Shrimp Tacos!

A couple days back, I was tootilin’ about my garden, & picked just a few pieces of lettuce. As I was walking back into the house, I spotted my cilantro, and picked a bit of that as well.

Thinking, thinking, thinking… what’s for super? hmmm Opened the freezer, and the shrimp smacked me in the face. This got me thinking about a post the other day from a friend, Cheesecake Factory: Shrimp Tacos!

Absolutely. I found what sounded close enough for me over here. I had all the ingredients listed, besides limes, but I did have lime juice, so I dove in.

They tasted wonderful, especially knowing that my shrimp were from Whole Foods, and not farm raised. It was also satisfying that the greens were from my garden.

I believe that the only thing that would have made them taste any better? A margarita would have finished it off, of course!

Getting my hands dirty

Bet you’d never guess what I been doing all weekend?!

I know I mentioned that I might not be doing a garden this year because of Europe… but I’m crazy like that I guess.

My thinking is that if I promise someone my harvest for that three weeks, they will come water for that time. What do you think? Even enough trade?

Garden of 2013 has begun

Here it is the end-ish of April and it is snowy/rain mix outside my windows, so I am focusing on the positive!

Here are the pictures I took of my garden this weekend. It is now in bloom, although I pray it’s not all getting frost bit as I type :/

   

    

    

            

    

My Dream Garden

I normally do not like to use pictures that are not mine, or that I can not give photo credits to, but I am in LOVE with this garden!

Would anyone out there like to dig my backyard for me? I can’t believe how amazing the detail is on this garden! I think I have a section that I could recreate something similar, but how do I keep those darn bunnies away from something like this?! I also have been contemplating how much I want to do in my garden this year. If I am going to Europe for three weeks, how much attention is a garden going to get? hmmmm…

Oh no! I thought I had that!

The other night I started boiling my pasta, the plan was to make baked rigatoni. I grab my pasta sauce jar out of the fridge only to see it half empty. My first thought was “great this is suppose to be my quick fix go-to meal”, so now what? Off to the store? In my baby-fit manner, I spin my lazy susan quickly around, and something caught my eye! Hmmm I can make pasta sauce homemade, I’ve done it before, but it takes all day of simmering. I grab the tomato sauce can that caught my eye, and rummage through my spice cabinet. There we go!

I pour into my sauce jar the tomato sauce that will fit, and start “doctoring it up”. I throw in about 2 Tbsp. of Parm, and a few, three shakes of Italian seasoning, a dash of garlic salt (I didn’t have garlic powder on hand). I put the cap back on, and give it a good shake, shake, shake. Then I poured it all over my rigatoni as usual. It worked out so good, I had to share it with all of you, my favoritestes peeps. 

Frozen Herbs

I love to make, what I like to call, Faux-Chipotle every so often, but I feel like I waste so much cilantro, so I was on a mission. As usual, I turned to my best friend ever Pinterest, and found what I needed. You can freeze herbs!

The thing is, apparently you must layer it in a jar with sea salt. Why sea salt? Ummm I don’t know either, but if something works, why question it? :)

My thinking is it keeps too much moisture at bay, so that they herbs don’t get mushy. That sounds good, right?! Yeap that is the answer I am sticking with.

Also, I haven’t tested this on other herbs, yet, but I want to this summer. My plan is to have an herb garden this year, but we will see how many other things I get to planting. I get carried away every year.

Healthy Fast Food

As I was eating my Panera Bread tonight, I was thinking about the little amount of food options we have here in South Bend/Mishawaka area. We are getting a Whole Foods soon, but could we get a Trader Joe’s or Good Earth store? We are all trying to eat more healthy, and shouldn’t that include organic?

So, more importantly than all the above, when this mama wants a “night off”, I have basically two options. I could go to Panera, which is not organic. My kiddos do love salad from here though, so I feel good about this choice. The other option is Chipotle, there are organic aspects here, but there is a ton of sodium in these meals.

What I am getting at here, with my rant, is why do moms in this area not have more options? Is it lack of funds around the area to start up new places? Or is it the fact that people just don’t care enough about organics? I am starting to feel like the odd man out when trying to get my family to eat healthy.

It really brought everything full circle in my mind when people all around me are raving about how my daughters love salads. I want to scream at them, because my kids were not exposed to fast food non-stop. Yes my kids have had a happy meal, and yes they have played at the Burger King playland, so don’t think I am one of those moms. Everything in moderation though. We always went toward the healthier options. My daughters love salad so much, because this was going out to eat for them. What are we doing to our kids? What are we doing to ourselves? I eat less and less vegetables every year. This was my true wake up call, and the number one reason I started my garden.

Okay, rant over…