Tag Archives: Health

Jul 5 2011

Chives

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Chives

Chives are another easy plant to grow in the garden.  They can over take the garden if planted right into it.  It’s best to plant in a container so that it won’t spread.  We planted our chives about 5 years ago and haven’t had to plant them again.  That’s right these are perennials which means they come back every year.  We weren’t sure if they would come back since we have really cold winters but they did, and have ever since.  I love having these on hand.  When ever I need them I just go out and snip a few off and chop them up to use.  They also have a very pretty purple flower.  The flower smells like onions but at least it looks good.  At the end of the season, right before we have a hard frost, Corey will go out and cut the rest of the chives and freeze them.  Then I use them in some Asian dishes like Mobodofu.  After they have been frozen they aren’t great to use as a garnish but you could put them in soups or breads for just a little onion flavor.  You could also dry them instead of freezing and use them the same.  So easy and very low maintenance.  I really don’t have to do anything to them, they just sprout up every year, it’s great.

Jul 3 2011

Garlic

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Garlic

I find garlic to be one of the easiest things to grow.  My husband and I started growing garlic a few years ago and we have kept doing it since.  We use garlic for so many things and it’s nice to always have fresh garlic around.

Growing garlic started with a trip to the grocery store.  While buying some garlic at the store we were curious about growing it in our own garden.  So we bought a couple of heads of garlic and separated the cloves and planted them in the garden just to see what would happen.  You plant garlic in the fall just like you would any type of bulb (ie tulips).  In the spring we were surprised to see garlic sprouting up.  It was great.  The garlic we bought from the store worked but the bulbs when harvested were smaller than what you bought at the store.  The next year we kept some of our bulbs that we had harvested and planted them again.  We also went to our local food co-op and bought some garlic that someone had grown on their farm locally.  It was amazing the difference in size each variety had.  The locally grown garlic was much larger than the grocery store.  This year we just planted some of our bulbs from last and it’s doing great.  I suggest buying the garlic from your local farmers market or co-op if you want to plant.  I tried buying from the local garden store and it was expensive ($4 dollars a bulb)  The co-op was only selling it for $1.00 a bulb.  Now we have an unlimited supply of garlic.  I planted about 6 bulbs of garlic which for us yields about 24 bulbs in the spring.  So that leaves us with 18 bulbs to use during the year.  The garlic when stored correctly last until your next harvest or until you consume it all.

Garlic is known to have many medicinal properties.  Garlic is great for your heart and helps regulate blood sugar levels.  There are a lot of reasons you should grow garlic.  Not only is it good for your health but it taste good too.  We use it in sauces, salsas, Asian foods, mix it with olive oil and use as a dip.  The possibilities are unlimited.  One down fall of garlic is that it can cause some really bad halitosis.  Also if you eat a lot of garlic your sweat could have a garlic odor.  I happen to like the smell of garlic but most people don’t.  Garlic is hard to smell on other people when you yourself have been eating garlic so if you’re worried about the smell just make sure everyone else is eating it too.

Garlic growing in our garden

Jul 1 2011

Gardening

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my garden

I love gardens.  I don’t claim to be an expert on gardening although I would like to be one someday.  I think gardening is a life long project.  You are always learning more.  Everyone has their own opinion on how gardening should be done.  I think it doesn’t matter if you are a patio gardener, square foot gardener, or a row gardener as long as you love what you’re doing and are somewhat successful at it than you’re on the right path to becoming an expert. Every year we try something different in our garden.  Some things work and somethings don’t it is always a learning experience. I love the feeling you get when you walk out into your garden and can see the results of your hard work.  I’m hoping to share with you information about my garden and what I’ve planted this year.  Not only what I’ve planted but how these things can be used when harvested.  Of course I expect you to do the same.  Tell me what works for you and what doesn’t.  Tell me what you’ve done with the produce you get. I think this will be a fun learning experience.  Here are the things we have planted in the garden  so far this year.  I’ll hopefully blog about each one.

 

Vegetables: garlic, peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes, green peppers, hot peppers, green beans, carrots, corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, onions

Fruits: tomatoes, watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, grapes, apples

Herbs: chives, Italian parsley

 

Apr 1 2011

Pan fried chicken salad

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Sometimes for dinner all I crave is a nice big salad.  I used the spinach, Romain lettuce,carrots, celery, tomatoes, and asparagus in this salad.  I pan fried a chicken breast with a little butter and olive oil.  I hard boiled some eggs and sliced them.  Put it all together and we had one yummy salad.  I would’ve liked to grill the chicken but it was just way to windy. This experiment is coming to an end.  I did enjoy sharing some of my experiences with you.  I’ll probably do something like this in the future with things we get out of our garden.  I think if you can participate in bountiful baskets it is worth it.  It does have it’s good points but just like everything else there are bad points too.  For example, this past Monday I went to order my basket for this week.  I got online at noon and had trouble making my order for an hour.  It was really inconvenient and frustrating.  I don’t usually have problems with ordering but I think with the increasing popularity of the baskets comes overwhelming of the servers.  I love always having fresh fruits and veggies on hand and it has really helped me be more creative with my meals.  Saving money isn’t bad either.  Over all I think that the good out weighs the bad and I’ll probably continue ordering baskets until the harvest season starts.  I’ll take a break until winter starts up again. I’ll still blog from time to time about yummy meals that turned out well for my family.  I really love hearing and getting ideas from each of you.  Thanks for all the feedback.

Apr 1 2011

Grapefruit

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grapefruit

In our basket this week we received 2 grapefruit.  I’m not ashamed to say that I hogged both. I remember as a kid going to my grandparents place and watching my Aunt Sandee eat a grapefruit.  At that time I didn’t particularly care for the bitterness of grapefruit but my Aunt showed me a new way to eat it (new to me).  She sliced it in half and then took a knife and ran it between each segment.  Then she sprinkled the top with sugar.  Okay, okay so the sugar thing might not be good for me but it does help with the bitterness of the grapefruit.  I’ve heard of people sprinkling the top with salt but I haven’t been brave enough to try that. Grapefruit is high in Vitamins A & C.

Mar 30 2011

Hawaiian Haystack

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Hawaiian Haystack

Hawaiian haystacks were another staple growing up.  Traditionally we ate it with chicken and a chicken gravy but I had some left over gingered pork that I needed to use up.  I cut the pork up into small pieces and then added some water and terriaki sauce.  I brought it to a boil and then thickened it with cornstarch.  Never done this before but it turned out alright.  A haystack begins with a layer of chow mien noodles.  Then you add a layer of rice.  Lastly you top it with what ever toppings you like.  Today we had, from the basket, fresh pineapple, celery, and tomatoes.  I also added cheese and onions.  Then you top it off with some gravy.  This was pretty good although I think I still prefer the chicken and gravy.  Pineapple is high in vitamin C.  Celery is a good source of Vitamin C & A.  Tomatoes are high in Vitamin A & C and a good source of potassium.

Mar 29 2011

Baked potatoes

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Baked potatoes

Growing up my family would always have a baked potato bar for dinner.  My mom would bake some potatoes and than give us what ever toppings we desired on them.  So every so often I do the same for my family.  I love putting broccoli on my baked potatoes.  I used to make a cheese sauce and also pour it over the top.  This is a healthier version of that.  The broccoli is from last weeks basket.  It’s too late now but I wish I had baked up some of my sweet potatoes and used them instead of your normal potato.  That is also a great way to mix things up a little.  Guess I can to that for lunch sometime.  Even though the potato didn’t come from the basket I’ll tell you that potatoes are high in vitamin C and a good source of potassium.  The broccoli is high in vitamin C and folate.  It is also a good source of dietary fiber and potassium.

Mar 27 2011

The experiement week 5: final week

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I’m on the last week of this experiment.  So I decided, since the bountiful baskets are possible primarily because of volunteers, that I would volunteer this week.  The pick up time was 9:45am the volunteers have to show up an hour earlier at 8:45am.  When I got there there were already 5 others there to volunteer.  We unloaded the produce from the truck and then started putting them in baskets, 60 baskets to be exact.  There were other volunteers who showed up after me and we ended up with about 10 people there.  Everything went very smoothly.  We were done putting all the produce in the baskets ready for pick up by 9:30 fifteen minutes before pick up time.  Once everyone started showing up it went very quickly and I was home by 10:00am.  However, this isn’t how it always goes.  It is all dependent on how many people volunteer.  Last week there were only a few volunteers and they didn’t finish until about 10:30.  They had a line of people waiting for their baskets. When you volunteer you get an extra big item or 2 extra small items.  I choose for my extra a bundle of spinach.

This week I feel is better than last because I feel we got a lot of produce.  When I tallied everything and priced it out it ended up totaling $23.57.  Really not what I expected.  I expected that I would save a lot more this week but really this and last week savings are around the same. This weeks basket contained:

1 pineapple           6 bananas         2 bundles of asparagus

2 zucchini              3 mangoes         3 tomatoes

2 grapefruit            6 apples             6 sweet potatoes

2 bundles of spinach             1lb carrots              1 head of green leaf lettuce

Just because I say this is the final week of the experiment doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll stop getting the baskets just that I’ll hopefully form a conclusion and then stop blogging about it.  This week is spring break and, in theory,  I should be able to find a little more time to blog about what I have done with my items.  I hope I can end this experiment with a bang.

Mar 24 2011

Mango Salsa

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Mango Salsa on Red pepper Parmesan Talapia

It’s been a busy week and I haven’t found as much time to blog.  I had to take time to blog about this.  I love mango salsa.  Corey and I especially like it on fish.  The mangoes we got from the basket this week have been perfectly ripe and very sweet.  To make the mango salsa I cubed a mango, chopped red pepper and jalepeno finely, zested and juiced a lime, chopped some cilantro, and added salt to taste.  Corey and I aren’t very fond of fish and have really tried to figure out how to make it.  This recipe was good.  I got it from a new cook book that I bought from Taste of Homes website.  It had a little kick to it so the kids weren’t impressed.  I, however,  really enjoyed it.  Again, mangoes are high in Vitamin A and a good source of Vitamin C.

 

Mar 21 2011

Bountiful Basket Week 4

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There were a few things that went wrong for this week.  First off I got a little busy last Monday and totally forgot to put my order in until 4:30 pm.  When I did put my order in all the spots were taken for the site I usually pick up at.  So I had to pick up at a site that was across town.  It’s only about a 15 minute drive but when you’re used to going just a few blocks from your house it’s disappointing.  The other down side was the pick up time was 2 hours earlier.  It was at 7:45 am.  The one I normally go it is at 9:45 am.  On Thursday I started to come down with some kind of cold.  By Saturday I was in no mood to do anything.  Luckily I have a wonderful husband who volunteered to pick up the basket for me (no really he did).  He even took Levi with him and they made a daddy son time out of it.  I was a little disappointed with the basket turn out.  Here is what we got this week.

3 Mangos                          4 Tomatoes                   12 Tangerines

5 Apples                            1 Carton Blueberries       8 Bananas

1 Cantaloupe                    1lb Asparagus

1 Head of Cauliflower       1 Stalk of Celery                3 crowns of Broccoli

The reason for my disappointment is I felt there wasn’t very much this week.  Usually we end up with something exotic and new.  All of these fruits and veggies are things I’m familiar with.  Don’t get me wrong I still love what I got just not sure I got a great deal this week.  I took my list to the grocery store and priced everything out.  If I had bought all this at the store it would have cost me  $22.03 plus tax.  This is only about $5.50 savings.  Since we had to drive further to get all this I’m not sure it’s worth the money.  If I was consistently getting the same results I might not even bother with the basket, but in the previous weeks I have saved a considerable amount so I don’t think I’ll let one week sway me.  I did end up with some blueberries and more cantaloupe. I’m very excited about that.