I am trying to come up with some better lunch options. Charlie and I usually either eat leftovers for lunches or make "Tofurky" sandwiches, which are somewhat processed and high in sodium. So I decided to try marinating some tofu myself for sandwiches and salads. Turned out great! Still maybe higher in sodium than I'd like so I might play with reduced the soy sauce more.
For this, I like the texture of the frozen tofu and you don't have to cook it as long because it gets the water out better. It also absorbs the marinade immediately so you don't have to let it set before cooking. You don't have to freeze it but the texture will be different and you would need to marinade the tofu overnight and bake it longer.
Ingredients:
1 package tofu
1/2 Tbsp powdered ginger (or fresh grated)
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp Sriracha hot chili sauce (could substitute 1/8 tsp Cayenne)
2 tsp honey
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 1 Tbsp regular soy sauce + 2 Tbsp water)
Directions:
1) Tofu preparation (in advance)
Freeze and thaw, then gently squeeze out excess water
Slice tofu 1/8 inch thick. (or as desired, thicker=longer cooking time)
2) Whisk together remaining ingredients. Using a spoon or basting brush, spread thinly over tofu (it will absorb immediately if you froze the tofu)
3) Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet (or lightly oil the pan). Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until browned, then turn over and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until browned.
11/14/2011
6/29/2011
My Favorite Kitchen Appliances
I think my cardinal rule for kitchen appliances is that they be multipurpose (no waffle irons or rice cookers for me). So aside from the standard pots and pans, these are my favorite things.
1) Kitchenaid food processor. This food processor is built to last. It came with a smaller bowl so it's easy to make foods of smaller quantities such as chopped nuts or pesto. It also came with a dough blade, and a grating blade that makes it easy to grate hard cheese or even potatoes for hash browns (carrots for carrot cake, zucchini for zucchini bread, you get the picture). Also has a slicing blade for meats or cheese. Purees soups or spreads (like hummus) in a snap.
2) Escali Primo Food scale. While food scales might bring to mind Weight Watchers, I use it mainly for cooking and getting quantities accurate. It makes it easy to measure flour without sifting, brown sugar without worrying about packing it, butter and peanut butter can just be thrown into the bowl without trying to get it in and out of measuring spoons, and dough can easily be divided for equal size loaves.
3) Kitchenaid immersion blender. I love this during the winter for pureeing vegetables right in the pot for thickening soups, during the summer for milkshakes or frappuchinos. Great for blending without getting a blender dirty, the blender part is removeable and dishwasher safe.
4) Presto pressure cooker. Makes meals in much less time! I love it for beans and rice and risotto.
5) Toaster oven. Can't remember what kind we have, but it's large enough that during the heat of summer we can avoid turning on the oven to make a small tray of cookies, rolls, toast nuts, and even makes small loaves of bread.
6) Chemex coffee maker. Ok this goes against my cardinal rule but I think if you want coffee you usually want a coffee maker. I love this one because there's no plastic heating up in it, it takes us less space than most coffee makers and it's not another appliance that requires a plug. It does take more work than a drip maker because the water has to be heated up first, but hey if the power goes out I could still have my coffee.
1) Kitchenaid food processor. This food processor is built to last. It came with a smaller bowl so it's easy to make foods of smaller quantities such as chopped nuts or pesto. It also came with a dough blade, and a grating blade that makes it easy to grate hard cheese or even potatoes for hash browns (carrots for carrot cake, zucchini for zucchini bread, you get the picture). Also has a slicing blade for meats or cheese. Purees soups or spreads (like hummus) in a snap.
2) Escali Primo Food scale. While food scales might bring to mind Weight Watchers, I use it mainly for cooking and getting quantities accurate. It makes it easy to measure flour without sifting, brown sugar without worrying about packing it, butter and peanut butter can just be thrown into the bowl without trying to get it in and out of measuring spoons, and dough can easily be divided for equal size loaves.
3) Kitchenaid immersion blender. I love this during the winter for pureeing vegetables right in the pot for thickening soups, during the summer for milkshakes or frappuchinos. Great for blending without getting a blender dirty, the blender part is removeable and dishwasher safe.
6) Chemex coffee maker. Ok this goes against my cardinal rule but I think if you want coffee you usually want a coffee maker. I love this one because there's no plastic heating up in it, it takes us less space than most coffee makers and it's not another appliance that requires a plug. It does take more work than a drip maker because the water has to be heated up first, but hey if the power goes out I could still have my coffee.
6/24/2011
Vegan Chai Spiced Pudding-Yum!
I wanted something sweet and fast this afternoon so made this pudding. Yum! Makes six 1/2 cup servings (120 calories, 2 g fat, 3 g protein, 1 g fiber).
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups unsweetened soymilk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
Mix everything but vanilla together, heat on stove and stir until thickens (don't boil), and continue to cook/stir for 5 more minutes. Take off heat and stir in vanilla. Refrigerate.
Note: if you want to use vanilla soymilk, omit the vanilla added and reduce the amount of maple syrup to 1/3 cup.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups unsweetened soymilk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
Mix everything but vanilla together, heat on stove and stir until thickens (don't boil), and continue to cook/stir for 5 more minutes. Take off heat and stir in vanilla. Refrigerate.
Note: if you want to use vanilla soymilk, omit the vanilla added and reduce the amount of maple syrup to 1/3 cup.
5/28/2011
The salad I've been waiting for
This weekend finally feels like summer! Since I turned my dissertation in Thursday, I've relaxed, went tubing and to the Tap Room in San Marcos on Friday, went hiking this morning at the green belt followed by a cherry lime slushie, and tomorrow am going to a barbeque! Yummy, relaxing weekend to make me feel human again. And to top it off, we just had our first summer salad 100% grown in our backyard.
It's Armenian and bush slicer cucumbers, cherry tomato, early girl tomato, white bermuda onion, and a little basil, salted and left to sit for about 15 minutes to get the juices going. Yum! I love the bush slicer cucumber. I was amazed at how sweet the early girl tomato was and how mild the onion was raw. Hopefully this is first of a lot of salads to come, although I am concerned with as hot as it's been the tomatoes may stop setting fruit.
From left to right: sweet potatoes, leeks, strawberries. The sweet potatoes keep growing, I am hoping the leeks will be ready soon, and the strawberries keep putting out a few berries.
We are getting our first green beans! A little later than we hoped, since we had to replant after something ate all the seedlings.
Our first summer squash! Right now it's about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, a flying saucer squash. It can get up to 4" but I plan on eating it by the end of the week.
Nice view of the flying saucer and bush slicer plants.
Baby bush slicer cucumbers.
A violet jasper tomato ripening. This is the second one that's ripened. It was the size of a large cherry tomato but tasted more like a regular tomato to me.
View of our tomatoes. They seem pretty happy right now.
The okra seedlings are growing slowly.
Harvest as of last post (3 weeks ago):
7 heads of garlic
2 carrots
1 cup snow peas (it's been too hot, they are petering out and we are letting the last stay on for seed)
15 cherry tomatoes (small fry and sweet million)
1 each- roma, early girl, and violet jasper tomatoes
1/4 cup strawberries
3/4 lb white bermuda onions (they did not grow as large as expected, but are very tasty)
1 bush slicer cucumber
1 (small) Armenian cucumber
From left to right: sweet potatoes, leeks, strawberries. The sweet potatoes keep growing, I am hoping the leeks will be ready soon, and the strawberries keep putting out a few berries.
View of our tomatoes. They seem pretty happy right now.
Harvest as of last post (3 weeks ago):
7 heads of garlic
2 carrots
1 cup snow peas (it's been too hot, they are petering out and we are letting the last stay on for seed)
15 cherry tomatoes (small fry and sweet million)
1 each- roma, early girl, and violet jasper tomatoes
1/4 cup strawberries
3/4 lb white bermuda onions (they did not grow as large as expected, but are very tasty)
1 bush slicer cucumber
1 (small) Armenian cucumber
5/07/2011
The cherry tomatoes have arrived!
It has been about a month since the last garden update. Sadly, we still haven't had any rain (at least not enough to count in the rain gauge). It's been what, 2 1/2 months now and it's supposed to be the rainy season! We have mulched the garden heavily now, but it has also been unseasonable hot, 90s most days, so we are still having to water 2-3 times/week. Our garden has had some exciting developments:
This week we started getting ripe cherry tomatoes, 3 so far but at least 10 more in the process of ripening.
Our tomato plants are various degrees of happy. Some of the thinner transplants were killed by something that cut them at the base, so we added a few more transplants late and they are obviously smaller than the older tomatoes. I also accidentally decapitated a roma plant so it is now in the process of growing a new main stem...I also think the east row of tomatoes is getting more sun and are taller than the west row.
The jalepeno has flowered, several times actually but so far none of the blooms have survived to fruit. They keep falling off, but I think they are getting pollinated.
Because of the super hot weather, the lettuce was finished, so we replaced it with sweet potato slips about 2 weeks ago. They have already put on several leaves, and apparently the greens can also be yummy to eat. They are supposed to take 110 days (Vardaman bush variety), so we will see how they turn out in mid-August! If you look closely, behind the slips there is a row of leeks and garlic, and then the strawberries and snow peas. The strawberry plants have grown more, but not fruited much. We also planted some Clemson spineless okra, which is growing well so far (not shown).
If you look really closely you can see the start of our first cucumber! It is an Armenian cucumber.
We repotted our herbs into a single large pot (except for the oregano, it would take over). Even though they have less space, I think they are happier because the smaller pots dried out quickly. Back-basil, center-rosemary, front-parsley and dill.
This week we started getting ripe cherry tomatoes, 3 so far but at least 10 more in the process of ripening.
Our tomato plants are various degrees of happy. Some of the thinner transplants were killed by something that cut them at the base, so we added a few more transplants late and they are obviously smaller than the older tomatoes. I also accidentally decapitated a roma plant so it is now in the process of growing a new main stem...I also think the east row of tomatoes is getting more sun and are taller than the west row.
The jalepeno has flowered, several times actually but so far none of the blooms have survived to fruit. They keep falling off, but I think they are getting pollinated.
Our potted cucumber and some of our squash have also really taken off! No fruit yet, but I see some female flowers getting ready to bloom!
An overview of the garden. The HUGE plants in the right bed are potatoes.
Garden harvest for the last month:
10 cups romaine and mesclum (unfortunately some of it bolted and bitter)
5 cups swiss chard (and a little spinach, also bolted now)
8 small carrots (totalling maybe 6 ounces...)
5 cups sugar snap peas
3 cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup green onions
1/2 cup herbs
3 heads of garlic
5 strawberries? few and far between...
This month has been more of a transition from spring to summer vegetables, so not very much harvested. Hopefully more to come soon!
4/22/2011
Be Green, Save Green
Too often, the face of current ecotrends is advertising and tv shows. Watching them, it is easy to think the way to be green is spend spend spend. There's definitely energy-efficient products that pay for themselves, and if you are in the market for a new product it's better to go with the eco-friendly product. But there's tons of ways to be green that don't cost a dime (and actually save some $$$).
Here are a few things we practice in our home:
1) Composting. You do not need a composter to compost. All you need is space. Your trash won't smell as bad, you won't have as much trash, and it makes rich fertilizer for your yard or garden.
2) Turn off the heat/ a/c. Or at least use it less. If it's summer, aren't you wearing less clothes? I hate walking into a building in summer and freezing because I'm wearing shorts. We keep our house 76 summer and 64 winter. Use fans in summer, layers in winter. Small temperature differences lead to big savings.
3) Zero waste eating. When you plan meals for next week, your first stop should be what you already have. Are the eggs expiring, will the spinach go bad? Americans throw away a huge amount of food, an estimated 40%!!!! So stop wasting and your grocery bill could be 40% less. If you know you have more food than you can eat, freeze it. The refrigerator and freezer also run more efficiently when they are full.
4) Reuse creatively. A lot of "trash" can be useful. I like to reuse food containers. Grated cheese and hummus containers are great for snacks instead of buying plastic bags or "Gladwear." Glass jars are also the best! I use large ones for leftovers and freezing soups or broth and small ones to hold herbs or dry goods. When I start seedlings sometimes, I will poke holes in the bottom of yogurt containers for a temporary pot before planting permanently.
5) Homemade cleaners. 50/50 water/vinegar solution works great for sanitizing surfaces and cleaning toilet bowls. Mix vinegar with baking soda for a stronger cleaner. Not only will you save money, you will avoid inhaling the horrible cleaning concoctions that contain who knows what...
6) Your trash may be someone else's treasure. If you don't want to go through the hassle of a garage sale or ebay, donating your unwanted items still gives you a tax deduction (and creates jobs too).
7) Drive less. Americans spend much more on transportation than other countries, an average of $9500 per household annually. Buying a car, maintenance, gas, insurance, it all adds up. Extend the life of your car and save gas by carpooling, using public transportation, or working from home if possible. Our insurance company (Amica) asks us how frequently we drive to work and our rate is less because neither of us drives to work often.
8) Eat less meat. Yep, unless you are getting local meat (and grassfed beef, organic, etc. etc.) your meat is probably bad for the environment. About 30% of arable land is used for meat production, not to mention how much energy it takes grow the grains, transport the grain to the animals, then transport the animals to your table. Not only is eating less meat good for the planet, it's usually better for your health and your wallet.
9) Avoid traffic. I hate running errands on the weekend, it feels like waiting in traffic for hours just to spend a few minutes buying something. All the while the car is idling at 0 mpg. Run errands on a weekday evening (8 pm is prime empty time) and enjoy your freed weekend.
10) Don't impulse buy. Advertising and stores are set up with the primary purpose of getting your money. The more you buy, the more energy is put into those products, half of which you may decide you don't need after all. "Every dollar I spend is a statement about the kind of world I want and the quality of life I value." Read more at New American Dream.
Here are a few things we practice in our home:
1) Composting. You do not need a composter to compost. All you need is space. Your trash won't smell as bad, you won't have as much trash, and it makes rich fertilizer for your yard or garden.
2) Turn off the heat/ a/c. Or at least use it less. If it's summer, aren't you wearing less clothes? I hate walking into a building in summer and freezing because I'm wearing shorts. We keep our house 76 summer and 64 winter. Use fans in summer, layers in winter. Small temperature differences lead to big savings.
3) Zero waste eating. When you plan meals for next week, your first stop should be what you already have. Are the eggs expiring, will the spinach go bad? Americans throw away a huge amount of food, an estimated 40%!!!! So stop wasting and your grocery bill could be 40% less. If you know you have more food than you can eat, freeze it. The refrigerator and freezer also run more efficiently when they are full.
4) Reuse creatively. A lot of "trash" can be useful. I like to reuse food containers. Grated cheese and hummus containers are great for snacks instead of buying plastic bags or "Gladwear." Glass jars are also the best! I use large ones for leftovers and freezing soups or broth and small ones to hold herbs or dry goods. When I start seedlings sometimes, I will poke holes in the bottom of yogurt containers for a temporary pot before planting permanently.
5) Homemade cleaners. 50/50 water/vinegar solution works great for sanitizing surfaces and cleaning toilet bowls. Mix vinegar with baking soda for a stronger cleaner. Not only will you save money, you will avoid inhaling the horrible cleaning concoctions that contain who knows what...
6) Your trash may be someone else's treasure. If you don't want to go through the hassle of a garage sale or ebay, donating your unwanted items still gives you a tax deduction (and creates jobs too).
7) Drive less. Americans spend much more on transportation than other countries, an average of $9500 per household annually. Buying a car, maintenance, gas, insurance, it all adds up. Extend the life of your car and save gas by carpooling, using public transportation, or working from home if possible. Our insurance company (Amica) asks us how frequently we drive to work and our rate is less because neither of us drives to work often.
8) Eat less meat. Yep, unless you are getting local meat (and grassfed beef, organic, etc. etc.) your meat is probably bad for the environment. About 30% of arable land is used for meat production, not to mention how much energy it takes grow the grains, transport the grain to the animals, then transport the animals to your table. Not only is eating less meat good for the planet, it's usually better for your health and your wallet.
9) Avoid traffic. I hate running errands on the weekend, it feels like waiting in traffic for hours just to spend a few minutes buying something. All the while the car is idling at 0 mpg. Run errands on a weekday evening (8 pm is prime empty time) and enjoy your freed weekend.
10) Don't impulse buy. Advertising and stores are set up with the primary purpose of getting your money. The more you buy, the more energy is put into those products, half of which you may decide you don't need after all. "Every dollar I spend is a statement about the kind of world I want and the quality of life I value." Read more at New American Dream.
4/21/2011
Happy Earth Day!
Earth Day is tomorrow, and I always feel like it is a day for reflection on how my own life affects everything else. I can be a pretty negative person, so I'm trying to focus on the good and bad, and realize that Rome wasn't built in a day (i.e., I can't just change the habits that I grew up instantaneously, it takes a lot of work). The naysayers say your little contributions don't amount to a hill of beans. But, if everyone did what they could to get us going in the right direction, it would amount to a lot.
So, our positive environmental impacts:
-We do not use pesticides or artificial fertilizers on our yard.
-Indoors we only use green cleaning products (I am a big believer in the power of baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and scrubbing).
-We recycle almost everything (thanks to the great recycling program in Austin)
-We compost all of our food waste
-We drive small cars with good gas mileage
-Charlie takes the bus to work
-We use reusable bags. We even reuse the plastic bags produce comes in several times and bring them with us to the farmers market.
-We use energy conservation settings at home (cooler in winter, warmer in summer) and we have an energy efficient air conditioner.
-We only run the dishwasher and washing machine when full, we don't leave the water running needlessly.
-We recently tested the toilets for leaks, and we found a slow leak in one that we're getting fixed.
-To reduce even more water waste, we have a bucket that we fill while we're waiting for the shower to get warm, and we use the water on seedlings and houseplants (this is like 60 gallons a month).
-We bought native plants recently for our yard, and native shade tolerant grasses (that we still need to plant...)
-We buy organic food when possible. We support the local organic gardening center and belong to the wildflower center.
-We only eat sustainable seafood (the stuff recommended by Seafood Watch). Often it is expensive to be sustainable so we are usually vegetarian, which is cheap.
-Paper: we bought a duplex printer. I really don't believe you can just buy a sustainable lifestyle, but we needed a new printer anyway and I save a lot more paper with the duplexing. Also, Charlie joined the library and paperback swap.
Neutral or questionable:
-We bought carbon offsets for our trip to Hawaii (probably not as good as just not traveling, but I couldn't do that)
-I work from home. I am not sure if this is good or bad because it means I don't drive much, but it also means I keep the temperature at home more comfortable than I would if the house was empty
-We started an organic vegetable garden. I think in a lot of areas this would be positive. I counted it as positive in the wet cool winter months, but now it's hot and we are in a major drought. I find it harder to justify the garden but I can't help but look forward to summer veggies. We mulch the garden which reduces the amount we need to water. I will point out, our garden is a lot smaller than the yards that most people water...(we maybe water ours once every 3 weeks). Our water use last month was ~3500 gallons, the average in Austin is more like 8,000.
-I loove coffee. The environmental impact is not always so great, but I am sure to get shade grown, fair trade organic. The food miles on this are also big.
-I moved to Texas. The move took a lot of gas, but it means a lot fewer flights between Texas and Ohio (the carbon spent on flights is crazy!)
Room for improvement
-I am pledging to myself to take less time in the shower. I already try to reduce the number of showers i take by focusing on showering after working out when possible, but I am guilty of "spacing out" often.
-I love traveling. It uses a lot of carbon, more than if I didn't travel and didn't conserve any energy. I need to work on carbon offsetting all of my travel.
-Our house could really use double paned windows. They're expensive, we just replaced the air conditioner and are in the process of replacing the fence. It's on the list.
-Our energy use would really go down if we had a "smart" system. I think this is a dream house solution for me, not something that is going to happen anytime soon. But if I spend all day working in my office, and all night sleeping in the bedroom, the a/c doesn't need to be running in the majority of the house most of the time.
-I want to build a workable solar oven. I made one out of cardboard last fall and it worked! But it was not durable, and it was bulky. I think this would save a little energy from not using the oven, but save lots of energy by not heating the house (and thus not running the a/c as much)
-We are still using fossil fuels. None of the green energy options are ideal, or affordable. So while we have reduced lots, there are other things to be done.
-We could save more water by having rain barrels or a cistern. The problem? They are expensive, and expensive to install. The city reimburses a little of the cost, but city water is still cheaper. It's on the wish list though.
-We could replace a lot more of our grass with native plants. It's also on the list.
-Right now we donate a lot of stuff, but we don't buy a lot of used items. We tried doing this last fall, but we have not found a store with items that we are actually interested in buying, and even if it is a store that has some good items, you never know what will be there. It makes a lot of sense to buy used in terms of environmental impact, and I would like to buy used more often.
-We need to replace our charcoal grill with a gas one. That's right, gas takes about half the carbon!
-We need to replace our charcoal grill with a gas one. That's right, gas takes about half the carbon!
4/08/2011
Strawberries and Tomatoes and Squash, Oh My!
Our garden is growing great! We have had our first two ripe strawberries, with many more ripening. For some reason, the very first one had part of it go bad (we could not see any little bites out of it), but the rest have been ripening ok so far. We have since covered the strawberries with bird netting and haven't had any stolen.
The tomatoes have also been looking great! There were a few that died on us, but we had extras and transplanted them in. We have 10 tomato plants and 6 of them already have tomatoes. Some of the plants are not growing as big as expected, but the tomatoes are all we really care about anyway. I had a sad accident trying to adhere one of the roma tomatoes to the trellis-it was not as bendy as I hoped and the top snapped off and we lost some tomatoes with it! Oops...now I know. The tomato pictured below is a "small fry" variety and produces cherry tomatoes.You can also see our house in the background.
The snow peas are also looking great and have a lot of little pods on them that will be ready to eat within the week. I haven't been able to help myself and I've eaten 1 or 2 each day even though they weren't full size yet.
We never gave up on the carrots (front corner), but we probably won't plant them again. Now that sun is hitting the full garden they have a lot more leaves, hopefully translating into more roots. The potatoes (large plants in back) look awesome, hope something comes from it (since we aren't really looking to eat the stems). You can also see a few peppers we have planted. They are not growing very quickly, and something has eaten some of the leaves so we don't know how great they will do.
I have seen several of these little assassin bugs on the potatoes and snow peas. I think they're cute! Though they are supposed to pack a bite if you touch them. I'm happy to see them, they kill some of the insects that try to eat the produce!
While most of what is planted is revving up with the weather, we had to cut lots of the spinach and lettuce because it was beginning to bolt. There is no way we will be able to keep them throughout the summer, we are just hoping to get a little more to tide us over until some of the other plants produce more. My summer replacement for spinach is going to be chard, and the replacement for lettuce is going to be lots of cucumber salads (hopefully!).
Random cat picture. Cookie, the grey ghost. I wish that the cats actually kept birds away from the garden, but they tend to stalk birds more than chase them away.
Garden total for last 3 weeks:
30 cups mesclum salad mix
4 heads romaine
30 cups spinach
5 cups swiss chard
1/2 cup herbs (oregano, basil, parsley)
1/2 cup green onions
2 strawberries
5 snow peas
I am hoping by the next update we might have a few tomatoes and carrots ready, and I expect we will have lots of snow peas!
Failures: turnips, too many little bugs eating them they can't get large enough to keep growing.Something is also eating the green beans, but we have put black plastic containers around them to try and keep bugs out.
The tomatoes have also been looking great! There were a few that died on us, but we had extras and transplanted them in. We have 10 tomato plants and 6 of them already have tomatoes. Some of the plants are not growing as big as expected, but the tomatoes are all we really care about anyway. I had a sad accident trying to adhere one of the roma tomatoes to the trellis-it was not as bendy as I hoped and the top snapped off and we lost some tomatoes with it! Oops...now I know. The tomato pictured below is a "small fry" variety and produces cherry tomatoes.You can also see our house in the background.
The squash and zucchini are also growing at their own pace. There are buds forming, so hopefully we'll have many little squash soon! To the right of the large zucchini, there is a container of slicer cucumbers just starting out. We had hoped to have it started sooner, but there was a little typo about planting the cucumber seeds 3" deep, so the first time we tried they didn't survive.
The snow peas are also looking great and have a lot of little pods on them that will be ready to eat within the week. I haven't been able to help myself and I've eaten 1 or 2 each day even though they weren't full size yet.
I have seen several of these little assassin bugs on the potatoes and snow peas. I think they're cute! Though they are supposed to pack a bite if you touch them. I'm happy to see them, they kill some of the insects that try to eat the produce!
While most of what is planted is revving up with the weather, we had to cut lots of the spinach and lettuce because it was beginning to bolt. There is no way we will be able to keep them throughout the summer, we are just hoping to get a little more to tide us over until some of the other plants produce more. My summer replacement for spinach is going to be chard, and the replacement for lettuce is going to be lots of cucumber salads (hopefully!).
Random cat picture. Cookie, the grey ghost. I wish that the cats actually kept birds away from the garden, but they tend to stalk birds more than chase them away.
Garden total for last 3 weeks:
30 cups mesclum salad mix
4 heads romaine
30 cups spinach
5 cups swiss chard
1/2 cup herbs (oregano, basil, parsley)
1/2 cup green onions
2 strawberries
5 snow peas
I am hoping by the next update we might have a few tomatoes and carrots ready, and I expect we will have lots of snow peas!
Failures: turnips, too many little bugs eating them they can't get large enough to keep growing.Something is also eating the green beans, but we have put black plastic containers around them to try and keep bugs out.
4/03/2011
Galveston
Wedding shot!
I have accidentally been traditional about our anniversary gifts. For our first year anniversary, I made a photo album of our honeymoon cruise (paper is the traditional first year gift) and Charlie got us Mr. and Mrs. aprons. This year, I got Charlie a blue bath robe (cotton is the traditional second year gift). Charlie got me an awesome travel mug with photos of us and a moonstone necklace.
3/18/2011
The Spring Garden is the Best? For Texas
In the last week or two the garden has just exploded. It's like someone hit a spring switch.
In addition to the lettuce and spinach continuing like mad (we keep eating salad like crazy and finding new recipes for the spinach), the chard is starting to take off and the leeks actually look like leeks now (as opposed to sad chives).
The sugar snap peas and potatoes are growing like gangbusters. Some of each are about a foot tall, I hope some of the peas start flowering soon!
Charlie made new trellises for the tomato plants. We have lots of tomato plants, I am hoping this is an insurance policy on us getting something! We are still garden amateurs, since we started last fall this is the our first round of warm weather plants. We are also practicing square foot gardening and tried to get only space saving varieties (with the exception of the celebrity tomato, which we potted). We will have to keep on top of the pruning.
I was amazed that the tomatoes started flowering only 2 weeks after transplanting! This is a sweet million cherry tomato, and if you look closely at the tip of my finger you can see a blurry image of the first tomato starting to form. Five of our tomato plants already have flowers. Yay!
We have potted zucchini and squash so that we don't have to worry about them spreading over the garden. So far, so good. We are trying to keep an eye out as we heard the squash borers can be quite a problem here.
Finally, ahh sweet sweet strawberries. We have about 20 strawberry plants, and I'd hoped this mean we'd get something from them. This week the strawberries went from just leaves to having 10 flowers. You can see the start of a strawberry here! We will need to find some bird netting stat. I hope they keep coming. I think strawberries are one of the few fruits that you can plant and harvest the same year (melons and possibly transplanted figs are the others I can think of). I would looove fresh fruit.
The oregano is also looking great! I'm glad I gave up on the seeds and bought the transplant. The rosemary, however, doesn't look any difference since the transplant.
Mac says he protects the garden from birds and squirrels. Extra treats please!
Garden harvest for the last 2 1/2 weeks:
15 cups romaine (we've mostly stopped harvesting whole heads and just harvest the outer leaves, we're concerned it will be too warm to start new plants)
20 cups mesclum salad mix
20 cups spinach
2 cups swiss chard
1 carrot (sad looking though)
2 Tbsp parsley (sounds sad, but I'm excited it finally grew some!)
In addition to these totals there is much more lettuce and spinach ready to harvest but we can't eat it all that fast. As is, we've had salad pretty almost every day we've eaten at home.
Most of the plants are in transition and not quite to bearing food yet. The tomatoes and strawberries are setting fruit, the peas haven't flowered yet, the carrots and basil appear are on their way.
Garden harvest for the last 2 1/2 weeks:
15 cups romaine (we've mostly stopped harvesting whole heads and just harvest the outer leaves, we're concerned it will be too warm to start new plants)
20 cups mesclum salad mix
20 cups spinach
2 cups swiss chard
1 carrot (sad looking though)
2 Tbsp parsley (sounds sad, but I'm excited it finally grew some!)
In addition to these totals there is much more lettuce and spinach ready to harvest but we can't eat it all that fast. As is, we've had salad pretty almost every day we've eaten at home.
Most of the plants are in transition and not quite to bearing food yet. The tomatoes and strawberries are setting fruit, the peas haven't flowered yet, the carrots and basil appear are on their way.
3/17/2011
A Late Garden Update
I wrote this post two weeks ago and forgot to hit publish. Oops! Much has changed since then so I will need to update again soon.
Lots has changed since the last garden update over a month ago. I apologize for the pictures, the light was not making it easy to take pictures.
We had a huge freeze and ended up losing the sugar snap peas since we could not cover them on the trellis, so we have replanted these. We also had damage to lots of plants and had to cut off leaves, but didn't actually lose anything else. The broccoli and cauliflower survived and we harvested those heads, but they did not grow as large as the first heads that we'd obtained before the freeze.
Small bed: romaine, spinach, mesclum, chard, leeks, garlic, strawberries and snow peas.
The lettuce and spinach are still growing great! Since we are at the end of the planting time for lettuce here, we are starting to harvest the outside leaves of romaine rather than harvesting whole heads. One of our heads is starting to grow really tall, going to seed maybe? Hopefully the others don't follow. It's not that warm yet!
Large bed: onions (white bermuda), carrots, tomatoes (several varieties), romaine (parris island), shallots, snow peas (oregon) and potatoes (red pontiac and yukon gold). Not up yet: purple top turnips, armenian cucumber, green beans.
This weekend we planted warm weather crops: tomatoes, squash, cucumber, chard, and green beans. I've been trying to grow turnips, but something keeps eating them so this time we planted tons of seeds, hoping some seedlings survive. I also planted potatoes and onions in early February and the potatoes are starting to pop up.
Our desires for plants have overshot the space in our garden, so we are container gardening some. We have squash in huge containers, herbs of course, and I even found a small container variety of cucumber that is supposed to mature in 53 days. Here's hoping!
Garden harvest in last 6 weeks (ballpark):
2 heads romaine plus 5 cups (parris island)
20 cups mesclum salad mix
30 cups spinach (japanese giant and tyee)
1 cup chard
1/2 cup sugar snap and snow peas
1/2 cup green onion
2 heads cauliflower
2 heads broccoli
20 cups broccoli and cauliflower leaves (we souped these)
2 somewhat small carrots (we are kind of giving up on these guys)
This is our all local salad beets, carrots and tomatoes from the farmers market, lettuce and green onion from our garden.The lettuce and spinach have been producing like crazy and will definitely plant again. The cauliflower and broccoli take up a lot of room and in my opinion, not worth the room. I would be interested to try carrots again when they are not in the shade, but we haven't gotten much from those either.
Lots has changed since the last garden update over a month ago. I apologize for the pictures, the light was not making it easy to take pictures.
We had a huge freeze and ended up losing the sugar snap peas since we could not cover them on the trellis, so we have replanted these. We also had damage to lots of plants and had to cut off leaves, but didn't actually lose anything else. The broccoli and cauliflower survived and we harvested those heads, but they did not grow as large as the first heads that we'd obtained before the freeze.
Small bed: romaine, spinach, mesclum, chard, leeks, garlic, strawberries and snow peas.
The lettuce and spinach are still growing great! Since we are at the end of the planting time for lettuce here, we are starting to harvest the outside leaves of romaine rather than harvesting whole heads. One of our heads is starting to grow really tall, going to seed maybe? Hopefully the others don't follow. It's not that warm yet!
Large bed: onions (white bermuda), carrots, tomatoes (several varieties), romaine (parris island), shallots, snow peas (oregon) and potatoes (red pontiac and yukon gold). Not up yet: purple top turnips, armenian cucumber, green beans.
This weekend we planted warm weather crops: tomatoes, squash, cucumber, chard, and green beans. I've been trying to grow turnips, but something keeps eating them so this time we planted tons of seeds, hoping some seedlings survive. I also planted potatoes and onions in early February and the potatoes are starting to pop up.
Our desires for plants have overshot the space in our garden, so we are container gardening some. We have squash in huge containers, herbs of course, and I even found a small container variety of cucumber that is supposed to mature in 53 days. Here's hoping!
Garden harvest in last 6 weeks (ballpark):
2 heads romaine plus 5 cups (parris island)
20 cups mesclum salad mix
30 cups spinach (japanese giant and tyee)
1 cup chard
1/2 cup sugar snap and snow peas
1/2 cup green onion
2 heads cauliflower
2 heads broccoli
20 cups broccoli and cauliflower leaves (we souped these)
2 somewhat small carrots (we are kind of giving up on these guys)
This is our all local salad beets, carrots and tomatoes from the farmers market, lettuce and green onion from our garden.The lettuce and spinach have been producing like crazy and will definitely plant again. The cauliflower and broccoli take up a lot of room and in my opinion, not worth the room. I would be interested to try carrots again when they are not in the shade, but we haven't gotten much from those either.
2/28/2011
More Yummy Dinner Recipes, and Some Sides
Easy veggie stroganoff
8 oz linguini
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion sliced
8 oz mushrooms sliced
salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp each dry thyme, marjoram, basil
1/2 c. broth
TVP already reconstituted with broth
1/4 c. sour cream
1. Start boiling noodles.
2. Saute onions in oil in a large skillet.
3. Add mushrooms and saute until soft, then add garlic and spices and saute 1 min.
4. Add TVP and vegetable broth. Cook until it starts to boil.
5. Turn off heat, add sour cream and noodles.
Mushroom Risotto-We use a pressure cooker for this, so I am not sure what the cooking time would be without it. This is a delicious recipe, it feels more sophisticated than a lot of the other things I make. We always double this and it goes fast.
1/2 lb mixed wild mushrooms (chantrelles, porcini, cremini etc.)
1 large shallot (or sub 1/4 c onion)
1 c. arborio rice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp fresh or dried rosemary (or if you love it like me, 1 tsp)
2 1/4 c. stock
1 Tbsp butter
salt, pepper to taste
grated parmesan
1. Separate and chop mushroom stems. Slice mushroom caps.
2. Saute mushroom caps in pressure cooker or skillet, pinch salt and pepper in the olive oil about 3 min, or until mushrooms are soft. Remove and set aside.
3. Melt butter in pressure cooker, then add shallot and mushroom stems. Cook 2 min.
4. Add rice and stir to coat with butter.
5. Mix in wine and rosemary, cook 30 sec.
6. Add broth and stir.
7. Lock lid and bring to high pressure, then stabilize pressure and cook 8 min.
8. Release pressure by running water over lid. Add mushrooms and cover, stand 5 min before eating. Add grated parmesan for serving.
Migas- this is our go-to recipe for a 10 minute meal. Migas is Tex-Mex, you are supposed to add your leftover broken tortilla chips, hence the name (there are also Spanish versions, but they are very different flavor-wise). I do not recommend using this for leftovers. This recipe serves enough for Charlie and me.
1/2 tsp veg. oil or nonstick spray
pepper
1 green pepper chopped
1/2 cup onion chopped
1 jalepeno chopped (optional, seed and derib to reduce heat)
1 roma tomato chopped
2 whole eggs
3-4 egg whites
1/4-1/2 c. broken tortilla chips (optional)
1/4-1/2 cup grated cheese (we use Mexican cheese blend or cheddar)
3 Tbsp salsa
tortillas or tacos for serving (optional, recommended if no leftover tortilla chips)
1. Heat large skillet and add oil and pepper. Saute all vegetables except tomatoes until soft.
2. Add tomato and saute 1 min.
3. Scramble eggs and add to the vegetables. Let set 1 min then mix to cook.
4. When eggs are mostly cooked, add the leftover tortilla chips.
5. When eggs are fully cooked, add the cheese until melted.
6. If desired, heat each tortilla individually over the egg mixture (if you are cooking a large batch, you can heat them in aluminum foil in the oven).
7. For serving, add salsa and if desired, extra cheese for garnish.
Falafel-This recipe is great and no deep frying necessary! The leftovers are also great for lunch. You do need a very good food processor, a potato masher may also work. We replace the cilantro with parsley, but it also does well without either. We've found we only need a half recipe of the sauce.
Pizza Dough and Sauce-Time consuming for sure but we love it. We use a pizza cheese blend and each top our half with what we want. Dough: I add 1 Tbsp sugar and usually add a few Tbsp of wheat gluten to make the dough more stretchy. Sauce: We have found the sauce can use a little extra wine (we usually use sherry) and does need 1/4 tsp salt. Charlie likes spicier sauce and so he adds red pepper flakes to his side of the pizza.
Sweet Potato Casserole-Before I found this recipe, I only ate sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving and Christmas (when someone else made it). But this side I'll eat all the time. The orange juice in this is amazingly refreshing and the recipe is not too sweet (maybe fresh over candied yams make the difference?). Also, I think grating your own nutmeg makes a big difference for the flavor.
Summer zucchini-squash saute-I know, I know, many of my recipes are all out of season but I'm typing them out now so. This is my favorite vegetable side. The vegetables will cook faster with a lid on, but then to evaporate the liquid you will need to remove the lid. The key is to keep cooking until the liquid evaporates so the flavors don't run off the vegetables. I honestly am completely guessing on these quantities but I think it's pretty fail-proof. You can use a large skillet, but I often use a pot so I can put a lid on the veggies.
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 small onion, chopped
1 lb zucchini, chopped
1lb yellow squash, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
grated parmesan for serving
salt to taste
1. On medium heat, saute onions until soft in the margarine.
2. Add zucchini and squash, cook until soft.
3. Add tomatoes. Continue cooking until all of the water evaporates. Serve with parmesan.
8 oz linguini
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion sliced
8 oz mushrooms sliced
salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp each dry thyme, marjoram, basil
1/2 c. broth
TVP already reconstituted with broth
1/4 c. sour cream
1. Start boiling noodles.
2. Saute onions in oil in a large skillet.
3. Add mushrooms and saute until soft, then add garlic and spices and saute 1 min.
4. Add TVP and vegetable broth. Cook until it starts to boil.
5. Turn off heat, add sour cream and noodles.
Mushroom Risotto-We use a pressure cooker for this, so I am not sure what the cooking time would be without it. This is a delicious recipe, it feels more sophisticated than a lot of the other things I make. We always double this and it goes fast.
1/2 lb mixed wild mushrooms (chantrelles, porcini, cremini etc.)
1 large shallot (or sub 1/4 c onion)
1 c. arborio rice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp fresh or dried rosemary (or if you love it like me, 1 tsp)
2 1/4 c. stock
1 Tbsp butter
salt, pepper to taste
grated parmesan
1. Separate and chop mushroom stems. Slice mushroom caps.
2. Saute mushroom caps in pressure cooker or skillet, pinch salt and pepper in the olive oil about 3 min, or until mushrooms are soft. Remove and set aside.
3. Melt butter in pressure cooker, then add shallot and mushroom stems. Cook 2 min.
4. Add rice and stir to coat with butter.
5. Mix in wine and rosemary, cook 30 sec.
6. Add broth and stir.
7. Lock lid and bring to high pressure, then stabilize pressure and cook 8 min.
8. Release pressure by running water over lid. Add mushrooms and cover, stand 5 min before eating. Add grated parmesan for serving.
Migas- this is our go-to recipe for a 10 minute meal. Migas is Tex-Mex, you are supposed to add your leftover broken tortilla chips, hence the name (there are also Spanish versions, but they are very different flavor-wise). I do not recommend using this for leftovers. This recipe serves enough for Charlie and me.
1/2 tsp veg. oil or nonstick spray
pepper
1 green pepper chopped
1/2 cup onion chopped
1 jalepeno chopped (optional, seed and derib to reduce heat)
1 roma tomato chopped
2 whole eggs
3-4 egg whites
1/4-1/2 c. broken tortilla chips (optional)
1/4-1/2 cup grated cheese (we use Mexican cheese blend or cheddar)
3 Tbsp salsa
tortillas or tacos for serving (optional, recommended if no leftover tortilla chips)
1. Heat large skillet and add oil and pepper. Saute all vegetables except tomatoes until soft.
2. Add tomato and saute 1 min.
3. Scramble eggs and add to the vegetables. Let set 1 min then mix to cook.
4. When eggs are mostly cooked, add the leftover tortilla chips.
5. When eggs are fully cooked, add the cheese until melted.
6. If desired, heat each tortilla individually over the egg mixture (if you are cooking a large batch, you can heat them in aluminum foil in the oven).
7. For serving, add salsa and if desired, extra cheese for garnish.
Falafel-This recipe is great and no deep frying necessary! The leftovers are also great for lunch. You do need a very good food processor, a potato masher may also work. We replace the cilantro with parsley, but it also does well without either. We've found we only need a half recipe of the sauce.
Pizza Dough and Sauce-Time consuming for sure but we love it. We use a pizza cheese blend and each top our half with what we want. Dough: I add 1 Tbsp sugar and usually add a few Tbsp of wheat gluten to make the dough more stretchy. Sauce: We have found the sauce can use a little extra wine (we usually use sherry) and does need 1/4 tsp salt. Charlie likes spicier sauce and so he adds red pepper flakes to his side of the pizza.
Sweet Potato Casserole-Before I found this recipe, I only ate sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving and Christmas (when someone else made it). But this side I'll eat all the time. The orange juice in this is amazingly refreshing and the recipe is not too sweet (maybe fresh over candied yams make the difference?). Also, I think grating your own nutmeg makes a big difference for the flavor.
Summer zucchini-squash saute-I know, I know, many of my recipes are all out of season but I'm typing them out now so. This is my favorite vegetable side. The vegetables will cook faster with a lid on, but then to evaporate the liquid you will need to remove the lid. The key is to keep cooking until the liquid evaporates so the flavors don't run off the vegetables. I honestly am completely guessing on these quantities but I think it's pretty fail-proof. You can use a large skillet, but I often use a pot so I can put a lid on the veggies.
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 small onion, chopped
1 lb zucchini, chopped
1lb yellow squash, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
grated parmesan for serving
salt to taste
1. On medium heat, saute onions until soft in the margarine.
2. Add zucchini and squash, cook until soft.
3. Add tomatoes. Continue cooking until all of the water evaporates. Serve with parmesan.
Some Dinner Recipe Favorites
I have not been inspired to blog recently, but my friend Bridget often posts her meal plans so I am inspired to post some of my favorite recipes.
"Spicy peanut pasta" this recipe is from the magazine Cooking Light and also in my cookbook from them (their website also has lots of recipes). This recipe is delicious and fast. Note: you absolutely must use an all natural peanut butter for this to be tasty. Nothing with added sugar, etc. We also make a few amendments: we use sauteed firm tofu cubes instead of shrimp, and we do not add any salt, chopped peanuts, cilantro or lime. The green onions are also optional. We also often add more cucumber and bell pepper.
Butternut squash lasagna this is also from Cooking Light. It's more time consuming, but can be prepped in advance of cooking, and makes tons of yummy leftovers that also freeze well. The parsley is optional I am not a fan of eating much dairy, so I usually substitute mashed tofu for some or all of the ricotta.
Veggie Gumbo, serve with rice. Technically not a gumbo since we don't make a roux, but it does taste like it. Also makes lots of yummy leftovers.
1 small green pepper chopped
1 small red pepper chopped
3 celery ribs chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 c. okra chopped (I usually prefer frozen precut)
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Tbsp veg. oil
3 c. broth
1/2 Tbsp no salt cajun spice (double if salted)
1/2 tsp salt (omit if adding salted cajun spice)
2 soysausage patties, cut into small pieces (optional)
1. Sautee peppers and onions in oil in a medium pot.
2. Add okra and celery and saute until tender, then add garlic and saute another 1 min.
3. Add broth, spices and soysausage, cover and simmer.
To me this recipe is like chili, you can cook it as long as you want or eat it quick.
For homemade no salt Cajun Seasoning:
2 Tbsp white pepper
2 Tbsp black pepper
2 Tbsp onion powder
2 Tbsp garlic powder
2-4 Tbsp cayenne
2 Tbsp paprika
Optional-2 Tbsp thyme, oregano
Note: most cajun spices are about 1/2 salt, so if you use this for other recipes you want to cut the amount of seasoning in half! Otherwise burn your tongue.
Beans and Rice-I use a pressure cooker but if you don't have one, it will cook in about twice the time (it may also require a little more liquid to account for water loss). I usually double the recipe to make lots of leftovers.
1/3 cup black beans, soaked
1/3 cup black-eyed peas, soaked
2/3 cup brown rice
1 large green pepper, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
1 small onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp thyme
2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes chopped
2 oz veggie sausage (optional)
1 Tbsp veg oil (double if no sausage)
cayenne, salt and pepper to taste
(we use low sodium broth and then add 1/4 -1/2 tsp salt)
1. sautee vegetables until soft in pressure cooker.
2. add garlic and thyme, cook 1 min.
3. add all other ingredients, stir and place on lid.
4. heat on medium heat to high pressure. Reduce heat to stabilize pressure.
Cook: 24 min brown rice. If using white rice, cook 16 min.
5. release pressure by running cold water over cover. Let stand, covered but unlocked, 5 min.
Notes: Can use jalepenos instead of cayenne. If you add extra vegetables, you need to reduce the amount of broth added.
Broccoli Rice Casserole-This recipe is from the cookbook The Compassionate Cook. While it is a PETA cookbook, it is one of the least "stuck up" vegetarian cookbooks I've found. What I mean by that is it doesn't call for a lot of weird ingredients or call for a million different preparations to complete the recipe. And the recipes are usually tasty too! Being a casserole this particular recipe does take prep work. I usually steam the broccoli in the microwave and use instant brown rice. I also add tempeh for protein. In spite of not having cheese, the nutritional yeast makes it taste cheesy. I omit the salt, especially since I am usually using salted margarine or butter.
"Spicy peanut pasta" this recipe is from the magazine Cooking Light and also in my cookbook from them (their website also has lots of recipes). This recipe is delicious and fast. Note: you absolutely must use an all natural peanut butter for this to be tasty. Nothing with added sugar, etc. We also make a few amendments: we use sauteed firm tofu cubes instead of shrimp, and we do not add any salt, chopped peanuts, cilantro or lime. The green onions are also optional. We also often add more cucumber and bell pepper.
Butternut squash lasagna this is also from Cooking Light. It's more time consuming, but can be prepped in advance of cooking, and makes tons of yummy leftovers that also freeze well. The parsley is optional I am not a fan of eating much dairy, so I usually substitute mashed tofu for some or all of the ricotta.
Veggie Gumbo, serve with rice. Technically not a gumbo since we don't make a roux, but it does taste like it. Also makes lots of yummy leftovers.
1 small green pepper chopped
1 small red pepper chopped
3 celery ribs chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 c. okra chopped (I usually prefer frozen precut)
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Tbsp veg. oil
3 c. broth
1/2 Tbsp no salt cajun spice (double if salted)
1/2 tsp salt (omit if adding salted cajun spice)
2 soysausage patties, cut into small pieces (optional)
1. Sautee peppers and onions in oil in a medium pot.
2. Add okra and celery and saute until tender, then add garlic and saute another 1 min.
3. Add broth, spices and soysausage, cover and simmer.
To me this recipe is like chili, you can cook it as long as you want or eat it quick.
For homemade no salt Cajun Seasoning:
2 Tbsp white pepper
2 Tbsp black pepper
2 Tbsp onion powder
2 Tbsp garlic powder
2-4 Tbsp cayenne
2 Tbsp paprika
Optional-2 Tbsp thyme, oregano
Note: most cajun spices are about 1/2 salt, so if you use this for other recipes you want to cut the amount of seasoning in half! Otherwise burn your tongue.
Beans and Rice-I use a pressure cooker but if you don't have one, it will cook in about twice the time (it may also require a little more liquid to account for water loss). I usually double the recipe to make lots of leftovers.
1/3 cup black beans, soaked
1/3 cup black-eyed peas, soaked
2/3 cup brown rice
1 large green pepper, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
1 small onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp thyme
2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes chopped
2 oz veggie sausage (optional)
1 Tbsp veg oil (double if no sausage)
cayenne, salt and pepper to taste
(we use low sodium broth and then add 1/4 -1/2 tsp salt)
1. sautee vegetables until soft in pressure cooker.
2. add garlic and thyme, cook 1 min.
3. add all other ingredients, stir and place on lid.
4. heat on medium heat to high pressure. Reduce heat to stabilize pressure.
Cook: 24 min brown rice. If using white rice, cook 16 min.
5. release pressure by running cold water over cover. Let stand, covered but unlocked, 5 min.
Notes: Can use jalepenos instead of cayenne. If you add extra vegetables, you need to reduce the amount of broth added.
Broccoli Rice Casserole-This recipe is from the cookbook The Compassionate Cook. While it is a PETA cookbook, it is one of the least "stuck up" vegetarian cookbooks I've found. What I mean by that is it doesn't call for a lot of weird ingredients or call for a million different preparations to complete the recipe. And the recipes are usually tasty too! Being a casserole this particular recipe does take prep work. I usually steam the broccoli in the microwave and use instant brown rice. I also add tempeh for protein. In spite of not having cheese, the nutritional yeast makes it taste cheesy. I omit the salt, especially since I am usually using salted margarine or butter.
1/15/2011
Garden Update
Our garden has been doing great since the last update. It has also been raining a lot more, so we haven't had to water much at all. Here are some new pictures (thanks Charlie:).
The lettuce and spinach have really taken off. We've also planted some strawberries that should produce around April.
The broccoli and cauliflower are now producing! Hopefully they are ready to eat soon.
Garden harvest so far:
3 heads romaine (with several more close to ready)
10 cups mesclum salad mix
20 cups spinach
2 cups? sugar snap and snow peas (really hard to tell, we usually eat them immediately)
10 cups arugula
2 cups? green onion. Also hard to tell the amount.
1/2 pound green beans (we had some problems with them)
2 jalepenos
1 green pepper (we planted the peppers too late and didn't get much)
Ready soon: broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. I have been scared to pull up the carrots but some may be ready now. The swiss chard is also taking off.
Total failures: squash, cucumber and potatoes. I think we just planted too late.
The broccoli and cauliflower are now producing! Hopefully they are ready to eat soon.
Garden harvest so far:
3 heads romaine (with several more close to ready)
10 cups mesclum salad mix
20 cups spinach
2 cups? sugar snap and snow peas (really hard to tell, we usually eat them immediately)
10 cups arugula
2 cups? green onion. Also hard to tell the amount.
1/2 pound green beans (we had some problems with them)
2 jalepenos
1 green pepper (we planted the peppers too late and didn't get much)
Ready soon: broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. I have been scared to pull up the carrots but some may be ready now. The swiss chard is also taking off.
Total failures: squash, cucumber and potatoes. I think we just planted too late.
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