Garden Again

We have started up the garden again. I am using our raised bed from last year for my early spring & late summer gardens. In these we have: sugar snap peas, Alaska peas, winter squash, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach.
My dear husband has made 2 more raised beds, which we spent an entire day filling with dirt, that measure 6 feet by 16 feet each. Needless to say, we will have TONS of veggies this year!
We also are experimenting with strawberries, blackberries and grapes this year. I will keep you posted on those!
For those of you wanting to plant this year you still have plenty of time. Feel free to search my site for other postings under the label "garden".

"So What Do You Eat?"

We are vegetarian, have been for about a year and a half. We went vegetarian for health reasons, my husband dropped his cholesterol by 170 points and my children rarely get sick anymore. I will be posting another blog with details on my children's health as soon as I get copies of their medical records, but I will say it has been miraculous.

One of the questions I get asked the most, well probably tied with, "Where do you get your protein?" (the answer is "From vegetables, nuts, beans, and dairy. Plus, Americans get WAY more protein than our bodies need - that's another post!) is "What do you eat?" The answer to that is so extensive that I could not answer it completely! Think of your favorite side dishes, for instance at Thanksgiving and Christmas we eat everything except turkey and ham.

Or think of your favorite types of food. Mexican and Italian are our faves so we eat rice, beans, guacamole, veggie quesadillas, chips & dips, breakfast burritos, pasta with meatless sauces (tomato, alfredo), mac and cheese, vegetable lasagna, garlic bread. We eats LOTS of fruit and vegetables but not a lot of salads.

"Well, what about when you travel and have to get fast food?" Good question, Taco Bell will substitute beans for beef, Burger King has a veggie burger, Wendy's has salads, baked potatoes and fruit, and we love most of the sides from KFC.

One of the best things about becoming vegetarian is that we are trying really great vegetables that we have never eaten before! I will be posting soon about our adventure with spaghetti squash soon!

So, we basically eat anything and everything - except meat. Easy enough...

The Garden - Part 2

Everyone said not to plant before April 15. Did I listen? Of course not! The weather had been so beautiful so we planted our tender little seedlings early. Yes, all of those people were right, sort of. There came a few days of frosty weather causing us to tarp or otherwise cover our little plants. And yes, it was a hassle. But we are now reaping (pun intended) the benefits of planting an early garden! It amazes me that God can pack the whole plant and all of that food into a tiny little seed!

Here is our first little harvest of zucchini, parsley, basil, mint, and one little carrot - and the resulting dinner! This time we had to add store-bought squash and red bell pepper, hopefully in a few more weeks our peppers will be ready.


We have about 5-10 little zucchinis, 10 squash, 15 peppers, a couple of cucumbers, and countless tomatoes ripening out there right now and I can hardly wait to start making freezer spaghetti sauce and dill pickles!

I am also planning now for a garden to be harvested in the fall and winter. If you are considering a fall or spring garden you need to plan now, seeds will not be as readily available after the summer! Hopefully, I will post soon on what I am planning to plant. As I have never planted a fall garden it will be completely experimental!

Easter Traditions

Every Easter we do some of the same things that a lot of families do, we dye eggs, have an egg hunt, and read about Jesus.
Some other things we do are a little more unique!

1. We fill the girl's Easter baskets (yes, we tell the Bunny that we like to fill them ourselves) then we hide them so that in the morning they have to first find their baskets. They LOVE doing that!

2. They normally get a new set of summer pajamas in their baskets.

3. We go through our set of Resurrection Eggs that tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

4. Easter Eve we "egg" a few people's houses - no, it's not what you are thinking - we put filled plastic eggs in the front yards of a couple of people we know, changing families each year. This was actually started by a neighbor of ours who did it to us a couple of years ago. The girls LOVE secretly putting eggs in their friend's yards. Oh, we always leave one large egg that tells the family who did it so they won't freak out about letting their kids eat treats from an unknown source!

5. When we come home we make Easter Story Cookies (recipe can be found at http://www.allhomemadecookies.com/recipes/drop/easterstorycookies.htm).
As we make the cookies we read Scritpure about Jesus' death and resurrection that correspond to the ingredients going into the cookies (meringues actually).

6. And, of course we head to church in the morning after eating a cookie or two!

7. After church we have lunch and then our big Easter dinner in the evening with our china and crystal. Now that we are vegetarian we do all of the side dishes that we did before, but we don't have ham like we used to! Our menu this year is: sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cornbread dressing (Joe's grandmother's recipe), crescent rolls and chocolate pie. Actually, that is the basic menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas too with a couple of variations!

We always want the girls to remember that Easter is about our Savior and are always looking for new ways to do that. Any ideas?!

P.S. I will try to post Easter pictures tomorrow.

The Garden

Well, we finally did it!
Our garden box has been built - thanks to Joe and Casey! We filled it with "dirt", 1 cu yd of topsoil + 1 cu yd of compost (and I even did the math to figure our how many cubic yards we needed!). Whoever said, "Hard work never hurt anyone" must not have hauled 2 yards of dirt using 5 gallon buckets from a trailer in the driveway to a garden against the back fence!
We have sectioned the garden off so that we know exactly where to plant everything and have added marigolds to help with pest control.
We will begin adding seedlings that we started inside along with some seeds either today or tomorrow, and we have the tarp ready to throw on top for the cold nights we still have awaiting us.
Plus, thanks to a new friend's blog I am hoping to talk Joe into building us a compost box to help "feed" our plants throughout the summer.
I will keep you posted as the days get longer and warmer!

Vegetarians

On Being Vegetarian:
Yes, we are vegetarians, or at least my husband, our 10 year old, and I are.
We have been vegetarian for about a year and my husband's cholesterol dropped about 170 points!
It has been much easier than I expected, although if I were to do it again I would have found a "mentor" first. There are so many great resources out there!
And no, we do not eat a lot of salad!