How Our Garden Grows

The beginning of our garden this year...

our garden a couple weeks ago...


our garden now...

I LOVE the fresh, organic produce we get from our garden, but everyday I swear I'm done gardening because it's just so much darn work!

Mmm Mmm Mmm

Last night for dinner we had one of our favorite dinners, Strip Steak & Candied Walnuts Salad. (not from a recipe, just a thrown together mix)

fresh lettuce from the garden
organic grass fed flank steak - seasoned, grilled & then cut into bite size pieces
feta cheese crumbles
Girard's Light Raspberry Vinaigrette
candied walnuts - in a skillet cook walnut pieces & butter for a couple minutes until golden brown. then add brown sugar, cook a couple minutes on med-high until melted & browned, then pour onto wax paper, let cool & break up into bite size pieces. Use approx 1 1/2 tbsp of butter & 2 tbsp brown sugar to every 1/2 cup of walnuts.

Mix it all together & enjoy!

What else is cooking in our kitchen...

Quinoa Salad with Chicken, Grapes & Almonds, this is an awesome dish, we liked it so well, when my mom had Bunco I made this & it was a HUGE success.

Another current favorite is Apple-Cheddar-Squash Soup from the Food Network. Very interesting taste & sooo addicting! Of course I've tweaked it a little bit, I use 6 golden yukon potatoes, 6 apples, 1 cup of apple cider, 1 cube of butter, veggie broth vs. chicken broth & I add a giant zucchini.

My mom's friend Robin turned me onto some new vegetarian cookbooks, so I've been visiting the local library & checking out different Moosewood Restaurant & Mollie Katzen Cookbooks. I've really enjoyed the recipes in these books & they have given me more confidence to try new things.

For more simple, kid friendly meals try Deceptively Delicious or The Sneaky Chef. Most of my family is picky, including myself, so a few years back I stumbled upon The Sneaky Chef on amazon & thought to myself, when I have kids, I'm going to need this book. So onto my wish list it went, it's still there by the way(I love books & have quite a big wish list of books to add to our already overflowing bookshelves). Anyways, my sister-in-law Rose got the Deceptively Delicious cookbook & raved about it, so one day I was at Marshall's & found it for a few bucks & decided what the heck. We've tried a couple different homemade chicken nuggets(I baked them instead of frying) & they turned out very yummy. I also love the Sweet Potato Pancakes & the Cauliflower Eggs, such a delicious & filling breakfast.

Anyways, I have to go cook now, because this post made me hungry!!!

Changes...

Over the last year we have made a conscious effort to become more green. Okay, really it was mostly me making decisions & the rest of the family willing to going along with them, but I know Jon believes in & whole-heartedly supports these changes. We strive to be green for the environment, our health & most importantly for our daughter's future. So I've decided to celebrate Earth Day I would like to share some of what we do to try & live a more environmentally responsible life. I hope this inspires you to make changes in your home & please share with me how you are living green, because I know there is sooo much more we can do.

Some of the stuff we've been doing for awhile is separating recyclables from trash, composting & using reusable grocery bags. One of our biggest changes this last year & a catapult towards many others was switching to cloth diapers.

Instead of disposable wipes & paper towels after meals, we've switched to Bummas wipes. You can just use wash clothes, but I really like the small size of these & the different color stitching, I change them out daily & each kid gets a different color for the day.

After watching Oprah's Earth Day special last year & seeing how many plastic water bottles are floating in the Pacific Ocean, I knew we had to make a major dent in the amount we used. So now we use our PUR Water Dispenser & our stainless steel water bottles!


To cut back on energy use, we dry our clothes outside on sunny days...

inside on a drying rack on rainy or cold days...

and then to fluff the clothes & cut down on drying time when we do use the dryer, Buddha Bunz wool dryer balls.

We try & buy foods that are organic, natural & range free.


And of course, our own organic garden!

We've started changing our personal hygiene products to be more natural & safe. It started with just products for Haley & then the love spread.

I LOVE natural remedies!!

We started replacing chemical filled cleaners with ecofriendly, natural cleaners. I really liked reading the label of the 7th Generation cleaner that said it is not for consumption, but it was not toxic if swallowed!! Makes me feel a little safer.

Happy Earth Day!!!

Online Shopping

In the past couple years I have found I prefer shopping online. Being able to order all of Haley's bath products while she's next to me napping, instead of having to drag her to the store, makes me feel good. I also like being able to price shop easily & I feel I have a larger selection of products online. Here are some of the sites I use to find good deals online.

DAILY DEAL WEBSITES
Some of these websites offer better items than others, but they all can offer great deals on great products. The top three sites listed are my personal favorites.

BABYSTEALS.COM

KIDSTEALS.COM

BABYHALFOFF.COM

ECOBABYBUYS.COM

GREENBABYBARGAINS.COM

MAMABARGAINS.COM

KIDSWOOT.COM

SHNOOP.COM

DODTRACKER.COM - This website shows a ton of other Deal of the Day websites


MEMBER/INVITATION DISCOUNT SITES

ZULILY.COM

GILTGROUPE.COM

HAUTELOOK.COM

BTRENDIE.COM

TOTSY.COM

THEMINISOCIAL.COM


A COUPLE OTHER FAVORITE SITES

6PM.COM - Here you can find some great deals on awesome brands. I love shopping for kid clothes here!

LUCKYVITAMIN.COM - This site is where we buy most of our health care products & household cleaners. They have a huge selection of natural products at amazing prices. They carry many brands Wholefoods carries, but for a fraction of the price.