Grocery Store Challenge- Week 3-4 I think?

I am a much better record keeper when it comes to dates and information. However, the Viking Homestead was thrown a "Monkey Wrench" into our plans.

What does one do when the weather prevents a journey to a Farmer's Market and the transmission in the family car dies?

We Dance In the Rain!!

We also ate a lot of our personal surplus items. We discovered that we had a lot of duplicate food items in our storage, like pastas noodles. It became a family challenge on how to be creative with the various different pasta noodles in our stock. One memorable dish was a cross between Macaroni and Cheese and Lasagna. We had enough ingredients for one or two people of each dish so we combined the two to feed the four of us. It is now a family favorite.

The uber easy receipe.

1 box of Annie's Gluten Free Creamy Macaroni and Cheese- cook to boxes instructions
1 cook one bag of favorite brand of gluten free pasta noodles cooked to bags instructions.
Cook up meat of choice and mix in favorite jar of spaghetti sauce (we actually found a jar of Classico spaghetti sauce in the far reaches of our cupboard.)
In a lightly greased 9x11 pan layer Macaroni and Cheese on the bottom, add of meat sauce, add a layer of mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese) and then a layer of cooked noodles. Repeat the layers as desired until pan is full. For a family of four the 9x11 was perfect. 
Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until all cheese is melted through. 

We served it with a fresh salad and tomatoes and basil. 


Another topic that developed between Viking Dad and I was our habit of eating out. Does this still count for not eating from a grocery store? I did a little research to find out how other families on similar challenges address this topic.

Here is what we decided as a family.
1. Does the restaurant meet our quality of foods? Do they serve organic, holistic, local foods?
2. Is the restaurant family owned? Or is it Cooperate Owned? 
3. Is the restaurant family centered?

We examined the places we already visit and they follow the Three Rules we established. We also decided that these three rules were important to our personal values. Now, each person or family that takes this kind of challenge would have to develop their own rules on eating out and what they can compromise on as a family.

Another family learning moment.

Bless Bless
Viking Mom