Taste the Rainbow

My dad likes to quote my Grandma Jensen for saying you should eat every color of the rainbow. I don't think she meant Trix either.

Just looking at this grouping makes my mouth water. The more I eat fresh and raw foods the more satisfying and enticing they are. You could say it's a win/win scenario.

(P.S. Those are my own garden tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, squash, beans, and beets! My green peppers weren't big enough to pick. We already have zucchini coming out our ears.)

Food Crazed

I am obsessed with food. There, I said it. I don't just think about it 3 times a day, but rather all day every day. My dad says there are people who eat to live, and people who live to eat. I am the latter (and my husband is the former). I thought I would share some of my recent favorites and discoveries.

(A photographer is something I am not, so bear with me.)

My first tomato ripened last week. Since I planted it, watered it, and harvested it, I ate it all myself. It was not really a selfish act, though... nobody else wanted it. Suit yourself, more for me.

My sister told me she made this meal, so naturally it was stuck in my head and I made it that night. I have had this whole wheat muffin recipe for 10 years and never tried it. Now I love it. I made an incredible change though--coconut oil. My sister-in-law Alison recently visited and touted the benefits of coconut oil for everything from baking and frying to dry skin. She left me some so I thought I'd try it, and I am converted! It gave the muffins a slight coconutty flavor and made them so moist. I have also used it in waffles. And get this... the other day I think I had mild food poisoning (I tasted my soup with the raw chicken spoon). I remembered that Alison said coconut oil was antibacterial, so I ate a tablespoon straight. My rumbly tummy quieted right down, I kid you not. If you are still skeptical, you better read this article I found from my health guru: Coconut Oil Health Benefits.

Whole Wheat Muffins

2 c. wheat flour
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. oil
1 egg
1 c. milk

Combine dry ingredients. Mix together oil, milk, and egg. Pour liquid mixture into dry ingredients. Stir only until combined. Bake in greased muffin tins at 425 for 12-15 minutes.

The muffins went with smoothies and my favorite quiche recipe (from Rebecca). It is so versatile and we all love it. I added a cup of chopped spinach, substituted yellow for green onions, and added a chopped red pepper. I omitted the ham.

Easy Broccoli Quiche

2 green onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
4 eggs, well beaten
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ - 1 cup diced ham
1 ½ c. cheese (whatever you like)

1. Over medium-low heat in a nonstick pan, cook onions, garlic and broccoli. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft.

2. Meanwhile combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Combine vegetable mixture with egg mixture. Stir in ham and cheese.

3. Pour into greased metal cake pan. Bake in 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until set. Let sit for 5-10 minutes and serve.

Moving on, I kept hearing from family and friends that I needed to try Sunflower Market for produce. I finally caved into peer pressure and made the trek to Orem to try them out. Since I have been getting Bountiful Baskets a lot, I thought I would try the way they do it and get 6 fruits and 6 veggies to see how they compared on price.

Some of the deals were amazing. Pineapples were .99 each! Also, they have a good selection of organic. I agree with the idea of organic, but unfortunately my grocery budget does not. So I was happy to find organic pink lady apples for 1.99/lb., the same as regular apples at Smith's.

In the end, I spent $24 on produce at Sunflower rather than the $16 for BB, but four of my items were organic, I got 7 fruits instead of 6, and I doubled up on pineapple and cantaloupe because they were so cheap! I guess you could say the prices were comparable.

Rather than deciding on which way to buy produce, I decided to take a hiatus from both and try the Lehi Farmer's market that just started up (I'll let you know how it goes). Plus my garden is starting to explode with carrots, cucumbers, beans, beets, zucchini, and tomatoes, so I'm going local for a bit!


I have to share on more thing... I heard that Costco had organic eggs (thanks Emily) so I checked them out. I found cage free organic eggs for 2.99 a dozen, which is such a steal! Everywhere else is 3.50-4.50 a dozen!

While I was there, I got frozen blueberries and a huge tub of organic spinach for my smoothies, a HUGE bag of organic carrots (what was I thinking??? I might have to freeze some?), organic tortilla chips (my new favorite chip ever), Larabar fruit bars (thanks to her again), and some delicious whole grain wraps for easy meals. Wow, thanks for the healthy food Costco!

Whew. Now I still have to think about what to make for dinner.

Garden Update

A few details for my own journaling...

Ella is here every day, stealing peas. Gotta love the mud. The peas are actually almost done. We have used them in four dishes and for snacking, bit it still seems crazy how few you really harvest from all that foliage!

A few of the beets are getting big enough to harvest! My friend told me she has a recipe for roasting beets... can't wait to try it.

My pumpkins are officially out of control. We are going to have pumpkins in the grass. In fact, my whole garden is getting huge. I am a person of structure, so veggies overgrowing their boundaries are driving me crazy. I knew I planted too closely, but I just had to maximize my minimal space!

We dug up our first carrots the other night. They are getting big!

The green beans are looking good... about ready to eat.

We also found our first cucumber about a week ago. It was hiding under the leaves so when I found it I was thrilled!

The oblong cherries are coming on, and we ate our first early girl last night. Tomatoe season, here we come.

My green pepper is getting big too. Wow, I can't believe everything is becoming usable all at once! Now I need to figure out when to harvest everything at the right time and how to use it all creatively!

Home Sweet Home

I went home last week... home home, like to my parents house where I grew up. This gorgeous bouquet of garden roses told me it must be summer.

I learned my love of all things green from my mom. She is an avid gardener and spends many hours a day out in her yard working and enjoying the fruit of her labors. I am excited to share it all through pictures, even though they don't do it justice!


I love my mom's roses. She planted them when we first moved into the house 20 years ago. This year they haven't been very healthy, so I helped her cut out a bunch of old dead wood, hoping that will invigorate the newer canes.

I should ask her all the varieties again, but I know she has Abe Lincoln (the red), Queen Elizabeth (small pink), and peace roses (yellow and pink).

This is one of my favorites because it smells lemony.

Some other fabulous flowers she grows every year are as follows:

Calendula

Poppies

Sweet pea

Nasturtium

Ranunculus

Hollyhock

And here is the garden. How 'bout a little tour?

On the right of the picture you'll see the raspberry patch. They are so yummy in August!

Onions

Lettuce (we had many salads with this while visiting)

She is also growing tomatoes, peppers, beets, carrots, beans, cabbage, cucumbers, squash, and peas.

A few more shots of the yard might give you a feel for the place. This it what greets you at the front door...

I love this bed in the back yard. Depending on the season it is full of iris, larkspur, and peonies.

This picture shows an area where Mom has worked really hard. When we moved into the house, she had the tree (center) cut down and turned the stump into a table. She went up to the hills in Oakley and collected the stone for the patio and laid it herself. On the right is the water fall and pond she built herself (don't mind Maddie's balloon stuck in the falls).

I love how the little statues and birdhouses add interest.

Here's another view from the upper patio... I always loved this little path under the trees.

My parents had this cement patio poured and stamped when they put in the hot tub and remodeled the master bedroom. I think it looks like it came out of Better Homes and Gardens!

Mom is really good at designing pots. I love the blue lobelia and the cascading green creeping jenny. She hand waters about 20 pots every day.

All of the pictures up to now have been the back yard! The front yard it pretty too, but needed a little TLC. Mom and I tackled this bed of columbine.

Columbine is a beautiful flower, but it seeds itself aggressively and completely took over this bed. It was almost done blooming, and Mom wanted some room for more annual color, so we removed about 2 feet in front and uncovered a rock path long ago buried!

I couldn't believe the taproots on these babies!

The after shot.

There's that pathway.

We filled the whole garbage can with columbine and some sweet woodruff (groundcover) and there was still a ton left in the bed!

I definitely scratched at my 'garden bug' working in and enjoying Mom's yard... but it left me wondering if I will ever have something like that of my very own? Then again, maybe it's like the way a grandma feels when her grandchildren leave... wonderful to see them and love them, but a relief to not have the daily work. :)