Frontyard Foodie

Today was rough, work has been insane but I could look forward to tonight since Shane and I weren’t going to be doing anything in particular. According to my meal plan it was fish day!  So, I decided to make two different batches of fish because only two would fit in the skillet and also I wanted to use two slightly different sets of ingredients. So, for the first batch I melted butter in the skillet and put the fillets in that with some salt, garlic, pepper and lemon juice on top. I let them cook very slowly so that they would stay flaky.

The juices cooked down quite a bit and coated the fish with flavor. The next batch I used a little oil instead of butter. The fillets turned out incredibly tender, juicy and soooooo tasty! This is my second attempt at fish since leaving my vegan lifestyle and it was a successful attempt! Why don’t I always make my own food!? haha. Here’s my plate with some potatoes and a salad.

It was entirely satisfying. I can’t tell you how good it was to eat a full meal for once. It was great. I cleansed my palate with few quartered strawberries in maple syrup. To die for!

Here’s an update of my lovely little sprout. It has some great leaves and is really doing beautifully. Or should I say THEY are doing beautifully. All of them have roots and stalks with little leaves on top.

I love seeing baby leaves unfold. This has literally only been a few days after planting them. Literally a miracle!!

Have a great evening!

As the snow falls down AGAIN outside I can take joy in at least one thing…..my lovely sprouting beans. Someone asked me what I’m going to do with them when they get big and I didn’t really have an answer…..maybe stake them and transplant them into bigger pots or something. The point is, they’re really satisfying my need to have green and growing things around me. So, yesterday the lovely little sprout looked like this.

So adorable! And this morning I photographed it again because every day they get bigger!

Sorry for the blur. It’s leaves are already coming out! I love watching that. I actually have five of these lovely sprouts and they all look like this now.

It does help that citrus fruit are in season in the winter as well so here’s my breakfast.

Happy Monday everyone!

Yesterday I had a headache, not just any headache but a migraine strength one. However, I was spared most other migraine headache symptoms like loss of sight, numbness and shaking. Nausea was present. So, I ate badly again. I had my green smoothie in the morning and a couple pieces of fruit but since I worked late I got home exhausted and totally in pain so I just crashed on the couch to sleep off the headache. Shane, being the sweetheart he is ordered some Chinese. Here’s my veggie stir fry. The sad thing is, this was pictured after I ate what I could.

It was sweet anyway and I will I’m sure appreciate the leftovers later. Today was busy at work again and I stayed late again. I ate some fruit but not much else between all the craziness. However, on my meal plan for tonight I had Spinach Fettucini alfredo and I was determined to make that. So first I made the sauce and added the spinach.

Fresh spinach is a wonderful thing. When I mixed it in it became this lovely piece of work.

Once over the noodles it looked like this. Shane wasn’t terribly hungry so this is his smaller portion. I’ll be saving these for his lunches.

I still am struggling with my headache and plan on spending the evening resting and perhaps watching some MI-5 (read it and weep Amy, I got season 5) while drinking tea, eating fruit and maybe left over Chinese!

If you’d like an update on my little sprout here’s what it looked like this morning!

Right now it’s got some leaves coming out! I’ll photo it tomorrow morning and hopefully each morning!

Growing up in a family that owned a greenhouse business you would have though I’d be more in tune with the miracle of growing things but I never was involved enough (by my own accord) to understand or feel it. After moving out I started to crave gardening but had no place to do it and I moved around to much. Once I got married though and settled into a house with  yard I knew that the first thing I wanted to do was set up a garden.

Now I’m so into growing that during the winter I can’t very well handle not growing things. I made it all the way til last week and finally decided it wouldn’t hurt anything just to pop some seeds into a few pots right? So I did. I had some pots with dirt in them lying around and so I went through my personal seed stash and tried to find something fun to plant in them.

I settled on a Sugar Snap Pea! They’re fun to watch and are actually early spring plants. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them later but for right now I’m just enjoying watching them sprout.

Isn’t it beautiful? I get excited just thinking about it. The crazy thing is that by the time I get home it’ll be completely changed.  I love that.

Anyway, this morning I started out with a big, frothy, green smoothie.

This is my way of dutifully getting things of to a good start. Though I’ll be working late today and probably won’t get a proper dinner in til bedtime! I’m hoping otherwise though and fully plan on fill this bad boy up with water when I’m finished drinking the green. Also, I need tea because I have headache.

Have a wonderful morning!

Well today I didn’t do so well on my new resolution. Work got really busy and I didn’t drink nearly enough water and only had a couple oranges and an apple all day. I really feel the difference as usual and have been trying to make it up to myself tonight. First I had a ‘potato salad’. Which basically was a baked potato with lettuce on top and some salad dressing. It may sound weird but hey, it was good.

I also added some hot sauce which was a nice boost on flavor. Gosh I love that stuff.

For the meal plan today was an antipasto salad. However, Shane was at a City Council meeting and I had my bible study. Since I got home before he did I made dinner for him to be ready when he got home. Little did I know that he had eaten before he went to the meeting! Here’s the salad though and I fully plan on reusing this! I took off all the toppings though so that everything wouldn’t get yucky!

It was the thought that counts! hehe

Then I enjoyed a grapefruit with maple syrup that was simply delightful! I’m about to go to bed after finishing up some 30 Rock.

Good night all and have deep, dreamy sleep…..which is what I’ve been having lately.

Alrighty, in regards to my promise I drank water this morning and had some fruit. But not nearly enough I’m afraid.

I had a couple oranges and another apple but that was it all day. Unfortunately that is not adequate but it’s better than usual.When I got home though I was decidedly set on following through with my meal plan! So I got started straight away on the squash. I lathered it with a bit of oil and sprinkled it with sea salt before popping it in the oven. Did an extra few for leftovers sake.

I also put sweet potatoes in with it. Then I got on with the sauce. First sauteing some onions, garlic and peppers!

so fresh and yummy looking!

They smelled so good! I love the smell of sauteed veggies and they fill the house with cheer. I added some of the herbs I saved and froze from my garden….rosemary, chives, oregano and parsley.

I then added the tomatoes to it and it became this steaming, tomatoey yumminess!

Then I plucked out the sweet potatoes and got them all mashed up. After that I added cinnamon, nutmeg, maple syrup and mixed it together and put it in a casserole pan. Then I topped it with some butter, organic unbleached flour, cocoa powder, salt, maple syrup and spices. I heated it for a bit and it came out to this!

Then I put my plate together. As I had previously stated I need more salad. So I got my salad, a bit of spaghetti and a half a sweet potato. I made the casserole for Shane since he likes the sweet version.

It was hearty and satisfying! Now we’re chilling and I feel about to crash! The worst is that it’s only 8! I’m such an old person. haha

Now, I’m well on my way to my new resolutions and so far I feel a hundred times better.

This new year has brought some struggles for me health wise and this morning I woke up with a new resolve.

I’ve let a few habits I have held dear slip and I need to readdress them and change my ways. The first thing that I have done wrong is established an eating schedule that is not conducive to good digestion. I’m busy at work and I seem to just leave eating at the door and then when I get home pick up where I left off. Not eating all day is definitely not a good thing.

The second thing I’ve done utterly wrong is that my meals have been sadly lacking greens. Even though I’ve had many green smoothies I haven’t had enough in the way of salads and that’s about to change.

Thirdly, my water intake has been lower than usual. I try to drink at least a gallon of water per day which is necessary for me since I have digestive system issues (sorry for tmi!) and I simply haven’t been reaching that quota and instead have been drinking alot more tea. I still want to have tea but I need to limit it to only a cup or two a day.

So, today I’ll be starting fresh with muchos greens and water! Tonight on my meal plan is Spaghetti Squash with marinara sauce and a salad. I’m going to go heavy on the salad, light on the spaghetti. I’ll be posting about that tonight!

Question: What eating habits do you feel the need to follow in order to feel good?

Besides the snow coming down outside the past couple days have been a flurry! From half day meetings to car repairs I haven’t had a moment to think except for the few moments just before bed where I’m in a sleepy haze.

We needed to get some groceries so we promptly went to do that as the cold was getting rather bitter and snow was starting to fall heavier. Before we left I inventoried what food we had in the house and made a two week meal plan (week nights only) so I’d be sure to write a grocery list that would fit the plan AND use all the things I still had in the house. Here’s my brief scribble of the plan.

So when we got home today finally I wanted to eat and then relax. So I promptly fixed dinner. Something easy and yummy. Sandwiches! I don’t have sandwiches very often so it’s sort of like a treat. I don’t handle bread super duper so I cut mine very thin to keep it from getting overwhelming. For Shane’s sandwich I did his favorite which he requested…..roast beef with horseradish sauce. I wanted it to be nice and warm for this freezing cold day so first I assembled the cheese and meat. The cheese is provolone.

Then I put it in the oven for a few minutes to get it nice and warm and when I pulled it out I put some horseradish sauce labeled ‘extra hot’ on there.

Apparently this WAS a hot sauce because he was practically crying the whole time he ate! I think he enjoyed it immensely though. haha. I made myself a very veggie sandwich. I put hummus and mustard as condiments and piled on avocado, tomato, peppers, and lettuce. It was so good!

It was certainly delicious! I had a bunch of fruit at work today so the saltiness was definitely a nice change. here’s my breakfast.

Pear, peach and nectarine! I also sipped on chammomile tea and throughout the day had more fruit.

Last night I’d like to mention one really nice bonus snack I had. It’s a whole fruit sorbet but for some reason the mango flavor has only like three ingredients and it’s sooooo mango-ish! Other flavors contain corn syrup and many other strange things but not mango!

So good!

We just watched Babel (not good) and now are going to chill a bit more before hitting the sack. Have a good night and a wonderful weekend!

Each year I try to learn a bit more about eating in season and how it can be done. At first (about three years ago) I just looked at what was in season all around the world and picked up it up at the grocery store knowing it would have the highest nutrients it could at those times. Then next year I looked into what was in season locally and  attempted to stay within those bounds so that the food I’d be eating would  travel shorter distances and therefore be in better condition and have a higher nutrient content. Last year I attempted to grow what I could for each season with the space I had. It was very eye opening! This year I’m going to take what I learned from last year and really apply it to my gardening and food choices.

Spring is around the corner and next month marks the start of sprouting. I will be documenting this very heavily with photos and notes so that I can better learn from what I’m doing. Here’s a run down of local, in season, foods for each time of year. If you live somewhere outside the midwest I really encourage you to find out what is in season in your area and challenge you to try and stay within those bounds.

Here in Kansas City the season starts fairly early since many greens can both sprout and grow comfortably in very cold weather even enduring frosts.

I’ll go by season not month since so many different things cross each month.

Spring-lettuce, spinach, kale, peas, swiss chard, arugala, garlic, parsnips, radishes, rhubarb, cherries,   and various herbs.

Summer- tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, leeks, melons, cucumbers, summer squashes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, potatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, eggplants, corn, radishes, beets, rhubarb, zucchini, peaches, plums, green beans, turnips, collard greens and many different herbs.

Fall- beets, carrots, leeks, parsnips, winter squash, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, turnips, apples, pears, radishes, and various herbs.

Winter- beets, carrots, leeks, parsnips, kale, collard greens, and turnips.

With a simple cold house you can grow much more in the winter. Right now in my garden my turnips are still beautiful! However, it’s nearly impossible to live off of only in-season foods unless you have a very clean diet and a very good facility. So, you have to learn to increase crops so that you can store them at their peak of nutritional value. This past year I did my best to do this by freezing berries, and greens, dehydrating tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash and canning anything I could.

So far I still am making green smoothies from frozen kale and collard greens and freshly frozen berries picked in season. I’m eating pickles from my cucumber patch, and apples from the orchard. I am utilizing dried peppers which I hung in my garage for many things from chili paste, pepper flakes and salsas. It’s great! I can see my areas for improvement next year though and they are very large. Here is a list of my goals for growing, storing and eating my produce.

1. eat as much of the produce as possible during the actual harvest season.

2. make time to create storage by prioritizing time.

3. plant a larger variety of produce.

4. learn new ways to store produce.

5. get more of the in-season local produce from farmers during times when my own garden has minimal output.

We’ll see how it goes! I’m ridiculously excited about this years gardening because of how much I learned last year.

Question: do you have a garden?

Yesterday Shane and a some friends found a Price Chopper with a rather extraordinary produce section. When seeing cactus he gave me a call and we decided to have a taco fiesta. Cactus is rather rare around here and the only place I’ve ever seen it is Fiesta Azteca. So, he grabbed that, some steak, poblano peppers and fresh made corn tortillas! As soon as I got home I went to work. First I made some guacamole to tide myself over til dinner because I hadn’t eaten properly all day.

Made with avocado, tomato, lime juice, garlic, salt, onions and cumin.

Then I whipped out the cactus and got the prickles off the leaves…

Leaving as much skin on as possible without prickles I sliced them up.

Then I got the poblano pepper and sliced them up to.

Isn’t it just a beauty?! I added onion and garlic to the bowl with the peppers and cactus and then sprinkled it lightly with flour, cayenne and chili powder and tossed it so that it looked like this.

That way when I add any liquid it turns into a nice thick sauce. So I plopped that into a skillet with some water and hot sauce and it came out all blubbling and gorgeous like this.

For Shane I was doing steak so I sliced it and put it in a hot skillet with salt, garlic and Worcestershire sauce and seared them.

Hot! Then I just put the whole mess on warmed corn tortillas for him with sharp cheddar and sour cream. For me I just put a bunch of things together and ate it but this was way to much food.

I did add hot sauce to. It was way to much and I ended up being far to full and not finishing it.

But we watched Life is Beautiful and it made everything better. That movie is incredible although I bawled at the end as usual.

Question: What movies make you cry?