I apologize if I made it sound like he was demanding and leaving others without. That is, in no way, the case. He would never let one of the kids, or me for that matter, go without or be hungry. I was simply just illustrating that his calorie needs are higher than the norm and if at all possible - within the restraints that we have, I'd like to accommodate that. He works hard, is making cuts where possible, working extra shifts, etc.....if I can make sure his belly is full at the end of the day, I'd like to.

We used 1/2 of one of the chickens tonight. DH is going to pull the remaining meat off for another meal & I'm going to give chicken stock another go :)

You guys are awesome!! For real. I know it's not necessary, but I can't help but explain the convenience foods :) Most of them were purchased by DH a few months ago when I was in the worst of the morning sickness phase. He was trying to make it easier on me and for the kids to make food for themselves when I couldn't even get off the couch.

He will eat lunch on the weekends and occasionally breakfast, but not at all on the weekdays. It doesn't seem to matter how often he eats, he still eats the same massive amounts, just more often. The unnecessary details: He has a C5 spinal cord injury that originally left him a quadriplegic, but he now walks with a cane and has some residual partial paralysis. Normal movements (walking, etc) require about triple the effort you or I require to do the same. I suspect this is the cause of his high calorie needs. He feels that when he eats during the day, it gets his metabolism moving and actually makes him more hungry. He is also open to beans and that sort of thing, but feels in his experience that it doesn't fill him for as long as meat does. I suggested that this might be all in his head and he was/is willing to try again. For the record, the man is 6'4" and 165lbs :)

Pretty sure those are still the rules. Good point!

Anybody ever tried adding chocolate to the whole milk and had success getting a child to drink it? I wonder if my 7tr old might drink it that way?

I figure I'm going to have to to some extent, but is like to try to just modify a similar dish at least for dinner if I can. Kids are pretty used to us just eating whatever (all different things) for lunch.

The problem with a lot of this is that it isn't gluten free :( I can't use the frozen bread dough as filler, because 2 of my 4 kids can't have it :/

Oh!! I wouldn't have thought of that! My kids love smoothies. What a great idea!

I wish GF oats weren't so expensive. :/

I don't know. I might be able to convince her to try. She's usually pretty open to new things.

Cereal (the plain Chex we get from WIC - definitely not her first choice, but she will eat it if she has nothing else), fruit (when we have it), yogurt & granola (this rarely fills her for more than an hour or so).

She can bring anything for her snacks :) She's had store bought hummus before and liked it. We made it once at home, but it's been awhile. Thanks for the link!!

I was just thinking more about my 7yr old and breakfast. Her top choices would be things she can't have (muffins, pancakes, cereal, etc.....), fruit, and yogurt.

My 7yr old is my Celiac kid, she is also the one that doesn't like eggs. She loves fruits and veggies, not so much meat. She's also severely underweight. I do have lemon juice, olive oil, canola oil, and various spices. No other veggies than what was listed. Some great ideas in here. I need to sit down and try and piece all of these ideas together and try to figure out the smartest way to use each one that will go the farthest.

I know I did a good 24hr last time. I don't remember what all I put in there, but I do know it included a bay leaf or two, and onion, lol. It ended up tasting like water with a VERY slight chicken flavor. Maybe I just didn't add enough seasonings?

Interesting thought on the swapping. I don't really have many friends, but I could put something on FB and maybe somebody could use it. My 7yr old (my celiac) could really stand to gain some weight - any ideas on anything I could add to it that might make her more willing to drink it?? She's also my one that prefers skim :/ I think I need lessons on the whole creating stock from a carcass thing, lol. I tried it one other time and not only did the smell of the stock in the crockpot make me sick, it tasted like nothing :/ I haven't tried since. Unfortunately, no. We are just over the limit. I'm thinking we will in January once baby is here.

Awesome! Thank you! I do have vanilla, cornstarch, and I think some cocoa powder. The most expensive grocery store in town does have some bulk items, but I'm not sure what. I do have dried herbs and spices, etc. WIC doesn't do cheese anymore :( I don't mind chili....DH makes an AWESOME chili (the only chili I've ever found that we all like), but we just had it last week and it would require quite a few ingredients that we don't have. I did forget to mention that DH won't do breakfast for dinner, but we could do it for lunch. DD14 won't eat pancakes, but....we could figure something out. DH doesn't eat lunch, but the kids wouldn't care if he had meat and they didn't depending on what it was. Good thoughts....I'll reorganize my list. I water juices down too. We aren't big juice drinkers anyway. We drink 95% water and use the milk mostly for cooking and cereal. DD14 might drink the mixed milk.....she likes 2%. DD7 probably wouldn't - she prefers skim. Oatmeal is tricky, because it has to be certified GF. Oh.....yes. Good idea. The problem is figuring out something comparable for the 2 GF kids. Ugh. This is so complicated.

Great, thanks!

Also....DH does not eat breakfast or lunch, so it's just the kids and I for those meals.

Great idea, my kids love yogurt!! I haven't been taking the whole milk, because I wasn't sure what to do with it. Do you happen to have a link or could you tell me exactly how to do this?? I need to figure out if there is a better one than the last one I went to. The last one gave me 1 box of Fruity Pebbles, 3 granola bars, 4 pkgs fruit snacks, 1 can beans, 1 can applesauce, 1 can of condensed juice, and 2 pkgs of cookies?!? I forgot....we also have 2 bags of GF granola.

DH finished school in August (he has his BA finally!!!!), but has yet to get a new job. We're out the extra student loans we were living off of, plus child support was dropped from $300/month to $30/month in the last year or so. Anyway, point being, we're drowning. That being said, DH doesn't get paid until next Tuesday (9/30) and we have nothing extra until then to feed our family of 6 (2 adults (1 pregnant), 14yo girl (GF), 7yo girl (GF), 5yo boy, 1yo boy). So.....wanna help me get creative and figure out how to feed this crew until then with what we have and the little bit of extra I can come up with between now and then?? Requirements (is that the right word?): 2 children (at minimum) have to be gluten free Dinner must include meat or heavy protein (DH is willing to try using beans as his protein, but is skeptical) Nothing spicy (even minimally spicy) DH eats a LOT.....like triple a normal portion at least (without going into a ton of unnecessary detail, this is non-negotiable his calorie needs are very high) 7yo does not like eggs - at all 7yo needs a portable snack 2 days a week (Mon/Wed) Available to me: I can probably come up with $50 (likely spread out) to spend Left to buy through WIC for the month: 2.5gal 1% milk 4 gal whole milk (nobody will drink this, but could be used for cooking?) 1 dozen eggs 1pkg dried beans 3 64oz containers juice 36oz cereal 2 loaves bread $18.00 worth of produce In the pantry/fridge: 1/2 gal milk 1lb ground beef 2 whole chickens Corn tortillas (small ones) - GF kids don't really care for these unless it's pizza on them 1.5 boxes of Corn/Rice Chex 1 onion White rice Several 16oz pkgs of lentils Enchilada sauce Several cans diced tomatoes Several cans pineapple (nobody will eat plain) 2 cans pork & beans 1 can kidney beans Several jars peanut butter 3-4 slices of bread 1 bag tortilla chips 1 large jar of jarred beef Cornbread mix (not GF) Several cans cream of ______ soup (not GF) 2 pkgs chicken flavored Ramen GF cornbread mix GF cookie mix 2 can black beans 1 can applesauce Cranberry Orange muffin mix (not GF) 1 can beef broth Pancake mix (a little GF, plenty not GF) 1/2 box of Ritz type crackers 1 box mac & cheese (not GF) 2 bottles juice 1 bag oyster crackers Sugar Tiny bit brown sugar Flour Baking soda/powder 5-8oz sour cream Garlic 3 sticks butter 3 loaves frozen white bread (pretty old...might be freezer burned??) Breakfast sausage (DH and kids will eat) 2 pkgs frozen brats (only DH will eat) 1 indivdual chicken pot pie 1 indvidual turkey pot pie 1 individual beef pot pie 1/2 5lb bag of red potatoes 1 overripe banana Somebody can make some sort of sense from this, right??? :)

Truthfully, there was no perfect solution. I'm happy with the decision we made and felt that it was a good compromise. This was one of her gymnastics teammates. These girls are together 8hr/wk and I'm close with several of the parents. It didn't surprise me a bit that they would share their plans with me.

I wish it was that simple. Unfortunately, not everyone follows that and then you end up with kids in awkward or embarrassing situations. I was very happy with how we ended up handling it, especially since I knew for sure at least 2 other families were bringing gifts. I felt like we found a way to generally honor the sentiment while still ensuring that my DD didn't feel awkward being the only one without a gift.

Okay. We settled on 2 bottles of nail polish, and a little box of gummy treats taped to a card :) Thanks everybody!