Parents of families with multiple children have long known how to cut back, save and stretch their meals and budgets – and now a mother of eight in Michigan is revealing how to cook and make dinner. Spends only $12,000 a year on food purchases while preparing meals. adult children.
Heather Bell, 53, and her husband, Luke, 51, tried to have a baby for eight years when they adopted their eldest son David, 24, in 1999, as reported by SWNS. .
Wanting to help more kids and hearing about success from others they knew, they tried to promote.
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They adopted six more children – and were able to conceive a son naturally.
As the family expanded over time, mother Heather Bell had to learn to cook for them all and feed them properly.
Michigan mother of eight Heather Bell still cooks dinner for her grown children. “I don’t mind cooking for my family – I don’t know how to cook small meals,” she said. (SWNS)
She said many of her children came to her home with “eating issues or trauma.”
Some people were used to eating mostly fast food, as noted by SWNS.
Today, with only four of her children living at home, she still cooks for her family and spends about $1,000 a month on groceries, she said.
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She runs a poultry farm and masonry business in Upper Peninsula, Michigan.
“I know they’re adults, but they’re still my kids. They all come here for dinner. They’re very close. I don’t mind cooking for my family,” she told SWNS. Yes – I don’t know how to cook.”
“They all just love coming here – they’re definitely taking advantage of it,” she added.
Heather Bell has published her book “Big Beach Home Style” Meals. It’s called “Mama Bell’s Big Family Cooking.” (Amazon)
Heather Bell said of her family growing up, “We adopted six children in six years. It was bam bam bam. I came from a big family, but I never thought about having a big family myself. Didn’t think so.”
In terms of her cooking, she said “I had to change the way I made things … when the kids came to my house, I didn’t want to set them up for failure.”
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He said that if they were “addicted. [foods] Like french fries and hot dogs,” then she’ll “add some vegetables.”
“I make tater tot casserole in a 17-inch dish,” she added.
After originally spending $500 to $700 per week on food, she cut back and now only shops once a month, she told SWNS.
Heather Bell (front, center) with her husband Luke and their children. (SWNS)
She raises her own beef and eggs and preserves her food using techniques such as canning, saying she is now “more self-sufficient”.
She said that despite cutting back on her spending throughout the year, she doesn’t skimp on Thanksgiving and Christmas for her kids.
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She said she gives each of her children seven small gifts and one major gift, spending an average of more than $600 on each.
“I start my list quickly and on a notepad. I listen to my kids and make notes. I’ve been Christmas shopping since July,” she told SWNS.
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Bell has just published her own cookbook, “Mama Bell’s Big Family Cooking,” to help other big families with big-batch cooking. According to her book, the book has more than 100 recipes, including recipes that children have asked her to make “over and over again.”
She said, “I’ve never looked for a cookbook for large families. Families like mine are sick of quadruple recipes.”
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The cookbook also shares a bit about the family, including the order in which her children came home and how she adapted her cooking as the family grew.
