Colorful Foods

Even thought it's winter and my garden is frozen, I am trying hard to eat lots of produce. My Grandma Jensen taught my Dad who taught me that it's important to eat all the colors of the rainbow.

Even though I've heard that all my life (recognize the rainbow platter? I've done it before), I never really knew why until I read a new book written by my sister-in-law, Alison, called "The Fix: How a More Integrative Body-Mind Approach Creates Lasting Health."

She explained it so well when she wrote:

"Flavonoids are plant pigments, but ingesting flavonoids is not at all the same as eating crayons! Flavonoids protect plants from microbes, insects, and fungi, and so it's not surprising that they inhibit bacteria and viruses in humans. They are also known to help modify certain cell responses, thus boosting health, and additionally acting in ways that are anti-allergic or anti-cancer. Some flavonoids you may have heard of include catechins, which are found in green tea, and quercetin, found in apples.

Carotenoids are also plant pigments that are known to aid the immune system in addition to having many other positive effects on the body. Lycopene is a carotenoid (tomatoes, watermelon, and pink grapefruit) associated with prostate health as well as with it's potential for preventing breast cancer.

Now it makes more sense why you'd want to fill your plate with colorful fruits and vegetables -- these colorful pigments promote good health."

And that is just a tiny taste of how great her book is! It explains complicated subjects in a way that makes it easy for unscientific people (like me) to understand and incorporate into life, and describes why things we do and don't do are so important to our health. It is refreshing and encouraging and makes me want to be better, because now I understand the why behind it. She is also really funny and I love her hints of humor throughout.

I really feel like she wrote it for me at this time. She addresses the disconnect between conventional medicine and alternative medicine and helps you integrate the best of each. She talks about prevention and increasing overall health, and finding root causes of problems rather than suppressing symptoms. 

Basically I am very grateful to her for her timely advice for me personally, and I think everyone should read it! It is amazing and will help anyone identify one or more things they can do to better take care of themselves. 

Yummy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos

We all know I am not a food blogger, but I do love to share a good recipe when I find one.

These black bean burritos start with roasting some veggies to perfection. The recipe calls for sweet potatoes, which would be perfect for this time of year, but I didn't have any on hand. I did, however have lots of butternut squash to use up from the garden, so I tried it. Having had it both ways, I think they are interchangeable!
 

Another change I made to the recipe was using coconut oil for the roasting. Not only does it smell and taste divine, but it's also better for you. You can see the veggies were still steaming when I took this picture, and it was all I could do to not eat the whole pan!

Nevertheless, I continued on and added the black beans and cheese, and rolled them up in tortillas to bake to perfection. Check out Mel's link for the recipe!

The Tomato Hornworm

Meet our giant caterpillar, otherwise known as the tomato hornworm.

I had no idea we had a problem until I was cleaning out the garden and throwing tomato plants away. My sister pulled up while I was working, so I threw my gloves on the ground and didn't come back to them until the next day. Imagine my surprise when I tried to put my glove on and this thing was filling up an entire finger!!! Needless to say, I am pretty sure my neighbors heard my squeal.

I have never seen a tomato hornworm here in UT, but I did have them once in Las Vegas when I tried to grow tomatoes in my backyard. They are hard to see because of their color and they tend to feed on foliage inside the plant, so if your tomatoes are as overgrown as mine were, good luck finding them!

I guess he didn't do enough damage for me to notice, or perhaps again I just had too many tomatoes. I did read that marigolds planted nearby help to deter these monster pests, so my garden will be really colorful next year!

Tomatillo Salsa Verde

A neighbor gave us a huge bag of tomatillos from their garden. I have never grown or used them before, so I set out to learn how to make use of them!

One of our favorite dinner recipes is a honey lime chicken enchilada with salsa verde sauce. I did a quick google search for salsa verde and found a great one on allrecipes.com here.

First step is to hull and wash the tomatillos and put them in a pot with 2 cups of water to boil until soft (along with remaining ingredients).

Then blend everything in batches small enough for the blender to handle without exploding. And that's it! It was so simple and fast!

Our enchiladas turned out better than ever. I love making things from scratch and enjoying them even more than the store bought, preservative and chemical laden version.

End of the Season

Well with the first few freezes recently, it's officially the end of the growing season. I am sad about it this year (not being pregnant makes such a big difference)! One of our neighbors ripped everything out of their garden and tilled it already, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that!

All of the vine vegetables had frozen and died back, so I did clean those out (pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, and squash).
 

Our last little crop. Now that they are gone, I am realizing how much I took for granted just going out to the garden when I needed something!

We picked the last of the ripe tomatoes, but I left them in hoping a few more would ripen. As usual, my plants are loaded with green tomatoes!

This is the side of the garden we are still using. The carrots and beets are root veggies, so the frost doesn't affect them. (Even after doing my pickled beets, we still have tons!!) We are loving the fall planting of lettuce, and still watching the broccoli and peas to see if we can get anything before winter sets in.

In the rest of the yard, we are excited that our back yard grass is finally getting thick! Most of the weeds are gone, although the clover is still pretty bad. Hopefully with a little spraying and dying back in the winter, the grass can win the battle and be beautiful next year!

This isn't really "ours" but it's on our property line so now it's "ours", if you know what I mean! Our next door neighbor built a retaining wall themselves, and I spent a chunk of my Saturday throwing their gravel and small rocks back so it wasn't in my flower beds. I have a feeling I will be the one weeding their wall, but despite that, I think it's a nice addition to the yard.

Sunflower Seeds

The mammoth sunflowers are hanging heavy and we decided it was time to try roasting some seeds!

You can tell which ones are ready because they are more dried up. I don't know the technical names but the flower above still has all the pollen balls on it, and the one below has lost them and you can see the seeds in concentric lines, ready for harvest!

Ella and Maddie helped me find the four most ready heads and haul them into the garage. We let them dry in the cool dark place for a couple of days.

Then it was time to remove the seeds! Ella's little fingers were better at this than mine, but it still took a good while and a dose of patience!
 

Still going...

Tyler was a good helper too. I finally realized that turning the head over the colander and rubbing the seeds to loosen them was a lot faster than removing them one by one!

We soaked out seeds in a salt solution overnight. The recipe I used said to use 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of salt per 2 quarts of water, and I did the 1/4 cup. I think if I did it again I would try 1/2 cup because I like salty seeds!

I dumped off the water and spread them on a cookie sheet and baked them at 300 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until browned and roasted. They are a little earthier tasting than sunflower seeds from the store, but I feel so accomplished for growing them myself!

Garden Salad

I am loving our fall garden! 

When I need a side for dinner I just run out and grab everything I need for an authentic garden salad: mixed greens, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

I am definitely converted to growing lettuce twice a year... I always feel jipped in the spring because the lettuce is still thick but it goes bitter when temps get hot.

Now if only my spinach would ever perform well!