Welcome Everyone to Mommy's Menu

Welcome everyone and thanks for being interested in all things food and family.  I'm Toni, mother of 7 fabulous children (9 if you count the niece and nephew I adore and count as adopted children), and wife of 1 handsome, aggravating, sweet, adorable, infuriating husband  (but aren't they all).  I have spent the last year doing exclusively dutch oven cooking and blogging about it on Dutch Oven Madness. 

I have a passion for outdoor cooking and cooking in general.  Its really ironic that I say that, because a few years ago the only thing I could cook was Hamburger Helper and I couldn't even do that well.  As we started our family and the children started to grow I decided that they needed to grow up healthy and strong with good eating habits.  So I learned to cook!  Along the way, I learned a lot of other things too.  I learned how important it is to be prepared for emergencies.  I learned to garden and preserve the harvest--and love doing it.  I learned to feed a large family on $500 a month.  Yep, you read right.  I feed 9 people, 3 of them growing teenagers, on $500 a month.  I'm learning to be happy through trials and find joy and beauty in small, simple, everyday things.  I've learned to truly appreciate and enjoy my children.  I hope to share all of this with you and I hope you will find it valuable.  So come back often and share your thoughts as well through comments.