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Growing Radishes

We had a yummy salad last night, made with lettuce, swiss chard, and radish from our square foot garden.  I can’t believe I’m actually succeeding at growing food!  My girls little fingers planted the radish seeds and it was their little hands that pulled the radishes from the soil last night, so they were pretty excited to eat them. I’ve never been able to get them to eat radishes, but their curiosity got the best of them and they gobbled them up! (as long as they were drenched in dressing:))

Radishes are not at all hard to grow.  They like cooler temperatures (below 75 degrees), so they were one of the first vegetables we planted.  They can be started 4-6 weeks before the last frost date.  Plant the seeds 1/2 inch deep, 2-3 inches apart (I fit 16 in a square foot of my garden.)  They germinate quickly, (3-10 days), and mature quickly (20-40 days.)  They can be grown in containers due to their shallow root systems.  They are super easy, and a great way to start out our gardening season!
This post is linked to:

11
RECIPES/ Sides

Easy Cheesy Mini Bagels

Sara Lee sells Whole Wheat Mini Bagels with NO high fructose corn syrup..yippee! 

 I made spaghetti for dinner tonight.   I am one who just can’t eat spaghetti without some time of bread to dip in the sauce, but I had no time to make bread.  I had these mini bagels on hand, so I:

~spread on some butter
~sprinkled with garlic salt
~sprinkled with cheese
~put ’em under the broiler until golden and melty!


As I was dipping them in the sauce, I thought
about how easy it would be to make Homemade
Bagel Bite Mini Pizzas.  I could make a bunch
ahead of time and freeze them, then just pop them
in the oven when needed.  With fiber from the
bagels and protein from the cheese, it would make
a pretty filling and healthy snack.  I’m sure that
will be a future post!:)

2
RECIPES/ Sides

French Lentil Soup

photo by photobunny

I make homemade soup for my husband every week.  He takes a mason jar off to work each day, filled with a healthful portion of vegetable goodness.  He would be happy eating the same soup, every day, every week– but that is WAY too boring for me.  I love finding new easy, healthy soup recipes, and this one from Zakka Life caught my eye as just that!  I made it, and it is a keeper, one I will make often!

Lentils are a super food.  They are inexpensive and high in protein, iron, calcium, and fiber.
The fiber in lentils helps lower cholesterol levels.  They are also beneficial in managing blood sugar because it is a low glycemic food.  The great mix of fiber and protein will fill you up and keep you full, even an hour later.

 

French Lentil Soup
3 Tbs olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery (I used 1/2 cup)
1 cup chopped carrots
3 garlic cloves, minced
4-5 cups chicken stock (homemade makes a world of difference!) or vegetable stock
11/4 cups dried lentils, rinsed and drained
14 oz can diced tomatoes plus juice
3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
(I also added a bit of thyme and rosemary, about 1/2 tsp thyme, and 1/4 tsp rosemary)

1. In a large pot, saute onions, garlic, carrots, and celery in olive oil for about 10-15 minutes.
2. Add lentils, chicken stock, and diced tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 35 minutes.
3. When lentils are tender, add balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

Here are more of my healthy soup recipes:

Chicken Tortilla Crockpot Soup

Acorn Squash & Sweet Potato Soup

Homemade Chicken Soup

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup

8
Meals/ RECIPES/ Sides

Veri Teriyaki Bowtie Spinach Salad

I am very excited about this spinach salad recipe.  I found it at one of my favorite blogs “The Dear Diary Stories.”  Marta is the author, and she said she eats a version of it almost every week.  If you want to see beautiful photos of this recipe, click on over to her site.

So let’s start with the dressing-oh yum.  I think the key ingredient is Soy Vay Veri Veri Teri Yaki Marinade. Why did I not know about this product?

I found it at Walmart and was happy to see that it did not have high fructose corn syrup in it.  My girls loved it, to my relief, because they are very picky about their salad dressings!

I made this recipe last night for the first time.  We had about an hour before we had to leave for my daughter’s soccer game, so I needed something for dinner that was fast and healthy.

I threw some chicken on the grill (seasoned with grill seasoning), put some noodles on to boil, and chopped a red pepper. The dressing went together in a snap-I used a mason jar of course. 🙂

This dish is well rounded, it contains a protein, carb, vegetables, and fruit- all in the one dish.  It took maybe 20 minutes to make–I love feeding my family easy, healthy “fast” food:)


Veri Teriyaki Bowtie Spinach Salad 

16 oz. bowtie pasta, cooked and rinsed with cold water to cool
1 bag of baby spinach
1-2 cans of mandarin oranges
1 cup craisins
1 red pepper, chopped
1 bunch green onions (didn’t use)
1 cup peanuts or cashews (didn’t use)
1/2 cup fresh parsley (optional-didn’t use)

1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted (optional-didn’t use)

  2 cups cooked chicken (optional)

Dressing:
1 cup oil ( I used canola, wondering if olive oil would taste mild enough for this)
2/3 cup white wine vinegar (didn’t have any, used rice vinegar-was great!)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2/3 cup Soy Vay Teriyaki sauce (or any brand-I recommend Soy Vay!)
5 Tbs sugar (I used rapadura)

Cook pasta according to directions.  Drain and rinse with cold water, let sit while whisking the dressing together.  (I put it all in a jar and gave it a good shake)  Pour dressing over pasta and let refrigerate for an hour ( I skipped this, didn’t have time).  Combine salad ingredients in a bowl, add pasta/dressing and combine.

***I put all the ingredients in separate small bowls and let my family build their own salads.  It worked well, no soggy leftover salad.

****The next day,  I tossed all the leftovers, (minus the spinach and mandarin oranges) together in a bowl, added cut up clementines, and it made the most amazing, fresh-tasting pasta salad!! Mmmm.

16
RECIPES/ Sides

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I had a ginormous sweet potato sitting around my kitchen for a week.  Today I decided to do something with it, so I…

~cut it up into 1 ‘ cubes
~ put them in a pan with enough water to cover, and boiled until tender, about 10 minutes.
~drained
~added 3 tbls maple syrup
~added a splash of whole milk
~added 2 tbls butter
~added 1/2 tsp cinnamon
~added 1/2 tsp salt
~whipped them until smooth w/ my stick hand blender

…and was very happy with the result.  The maple syrup brought the sweetness out of the potato without making it overly sweet.  The salt and cinnamon should be added to taste.  The milk is to help make them creamy when whipping.  The size of the potato I used was at least 2 maybe 3 normal size sweet potatoes…it was huge!

This post linked to:
 30 Minute Blog Challenge @ Steady Mom
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday @Blessed With Grace
Tuesdays At The Table @ All The Small Stuff
Tasty Tuesday @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

15
RECIPES/ Sides

Creamy Potato and Corn Chowder

I loved the “oh mom, yum” and the “I love eating my vegetables like this, mom” that came from my kids mouths tonight at the dinner table. I am doing the “Eat From Your Pantry” Challenge, so I was very excited that I had all the ingredients on hand to make this Creamy Potato and Corn Chowder recipe.

I had homemade chicken stock, in mason jars, in the freezer, (read about the amazing nutrition homemade chicken bone stock has, here) and 1/2 a carton of heavy cream, leftover from a Christmas quiche that I made. I used a bag of frozen mixed vegetables instead of the corn for added nutrients.

It really, really was good. I can’t stress enough the amazing flavor homemade chicken stock adds to soups! It just makes for a deeper, richer flavor. Try it!

For the soup recipe, click here.

 

5
Holidays/Parties/ RECIPES/ Sides

Frosted Grapes/New Year’s Eve Tradition

I found a box of jello looking very lonely in the very back of my pantry while I was organizing yesterday. It made me happy because it is an ingredient we use for one of our New Year’s Eve traditions. We sit at the table with a bowl of frosted grapes, and pass it around. Each person has to take a grape, name a favorite memory that happened during the year, eat it, and pass the bowl to the next person. We do this 12 times. It is just fun and silly, the girls love it.
I have grapes on hand, leftover from Chicken Salad that I made a few days ago,
so we are set for our tradition!
Click here for the recipe!!

**I recommend NOT using red jello on green grapes, unless it is close to Halloween and you want to feel like you are eating some type of alien food. Not very pretty. Stick with white/light colored jello or use red grapes.


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