Stir Fry and Produce to Go

This is what I pulled in from the garden today. I had one giganto carrot that kind of looks like a few carrots merged together. However, it was in a weird spot, over by my eggplants. I think it was one of the ones I planted early on, that blew over and grew in a different place. So, it could be one of my oxhearts, an heirloom variety I planted. In all, I had carrots, banana peppers, jalapenos, green beans, yellow crookneck squash, cucumbers, and grape tomatoes. Ah, the bounty of summer. I decided to make stir fry for dinner to use some of this stuff.

Yummy Summer Stir Fry

1 or 2 yellow squash, cut into 1 inch pieces
large handful green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups shrimp or scallops, or both
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup chopped tomato, juice removed if possible
Handful purslane, trimmed and cut into small pieces
Onion if you like, to taste, I didn't use any this time
2 tbsp Wahoo chili seasoning
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp cumin
Olive oil
Raspberry sauce

1. Heat oil in skillet, add chopped veggies and cook until tender.
2. Add shrimp or scallops and continue cooking until it changes color.
3. Add in dry seasonings and stir to coat.
4. Remove from heat and toss with raspberry sauce to taste...I used about 1 tbsp.

Note: The raspberry sauce I use is very hot. It is Simply the Best, Inc. Smokin' Razzberry sauce. There is no website on the bottle, but the email is DChanda@aol.com.

My stir fry turned out a little dark, cause I got involved doing something else and didn't stir it for too long. So, you should stir yours more than I did. This could go with pasta or rice, but I just ate mine all by itself.

In the meantime, I have to come up with more ideas to use up all these tomatoes. My friend erynia is coming up in a couple days to make salsa and salsa verde with me. We are going to have a lot of fun. Cooking with friends is the stuff you remember.

Rhubarb Banana Bread

Rhubarb Banana Bread

INGREDIENTS
* 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour + 1/2 cup bread flour
* 1 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/4 cup wheat germ
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 2 whole eggs
* 3 mashed bananas (I used previously frozen)
* 1/4 cup milk
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon allspice
* 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
* 2 teaspoons vanilla
* 2 1/2 cups diced rhubarb (i changed this to 2 1/2 cups rhubarb pulp)
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

The rhubarb pulp was leftover from a recipe where I made rhubarb slush. In that recipe you were supposed to discard the pulp. I saved it and used it here. I think it makes the bread even moister and softer, but the same amount of regular chopped rhubarb can be used. See below bread directions for the recipe for rhubarb slush.




DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease two 9×5x3 inch loaf pans.
2. Mix together the flours, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg in a medium bowl.
3. In a large bowl mix together the mashed banana, eggs, milk, brown sugar, oil and vanilla until fluffy. Then add the flour mixture and mix well.
4. Stir in the rhubarb pulp and walnuts. Divide the mixture between the two loaf pans.
5. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes. Cooking time may vary so you should check by inserting a sharp knife or toothpick in the center of each loaf. When the knife or toothpick comes out clean it should be ready.
6. Allow the loaves to cool in the loaf pans for about ten minutes. Then remove the loaves from the loaf pans and allow to cool fully on a wire rack.
The bread recipe is adapted from a recipe on www.banana-bread.biz.

Rhubarb Slush

8 cups diced fresh or frozen rhubarb
1 pkg (16 oz.) frozen unsweetened strawberries
3 cups sugar
8 cups water
1 pkg. (3 oz.) strawberry gelatin
1/2 cup lemon juice
11 cups ginger ale, chilled
In a large pot, bring the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and water to a boil. Reduce the heat, simmer uncovered, for 15 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and broken down. Run through a food mill or sieve, and save the pulp for freezing or for the bread. Take the liquid and stir in gelatin and lemon juice until dissolved.

Transfer to a freezer container, stirring occasionally until firm. To make the slush, combine the frozen rhubarb liquid and ginger ale. Serve immediately.

The gelatin can also be left out and the liquid can be cooled and served like punch.

Cleaning Up the Yard

The amount of calories burned weeding the driveway for two hours: 554
The amount of calories burned sweeping up dirt and weed mess in driveway for 45 minutes: 240
The state of my knuckles and fingertips: raw

My guy has been nagging me about getting rid of the weeds in the driveway for about a month. I have not weeded the driveway area yet this year at all. I was busy doing other stuff (isn't that the understatement of the year) and hadn't done much about it. Finally, he said if I didn't do something about it, he would buy Round-Up and soak the whole thing (GASP). So, I tried two different kinds of 'organic' weed killers. One I got from Walmart, and it was made from plant oils. It stank, but did a good job. Unfortunately, I used it on the back patio, and ran out, and haven't been able to find it at Walmart since. The other kind I got at the local greenhouse, and it didn't seem to hardly work at all.

I decided just to do it the old-fashioned way. After all, if you spray them, then you just have dead weeds to get out of the cracks still. I figured it was good exercise, and a good excuse to clean out the driveway area. It needed a good dusting too, because I have millions of those tiny white and
yellow orbish spiders, and many of the common brown house spiders all over my yard. Everything has webs in it, and while I'm grateful that they are killing little pests and bugs that bother me, if makes everything look like no one has lived here for years. I should let them go hog wild and we will be all ready for Halloween!

So, I weeded, and swept down cobwebs with the broom, and then swept up all the mess I made, and it turned out like this. Much better, and totally worth the work. Now maybe I can keep anything that tries to make a comeback down with that plant oil stuff. My guy also helped me put up a new hose hanger yesterday.

Now my front yard hose isn't laying all over the driveway, like it was before. Kudos to him, because he had to get a new drill, masonry bits, masonry screw anchors, and some kind of pusher for the bits to do this project with the 'free' hose hanger I found. We were in Menards and I felt like I was in one of those "If you Give a Moose a Muffin' stories. Maybe it was just an excuse to buy a new drill, but I could tell he was very pleased with 'helping me' when he was all done. Lol.

This is my new weapon in the war against weeds. I had to go three places to find one. It will first be used to weed under my sunflowers and okra. Now that they are so huge, this little guy should be able to go between them easily and make it much quicker. I am up to 4 different hoes now. I think from reading other people's blogs, the longer you garden, and the more serious you get, the more kinds of hoes you have. I did a post previously on my love for the shuffle hoe, or stirrup hoe some call it.

http://gardenmom29.blogspot.com/2009/06/weeds-weeds-and-more-weeds.html

I haven't been in the veggie garden for two days, and my spaghetti squash took advantage of that opportunity to double in size. I think this one is getting ready to ripen. It will be the first. I also have tons of yellow crookneck squash coming on. I don't have as many recipes for that one as I do zucchini, so if you have a recipe for yellow squash, let me know please.

Here are my White Beauty tomatoes again, they are almost all bigger than my fist. I have one getting ready to ripen I think. It is turning a little yellow. I guess they are supposed to be true white, so I would guess these aren't ready yet. Or maybe they are...I'm not sure.

I just discovered the other day that my green beans were ready. They were kind of hiding, hanging behind and under the leaves. My son and I picked this basket to make with our supper. We cooked them with bacon and onions in the skillet. Yummy. There are a lot more of them out there. They are Seed Savers heirloom french climbing beans. I would highly recommend.

This is my son...I had to take his picture because he was leaving to go on his very FIRST SLEEPOVER ever. Sniff, sniff....No, actually I was pretty cool about it, his dad was way more freaked about it than me. I just felt a little sad cause my baby is growing up. He was pumped. I did not get any middle of the night phone calls, he had a great time.

My pigs got to try out their new timothy hay cave for playtime. Edith always has this face like, "What're YOU lookin' at?" The cave is also edible, so they can hide in it, and eat it. Bonus.

Gertie has the same wary expression. They probably wondered what the heck I was doing down on the floor with the camera. Now, if only I could teach them to eat in straight lines, I would have my weed problem under control.

Funny Pics...& The Tomatoes Are Coming, The Tomatoes are Coming

Can anyone tell that I am highly amused by these LOL cat pictures? I am also rather fond of crustaceans, so this pic is the best of both worlds.

Okay, don't call the animal cruelty people on this one...Gertie (yes, that is the guinea pig's name) got herself into this mess. I put the cardboard tube into their cage because I thought they might like to chew on it. Gertie gets freaked out and bolts into the igloo whenever anyone comes into the room. She even does that for me, and I am the one that has fed her for over 3 years. She must have been startled and ran straight through the tube. I still don't know how she did it...I came in later and she was laying with this around her middle. She wasn't hurt, just a little uncomfortable looking. And, does mommy immediately get her out of that mess? No, mommy goes and gets the camera first, because this is funny! Then I got her out.

This is my produce scrubbing brush girl. I don't know if she has a name. I just tell her to shut up and scrub the carrots. Ha ha. My bestest friend Erynia (her twitter name) got me this for Christmas last year. I have got a lot of use out of her so far. Now, if you have small children around, you might want to cover their eyes or have them leave the room...

Because here she is without her outfit. Pretty cute, huh? Her stand is her dress. They actually make different versions of this. I looked on the back of the stand and in my kitchen, but I couldn't find the information on where she came from. Maybe erynia remembers.

This is Maggie, our cockatiel...or rather, she belongs to my guy. I don't think she cares much for me. She knew him before I did, and she decided he was her mate. Then I come along and steal her boyfriend out from under her. I guess I'd be snippy too. She tolerates me because I bring her upstairs so she can have carpet time in the evenings when my guy is at work. Otherwise, she has no use for me. Here she was trying to finish off my leftover noodles. She was dipping her head into the bowl and gobbling them up.

This is my nephew...he is hilarious. He looks like a mini-me version of my brother, except with hair. He will be three in November already. Time flies.

And now, a sigh of relief because all my heirlooms appear to be setting fruit. I was out in the 90 degree heat today staking up my tomato plants. I have a little bit of leaf spot, but it appears to be mostly controlled. I have a trellis, a tepee, and several cages holding up my 18 tomato plants.

I don't remember which kind this is, but I have good sized tomatoes going. I guess I will figure out which ones are which when they start ripening. And God must have a sense of humor, because I figure that will be about the time that I go back to work. I will be working full time, taking care of my son, and spending several hours each night making salsa and tomato sauce. I won't do anything else for about 3-4 weeks. Well, I will process other foods, as well, but I will work and can foods steady for at least a month. It is fun, but exhausting...and totally worth it to have yummy salsa in January.

Gardening and Weight Loss

I've been doing a lot of thinking about gardening and weight loss. See, I am trying to 'lose' weight, and I love to garden, so this is a concept I hope works. I believe there are a lot of reasons that support this idea.

1. Gardening is HARD work.

If you are doing it right, you are getting a LOT of exercise when you work in the garden. Digging, lifting, hauling, even weeding burn a lot of calories. Even sitting on a mat and poking seeds in the ground burns more calories than sitting on the couch with a remote in your hand. If you do a search for gardening on most calorie burn charts, you will see that most jobs in the yard consistently turn up high numbers. You also use muscles you've never used before. Anyone that rakes leaves for an entire day knows that you wake up the next day and you can't lift your arms over your head. Gardening also requires a lot of time and effort. Weeds don't quit, so you can't just put in 3 hours one day and you are good for the summer. More often, you have to go out again and again to perform more tasks. Hence repeated exercise and effective exercise.

2. Gardening encourages healthy eating habits.

It stands to reason that if you are growing healthy, organic, beautiful produce, you will want to eat it. And if you are eating healthy, organic, beautiful produce, you will be eating much less of that other unhealthy junk. Fruits and vegetables that are grown without pesticides have to produce their own to fend off plants and disease. These natural pesticides are called polyphenols, or antioxidants. Research has shown that organic produce has way more of these healthy antioxidants. Plus, any food that you grow has got to be way better for you than foods made with synthetic additives. Fruits and vegetables are very low in calories; you can basically eat as many of them as you want, and still lose weight! As of now, I have lost 5 lbs in the last two weeks from just substituting fruits and veggies in for some of the other junk I was eating. As a bonus, if you garden with kids, you are teaching them healthy eating habits for life. Kids are much more likely to eat vegetables that they have helped to grow. People that grow and eat their own food, have much more invested in the process. Imagine having beautiful veggies to share and a smaller waistline to boot!


3. Gardening Reduces Stress

I know of no better therapy than thrusting your hands into the dirt. I personally don't wear gloves...maybe that is bad...but I like feeling connected to the earth. Gardening reduces blood pressure (just my opinion), steadies my nerves, and reduces anxieties. I can totally lose myself while weeding. Many people believe that stress is directly connected to belly fat and gaining weight. So, if you get zen in the garden, maybe you will have a smaller belly. Calm, happy people are less likely to binge on junk food or eat for comfort. And again, if you are in the garden, you are not on the couch eating potato chips.

4. Gardening Fosters Creative Cooking

This is somewhat related to healthy eating habits, but you can eat healthy without cooking. I am talking about food preparation, making meals together as a family if possible, taking the ingredients you have and making something wonderful. When you have a mounting pile of eggplant on your counter that are threatening to rot at any minute, you get out the cookbook and start finding new recipes. You are less likely to eat unhealthy things often, if you have to go to all the trouble of making them. Therefore, we invest our energy in cooking the low calorie, nutrient-filled produce we have. Cooking as a family also reduces stress and builds relationships. Cooking creates memories and traditions that children will remember throughout their life. Young adults that made many meals with their parents won't be as tempted to overeat on fast food or high-calorie microwave convenience meals.

I am learning these truths as I go along, hopefully passing them on to my kids. I believe strongly that the majority of the health problems that Americans face today: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, are caused by our horrible diets. We have become so dependent on processed synthetic foods that are cheap and fast, that we are eating ourselves to death. But many people believe we can reverse this by reverting to healthy, organic, natural foods. For some people this means vegetarian, for others not, but the point is where it came from and how it was raised and what was put in it. I am hoping that I can follow the above ideas and make myself and my family leaner and more food-conscious, if not health-conscious.

Well, we are leaving now for a walk/bike ride. When we get back, we will probably make pesto and plant a new blueberry bush. I hope that even if I haven't convinced you that gardening will help you lose weight, you will believe it is a good thing to do for your health. Good luck and happy gardening!



Some of my ideas were inspired by Michael Pollen's In Defense of Food, and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, plus many other articles, in addition to my own musings in the garden.