Stuffed Zucchini!

Yup, our garden is still going off...even though it just got going. Lots of zucchini and I'm getting creative! Stuffed zucchini is my latest and greatest. SO good!! These were made with ground turkey, onions and cheese and some spices of course! I am very excited to try the zucchini enchilada recipe I got from a friend yesterday. And more muffins will be made this week as well.  I am really starting to appreciate how versatile and tasty zucchini is!

Stay smart and delicous my friends!

Missing the Boat: Our Latent Garden

I can't believe that I am simultaneously doing back-to-school shopping and reaping the first rewards of our garden that we planted almost 4 months ago!

Green Goodness!

I'm not really complaining, I am super excited about our garden, but it's AUGUST. So far, we have had a few ripe roma tomatoes, which my tomato-loving Monkey has quickly devoured, and some enormous zucchini that we dicovered hiding under the  leaves of the huge plant (man that sucker took over everything), a few green beans and a couple carrots which are still pretty tiny.

Zucchini Monster

The tomato plants are on the verge of exploding. The roma tomato and cherry tomato plants are full of fruit, they just haven't ripened yet. We are waiting for the carrots to grow, as well as the onions and have sort of given up on our eggplant which never quite seemed to take off (insert frownie face here).

We're almost there!

Tons of Tomatoes!

He said, "Yeah, baby!"

Earlier this week I charmed my family and co-workers with zucchini muffins.  I have also enjoyed the zucchini at dinner time, intended as a side dish which actually turned out to be a main dish another time, in such a simple, healthy and tasty recipe. Monkey has eaten several green beans as a snack, washed and right off the plant. We are chomping at the bit for this garden to take off, dammit!

Crunchy, snappy snacks

Healthier, whole-wheat flour, less sugar muffins

Roasted Zucchini and Tomatoes over Kamut Spirals

It's been slow growing, probably due to the weirdness of the weather this spring, but we can only hope it means we'll be enjoying these vegetables well past October!

Did you plant a garden? How did it grow this summer with the weird weather? 

Homegrown Green: Organic Produce Part 1

I wanted to share with you the recent progress on our backyard garden! I cannot fully express how absolutely excited I am about all the yummy vegetables that are sprouting up. Green beans, carrots, yellow onions, zuchini, yellow squash, Japanese and Italian eggplant, Roma, beefsteak and cherry tomatoes. My 4yo is excited too, always asking to go out check on the progress of his garden.

I am all about shortening the distance from Farm to Table and love supporting our local Farmer's Market. It is like an event in our family to go there on the weekend and peruse all the lovely fruits and veggies and feel the sense of community. We love to hear the music play, smell the kettle corn popping, and the kids enjoy sampling all the fruit on display. There is even a children's art area where they can have fun creating projects for Mommy and Daddy. Beyond produce, there is a vendor selling amazing flavors of hummus and pita chips, a local honey producer, flowers, plants, jewelry and much more. It's a small market with a lot of variety.

However, now that I have my garden, we will probably hit up the Farmer's Market less. We will definitely still go from time to time, but my purpose in creating the backyard garden was multi-fold (hungrigyrlism): Convenience. How perfect will it be when I want to make something and I just go out and pick a vegetable from my backyard? Community. I will love to share our bounty with other family members and co-workers. Quality. I will be able to safely say our veggies were not sprayed with pesticides, picked too early, ripened on a truck, etc. Eco-friendly. My distance from farm to table is about 15 feet. No fuel will be wasted transporting my veggies, and the air/environment will not be compromised by said transportation. Have I mentioned cost yet? Our initial investment of redwood boards, dirt and seeds was about $85. That is roughly about 2 visits to the Farmer's Market for us. We will see quite the  return and then some on our investment this summer. The redwood made the project a little pricier, probably 2x as much, but redwood is a heartier wood. For those of you interested in making a backyard garden, douglas fir would work just fine and cost less.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my Organic Produce post, which you won't want to miss!

Do you grow any fruits or veggies at home? Any special tips you have for gardening success?

More Earth Day Shenanigans

I couldn't do just one Earth Day post, because really I think Earth Day should be every day. I just thought I would share some environmentally friendly happenings over here and how we are enjoying nature at home.

Bright plantings by the front door

Another one, flanking both sides of the front door

Don't know what these are called, but I love them

This is our first year planting vegetables!

We so excited that our seeds have sprouted

Can't wait to be able to go to the yard when we need veggies!

Homegrown - better tasting than any supermarket

Last year we grew our own tomatoes. Our son, who eats them like they are covered in chocolate, really enjoyed them. It was nice for us to know he was eating quality, ripe,  organic produce, free of pesticides and not shipped from another country and ripened in a truck.

Since that seemed to go well, we decided to go a little crazy this year, adding squash, onions, and beans to the mix. I really hope we don't kill everything, because I am so looking forward to this. I think it will be great to teach the boys to learn how to grow their own food, and learn responsibility by helping water the plants and pick vegetables. They are young but its never too early to start showing them the ropes!

And my fellow humans, I have really been going crazy with using white vinegar around the house. A lot with the laundry. For example, I have a few things that say "do not use fabric softener" - some really expensive, high quality bath towels that I have, that I don't want to ruin, and also some super absorbent kitchen towels. Vinegar can be used as a fabric softener, and there is no static cling! And it doesn't make your clothes stink like vinegar. On the contrary, vinegar removes odors. It came in really handy when I was in the throes of "laundry day" and ran out of softener. I have also been using it on my shower. I put some in a spray bottle with some water (50/50 mix) and spray it on my glass shower doors to help prevent/remove build up, mildew etc. I also have used it mixed with baking soda to clean stainless steel pots and pans. What I love about using vinegar to clean is that it is non-toxic, natural, and doesn't leave behind a gross chemical smell after use...which for some twisted reason we have come to associate with "clean." And its so cheap too, I buy big jugs of it at Walmart and they really go a long way.

Just doing our part...enjoy the earth....we all share it! Have a great day!