Posts Tagged ‘garden’

It has been about a month and a half since I planted my windowsill herb garden so I thought I would give you guys an update as to how things are growing. My herbs are growing slowly but surely. March and April have been pretty cloudy in Chicago, and my window only gets direct sunlight during the morning hours before noon. Nevertheless things are growing, and you can actually start to see the herb leaves forming!

Cilantro

Basil

Oregano

Flat Leaf Parsley

Pray for some more sunlight for my babies to grow!

Enjoy this post? Share it with your Facebook friends!

All week I have had this strange craving for meatballs, I know, weird right? With meatballs on my mind, I set out to find an easy recipe that I could make a large batch of and freeze for meals to come. I came across this recipe in Diabetic Living magazine and modified it based on what I had available in the kitchen. Surprised at how tasty they turned out (considering I never cook meat and barely know what to do with it in the kitchen), I call them my Masterful Meatballs!

Masterful Meatballs

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup soft whole wheat bread crumbs (I put about 2 slices in my food processor and pulsed until crumbly)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten (I used free-range, vegetarian fed, no antibiotic eggs)
• 1/3 cup tomato sauce
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 lbs ground beef (I used grass-fed, antibiotic and hormone free, 85% lean beef from Whole Foods)

Preheat oven to 350*F. In a large bowl combine bread crumbs, egg, tomato sauce, parsley, basil, salt and pepper. Mix together with your hands and shape into about 40 meatballs. Place meatballs on foil-lined baking sheets and bake for 20 minutes. Serve immediately or store in freezer for up to 3 months. For this recipe, I would encourage you to use 95% lean ground beef because my 85% meatballs tended to be a little greasy (I had to dab them with paper towels when they came out of the oven). I wanted to buy grass-fed beef and all they had at my grocery store was 85% lean, so I managed.

I served my meatballs over spaghetti squash with tomato sauce left over from the recipe and froze the rest for later use. Meatballs are so versatile that I know these will come in handy on a busy day in the future when I don’t have time to cook. Other ideas for meatballs: make a meatball sub sandwich, use meatballs in lasagna in place of ground beef, slice up meatballs and put on a pizza, or simply serve with toothpicks as a simple appetizer at your next party!

In other news, it has been 2 weeks since I planted my windowsill herb garden and I have newly formed sprouts!

From left to right I have parsley, oregano, basil, rosemary (which has yet to sprout from the soil), and cilantro (which has completely taken off in the past couple days!). I cannot wait to have fresh herbs to use in all of my recipes!

Enjoy this post? Share it with your Facebook friends!

As spring grows near, I wanted to start my very first windowsill herb garden!

I have never grown my own herbs and can barely keep my one inside plant alive, so this will surely be a challenge. Luckily the gardener at Whole Foods gave me some great tips to get me started. I can’t wait to have beautiful fresh herbs to cook with once summer arrives!

I planted a variety of herbs including rosemary, cilantro, parsley, basil, and oregano.

I planted the seeds in Coast of Maine soil which is an organic compost based soil.

I planted the seeds according to instruction in a long windowsill planter in a window that faces east. I watered the seeds by filling the bottom tray with water so that they can slowly soak up the water as needed. Doing it this way prevents disrupting the newly planted seeds, which would occur if you pour water on top of the soil.

I covered the pot with plastic wrap to hold in moisture. Once the seeds sprout (hopefully they will!) I can remove the plastic wrap and start watering the plants from the top.

Any tips on growing an indoor herb garden would be greatly appreciated! Wish me luck!

Enjoy this post? Share it with your Facebook friends!

Can you believe it is already mid-August! Summer zipped by so quickly! As a tribute to summer, I put together a fresh summer fruit salad for breakfast.

As the summer season sadly comes to an end we give one last hoorah to blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries.

But not to worry, the fall season brings in fun seasonal produce of its own including grapes, apples, pumpkins, and gourds!


Enjoy the last glimmers of summer while you still can!Enjoy this post? Share it with your Facebook friends!

I recently got my hands on some purple peppers from Whole Foods! I had never seen these before, they are totally new to me! From what I have read, they have green flesh on the inside and taste bitter and earthy like green bell peppers. 

Purple peppers are harvested before they mature into green peppers. And the green ones eventually ripen into red peppers! So depending on when you harvest a bell pepper determines what color it will be. The earlier stages are less sweet, so the purple pepper will be the least sweet of all bell peppers.

Purple peppers, because they are a rare find, tend to be more expensive than any green, red, yellow, or orange pepper. But I couldn’t resist their beauty and I can’t wait to cook up something fun and colorful with them tomorrow! Any recommendations for favorite dishes involving purple peppers?Enjoy this post? Share it with your Facebook friends!