Garden Plan & Seeds Ordered

TA DA!! Here's our family garden plan for 2011!

And below are the Seeds I ordered for next year's garden. I ordered from Stokes again - I've had good experience with them. Most of these varieties I have tried before and they are really good. I still have some seeds left over from last year that I'll be using this year (if you notice there are some missing on the list). I decided that this year I'll be buying the tomato and pepper starts from our local greenhouse. I've grown them from seed in the past, but I'm a little late getting started this year so I'll just buy them. And note that this garden plan is definitely in pencil so I can adjust varieties when it's time to plant. Sugar Snax 54 (Carrot/Nantes x Imperator)
Large White Ribbed (Swiss chard)
Paycheck Squash
Sunray (Squash/summer)
Heavenly Hubbard (Squash)
Sunshine (Squash/buttercup)
Pioneer (Cucumber/pickling)
Sweet Slice Hyb (Cucumber/slicing)
Chippawa (corn)
Luscious (corn)
Primo (Muskmelon/cantaloupe)

Happy Gardening! Can't wait for spring!!

Read More

Healthy Homemade Crackers

I found this cracker recipe at kitchen stewardship the other day and made them and WOW - these things are sooo good!! They are a wheat thins style cracker.

Crackers aren't the easiest things to make on the planet - they do take some time, but they are so good and it's nice to know you're not getting all the preservatives and junky fats that are not healthy for you.

A few notes about the recipe:
I rolled them out thin the first time, but not thin enough. The perfect thickness I think is as thin as you can possibly make them (I know - very specific). That way they are crispy and perfectly crunchy!

I scored my crackers rather than cutting them all the way through (see the video below for a demonstration of what I mean by scoring). It seems to work a lot better that way because then your crackers aren't floating all over the paper, falling into the bottom of the oven and starting a fire (believe me - been there, done that!). I used parchment paper for mine and cooked them on my baking stone. I found that 400 F was too hot, but 300 F was just about right. At 400 the sides burnt a little, but at 300 F they came out perfectly. You have to cook them about 15-20 minutes if you cook them at 300 F. I didn't use salt on mine - just plain and they turned out delicious! Enjoy!

Read More

How does your garden grow?

Well ours doesn't grow yet of course - because it's the middle of winter here. But not too early for me to start planning for April & May! Maybe even March if the ground hog is right! (not everything in March, mind you but the cold weather crops).

Here are some posts that I did last year about gardening that may be helpful if you are in the planning mode.

Gardening Series Post 1

Gardening Series Post 2

Gardening Series Post 3

I plan to continue this series, since I never finished it last year so be looking for that. This week I'm buying my seeds and planning our garden. And speaking of gardens...

Yesterday my sweet husband brought me these - just out of the blue, for no real reason. He knows how much I love fresh flowers on a cold, winter day. It brightens me like nothing else (not even chocolate!!). It gives me hope that spring will come! Thank you sweetie! You are the BEST!

Read More

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

This recipe for Pita Bread is delicious! Enjoy...

Whole-Wheat Pita Bread

Servings: Makes 8 (6-inch) pita loaves.

1 tsp. honey
1/4 C. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups warm water (105–115°F)
3 cups whole wheat flour (can use a mixture of milled flax, bran)
3 Tbsp. vital wheat Gluten
2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
Could add thyme, or sesame to dough
Cornmeal for sprinkling baking sheet.

Here's what I do:

Put in the first 7 ingredients in bosch mixer in order. Note this is very important - and make sure your water is very warm (put it in the microwave for a bit). Add any additional flour if needed. Mix with mixer for about 6 mins.

Form dough into a ball and put in an oiled large bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough and cut into 8 pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Flatten 1 ball, then roll out into a 6 1/2- to 7-inch round on floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Transfer round to 1 of 2 baking sheets lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Make 7 more rounds in same manner, arranging them on baking sheets. Loosely cover pitas with 2 clean kitchen towels (not terry cloth) and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Set oven rack in lower third of oven and remove other racks. Preheat oven to 500°F.

Transfer 4 pitas, 1 at a time, directly onto oven rack. Bake until just puffed and pale golden, about 2 minutes. Turn over with tongs and bake 1 minute more. Cool pitas on a cooling rack 2 minutes, then stack and wrap loosely in a kitchen towel to keep pitas warm. Bake remaining 4 pitas in same manner. Serve warm.

Here's a couple of great filling ideas:

#1: Chicken Salad
2 1/2 cups, cubed, cooked chicken breast (about 1 lb)
1 c matchstick cut carrots
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp dill
1 8oz can crushed pineapple drained
8 romaine lettuce leaves

Cook chicken. Combine all ingredients, except lettuce. Fill a half Pita with mixture add lettuce and enjoy.

#2: Falafel Tacos - This recipes comes from a great friend who is a vegetarian - for some reason it wouldn't let me link the exact recipe, but you can do a search for vegetarian recipes and find it and a lot of other great ones. We had these the other night and they were really good!

#3 Rice Salad - this or another rice salad would make a great filling for these pita pockets.

Read More

Vegetarian Meal Ideas

I appreciate so much those of you who made comments on the last post. I am feeling rejuvenated again, thankfully. I have some new recipes that I've made recently that I'd like to share with you. We are on a mostly vegetarian diet right now. We have meat about 1 or 2 times a week and the rest is vegetarian dishes. It's become necessary for me to experiment with some new vegetarian main dish recipes so that we have some variety. Here's a few of our favorites that I've already posted about. I'll post some more in the coming days and weeks.

Bean Lasagna

Spaghetti Squash Meal

Meatless Taco Salad with Black Beans

Meatless Hawaiian Haystacks

Rice Salad

Butternut Squash Soup

Navajo Tacos with Vegetarian Chili

Vegetarian Fajitas

Tamale Lentil Casserole

Well there's the ones that I could find that I've posted about so far. We also like to stir fry vegetables and serve over rice. It's really good if you have a yummy stir-fry sauce to serve with it. Since I'm trying to cut out sugar, I am in search of stir-fry sauces with low sugar. Post those if you have them. I'd appreciate it.

Read More