Garden Journal: June 20, 2011

As I said yesterday, we are having a horrible time fighting the blight and fungi around these parts. It just keeps raining, and raining and raining and raining and raining... Continuously. At first I was just so thankful that the rain didn't flood my seeds out but not I just want it to not stop but come more periodically.

With all the blight and fungi, my plants are still growing beautifully for the most part. We are blessed abundantly blessed and I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for this year's harvest!

One of my favorite things when making dinner is walking right out my front door to gather the fresh herbs to add while cooking or to snip some lettuce for a fresh salad!

Herb "garden" right outside the front door

The three different times of leaf lettuce. They are all so delicious!

This was an extra tomato plant I had so I decided to give container tomato planting a try. This plant is growing beautifully due to the blight not being able to attack it as it has everywhere else on the ground.

It actually already has tomatoes forming!

In contrast, this is one of the tomato plants we've been fighting to save from blight and fungi. It is still alive, as are most of them, but looks really pathetic. Kind of reminds me of the "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree". 

The side of house garden really needs weeded but with all that has been going on in these parts, I have not found the time Hopefully this weekend!

Peas - I just love the purple blooms!

We planted 16 pepper plants and surprisingly, the ones we thought were dying from transplant shock, are beginning to look as if they might make it!

The kale is beautiful to look at from the road and I am just amazed at how well it grows. This photo actually doesn't do it justice!

As I said, this side of house garden really needs weeding but here is a picture of the cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli plants.

These are also pepper plants. I think I am going to purchase some large containers and grow them in those. They weren't mature enough to transplant and the blight hit so I think I'm just going to stick to containers for them.

Back of house garden

Rows and rows of green bean plants!

Onions beginning to sow their little heads..

Beets

L-R -- Squash -> Pumpkins -> Cucumbers

Carrot and Radish bed - I began weeding it and the carrots were so small that they were coming out as well. I decided to give them time to grow and root better.

See the carrots popping up amongst the weeds?

Garlic bed - This is a perfect picture of what NOT to do with your garlic. See all those scapes that I never got to picking off? No? Well here's a better picture below!

 

So there are many areas that I need to work on in my garden. I need to convert weekend gardener to one that gardens like her family's food supply depends on it. But I do believe we are off to a good start. 

How about you? How does your garden grow? Any advice for me on converting to a everyday gardener (besides get off my tail!) :)?

A Rant on Food

Ok... As you read this, please keep in mind that I am NOT losing my mind, I am just a bit overwhelmed with life and please, please, please don't throw tomatoes at me or stop reading my blog. PLEASE. Also, if you haven't had a chance, take a look and please take part in my 300th giveaway!

Here I go... I am very interested in all the things and opinions on food and nutrition. I have really taken to the whole foods, traditional foods, Weston A. Price, Nourishing Traditions type philosophy about food.

There are so many awesome resources and ideas and blogs out there that deal with foods. Now I have got to be honest, I am struggling when it comes to whole foods the whole time.

I get very overwhelmed if I am busy that morning, look up at the clock and it is lunch time. What am I going to feed my kids?! I know most of you might be saying.. "Peanut butter and jelly, you idiot!" but it's just not that easy for me. My kids have different food allergies and honestly, I get overwhelmed and I shut down. The "simple" answer is often lost to me.

Therefore, I get into this horrible pattern. It goes a little something like this... (This is the conversation in my mind..) "I have NO idea what I am going to make the kids for lunch. It's already past lunch time!" --> "I live a block from 14 different resteraunts, let's just go grab something quick." --> "Tomorrow will be different. I will figure something out tomorrow." I get home, get the kids sat down and we eat the food. I hate how it tastes, but at this point I am so emotionally, metally and physically tired that I just sit in blessed "I didn't have to make lunch" solitude. After a while, it hits me. It hits me that I took part in the dreaded what it takes out and puts in cycle. I took valuable money OUT of my purse and spent our valuable money on putting IN crappy foods in our body. I then begin mentally beating myself down. Do I not care about my heath, my family's health, my wanting a baby? Do I care more about not cooking and being tired more than my family?

On and on it goes... Let me tell you my friends... I am done. I am done with this  vicious cycle of being stressed and overwhelmed about our foods.

I. am. done.!

 I am not going to stress over wheat gluten or not being able to get pregnant due to eating bread (which I was this morning! stressing, totally stressing like crazy over it!).

I am not going to stress over whether my children can eat a peice of cake made from a box for their birthday.

I am not going to stress over feeding them chicken nuggets from a bag or hot dogs once in  a great while (it's got to better than running to a resteraunt for Pete's sake!).

I am not stressing over this anymore. I am going to continue to put the best foods and most natural, whole and nutritional foods into my family but I am not stressing anymore.

I can tell you one thing... If this keeps up, my husband won't have to worry about what he and the kids are eating, he's going to have to worry about finding another wife because I tell you, I am going to have a stroke from high blood pressure due to worrying about what we are eating!

Ok. I am done. Please don't hate me and please don't send hate mail and hate comments. I hope y'all still love me and my crazy psychoness! :)

More ideas of what works for more sane people than me.. click here!

Preparing to Prepare

Preparing to prepare... Sounds a little crazy doesn't it?

Well it is a little crazy... because... I'm a little crazy!

First things first...

I always look into buying seeds and plants first thing. I have got to be comepletely honest with you... It took me a LONG time to be able to grow plants which actually lived and produced fruits... A. Really. Long. Time.

So here are a few questions/suggestions when preparing to buy seeds or plants:

• What kind of climate is your garden going to be in? Is it sunny or maybe shady? Is the area where you are going to put your garden the collector of rain water and will flood out? Where is the best part of your yard to garden or plant?
• Are you a lot like me and really wanted to start plants from seeds but they always died? I wasted a TON of money on seed before I realized that I just needed to master on type of seed at a time. I wasn't a "green thumb" so I had to recognize and not overwhelm or set myself up for failing.
• What kind of seeds do you want? For our family, non-GMO seeds are VERY important to us. We like to know that our food is in it's most natural state. We buy our seeds from Baker's seeds.
• How much do you have budget for gardening? Every year, I do a gardening budget. I like to make sure that growing our own food isn't going to break the bank. It is also nice to see how much you spent compared to how much you saved. It is also important to remember how nice it is in the winter time when you don't have to leave your house if you don't want to because food is already available. So keep track of what you spend in seeds and time.
• READ, READ, READ! There are tons of reviews and sources our there. Read up on plants and planting times.
• Finally, how much time and attention are the plants going to take? If you are a busy person who works a ton of hours and barely has time to take a shower, you are probably not going to want a big garden. Maybe look into container gardening or raised bed gardening.

The challenge for this week is to think about and research what size and type of garden you want and if you want to try and start plants from seeds. Then, look into what seeds you are interested in. Come back Wednesday for the next step I take in preparing to prepare!

Menu Plan: Jan 31

How was everyone's weekend?  We had a really good and productive weekend.. And a milestone was reached in our home-- I tried Salmon and actually liked it! Is it bad that it was breaded and fried?! Oh, nevermind that!

I am going to try and incorporate regular breakfasts and lunches into my menu plan. I find that it is hard to begin with but during the weekend, it makes things run so much smoother!

Sunday:

cereal (I have decided to allow our family to eat KIX. Dylan was about to have a break-down when he found out there was no cereal in the house.)

chicken enchiladas, refried beans

spaghetti, salad, garlic bread

Monday:

sweet potato struessel muffins

jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks

sloppy cornbread, oven fries, applesauce

Tuesday:

applesauce bread

sloppy joes, carrots, applesauce

vegetable soup, grilled cheese

Wednesday:

muffins

re-runs

pizza

Thursday:

oatmeal

marcaroni and cheese, pears

roast, potatoes, carrots

Friday:

smoothies

re-runs

lemon-garlic-herb chicken, rice and steamed broccoli

Saturday:

soaked pancakes, sausage

re-runs

BBQ beef, macaroni and cheese

What's on your family's menu plan this week? I am looking for some yummy new inspirational recipes. Leave a comment with you favorite recipe! Maybe I'll try it, review it and then write about it!

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*This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

A "Butter" Adventure

Butter really is better. And it is a lot of fun to make!

Last week, when I went to the farm, I bought raw milk and I have been using it. I love all the things you can make from it! I just l.o.v.e it!

There are a lot of tutorials out there on how to make butter and believe me, Andy and I have looked at them all!

And here is my conclusion... I am a person that needs a ton of steps and pictures. I need to know EXACTLY what is going to happen and EXACTLY how it going to look.

I thought some of you might be a lot like that also so I decided to show y'all step by step (and picture by picture) just how I made butter.

Here is a couple little housekeeping things about making butter. First, you really should let the cream get to room temperature (I keep forgetting but it works quicker if you let it warm up a bit.). Second, you can use just about anything that will aggitate the cream. I used a Kitchen Aide mixer. Others have used food processors, blenders and in the good ol' days they a churn! :)

Here is my milk. Do you see the line of where the cream has seperated? Just use the top part. The less milk and more cream, the butter better!

Put the seperated cream in the container of whatever appliance you are using. If you are using a food processor, Laura says not to fill more than 3/4 full or it doesn't work.

After about 3 minutes, your cream begins to look like whipped cream (what a thought! :)). A tip from my experience, if you are using a mixture, put on the baking shield or your bowl will turn out looking like mine (a mess!). When you are using a mixer, you really  have to turn up the speed so it slops everywhere if you don't have the shield on. If you are using a food processor or blender, it needs to go on medium speed.

What I am trying to show here (and it didn't turn out) is that after the "whipped cream" phase, it goes back to looking more liquidy. I was really worried that I did it wrong and after doing the butter more than once, I have seen that for some reason it just does that. (Sounds intelligent, huh?)

After it's back to liquidy phase (after the "whipped cream" phase) it will go back to the whipped cream but it will be a more cream to golden color. Keep whipping!

The butter is starting to seperate from the cream (buttermilk-some say you can use it the same, some say you can't. The jury is still out on that one.)

The butter after it is whipped. The second time I attempted this, there was a lot more butter. I put way too much milky cream in the first time (which is this picture).

The next step is rinsing the butter. Run it under COLD water. Continue to squeeze and rinse until water is completely clear. It is a l.o.n.g process but keep at it. It is so worth it!

and.... Here's my butter. It is soft when you first finish rinsing it but within a couple hours, it will be back to the normal hardness of butter.

I know it sounds like a lot of steps but making butter is really really easy and like I said.. So worth it!

So what do you say? You willing to give making your own butter a try?

*This is linked to Frugal Friday.

Menu Plan: Jan. 24

I know that my menu plan posts are pretty boring but they are important. Menu plans are important to me because they not only hold me accountable but they also keep my husband informed. He loves being able to just jump on my website during the day, while he's at work, and check to see what we are going to be eating for dinner.

So now I ask you... Why are menu plans online important to you and your family? Do they hold you accountable?

I am only going to be putting breakfasts and dinners, lunches are pretty up in the air due to left overs and being on the run a lot.

Sunday, Jan. 24
Daddy's dirty eggs, sausage, biscuits
leftovers

Monday, Jan. 25
banana bread
corn dog muffins, oven fries, corn, pears

Tuesday, Jan. 26
baked oatmeal
coconut chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Wednesday, Jan. 27
hot cereal
homemade pizza

Thursday, Jan. 28
banana bread
chicken enchiladas, chips and salsa

Friday, Jan. 29
breakfast cake
salmon patties, macaroni and cheese

Saturday, Jan. 30
hotcakes and sausage
apple chicken stir-fry
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* This is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

Chicken Stroganoff

Do y'all like slow cooker recipes? I love slow cooker recipes! I wanted to share one with y'all that I have planned for dinner on Friday. It is totally yummy! Now I have to say it is not the healthiest but it is extremely tasty!

Chicken Stroganoff
4 boneless, skinless chicken halves, cubed
1/8 c. butter
1 pack Italian Mix
8 oz. cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup

1. Put chicken, butter, and dressing mix in slow cooker; mix together and cook on low for 5-6 hours.
2. Add cream cheese and soup mix together and cook on high for another 1/2 hour.

That's all and then I serve it with some yummy green vegetables and it's a done deal! Try it- you'll like it!
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*This is linked to Tuesdays at the Table and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday.

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

I am going to attempt to continue stocking my pantry with more delicious and healthy foods. While my cooking skills are turning around, the thought of some of these foods just overwhelm me.

This past weekend I put chocolate graham crackers, honey graham crackers, and pretzels in my pantry along with an assortment of breads.

This week I am going to attempt sour dough. The thought of having to care for something (other than my children) for more than one day just makes my eyes roll back.

Besides sour dough starters, I am going to whole-heartedly attempt to put exercise in my daily routine. I just don't understand how some people can actually LIKE to exercise. My husband runs and enjoys it! What's up with that?!? I can't even enjoy a good walk up my stairs. Ugh!

I have a ton of work-out videos and even the Wii Fit Plus, but I just cannot make myself do it. I sound like such a child! :) Would you believe it if I told y'all I was a personal trainer before I had my first son? No?!? I didn't think so, BUT I actually WAS!

If any of y'all have any tips on how to fit daily excercise for a busy mom with an already busy day, please feel free to. I would appreciate it!

So.... there won't be much singing in my house this week just "ugh!" and "owws" and "umfs". Maybe I should bust out some of the old Richard Simon's I have? Now there's some great music in "Sweatin' to the Oldies!"
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*This post is linked to Make Your Home Sing Monday.

Menu plan: January 17- 23

This weekend we got a lot of baking and cooking done and even a little cleaning! This past Friday, I decided to finally make the dive into whole foods and not look back. My good friend Courtney wrote two GREAT posts about first taking the plunge and not looking back and second about their progress.

Well Friday our family took the plunge. Now I would not be telling the truth if I told you it was totally easy. If fact quite the opposite was true. As I threw all my really bad HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) away, I was dreading the fact that I might never have chocolate milk again. But we perservered and we really ate some healthy and yummy  foods. I was pleasantly surprised at how many steps I had already taken not knowing about Traditional Foods. As I was making my menu plan for this week, I was starting to get excited - We are going to be eating healthy and YUMMY foods!

Sunday:

banana bread (recipe coming soon)

soup and sandwiches

spaghetti with garlic bread

Monday:

applesauce bread

tacos, rice, beans, and salsa

white chicken chili, cornbread

Tuesday:

Kefir Smoothies, fruit

jelly sandwiches, pretzels, mama's yummy trail mix

cheesey beef and rice

Wednesday:

banana bread, yogurt, bananas

soup, pretzels

BBQ chicken pizza

Thursday:

oatmeal

white chicken chili

corn dog muffins, oven fries, apple chips

Friday:

applesauce bread

reruns

chicken stroganoff, green beans

Saturday:

daddy's dirty eggs, sausage, toast

reruns

salmon patties, macaroni and cheese

Anything catch your eye? It is going to be a week of tastey food and a new eating lifestyle!

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*This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

Pantry Eating: Week 1

I made it through Eat From the Pantry Challenge week #1. We stuck to our menu plan and ate at home every day and night. Honestly, it was not that much work. We have a TON of food that is just begging to be eaten up. The picture of my stock pile hasn't changed at all.


The only challenge that presented itself was when we didn't have one little thing for a recipe. I did a lot of searching the net and substituting. It really was a good thing for me to learn.


I know that many moms are a lot better at this that me but going through the refrigerator and using up little items (such as a 1/2 c. of sour cream) before it went bad totally made me feel great! I know I was a self-proclaimed "waste not, want not" queen but we were throwing a huge amount of left-overs away!


A couple things I used up were white rice by throwing it into a crock of soup and sour cream by throwing it into a pot of mashed potatoes. I cannot believe how invigorated I was just by doing those two simple things!


Also for the first time I am looking into my refrigerator and planning around leftovers! Woot! "I'm queen of the World!" Sorry I'm a little triumphant! (You over there, I see you rolling your eyes but trust me, I hate leftovers so this is huge! :))


I am going onward with the challenge next week. It should be easily done since the are projected a major snow storm heading our way. I know that I said I would be taking this a week at a time but I am wondering if I have such a big stockpile that I should continue you on even into the next month. Just a little thought... We'll cross that bridge when we get there!


How are you doing with the pantry challenge? Haven't started? Well today is the day. Come one and jump on the wagon. It's good fun!

Menu Plan: 1st of the 2010

So this is the first menu plan of the New Year!

It feels great, doesn't it?! Is one of your goals this year to cook more at home or to menu plan? I know that is one of mine! I hope that '10 brings you a year of health, happiness, and of course yummy food! Anyway, here is my menu plan for the first full week of January 2010!

Breakfasts: applesauce bread, blueberry muffins, baked oatmeal

Lunches: sandwiches, creamy homemade mac and cheese, chicken tenders, leftovers

Dinners:

Sunday: leftover white chicken chili (recipe coming next Tuesday!)

Monday: pizza, carrot sticks

Tuesday: yummy cheesey potato soup, glazed carrots

Wednesday:chicken noodles, mashed potatoes

Thursday: breakfast for dinner (eggs, pancakes, sausage)

Friday: barbecued beef sandwiches, oven fries, corn

Saturday: chicken pot pie

What's on your menu for the week? Need accountability or just good recipe ideas? Organized Junkie is the place to go then!

New Humble Beginning...

Cheryl over at Moms in Need of Mercy has a Once a Month Cooking Festival at the beginning of each month.

The idea of once a month cooking is an interesting concept. I always thought that once a month cooking wasn't for me. There were two main reasons: 1) I have ADHD and the thought of being in the kitchen for a long time (especially cooking and cleaning) just overwhelmed me and 2) By the time I got done making all the food, I would be sick of looking at it and never eat it.

BUT when looking at all my New Year's goals and what I would like to try and achieve this year, I felt I had to find easier ways to put food on the table. Something had to give.

That something was my preconceived notions of once a month cooking. Now I am not going to cook all my meals for one month at one time, but it isn't too hard to brown a little extra beef or make a bigger portion and freeze the remainder. I can do that!

Tonight we were having meatloaf. While making our meatloaf for dinner, I decided to make three extra and feed them. (The really exciting part was not only did I make three extra main dishes, but I also used up some meat that really needed to be used! Two birds, one stone!)

So here is a photo journal of my first humble beginning of "once a month cooking".


Cheryl's got some great tips on getting started so why don't you take a little gander over at Moms in Need of Mercy!?

Crock-Pot Brown Sugar "candy" Chicken

This recipe came from the family cookbook and I just could not wait to try it. Therefore when I decided that I wanted to come up with our family's own traditional New Year's Day meal (without the pork. I don't eat much pork and I had already hit my quota by New Year's dinner) this recipe was what I was looking for!

Crock-Pot Brown Sugar "Candy" Chicken

*4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used breasts and Andy made them into tenders)

*1 cup brown sugar (I used succanant)

*1/2 cup lemon-lime soda (I used 7-Up)

*2/3 c vinegar- any type (I used apple cidar)

*3 cloves minced garlic

*2 Tbsp. soy sauce

*1 tsp. pepper

Place chicken in crockpot. Cover with brown sugar, pepper, garlic and soy sauce. Add in the vinegar and soda - it should bubble a little bit. Cover and cook on low for 6-9 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high. The chicken is done when it cooks through and has reached desired consistency. The longer you cook it, the more tender it will be. Serve over rice with a ladle full of broth.

This recipe was so simple. I loved that I started it in the morning and just left if going all day. It was tastey and everyone loved it! I also doubled the recipe and all turned out great!

How about you? Did you try any new recipes this New Years? What was on the menu at your house?

Eat From Your Pantry Intro...

Have y'all decided if you are with me on the Eat -From -the -Pantry -Challenge over at Life as Mom? I've got to be honest, I am a little leary of it myself...

BUT... I am hoping that this post persuades you just a little bit more. FishMama over at Life as Mom wrote this post yesterday about how everyone's goals and pantries are different. We don't necessarily have to go all month, we could start with one week or we could go longer than one month.

That got me thinking a little bit... I am known to many who know me IRL as being my own worst critic. I am the queen of good intentions but yet not so good at fulfilling them. Then when I don't, I beat myself up unmercifully. Therefore if you remember me going back and forth in this post about whether or not I was going to take part in the challenge, it was really hard for me to decide.

But today I decided that I am whole-heartedly going to do this! However, I am going to do it one week at a time. So this week I am proclaiming that from Friday, January 1st until Friday, January 8th. At that point, I will re-evaluate where I stand in the challenge.

Sound good to you? Then why don't you give it a try with me? I really, really do like accountability partners and this is a great way to start out the New Year and get our lives back to ordinary after the chaos of the Holidays!

So today, I am unveiling my stash of food. Now be warned that I am not organized right now. With all the sickness and festivities, my organization and clean home flew the coup! :) And in case you were wondering, my canned foods stash still pretty much looks like this.


This is my pantry. A mess, but still my pantry. Plenty of food in there, huh?

Here are some of my canned goods and baking stuff. Still plenty!




This is my baking/from scratch chest. Still plenty in there (even a loaf of cheater-bread :))!


My inside freezer, stocked!



And my garage freezer, over-stocked. I almost could not close it!


So how about it? Are you in or are you out? I think you should be it! If you have more questions or concerns or are just nosey head over to life as mom, she'll be glad to show you the way!