12 Weeks of Our Favorite Family Dinners

Several blogs I have looked at lately (and you all know which ones they are LOL) have been posting 8 weeks worth of dinner menues. So here is mine and it is a 12 week rotation. Many of the meal plans I have looked at assign a different type of main course for each day such as beef, chicken, fish or veg. Mine is organized a bit differently. For instance, for Sunday dinner I like to have a big roast or pasta meal usually so I can have leftovers to use for other meals. Monday is usually crock pot day but not always. Tuesdays are usually kid pleasing or fairly easy meals to throw together. I try to have no more than 3 red meat meals a week (You'll will notice that some weeks have 4 red meat meals but then are usually followed by a 2 red meat meal week- It averages out to 3 per week. It probably should be less but my family likes red meat and I just don't have a big enough repetoire of meatless meals. To reduce the red meat meals you could substitute vegetable meat substitute crumbles such as Boca or Morningstar farms, or use ground turkey in place of any ground beef recipes. Saturday I like to grill or cook outside if possible so most Saturday meals can be prepared outside on the grill. Friday is for fish or mostly vegetarian meals. I say mostly vegetarian because most of my vegetarian meals are not 100% vegetarian. I try not to have a pasta meal next to a rice meal, and I try not to have any same kind of meat 2 days in a row. I use to do a pizza night once a week, but have cut that back to every other week. Darling son gets plenty of pizza through school lunch, scouts and youth group to give him his weekly fix of pizza.

This is just a master rotation list. I do not stick to this, I just use it as a guide. As you can see this master list doesn't take into account nights when we eat out or have leftovers piled up or holiday meals. It is just used as a jumping off point. Also, I have not included all the vegetable and side dishes that I usually serve with the main dish.

This is just a chart of the main dishes. Yes I do serve vegetables and or salad with most meals unless it is a casserole or one pot dish that has the vegetables included.

Most of the Main Dish Recipes Can be Found in

My Online Recipe Collection

Click the chart to enlarge it.

My Backyard Vegetable Garden Endeavor: Part 3

My Backyard Vegetable Garden Endeavor: Part 3


I finally got the first raised bed planted outside. Some of my seedlings seemed a bit small yet to be planted outside, others were huge. I have another raised bed that I will try to get planted next weekend. This bed has green beans, carrots, broccoli, zuchini, green onions, spanish onions, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers. Seems way too many plants for such a small bed but that is what the square foot garden info said I could plant, so we will see how it does. I also hope it doesn't go down to freezing next week. Lows may be in the upper 30's according to the weather report.

My Backyard Vegetable Garden Endeavor: My Growing Babies- Still not planted outside yet

This has been a cold winter for Florida- We should be having highs in the 70's. Still a bit cold with lows lately hovering just above freezing about 33 and 34 degrees. THIS IS FLORIDA!! Today is totally dark, gloomy and stormy/rainy. Hopefully can maybe transplant my little guys outside this weekend. Still the lows are going to be fairly low with highs only in the 60's. My babies are beginning to outgrow their little starter peat pots.

My Backyard Vegetable Garden Endeavor: My Seed Babies

I am starting a vegetable garden in my city backyard. Actually since I am in an older neighborhood, I have a bigger backyard than the modern subdivisions, but it is still a backyard. I want to say that our house sits on a lot that is 120 X 90 feet, but I am not sure that is right- Those are just the numbers that stick in my head- That might have even been our old lot. Anyway, I have grown a few vegetables before with minor success, but I have always purchased the plants. I have never grown anything from seed. I also bought two rasied bed kits. Each Kit builds a 7' x 3.5' raised bed. I priced it out and it was cheaper than buying the wood and simpler for me to do than building my own. Because I never really gardened and only have a shovel, hubs bought me a garden fork that I asked for. He bought me a much nicer and sturdier one than I had originally picked out. Trust me, I am clueless on gardening and garden tools- So with the help of the internet and some knowledgeable friends and online buddies this is a new hobby for me. I need a hobby and this is also very practical. Well it will be pratical if it is successful. Tomorrow, weather permitting, I am going to try to prep the area and ground where I am going to put the raised garden beds. Wish me luck.

So here is the beginning of my endeavor and here are my seed babies. Aren't they cute. The broccoli was the first up, followed by the cucumbers, then tomatoes, the Spanish onions and green onions are just now making an appearance and a few of the carrots. No sign of the bell peppers, zucchini, or cantaloupe yet and I planted them all last friday. I just planted romaine lettuce, green beans, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, oregano and basil yesterday so none of them of course have sprouted yet.
So I will continue to post updates with lots of pictures as this endeavor progresses. It either will work or not. :-)

Day at The State Fair & Cracker Country

(Click on the above picture to learn what a "Cracker" is.

Just a beautiful Day in The South spent at the State fair and Cracker Country.
I am an original "Cracker". My Dad's side of the family came to Florida long before it was a state and is one of the original Florida Pioneer Families. (I know: I have the genealogy and a certificate that says so. ) My Dad's side of the Family originally settled in Clay County. :-)