Waste not, want not. Free vegetable garden

I started my garden for the spring in my kitchen window since it's not warm enough for the plants outside yet. Even typing this makes me laugh because I live in Southern CA. But I am near the mountains and our ground has frozen this year. Who knew?

While I would love to say my garden looked  like the one to the left, alas I am not that good of a gardener. 

Last year's raised bed, ready for planting

Last summer I built a raised garden bed in my yard and harvested zucchini, blueberries, tomatoes, peppers, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. This year, I am toying with the idea of adding a second one to get more good stuff for free.

Not much has lasted through the winter since we have had some cold nights here this year. Well, that and the fact that I have totally neglected my garden during the holidays and winter months. 

This year my goal is to plant a "free" garden using seeds from the vegetables I purchase at the grocery and stems from other items. I will document my successes and failures and let you know how truly easy or hard it is to do. I have a busy life and am not one of those people to fawn over my garden every day. I automate as much care as possible and plan to do so again. 

Back to the plants....So far I have celery, onion, and cabbage in small pots of water to see if they will root. I am not sure it is possible to grow cabbage this way, but I will give it a shot and let you know. 

I cut off excess and stuck the end of the vegetable into a small bit of water. The picture on the right shows the bottom of the celery. It looks just like it did after I washed the stalk and cut off the portion I wanted to use.

I tried celery once before but didn't get it planted into the ground before it began to rot in the water. Needless to say, that plant was tossed.

Onion after 1 week

After one week, the onion is growing roots like mad but no green is sprouting. The celery is sprouting (look at the cute little celery stalk!) but has little to no root growth. 

Celery --growing green but no roots

Root buds on the cabbage

I can't tell if the cabbage is going to grow. There are some root buds on the bottom of the cabbage so I am hopeful the roots will keep sprouting. I think this next week will give me an answer as to whether growing cabbage from the stem is possible.

I am hoping to get these into the garden bed tomorrow. I haven't amended the soil yet this year and will need to clean last year's plants out of the raised bed. And with the Haraughbowl on tomorrow, I'll see what I can get done. 

In the next few weeks I will plant seeds from peppers, tomatoes, and an apple. I'll also see if I can grow carrots from an end piece.

Together we will see what grows, what doesn't and how easy it is for an amateur gardener to do.  
Keep coming back. I will post the successes, failures, and errors of my gardening adventures. 

Happy Planting!
Laureen 

Seeds are Sprouting Early this Year

I wanted to try something new in my never-ending search to eat the healthiest food I can find that also tastes good. Taste, texture, and how I feel eating the food are all very important to me. I became brave this week after reading some articles on sprouting beans and grains. I have already been eating oat groats and I love quinoa so I decided to mix the two and sprout the grains together. 

Oat Groats

Red Quinoa

Why would I do this? After much research it boils down to this: "When grains, seeds and nuts are germinated, their nutritional content changes and, as they are generally not cooked, they retain their natural plant enzymes... As well as retaining the enzymes, they also retain the nutrients that would otherwise be destroyed by cooking. Sprouted grains, seeds and nuts also encourage the growth of good bacteria, and are high in protective antioxidants."  Read more: Natural Therapy Pages


Sprouting grains turns out to be easier than I thought it would be. I put a half cup each of quinoa and groats into a container that would hold about 4 cups. I used a container with lid that I would put leftover into. Cover the grains with 3 cups of water and put the lid on. Let sit for at least 12 hours at room temperature. When time is up, drain the remainder of the water and let the grains sit in the container with the lid cracked. Every 12 hours, add water and rinse the grains and then immediately drain. The grains will begin to sprout after about 24 hours. 

The first time you sprout grains or beans I would try them when the sprouts are small. They don't need to look like the sprouts you buy in the grocery store. The grains take on a bit of a grassy flavor as they sprout. 

The quinoa and groats I sprouted had a nice chewy texture and had a more savory flavor than non-sprouted, with just a hint of the grassy flavor. 

I ate them for breakfast for a few mornings, taking a serving and storing the rest in their container in the refrigerator. Since I didn't want the grains to keep growing, I stopped rinsing them.

This amount of sprouted grains made enough for 3 meals. I added some So Delicious Coconut Milk, brown sugar, and warmed them up. I then added a dollop of my blueberry compote. This made for a delicious, filling, and pretty breakfast. What a great way to start a day. 

To your health! 
Laureen

Baby Shower - First steps in planning

A friend at work is pregnant with twins! I am so excited for her and I am lucky enough to  host her shower. I just started planning this week and started by following the advice in the post Party and Event Planning - Laying the Foundation. This information is the basis for all remaining party plans and gives allows me to envision how I want the party to be on the day of the event.

What is the real purpose of the event? - To celebrate Kathy and to make sure she has what she really needs post-delivery.  

What do I want the tone or mood of the event to be? - Kathy is reserved, shy, and older than 30 so I want to make sure the party suits her. She feels awkward asking for gifts from co-workers and I doubt she would want to play some of the standard baby shower games. We want to celebrate Kathy and her babies' impending arrival, not put on a show. 

What do I want for my guests? - I want my guests to relax, have fun, feel that they helped celebrate in Kathy's happiness, and contributed to her preparation for motherhood.

How do I want to participate in the event? - I want to be able to be just like the guests but know what is going on and be able to handle any issues that arise during the party without guests realizing anything has gone awry. 

Starting the Planning

 Now that I have a foundation for the event I can start planning. The first thing I like to do for a shower is put together the guest list. This helps me understand the approximate number of people, which leads me to how much space, food, and drinks I will need. 

I don't hold surprise baby showers. I started this rule when I threw one for a very pregnant woman and she burst into tears after we yelled "Surprise!"  It took quite a while to let her compose herself as she continuously sobbed "don't scare a pregnant lady!"  I learned my lesson and now include the Mom-to-be in the ideas on planning. Having the guest of honor sob for the first 15 minutes of the party was not the tone I was going for. 

This also makes it easier to come up with the right guest list, theme, and color scheme. I have asked Kathy to determine her guest list, and have asked her if she has a theme and color scheme for her nursery. I have also found out where she is registered. We have chosen a tentative date of February 12, but need to finalize that date. We will start at 5 PM.

Guest list:  In progress, estimated to be about 25 people
Nursery Theme: Jungle animals
Colors: soft blues and greens

For this party I will use electronic invitations sent through email. I work in software and the guest list will include primarily co-workers. These folks prefer an electronic file to a piece of paper of which they have to keep track. It also makes it easy for them to RSVP. It's all about how to make it easiest for your guests. 

Next steps are location, invitations, and communication to see if people want to chip in on a big gift. We are lucky enough to have a hotel nearby so I am hoping to hold it there.
 
I haven't yet found an electronic invitation that I like, so I will keep looking. The remaining planning will take place in the coming weeks. I will keep you updated as I make progress and show you how I organize and track party planning information so the event itself is very easy. 

Happy Planning! 
Laureen 

Pump me up!

I've had a hectic week and I was looking for a way to hit the reset button. I need to keep myself motivated. I saw the words below and thought they were a great way to pick myself up and start again.

 










May every day be bright!
Laureen

Ahhhhhh.....Friday

It's Friday of my first week back at work. This has been quite the busy week but I have kept to my vision of bringing more fun and beauty into my life. Today I am making my body and mouth happy by having a tasty, healthy, and pretty breakfast.


Before I get into the details of my breakfast, I want to say an aside about dishes. If you don't like the way your food looks on your dishes, please look into replacing your dishes. You can do it one dish at a time at places like Ikea. 

White plates let you focus on the food

Patterns compete with the food

You can also find inexpensive dishes on eBay and Etsy. I prefer white because then there isn't a pattern to compete with the food. It's important that your food looks great on the plate. It really does make a difference.


 Now back to breakfast. This year I need to work on my weight, so I am in the same boat as many others. As I have said, the food I eat at home is organic. Unfortunately, I also like to eat out and that food isn't organic. I will work on that in this coming year. 

I recently tried oat groats, which are whole, minimally processed oats. Because they have not been extensively processed, they retain a high nutritional value. They take longer to cook than other oats but I figure the health benefits are worth it. I found them in the bulk section of my local, organic grocery, Jimbos Naturally.

On Monday evening I made a large batch of groats. When you cook the groats you put in 1 cup of groats to 4 cups of water. So it's a 1:4 ratio. I have also tried replacing 1 cup of water with 1 cup of coconut milk. It works well and makes for a creamier oat. I put the raw groats into cold water and then turn on the heat to medium-low. I let the water come to a slow simmer and then turn the heat up to medium high. Boil for 20-30 minutes or until about 85% of the water is absorbed. Reduce the heat back to medium low and finish cooking until the remaining water is absorbed. Don't let them boil dry. 


I put them into a container and store them in the refrigerator. 
I re-heat a portion in the morning and usually add in the a tablespoon of raw honey, So Delicious coconut milk, and cinnamon.  


You can add all ingredients into a pan and reheat on the stove top. Since I run out of the house and head to work, I found a new item that I have fallen in love with: a personal crock pot that warms your food (it does not cook). 

I throw all my ingredients into the container. When I get to work I pop the container into the base unit and plug it in. When I am ready to eat my food is warm. I like it better than microwaving because I am always grossed out by the microwaves at work. They are covered in food that has popped during cooking that no one has cleaned up. Also, microwaving can kill some of the nutrients, and if I am going to eat healthy food, I might as well get as much benefit as I can. 
 

The crock pot comes with a container so you can heat leftovers, soups, or any other item that you want warmed.
The container is a good size and has a lid that doesn't leak as long as you get it sealed well.

 As the food warms, the lid on the container pops up. I removed the lid to the base unit so you could see. You can remove the base lid to stir or check on the food that is warming.

I leave the base at work (the whole outer crock is considered the base) and bring home just the container. I wasn't sure how well this would work but I love it. I plug in my crock when I get to work and my food is warm by the time I am ready to eat. There are extra containers available on the Crock Pot web site and I plan to buy a few more as soon as I can get a deal on shipping and handling.


Meanwhile, for my breakfast this morning I had oat groats with coconut milk and some of my blueberry compote. You can find the recipe for the compote in the Strong start to the week post. 


This is a wonderful alternative to my standard honey and cinnamon flavors. It was a great way to start my Friday since it tasted so good. 

I had no idea I could make whole grains taste this yummy. I will continue to eat my groats and include this as one more way to make my life exactly what I want it to be. 

Happy Friday! 
Laureen

Strong start to the week

It's Sunday night and I need to go back to work tomorrow. It will be my first work day of 2013. I really have loved being at home for the past 2 weeks and focusing on home stuff. 

To prepare myself to have a great week, I have made some fresh bread and blueberry compote. This is an adult compote and features a decent amount of red wine. The alcohol should boil out but I would still keep this for the adults.

Before I start on the recipes, I am going to make a confession: yeast doesn't like me. Either that or I have been cursed to never have yeast rise no matter how hard I try. I can only make a blob of dough that turns into a brick when baked. This curse has been in place since I was a mere teen and continues to this day. To combat the vile yeast curse, I finally purchased a bread machine. It allows me to make healthier bread and to experiment with various flours and grains without worrying whether the loaf will rise.

I decided on a Cuisinart because I could get it for a good price and it had a more natural looking loaf. So for the bread, I used the whole wheat recipe that came in the book and substituted soy butter, almond milk, and a little almond meal instead of all the wheat flour. When I am working with new flours I only substitute 1/4 cup at first. So instead of adding 1 1/2 cups of wheat flour, I used 1 1/4 cups of wheat flour and 1/4 cup of almond meal/flour. I added the other ingredients per the recipe, chose the correct options, pushed the start button and hoped for the best.

Now on to the compote, which I am making from scratch. I always use as many organic ingredients as I have from a local family-owned market named "Jimbos Naturally." This time the only ingredient that wasn't organic was the wine. 

 Ingredients:
1 lb frozen blueberries
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup red wine
1 meyer lemon - zest and juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon (I use Frontier, an organic brand)


I tripled the recipe because I had 3 bags of blueberries in the freezer. I only had 1 lemon so that is why you see the juice in the picture. I substituted. If you don't have an ingredient, either go on the internet and search for what you can substitute or use the closest thing in your pantry. 


 
Combine all ingredients into a pot and then turn on the heat to medium. Mix the ingredients until combined. Stir every few minutes until the mixture starts to simmer then turn the heat to high and let the mixture boil for about 4 minutes.


Reduce the heat to medium and let the mixture cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so. The liquid in the mixture will reduce by about a third to a half when it's done. It should be slightly thickened. 

 

If it hasn't thickened, add another 1/4 cup of sugar and simmer for another 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. You can taste it now too (it will be HOT), and add additional cinnamon if needed. 

Put into a container to store. I just happened to have a canning jar. Tripling the recipe made a full jar and some additional that I stored in a small glass container.  

The finished compote

The finished bread

The perfect combination

This will definitely make my first day back at work better, now that I can have made a yummy breakfast.

Happy eating!

Good Food for a Winter's Eve

I will post my next steps in party planning soon. But today, I am playing in the kitchen. With apologies to all my vegan friends, I made standing rib roast, mashed potatoes from scratch, horseradish sauce, and we included a store-made quinoa salad. All ingredients are organic, from a local family-owned grocer. I have given general instructions below, because there are so many sites dedicated to detailed cooking instructions, but please ask questions in the comments if you want more details. I am hoping this inspires you to make any day of the year, an event.

Note: I apologize in advance for the pictures. I forgot to take them until we were done eating.  

Prime rib, aka Roast beast

The roast originally had bones.The butcher had trimmed the roast and tied it. I seasoned the meat (salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder) with the bones on, then seared it on all sides. I put it in the oven on a roasting rack at 350 for about 2 hours. This gives me plenty of time to make side dishes and relax on the couch watching football for a while.

Mashed potatoes on the right. Horseradish cream on the left.

I cleaned and cut 3 large potatoes into approximately 1" cubes, then added them to a pan and just covered them with cool water. I turned the heat on medium and let the water come up to temperature slowly. When the water was simmering, I turned up the heat and boiled the potatoes for about 5 minutes until fork tender. Drain.

In my Kitchenaid mixer, I threw about 3 tablespoons of soy butter into the bowl then the hot potatoes. Using the whisk attachment, I turned the mixer on low and slowly increased the speed. I added 1/8 cup of Almond Milk and salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. The potatoes were whipped until they were smooth. This whole potato process takes about 40 minutes due to the length of time it takes for the water to heat, which again gives me time to relax.

Horseradish cream and mashed potatoes, skin on. 

For the horseradish cream, I whipped a cup and a half of whipping cream until soft peaks formed. Then I added 2 large teaspoons of horseradish from a jar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp season salt, and a few dashes of hot pepper sauce. Use the mixer until stiff peaks form in the cream and all ingredients are incorporated. Be careful if you are whipping the cream in a mixer. It's easy to go from soft peaks to butter if you don't keep an eye on it. It takes about 15 minutes to make the horseradish cream; a little longer if you have to wash and dry the mixing bowl you used for the potatoes.

Tip:  When serving, I always keep the open jar of horseradish near the cream sauce because to me, it always needs more heat. If I make it to my taste I can easily overdo it. And it's never a happy experience when you blow the top off of a guest's head.

When the meat was done (meat thermometer inserted deep into the roast read the temperature I wanted), I pulled the pan out of the oven, covered the meat with tinfoil and let it rest for 10 minutes. I snipped off the ties that held the bones on and then used a carving knife to finish cutting off the bones. I wrapped them in tinfoil so I can make a beef broth on a later day.

Slice the meat into manageable pieces and you are ready to eat. While this meal can look complicated, it is really quite easy. It does leave a lot of dishes, some that are greasy, so clean-up is a bit of a pain. All in all, if you want to impress meat-eating guests--including those that live with you daily, this is a good meal to make. 

Happy eating! Enjoy life every day!
Laureen