Garden Time

My husband and I have decided to have a raised bed garden this year. It will be our first year planting a garden and it's super exciting.
We bought a bed kit instead of building one because we'd like to take it with us if we move. The kits are available at Home Depot and Sam's Club. It ended up only being slightly more expensive than building it ourselves, about $10. So we loosened all the dirt and then placed the beds. Then we added several bags of compost and dirt to the bed to fill it up. In the end about half of it was dirt from our own backyard and the other half was store bought.
We bought the book Square Foot Gardening and followed its advice on planting space and planting schedules. Here in Idaho I'm a little behind schedule, so I'm playing catch up. But the book has made things alot easier for me! I'll post updates as we move along in the summer and begin harvesting. I'm super excited to see how it will progresses and grow.

Healthier Food Options

After Christmas left my kitchen and body in shambles (mentioned in my last post), I'm trying some new food choices.  My inspiration for these changes comes from a blog I ran across 100daysofrealfood.com. On her blog she makes a pledge to eat real food for 100 days.  I'm not making that same pledge, there are some areas where I can't budge, but I am trying to be as close to her pledge as possible.

I have been super successful in implementing her pledge otherwise.  We have doubled our fruit and vegetable intake, cut our meat intake in half, and focused on eating mostly whole grains.  This isn't a timed pledge for me, for me it's a new lifestyle choice so my family can live a healthier and happier life.

Here are some reasons I'm not making the complete pledge:

• My husband doesn't believe in organic. I am indifferent.
• I have spent the last year collecting a surplus of food in case of an emergency.  I can't throw away or overlook my months worth of spaghetti noodles and justify buying whole wheat spaghetti noodles.  Although I have made the pledge to buy whole food items for my food storage in the future.
• I think white and brown sugar are a necessary evil when I have cravings and we already use honey for a majority of our food preparation, so I'm blurring the lines.
• Lastly, my husband uses Yoplait yogurt to treat his chronic canker sores, which breaks most of her pledge.

Check out her blog and see if there are any improvements you can make in your diet, but be cautious on her advice to watch Food, Inc.  That's one movie I wish I hadn't watched! and I still would have made the changes. 

Pregnancy Cravings

I've had an especially hard time being 7 months along during Christmas. I almost have my decorations cleaned up (it's almost a month later).  I also put on twice as much weight in four weeks as I had between my other Dr visits -- thank you Christmas fudge, candied popcorn, and other delicious sweets.  I've nearly finished purging my house, and my body, from Christmas junk foods. 
Last time I was this far along it was the middle of summer and I could have as many fresh fruits as I wanted.  So, Sunday night I started craving berries.  I made a berry cobbler to fill that craving.  But, on Monday, "BERRIES" my body screamed.  This time I decided to try something healthier -- smoothies.  I didn't find a recipe I liked, so I made up my own:

Berry Banana Smoothies

5 strawberries
3/4 cup mixed berries
3/4 cup milk
1 banana
6 to 8 ice cubes
1 strawberry yogurt
All of my fruits were frozen because it's December, but fresh ones would be better.

Directions:

1. Blend berries and banana with milk until smooth. Add yogurt and blend. Lastly blend in ice and serve.
2. Makes 2 or 3 servings and took about 5 minutes to throw together.

My daughter enjoyed her cup enough to get her first head-freeze. 

What's For Dinner?

When my husband and I first got married I knew how to make 3 or 4 dinners.  Spaghetti, taco salad, breakfast, and stew. The first three seem incredibly easy as I look back, but where did I learn to make stew? I have no idea. But, as daunting as it may seem, it's actually incredibly easy. It has three main ingredients: meat, potatoes, and carrots. Since we've been married for a while my recipe has changed and developed into a delicious recipe and here it is:

Stew

1/2 lb meat (I use turkey or beef to make this stew)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 white onion, chopped

1/4 cup red cooking wine

4 - 5 medium potatoes

5 whole carrots

canned or frozen corn and green beans

2-3 cups Chicken (for turkey meat) or Beef broth

Directions:

1. Brown meat in the bottom of pot.  Add garlic and onion and saute with meat.  When bottom of pan starts to brown add the cooking wine and reduce by half (boil half of it out, I understand this also removes the alcohol). 
2. Wash and chop the potatoes into 1 inch cubes (sometimes I leave the skin on and sometimes I  remove it, you can do it either way depending on your preference), throw potatoes into pot and add broth until the potatoes are covered (about 2 or 3 cups).  
3. Peel and chop the carrots and add them to the pot.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low.  Allow to stew for 1 to 3 hours, you know it's stewed long enough when the potatoes fall apart as you're mixing it and the stew is thick. 
4. About 20 minutes before serving add 1 1/2 cups each of corn and green beans (or one drained can each). Sometimes I add extra seasoning like savory, but that's optional.
5. Makes 4 to 5 servings

Using the wine when browning the meat makes regular stew meat fall apart when you eat it, it's the best change I've made to the recipe. This stew also goes great with a loaf of homemade bread.