Fun Summer Yummies: Homemade Pickles, Roasted Potatoes and Asparagus and Quick blender Zucchini Soup

 We don't often have years when we have cucumbers coming out of the ying-yang, but this year has been one of those years! We only have 2 plants, but one of the plants isn't really producing a whole lot. However, an average week yields about 30 crisp delicious cucumbers from this one plant. We'll take it, baby!

Have you ever made homemade pickles? You taste one and it's so hard to go back to store-bought!! And it's so easy! Here's how you do it:
10 c cold filtered water
1 c white vinegar
1/2 c Kosher salt
6ish quarts cucumbers, washed and cut into spears, slices or however you like
3 cloves garlic, sliced
6 sprigs dill
Combine first 3 ingredients and stir until salt dissolves. Place in liquid in jars, about halfway up. Add a little dill, your cucumbers until full, a little garlic and 1 more small sprig of dill. Continue filling jars until done. Allow to sit on counter for 24 hours. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Roasted Potatoes & Asparagus
Red Potatoes
Olive oil
Spices of your choice
Basil
asparagus
shredded parmesan
Scrub and cut potatoes into pieces. Season with olive oil and whatever spices you would like (salt and pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, whatever your preferences are). Spread on prepared baking sheet (I line sheet with foil and spray with baking spray). Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes. Add asparagus cut into thirds, woody ends cut off). Bake until tender, 15-20 more minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese.

 Creamy Zucchini Soup
1 oz raw cashews
1 1/2 c water
1 1/2 medium zucchini
sea salt, fresh herbs
Soak cashews in 1/2 c water for 1 hour. Place remaining water, zucchini, sea salt and fresh herbs (fresh basil is great and so is cilantro! Dill would be fun too!) to blender jar.  Add cashews (with water) to jar. Blend on high until blended through and hot.

4th of July Nom-Noms

Who said you can't eat healthy during the holidays? We sure did! Here in the south, we had quite a bit of heavy rain on the 4th, so it started out as a bit of a downer. At least for me. However, we quickly changed that with some patriotic food that we got the whole family in on, and in the end, the rain took a break long enough for many neighbors to shoot off fireworks. It was a beautiful day/night!  Here is what we did:

I took THIS potato salad recipe, and instead of using regular potatoes, I found some gourmet potatoes at Costco: red white and BLUE potatoes! Have you ever heard of blue potatoes? I hadn't, but they tasted just like regular potatoes and the kids thought it was the "best potato salad ever"! I scrubbed and cut them into smaller pieces, drizzled with a little bit of olive oil and roasted in the oven until I could easily pierce through with a fork. Let cool and follow the rest of the recipe. Delicious!

 For this one, I bought a (better-for-you) ready made pie crust from Whole Foods (you can totally make your own whole wheat pie crust), and line the bottom of a pie pan. Pit cherries and mix with raw honey or raw agave nectar. Let sit for 20 minutes. Mix a couple of cups of blueberries with agave. Take a piece of cardstock and fold so that it points to 12 & 9. Fill that triangle with blueberries and the rest with cherries. Gently pull out cardstock. Cut pie dough in stripes for your "flag" and use small star cookie cutters to make stars for your blueberries. Sprinkle with raw sugar granules. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes, or until crust is golden brown

 This is self-explanatory, right? The kids loved this one in particular. Happy 4th!

 P.S. After all the rain we had, my garden exploded!

Granola

Oh, what a wonderful week I have had! My bestest friend was in town with her two daughters, and she spoiled me rotten with her time! I enjoyed playing with the girls, and cooking and cleaning up, and essentially just living together for a week. We had a 4 a.m. talking session that I don't think either of us really recovered from, but I am so glad that they came out!

 

Isn't she absolutely beautiful?

Now, I've made a ton of stuff, but haven't posted much....soooo, I'll be playing catch up for a bit. Here's a granola recipe from Green Smoothie Girl, with some HW&W adjustments to our family's tastes:

8 C regular rolled oats
1 C raw wheat germ
1 C shredded unsweetened coconut
1⁄2 C freshly ground flax seeds (flax seeds lose their nutritional value FAST after they are ground, so always grind it fresh prior to using it)
3/4 c nuts (we use raw almonds)
3/4 c seeds (love raw pepitos!)
3 Tbsp. cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice! Mmmm!)

Mix ingredients well in a big bowl.

Heat on the stove until barely melted, stirring together:
1⁄2 C raw honey
1⁄2 C Grade B maple syrup or molasses
1⁄2 C water
1⁄2 C coconut oil
1 Tbsp. vanilla or almond extract
Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until distributed evenly (this takes a few minutes). Spread onto 2 large cookie sheets, and bake at 250 for 45 minutes. Stir, and then bake for 45 more minutes. Stir again, and bake another 10-15 to get it good and dry. Keep in the pantry for up to 2 weeks in cooler weather, or in the fridge for up to six weeks.

We always pour on a bit of almond milk and some sprouted sunflower seeds, as well as seasonal fruit (peaches, bananas, apples, sometimes raisins....nummy!)

p.s. this stuff cleans you OUT! :)

Onto gardening! We had to pull out 2 of our squash plants. We lost them to vine borers, and I haven't had time to research how to prevent them. When I do, though, it will be on here so I remember for next year! We still have a bunny. Yeah. It's eating our garlic and making short work of our swiss chard. We are still getting things from our garden, but a little irritated that we are also feeding our pests. We continue to work, though, picking off squash bugs daily, looking for egg clusters, and watering during this heat spell we are having. My 3 year old's legs can't move any faster when she hears I'm going to water the garden. She loves to help!  I think next year we will try planting our vine plants later in the season. However, if anyone has ideas on how to get rid of bunnies, I'm totally open to it! :)

Carnage & Burning

....in my garden, that is. :)

We continue to have problems with garden pests, but my friend Chelsea told me about this little concoction. It helps a lot with certain pests, but I admit, those dang squash bugs are too fast for me to kill very many of them. So I take my handy dandy scissors and snip them in half, and then stomp them for good measure. I told you there was carnage! :)

We also have problems with Japanese beetles and ants and bunnies. This concoction keeps the bunnies away so they don't burn their little mouths, and kills the ants, it's just hard to find the ant hills to destroy and burn because they are pretty good at hiding them under all the foliage.

Cut 1 whole garlic (not a clove, but a WHOLE thing of garlic) in half
Cut an onion into quarters

Place in a glass Mason jar with cayenne pepper and cloves. Fill it up the rest of the way with water and cover with lid. Let it bake in the sun for a day, and then strain (with a cheesecloth) into a spray bottle. Spray leaves, bugs, anything, and then follow with an evil laugh for good measure. Mwahahaha!

We have harvested beets, swiss chard, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, 1 zucchini (stupid bugs and ants!), cilantro, basil, mint, dill, rosemary, a carrot (yay!), green beans and we have seen little tiny peppers and cantaloupe in our garden. We love eating from our garden, especially because of what it saves us....but also because the taste cannot be beat!  There is nothing like sinking your teeth into a crisp juicy cucumber, freshly picked!

Recipes, Fruit Flies & Garden Update

Ahhh, I felt wealthier today. Do you ever just sit back for a few minutes and count your blessings, only to realize how truly blessed you are? Well, I definitely had a moment like that. We spent the day doing yard work: mowing, weeding, weed-eating, gardening, etc. It was in the 90s, so we were pretty crispy burnt by the time it was over, but looking around at the backyard, seeing how much plenty our garden is producing, and how grateful my family is for this adventure called life...and how rich we truly are in blessings! Here are a few pictures that my husband took after it was all done. I think the trellises will do really nicely for the greenie beanies and cucumbers.

Look in the back of the 1st picture: compost bins ready to go and......rainbarrels! Woo Hoo! Let's use the water from the sky before using the water from the tap! I'm excited for this added feature!
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So, a few tips: if you have a plethora of fruit flies at your house, put a small amount of apple cider vinegar in a cup, along with a drop of soap. Mix it, and then watch the flies DIE! Bahahaha! I hate pesky fruit flies, bleh! We do this once a week just after grocery shopping and our kitchen is pretty much free of the little buggers.
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I have been making some super fun recipes, compliments of Simple Healthy Tasty-see the link to the right, she is FABULOUS!!  First of all, CHEEZY SAUCE! We are really trying to stay away from dairy, so imagine my giddiness when I found this little baby, and it is so YUMMY! We had sloppy joes, healthy style. I have adjusted the recipe a bit because I didn't like the original very much. It's more like a "Taco Joe". :)

First of all, I made homemade whole wheat jumbo rolls instead of buying them at the store.

Then, I made the following:

Mushroom and Rice Cheezy-Q's

6-8 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped small

1/2 onion chopped

3 cups cooked brown rice

Olive Oil to taste

Large can of tomato sauce

Taco Seasoning to taste

Place some oil and the onion in a large frying pan, chop up the fresh mushrooms add to the pan saute for a minute then add the rice, sauce and seasoing, stir until it is hot remove from heat. Put your roll/bun on your plate and spoon some Mushroom concoction, followed by Cheezy Sauce. Eat open-faced style.

Cheezy Sauce

1 ½ cup raw cashews

3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon chili powder

½ cup water

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Place all ingredients in blender. (Wet ingredients first!) Blend until smooth. Use as a sandwich spread, a dip for crackers or veggies, for nacho cheese, or anything else you want to use it for.

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Sunday Dessert night was chocolate cake, coconut cream sauce and fresh berries.  Here is the recipe:

Super Moist German Chocolate Cake

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

3 T. sifted cocoa powder

1 t. baking soda

1 c. Sucanat

1/2 t. sea salt

5 T. coconut oil

1 T. apple cider vinegar

1 T. vanilla

1 cup cold water

Put your flour into mixing bowl, add cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt and mix well.Make three deep holes in the dry mixture. Into one, pour the oil, into the next, pour the vinegar, into the next, pour the vanilla.Pour the water into the bowl, over all of this.Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until there aren't any more lumps and pour into a 9x9 inch baking pan.Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, test with fork.Can also be made into cupcakes, bake for 15 minutes.

Top with whipped Creme and fresh berries

Whipped Creme

Take a can of coconut milk (not light kind) and get cold in fridge. Open the can and with a spoon, spoon out only the thick stuff. Put into a small food processor or blender, and add about 3-4 Tablespoons Sucanut and ½ teaspoon vanilla.

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So, a local health food's store is going out of business (sad!), but yay for 50-75% off of their products! I've never bought vanilla bean before, and have never even seen it, but when I saw it was 50% off, I had to snag some. I went home and made these little babies to go with the super hot day we were having.
Here is a picture of vanilla bean, if you've never seen it. They smell sooooo good!!!!

Healthy Vanilla Milkshake

2 cans coconut milk
2 frozen bananas
1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil
2 Tablespoons Agave
1 small handful macadamia nuts (I used raw cashews)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Vanilla bean, just the inside scraped out (optional)
4 cups ice

In blender blend everything but ice until smooth.  Add ice blend again until smooth.  Drink right away or if you like a really thick milkshake, place in freezer for 1-2 hours then stir well and drink! 

Gardening

I promised some gardening pictures. This one is of the herbs on my patio: mint, parsley, cilantro and dill. I already use them a LOT! I love putting parsley, cilantro and dill in my salad dressings and in any salads that I make. The dill especially adds a nice flavor. We have basil and rosemary in our squares, and sage that came back from last year.

 Here is one of our squares. We have green beans, cantaloupe, cabbage, garlic, swiss chard and cucumbers in this square. We have 4 squares total. Everything is growing beautifully! I will be adding a whole square of strawberries for next years garden, and I want to do asparagus too, but am not quite sure yet how to do it.

 Here are some of my beets. Aren't they beautiful? Beet greens are soooo good in green smoothies, and beets are amazing blood cleaners! They are also good at keeping cancer, wrinkles, and fatigue at bay! You can take raw beets, peel them and cut them into chunks. Throw them in your freezer, and throw a frozen chunk into your smoothie for beautiful color! We are so excited to grow beets this year!

What are you growing in your garden?