How does your garden grow

His Lordship and I have planted a garden this year and we are beginning to enjoy the benefits of our labor.  Here are two yummy things we are having for dinner grown by us - baby lettuce and radishes.

 

 

We will top this salad with delicious homegrown herbs.  Pictured here are chives, oregano, dill, parsley, sage and thyme.

 

 

Already Behind...

The year is not even 1/2 over and I have already fallen behind in my blogging goals.  I think I was supposed to keep up with this twice a month, but April was obviously a complete sham.  So I have some new veggies to share.  The first we had for dinner last night.

They are the fabulous golden beet and purple sweet potato.   I roasted these with a purple beet and red onion in some oil, salt and pepper.  Oh so yummy!

 

During April, the most adventurous I got with a vegetable was purchasing a red cabbage.  I ended up adding it to soups, and salads but did not try a designated red cabbage recipe.  One of you will have to share you favorite red cabbage creations with me.  Does anyone make a mean fish taco??

 

 

 

 

New veggie and recipe for March

This Months veggie was a Napa cabbage.  I used it to make a fabulous recipe called Asian turkey cabbage cups.

 

Salad dressing made easy

I cut this recipe from the Martha Stewart magazine because I am intrigued with making my own salad dressing.  I can't believe the junk that is added to commercial dressings - tons of sugar, salt, preservatives, titanium dioxide - yuk! 

The first dressing I tried was this Orange miso.  It was pretty tasty.  I did not use safflower oil but an extra virgin olive oil.

 

I also love the idea of not buying any more stuff in glass jars but making my own stuff in containers I reuse. Good for me ,  good for the planet.

Best Smoothie Ever

This is one kick ass smoothie recipe I got from thrive market.  Very, very tasty - like drinking candy.  It will definitely satisfy your cravings for sweets!

mine did not come out nearly as purple as in the picture- guess I added to much spinach!

New Veggie for January

One of my resolutions this year is to try a new type of produce I don't normally eat.  In January, I purchased a daikon radish.  I used it in a few interesting ways - I added it to salad, used it in a stir fry and butter steamed it as a side dish.  I have to say it was ok but I am not rushing out to buy it again.  It was kind of tough when cooked.  I liked it in salad but not anymore than regular radishes.  So lets see how it stacks up nutritionally compared to a regular red radish. Well the daikon is a bigger radish with more calories and carbs but way more vitamin C and other nutrients than a red radish.

Daikon

 

Amount Per 1 radish (7" long) (338 g)

Calories 61

% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0.3 g	0%
Saturated fat 0.1 g	0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0.2 g
Monounsaturated fat 0.1 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0%
Sodium 71 mg	2%
Potassium 767 mg	21%
Total Carbohydrate 14 g	4%
Dietary fiber 5 g	20%
Sugar 8 g
Protein 2 g	4%
Caffeine

Vitamin A	0%	Vitamin C	124%
Calcium	9%	Iron	7%
Vitamin D	0%	Vitamin B-6	10%
Vitamin B-12	0%	Magnesium	13%

 

 

Red radish

Amount Per 1 medium (3/4" to 1" dia) (4.5 g)

Calories 1

% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0 g	0%
Saturated fat 0 g	0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0 g
Monounsaturated fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0%
Sodium 2 mg	0%
Potassium 10 mg	0%
Total Carbohydrate 0.2 g	0%
Dietary fiber 0.1 g	0%
Sugar 0.1 g
Protein 0 g	0%
Caffeine

Vitamin A	0%	Vitamin C	1%
Calcium	0%	Iron	0%
Vitamin D	0%	Vitamin B-6	0%
Vitamin B-12	0%	Magnesium	0%

The anti aging salad

Did I post this last year??? I can't remember.  It says draft in the posts list so I am going to put it up now.Sometimes I watch Peggy K's kitchen cures on the Z living channel.  Well I don't anymore because we cancelled the dish network but I used too.  This is a recipe that I really liked from her show.  It is supposed to be a salad but I prefer it as a dip with tortilla chips.  She promised that it would stop me from aging but I think she lied.  Oh well, it tastes good anyhow.  Of course, I can't eat these yummy chips since I am on the zone diet but one can dream.

Mango avocado dip



The ingredients

1 chopped mango,
2 chopped avocados
1/2 chopped red pepper
1/4 chopped red onion
juice of 1 lime
handful of chopped cilantro

Dressing: olive oil, sea salt cayenne pepper, lime juice

Chop mango, red pepper, red onion, cilantro, lime juice.  At this point you have the option of putting it in the fridge for a day if you want to make it in advance.  Add avocado and dressing shortly before serving.

I like these 'Food Should Taste Good' multigrain chips with flax seeds

For the Birds

 

On Monday we had a whopping snow storm - about a foot of snow. 

 I knew my birdies would be hungry so I made up some homemade suet with a recipe I got from the Ash Canyon B & B back in 2013.  Here it is in case your birdies are hungry too.

 



The Junco and bushtits both think it is yummy
 

 

Bushtits always come in flocks, eat for about 10 minutes and bugger off again

Blast from the Past

Last Christmas I received this as a gift from one of my Twisted Sisters.

 

 

His Lordship and I discovered this way back in about 1988 when we lived in Champaign Urbana.  When my mom came to stay with us, we shared it with her.  She loved it so much that we used to buy it in large quantities and give it to her for Christmas.  For about 15 years it has been off of my radar.  But low and behold, my sister found it.

 

We used to make it with Campbell's soups.  But being a little more health conscious now, I used these soups instead to prepare it last night.

 

 

 

I also sautéed 1/2 cup of chopped red onion and 1 lb of mushrooms with the ground bison I used instead of ground beef.  For liquid, I added 1/2 of soaking water from some dried mushrooms, a cup of homemade bone and veggie stock and 1 cup of water.  It came out very yummy!  But unfortunately, because of all that rice, I can only eat a little of it.  Looks like his Lordship is going Cajun for the next week. 

 

New Recipe for January

One of my resolutions is to try a new recipe every month.  Last week, I made something I have been meaning to try for ages - homemade miso soup.  I love miso soup.  It doesn't have many calories and in winter, it is hot and comforting.  To control the salt, I used a low sodium sweet miso and a low sodium tamari sauce.  Here are the ingredients:

 

They include two kinds of sea veggies - kombu for making a dashi which is Japanese broth and wakame to add with the tofu to the broth.  To make a dashi, one brings a piece of kombu and 5 cups of  water to a boil. Take it off the heat, discard the kombu and pour the hot water over 1/2 cup of bonito flakes.  Let that steep for 10 minutes and strain. 

 

Then dissolve 3 tablespoons of miso in the broth, add green onions, tofu and wakame and simmer.  If it is too bland, add a few tablespoons of tamari.  It is that easy, low calorie and really satisfying.