365 recipes in 365 days

I hereby promise to post menus for you to use for the next 365 days!

If you're wondering if my recipes will be something you can use, let me tell you about myself. I'm a mother to four girls, ages 7, 5, 3, and 4 months. My second daughter can't handle a lot of sugar, dairy, or cinnamon; my third daughter can't handle a lot of citrus. I love to use lots of spices and herbs, especially garlic, parsley, basil, cumin, thyme, mustard seed, and much much more. I don't like to salt food while I'm preparing it; I think that's why the salt shaker is on the table, so you can add salt to your liking then. It's very important to me that our meals are balanced, meaning they have some sort of meat, fruit, vegetable, dairy, and grain.

I work outside the home MWF, 8-5. I love to cook, but I usually have multiple "helpers" and limited time. I try often to make meals that create leftovers that can be easily recreated into a second or third meal.

We live on a small farm with a big garden, so I love to use fresh produce when I can and preserve it as much as possible. I also am lucky enough to have access to and room for beef and pork, so many of my recipes call for these two meats.

My average weekly grocery bill is $75, to feed our family of 6.

I'm just a cook -- not a chef, not a very good baker, just a cook. But, I like to try lots of different recipes, with lots of taste and variety. I'm determined to expose my kids to many foods, and teach them to enjoy it.

So, I hope to give you cheap, balanced, quick, easy, tasty menus and recipes. And I hope it helps make your mealtime more enjoyable and less stressful.

Enjoy!