Okay, what kind of tacos do you want on Tuesday?
Taco bowls!
Taco bowls again?
I'm Alicia in Pittsford, New York.
I have 10 kids,
and we are the Dougherty Dozen.
12 sandwiches for 10 kids today.
Every morning I get up at 5:00 AM.
I set out the medicine and vitamins for 10 kids.
I make 10 lunches.
I make 10 breakfasts.
And, that's my morning.
And one morning I just decided to record it,
and set it in fast motion, and post it to TikTok.
And here we are.
Currently, we're at 25 million views on that video.
Now we're known as a large family,
which is pretty insane because when I was younger,
I was told by two different specialists
that I would probably never have children.
During the nine years of infertility and pregnancy losses,
we were dealing with immense grief and I turned to cooking.
And that's really where I focused a lot of my energy
so that I could push through
and keep hope during infertility.
Cooking used to overwhelm me,
and when I found Rachael Ray, it made it so simple.
Her 30-Minute Meals, that was the first cookbook I got.
30-Minute Meals was a game changer
in cooking for my husband.
He's very thankful (laughs).
My husband and I really wanted to have family.
So when we looked at the different forms of adoption,
foster care seemed like the right choice for us.
There's over 100,000 children in foster care
that need an adoptive family,
and all we wanted was to be parents.
So six days after we adopted our first son, Alex,
we found out we were pregnant with Zoey.
Zoey just turned a year old,
and our case worker asked us if we would adopt James
from foster care.
Then we have three kids.
And, two weeks after James moved in,
we found out we were pregnant with Dash.
And Dash had just turned one-year-old,
the case worker called us and said,
"Can you please take these twin baby boys
with special needs for five days, just five days.
I need a family for them."
We said, "Sure, five days, that's fine."
The twins moved in and five days turned into forever.
And that's how we ended up with Jason and Jordan.
While we were fostering the twins, we gave birth to Bodhi.
And then we give birth to Harlee.
When Harlee was a couple months old,
I was at the agency for a meeting.
And the case worker was telling me about a sibling group,
Bree and Patrick.
they were going to get split up
because they couldn't find an adoptive family
that would keep them together.
And I said, "Oh, no, no, no, no.
You're not splitting up the sibling group.
Just bring them on over. We'll take them."
And that's how we ended up with 10 kids and nine years.
My connection to food grew as our family grew.
These children who entered our home with
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and severe neglect as infants
had a lot of food issues.
And, they were really stressed about food.
And that's when I realized that I could
turn the script around for them, and make food fun.
And show them that food is not something to stress about.
It's always available here.
Oh my God!
So one of the ways I found how to make food fun
was creating this daily kid charcuterie board.
And I display the food in just a fun, artistic way.
The kids love it.
And, from afterschool until dinner time,
they have their charcuterie board to eat,
and then they're not constantly asking me for snacks.
So every year we do a vegetable garden as a family.
The kids partake in the entire process
of setting up the vegetable garden and tending to it.
When the kids have a part in growing the vegetables,
They are more likely to eat them.
So every week we sit down as a family and we say,
"What are we going to eat this week?
Let's get some dinner ideas on the table."
And we all create the menu together.
Each night has its own theme that we stick to.
So Monday's always chicken.
So we pick a different type of chicken
that we're going to eat each Monday.
Tuesday's always tacos.
On Wednesdays we grill something.
Thursdays we Crock-Pot, that's my favorite night.
Fridays, A lot of times we do make your own pizza night.
Saturdays is breakfast for dinner.
And Sundays, we create a pasta dish.
I hope my videos inspire others.
Whether it's a family of two, or a family of 12,
you can do it.
Alicia, I just don't know what to say.
I'm crying tears of joy.
Everything that you say is how I live
and what I believe and,
it's just so beautiful.
Our friends at Lundberg Family Farms,
they wanted to cover your weekly grocery bills.
So they're going to give you $5,000.
(chimes and cheery music) Oh my gosh.
What? Oh my God. (Rachael laughs)
$5000! Yeah. Thank you. Wow.
That's a lot of charcuterie!
Thank you, thank you.
Yay!
I was not expecting that.
Like, I'm-
Meeting you is just the best present ever,
and I was not expecting that.
Thank you.
(happy music)