Men on a roof? Yep, six of them.
Matt and the boys (plus another young man) have been hanging out on a roof across town part of last week and this. In a few days this army tore off the damaged roof and replaced it with a new one. Driving up to see all my men working so hard made my heart all aflutter. But then it promptly stopped when my ten year old spotted me driving up and started running across said roof to greet me. Ohmygoodness, please do not run across a roof, whatintheworld?? (The roof is super not-steep. But still.)
The big role I played in the roofing process was feeding the hungry people. What’s new, right? Except that I got to deliver the food to my men just like I used to deliver food to the harvest crew when I was growing up in Kansas. It was super fun. Plus I was the hero every time I drove up to greet the hungry roofers. Hard work makes for big appetites!
I took a few pictures of the food I bought, prepared, and delivered. Read along and pretend to be interested in my sandwiches.
Food for 6 Men on a Roof
First, I shopped. I had to buy green beans because of the naughty bunnies. I splurged on a few fun foods like juice (the bottles of which came in very handy later for homemade Gatorade), Kind bars, and Veggie Chips for the roofers. I bought lunch meat. I bought a teeny tiny little block of cheese. Price-matching helped me get great deals on many fresh fruits and veggies!
Realizing I had no potatoes or onions in the house after I got home, I ran to another store closer to my house to grab them – along with hot dog buns. {and everyone gasped in shock} You know what I decided? There’s barely such thing as a healthy hot dog bun, so I might as well buy the cheapest I can find for the occasional times we treat ourselves to hot dogs. The hot dogs ended up being a very fun roofing lunch (and easy), so yay for cheap buns and all that.
The lunch I delivered on the first day consisted of turkey sandwiches, chips, grapes, blueberries, blackberries, raw veggies, brownies right out of the oven (only because I barely got them done in time), bottles of juice, and homemade peach milkshakes in jars. They devoured it all and asked if I would mind bringing a little something else mid-afternoon.
So I made a bunch of quesadillas around 2:30 that afternoon, grabbed some cold Izzes from the fridge, and headed back to the work site. Not to worry – I got other work done at home too in between all the running. :)
The next morning I made a triple batch of what my boys now call “Super Mama Waffles.” They aren’t just waffles. They are waffles with berries and whipped cream. Big difference. My hope was to fill the guys very full so they would last until lunch.
Still, by lunch they were starving. I’m not surprised. This is the day I took the first round of homemade gatorade in cute bottles. And the hot dogs on cheap buns. They also got carrots, grapes, cantaloupe, and chocolate cake. They came home a little bit earlier that day so I didn’t need to take a snack.
They took the weekend off because of other commitments, and started back up on Monday. I went all out with a breakfast of Biscuits and Gravy, scrambled eggs, peaches, and plums.
To make the most of my biscuit making mess, I made quite a few extras for the freezer. One mess, two meals. Yes please.
There they are, frozen biscuits in a bag. Things like this make me happy.
Lunch was a little bit tricky that day as everyone was working on the roof in shifts, plus the young man staying with us was working at a different site. So I fed some of the guys at home, then packed food to deliver to two different work sites. I fed us all homemade pizzas, watermelon, grapes, carrots, cucumbers, homemade gatorade, and fun cookie pizza slices.
Yes, of course, there were more pizzas than what is pictured above. :)
That afternoon, when I traded out boys (some were at home mowing or working on other projects while others are helping Matt on the roof), I took Matt a snack. More homemade gatorade, some cantaloupe, the last pizza from lunch, and No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Bites. Watch for that new recipe soon(ish).
It is important that you note that the cantaloupe I took Matt was the decaf variety. I guess somebody didn’t scrub the writing off the lids after her Iced Coffee Bar party.
Kudos to all of you who deliver meals to your men in the field frequently during the summer! It was fun for me for just a few days, but I couldn’t keep up this pace for long. I sure did love watching my boys work so hard alongside their dad, though.
And now to tackle the messy kitchen that is a result of cooking then jumping into the van. :)
Do you pack food and/or deliver food frequently? What kinds of food do you make?