or McD's brand) or even half of a
> cheeseburger from McDs was an awesome day! The 4 year old now will eat
> celery with peanut butter (and someone mentioned adding raisins to
> that) and actually told me to get him a cucumber, the last time we
> were at the store.
>
> I stress easily. When I am faced with a lot of it at once, I typically
> say, screw it and do whatever I want. Bad. Bad. I know. However, I
> went looking around last night for some people to talk to that
> understand that stress and can help. Small things. A few meals a week
> that are "perfect" and build from that - until it becomes habit.
>
> I do belong to Sam's Club (bulk store). I have found, however, when I
> buy bulk, it tends to go bad because I don't cook it like I should,
> when I should. I have a slow cooker and have tried doing things like
> chicken with mushroom soup in it. The boys won't eat it.
>
> I have copied/pasted quite a few things of what y'all said to a file
> called "notes," and am not saying y'all weren't helpful! You were! I
> am just clarifying a little bit more than my original post.
>
> Thank you!

I wouldn't worry at all about kids not eating meat. Most likely meat is the
most expensive thing that you would be eating. Yes, I know there are things
like truffles, but realistically you're not going to be eating fancy stuff
like that.

Young children tend to eat the same thing day after day and then might
totally go off of that food and eat something else. My daughter is 12 now.
But I can remember a time when I used to feed her and her friends dinner.
Night after night they happily ate the same thing. Kraft (or a store brand)
macaroni and cheese, beef sausages, canned green beans, baby carrots and
black olives. Sometimes I would sub out the mac and cheese for frozen
pierogies. They liked those too. They also liked apple slices, applesauce
and cheese cubes.

I am lucky that Angela loved canned green beans. They were cheap when I was
living in CA. I could sometimes get them for 25 cents a can. She would eat
those any time of the day or night. Mostly I tried not to buy any junk food
for her. I know most kids like Goldfish crackers and Cheerios. She did get
those when she just learning to eat. But after that? Not often. Maybe for
a road trip. But more likely we would stop at a farm stand for fruit or
veggies and then wash them off with bottled water that we had in the car.