August Meal Plan: Week Two....Farmer's Market Bounty!

I actually did pretty well last week on our grocery budget...we went over by about $20 (after our trips to Whole Foods, Target and Costco were totaled), but for the first week I'm still happy with that. I also found that the fridge was bare by the end of the week, but we had plenty to eat every day and for once I wasn't throwing a ton of spoiled food out at the end of the week! This week I decided to try and save even more by heading to the farmer's market and buying produce there. It was a lot of fun and we got ciabatta rolls, baguettes, fingerling potatoes, honey, blueberries, green cabbage, cauliflower, broccolini, broccoli, apples, baby bok choy, cucumbers, sweet basil and fresh flowers all for $46! 

One nice thing about farmer's markets is that a lot of farmers will follow organic practices, but just won't pay the extra money to become "certified organic" and are able to sell their produce more cheaply...all you have to do is ask if they use fertilizers/pesticides...and of course trust that they are telling the truth =)

Charles and I also had a delicious breakfast of Thai summer rolls with sweet chili sauce for $4...kind of a weird breakfast, but they are one of our fave things to eat.

I made my meal plan after going to the farmer's market so that I could buy whatever produce looked good, and now I'm headed to Whole Foods and Target to pick up the other ingredients I need to complete my shopping list for the week (for hopefully under $54!). Looks like tomorrow will be filled with some baking for our family! 

August Meal Plan: Week One...Challenge Accepted!

Well I've been bad the past couple months....I've been making several trips a WEEK to Target, buying too many delicious baked goods at Whole Foods and becoming too well-know at my local Chipolte...I promised Charles I would stick to a budget this month...ok, you can stop your laughing. I have accepted the challenge of keeping our groceries to $400 this month and the only way I can ever see that happening is by creating a meal plan and sticking to it.

One thing I've found that make meal plans a lot less stressful and a lot easier to make is to just throw meals on there...don't worry about what day you are putting the meal down for, just get it on there and then throughout the week cross meals off as you make them. Have a rough day at work and don't feel like throwing together that fancy meal you had planned? Pick one of the easier meals that you threw down on another day...it's mostly just to help you succeed with your "one trip to the grocery store a week" goal. Also don't get too ambitious (esp if you are on a budget)...kids, husbands...they both like certain meals and don't mind having them more than once a week =)

And don't judge...I'm bad and only have coffee for breakfast.

5 Year Garden Plan: Starting Seeds Indoors UPDATE

A couple of weeks after planting my first batch of seeds I decided to improve my process by adding the plastic tops to the foil pans my trays were in. It helps keeps the seeds warmer, which increases their germination rate, and it helps keep the air and soil moist. I actually haven't watered them in about 3 weeks because of this "greenhouse" affect, which has been very convenient for me...my cucumber seeds popped up in about 3 days!

5 Year Garden Plan: Starting Seeds Indoors

This year I decided to start my plants indoors so that I could save on money (since seeds are cheaper than mature plants) and so that I could get an earlier harvest. I wanted to create my own "greenhouse" in our basement so I knew I needed a way to keep the soil warm. I decided to use rope lights as a way to heat the soil from beneath....I needed something that was fire-resistant and could conduct heat to surround the lights in...

I decided to put down some leftover ceramic tile and layer the rope light in-between them...I figured it was kind of like in floor heating and after a day the tiles were nice and warm.

I bought seeds trays and put them inside aluminum foil pans, since they are fire resistant as well and conduct heat...this way the excess water that drips down would be contained. Charles hung a cheap light over and put grow lights in it to help keep the plants warm and since they aren't getting direct light in the basement.

I was excited when I saw a couple small plants start to poke up after only 10 days!

Plant Based Diet: Miso Soup

This is one of my favorite soup recipes. I always order a cup of miso soup when I go out for sushi, and I wanted a way to re-create it at home. Miso is basically fermented soybeans, and it has a lot of great nutritional benefits and has been used in Japan for centuries. It contains all the essential amino acids, making it a complete protein, restores healthy probiotics and helps with digestion. I also happen to love the flavor. Whole Foods just started to sell a miso broth that is the same price as their vegetable broth so I decided to use this as an opportunity to re-create this amazing soup.

Ingredients:

1) Miso Broth (Whole Foods just started to sell a miso broth that is the same price as their vegetable broth so I decided to use this as an opportunity to re-create this amazing soup.)

2) Dried Shitake Mushrooms (I got this huge container of it at Costco.)

3) Nori (dried seaweed sheets, I just buy the small "snack" chips like this one and crumble them up)

4) Shredded carrot and diced green onions

Method:

1) Combine miso broth, about 1/2c of dried mushrooms and 3-4 crumbled seaweed snacks into a soup pot

2) Bring to a boil and then simmer about 15-20 min (so that the dried mushrooms have a chance to become more tender)

3) Ladle the soup directly over the carrots and green onions...this helps keeps the veggies crisp while still heating them up

Paired with a nice hot green tea this is the perfect meal for a cold winter day...plus it's low calorie and filling which is a nice bonus so I try to have it for lunch a couple times a week.

5 Year Garden Plan: Buying Seeds

About the middle of January the weather here was FREEZING cold! With the windshield the temperatures reached below zero. While the wind was howling outside, I resisted the urge to annoy Charles by loudly singing "Baby it's cold out SIIIDE!!!" Instead I poured over my seed catalog, coffee mug in hand, and planned my garden for this year.

 I bought from the Botanical Interests website. I bought their seeds last year and was impressed with them. They are a small family-run company who offer a large variety of organic, heirloom, non-GMO seeds. Their prices are reasonable too and their seed packets come packed with information. This year I bought my seeds with the following strategy in mind:

1) Vegetables/Herbs that I buy every week at the grocery store (like tomatoes and cilantro)
2) Vegetables that are the most expensive at the grocery store (like brussel sprouts and peppers)
3) High yield vegetables (like beans and peas)
4) At least 1 vegetable that I'm not familiar with (like Kohlrabi)

And this is the list of seeds I ended up buying:

Bean Bush Blue Lake 274 Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Bean Pole Trionfo Violetto HEIRLOOM Seeds

Beet Gourmet Blend Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Cabbage Chinese Michihili HEIRLOOM Seeds

Corn Sweet Sugarbaby (bicolor) Seeds

Cucumber Homemade Pickles Organic Seeds

Onion Bunching/Scallion Tokyo Long White HEIRLOOM Seeds

Onion Ringmaster Seeds

Pea Snow Oregon Sugar Pod II Organic Seeds

Pea Shelling Green Arrow HEIRLOOM Seeds

Pepper Sweet California Wonder Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Turnip Purple Top White Globe Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Rutabaga American Purple Top HEIRLOOM Seeds

Spinach Bordeaux Seeds

Tomato Pole Red Siberian HEIRLOOM Seeds

Tomato Bush Glacier Seeds

Tomato Cherry Sun Gold Seeds

Bok Choy Toy Choy Seeds

Kohlrabi Purple & White Vienna Blend HEIRLOOM Seeds

Micro Greens Savory Mix Seeds

Lettuce Romaine Little Gem Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Lettuce Romaine Parris Island HEIRLOOM Seeds

Kale Dwarf Blue Curled HEIRLOOM Seeds

Kale Redbor Seeds

Stevia Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Cilantro/Coriander Long Standing Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Basil Italian Genovese Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Celery Utah Organic HEIRLOOM Seeds

Brussels Sprouts Long Island Improved HEIRLOOM Seeds

Garden Stakes 10/pack

I'm pretty sure I bought way too many seeds (and Charles raised his eyebrows when he found out I spent $70 on seeds), but I'm sure I will have some leftover for next year's garden plus if when this garden is a success I will be saving twice that much each month this summer on my grocery bill AND hopefully have enough to preserve for fall/winter.

I'm also planning on buying some seed potatoes this spring and trying to grow those for the first time as well. What's your favorite thing to grow in your garden every year?

5 Year Garden Plan: The Ultimate Kitchen Garden

I have wanted a huge vegetable garden for years, but our backyard in Greenville was way too small (and the soil too hard) and the last two summers we were living at my parent's house (where we did have a medium-sized successful garden the first year). Now that we have our own place again, and plan on this being our "forever" home I'm dreaming BIG when it comes to my garden.

This is the plan I drew up to visualize my dream and so that as we work on the rest of the landscaping we can keep this in mind and not  put a sprinkler head in the wrong spot or pay to seed an area I want to rip up and plant next year. (Excuse my horrible sketching skills. Charles always laughs at me when I play pictionary)

 While I would love to have my ultimate garden right away the cost is too phenomenal, plus I like having something to new to look forward to each year. This is my "5 Year Garden Plan" and while I'm sure I won't follow it exactly it's nice to see my goals have a timeline.


Year One: Raised Beds and Apple Orchard
Year Two: Fence with Chicken Wire and Arbor with Gate
Year Three: Fruit Bushes and Grape Vines
Year Four: Greenhouse
Year Five: Outdoor dining set


My ultimate goal each year though is to keep a gardening journal so that I remember what grows well in my garden, what we actually eat, how much of it we eat, if it preserves well and take that date and use it to grow the variety of vegetables I grow each year (like tea, pears, endive) and have a garden that work specifically for our family.