Monday Meal Menu

Well...after we stopped getting the reclaimed produce boxes, we started getting weekly boxes of vegetables from a local co-op.  It was fun, but we decided that we could get a better bang for our buck if we just purchased it ourselves (or grew it!!)

I have been busy prepping and planting in the garden.  So far, we have carrots and beets growing strong, kale and swiss chard from summer plantings, as well as the green onions, lima beans, peppers, green beans, and okra from this summer.
So far this fall, we've planted more beets, radishes, peas, turnips, more kale, lettuce, more swiss chard, and spinach.

I planted a package of bok choy seeds...though they were definitely not bok choy.  It's some kind of lettuce...not sure what it is, so we just call it not-bok-choy. :)  It's actually a really nice and buttery lettuce. :)

So...I'm not sure if you saw my ridiculous pepper harvesting that I've been doing, but I've harvested 3 batches of peppers this large in September alone!  My freezer is filled with bags of peppers (not to mention all the fruit I froze over the summer, the corn, the kale I've been freezing, the beans that I make in huge batches, or the 27 bags of candy roaster pumpkin I have in there! :) ).

I was laying in bed this morning and I was craving Baked Beans! I told you I LOVE them. :)  So, that's dinner tonight.  Baked beans, potato wedges, and salad.

Yesterday I chopped up a ton of peppers to rotate through the freezer on cookie sheets to freeze before bagging.  I pulled out the bowl from the fridge this morning and I suddenly realized I should make Black Bean and Corn Salsa!  It would go great with the left over rice from yesterday's Red Beans and Rice.   Well, I threw it all together this morning, so now tomorrow's dinner is already done!

Then I was thinking about the huge container of spinach I bought on an impulse last week and the $1 mushroom containers I picked up also.  Then I thought - yeah, Lentil Loaf! :)  We love Rip's from My Beef With Meat.  So lentil loaf and roasted veggies sound perfect for Wednesday.  The lentil loaves taste even better when they are made a day or two in advance, so they are in the oven as I type this.  It smells amazing in here!!!  

Now I felt like I was on a roll so I was thinking about what to have the rest of the week, I'm going to try Fat Free Vegan's Mac and Cheese with a salad on Thursday.  I'm so excited about it!!

That brings us to Friday - which is our anniversary, so I'm thinking we'll go out to eat. :) If not, I think Pad Thai would be delicious.

Saturday will be left overs.

Sunday I think some Sweet Potato Chili that I have in the freezer sounds fantastic.  And that gets me through the week!!! :)

And dinners are actually made for every day except one - heck yes to free time in the fall to enjoy the beautiful weather with my Te-Man!!  :)

Mini Garden Update

Hey hey there! I decided I couldn't wait until the end of the month to show you what's going on in my garden - so instead of taking pictures of all of the plants - I took one of everything I harvested this morning! :)

 And of my helper - of course. :)

Looks like I know what I'm doing this morning....what about you?

Are you ready for June's Garden Pics?!

What?!  Another post of garden pictures?  Yup....you better believe it.  It's 0900 and Te-Man is still sleeping.  I can't believe it.  I am here typing with a nice hot cup of coffee and 2 dogs curled up at my feet - flowers blooming, garden growing, birds chirping (but not eating my tomatoes)....a full day of canning ahead of me.  Life is GOOD!!!

I thought this was a post about garden pictures? :)  Here ya go. :)

Sweet corn and sunflowers

1st Bell Pepper of the year!

 Banana Peppers

 Tomatoes! I decided I didn't want to have to buy 40 tomato cages and I procrastinated too long to have time to make my own, so we went with fencing stakes and para cord.  It is working wonderfully! Well, except for the Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes, but nothing can contain those crazy tomato plants, I had them as tall as my garage gutters one year!

 Cauliflower

 Beets and cucumbers

 Jalapenos

 Jalapenos

 Cauliflower

 Limas! and the Okra is still there on the left as well

 Onions!

 Radishes, kale, and carrots

 Lettuce, Kale, and Radishes

 Candy Roaster Pumpkins, lemon balms, sage, lavender, collards

 Tomatoes, jalapenos, cabbage

 Candy Roaster Pumpkins, mint, rosemary, thyme, lettuce

 Candy Roaster

 Peppers, Lettuce

 

 Kale, Basil, Thai Basil, and Chocolate Mint

 A Candy Roaster!!!

 Thank you Mr. Bee

 Lemon Grass (I re-rooted these from some lemon grass I bought at the farmers market.  I just placed them in a glass of water for about 2 weeks, changing the water every other day, then planted them in the pot, kept them moist, and WOW!)

 More Lemon Grass

 A lonely tomato of unknown variety....I just couldn't throw him away.

 I harvested my onions! Not as many as I'd hoped, but still a good showing for my first year and growing in the cruddiest soil ever.  Well, not ever, but compared to what I'm used to, I pretty much just walked up and planted these on sand dune.  

 My garlic...drying on my front porch like I'm all uncivilized and such.  None of the neighbors have complained...maybe that's because I am keeping them steadily supplied with radishes and tomatoes. :)

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my garden! I would like to take a minute and personally thank Wolverine for putting up with my craziness....the constant dirt under my fingernails, the constant weird green hand prints on our back door and muddy footprints in the kitchen, the plants, seeds, and seedlings that always seem to be EVERYWHERE in our house and yard.  For never complaining that I bought another plant or more dirt or more seeds, etc etc etc.  For listening to my constant crazy plans for the garden or what I want to do next year, or fretting over the weather....I think the delicious bowls and bowls of fresh veggies that come in from the garden on a daily basis make it worth it for him, but a good thank you never hurts either. :) 

The long awaited garden pictures from Mid May!

Holy Cow people.  I dropped the ball on this one - big time!

Here are the pictures I've been promising for well....months.

I think these are roma tomatoes, the seedling trays got a little "reorganized" by the Te-Man. haha

 Kale, Basil, Thai Basil, Chocolate Mint

 Miscellaneous not hot peppers (I hope, see above Te-Man helping comment)

 Candy Roaster Pumpkins, Mint, Rosemary, Thyme, Lettuce

 2 tomato plants - Big Rainbow (I think), jalapenos, cabbage

 Candy Roaster Pumpkins, Radishes, Lemon Balm, Sage, Lavender, Collards

 Egyptian Walking Onions

 Walla Walla Onions

 Garlic, Ischium Red and Silver Rose

 Lettuce, Kale, maybe a few radish stragglers on the far right

 Radishes, kale, carrots

 More walla walla onions behind the boxes

 walla walla onions....whoa this patch of soil must be junk!

 Okra

 Lima Beans

 Cauliflower

 Jalapenos

 Beets and cucumbers

 Tomatoes

 Tomatoes and Cauliflower

 Tomatoes

 Guess what....more tomatoes!!!

 Cabbage and Bell Peppers

 Bell Peppers

 Sweet Banana Peppers

 Peas

 Sweet corn - getting drowned by the sand from the hill above my garden :(

 Cilantro

 Oregano

 Cilantro

 Dill

 Chives

Whoa Mama! I LOVE having a garden - I am seriously considering moving somewhere that I can garden year round and if that's not a possibility, I will build myself a hoop-house this winter!