Produce Stand 4/24

I hit up my favorite farm stand this morning before work so I'd have what I needed for the weekend and for next week.  :)

I picked up a lot of goodies.  I will be prepping all of this tomorrow.

Here's everything I purchased.

-2 broccoli heads

-2 big green bell peppers

-2 big white potatoes

-2 zucchini

-2 yellow squash

-3 big carrots

-2 cucumbers

-a whole lot of green beans

I got all this for under $15.

Total:  $14.45

2015 Garden Update- #17

It's time for a garden update and I'm excited!!  :)

Here's the inside garden with some of my plants.

The sunshine in the early morning makes these little plant babies happier than a worm in an apple.

I have my first pea pod of the season!!  :)  YAY

Here's my green bean plants.  Do you see what I see?

I have green beans!!!!

They are very tiny but they are there.

Here's my mint, lambs ear and black-eyed susan plants I got from my work food swap yesterday.  If you look closely you can see the little sprouts in the egg carton.

My broccoli.

Tomatoes

Squash, which I need to re-pot.

Now outside.....

I did some rearranging this morning of my plants I have outside on my back deck.  I moved everything to the middle and did some cleaning.  My orange pepper plant, and two different eggplants needed some major TLC.  I got these from the Home Depot sale.  The pots ended up flooding early Monday morning from heavy downpours.  Everything else was fine and most of the extra rain water evaporated.  The 3 pots (pepper, eggplants) were still very water logged this morning when I checked on them.  I dumped the pots and took the plants out.  Here's the plants in the grass.

I've picked them up and put them in this plastic container for now until I get some soil to pot them.  I hope I can save them.  The plants themselves still look healthy.  *crosses fingers*

Here's the deck/patio garden as of this morning.  I have peppers, basil, marigolds, toms, lavender, and a rose bush.  I don't think I have enough plants.  What do you think?  haha  :)

Dollar Tree- Find of the week

I used to be a dollar tree snob and never ever wanted to step foot in one.  But I've grown up and learned over the years that the dollar tree has deals!  I'll admit, I even used to be a name brand snob too.  Generic store brand is just as good as name brand.  Generic is also always cheaper than name brand so why not try to save some cash.  There's a few things I still only buy name brand in.  For example:  All laundry detergent.  My Grandma Runyon used it and I use it because it reminds me of her when I would help her with laundry and it smells like her very organized linen closet she used to keep.  Ahhhh memories.  :*)

Okay, back to the dollar tree.  They sell some name brand items and everything is just $1.00.  You do have to pay attention though.  Even though something is $1.00 it doesn't necessarily mean that you're getting a good deal.  You just have to know how much the items are in the big stores and compare to know it's worth it.

For the last three years I've been going to the dollar tree and finding some awesome things. 

-garden seeds

-gardening supplies

-adorable fake succulents

-cute notebook

-baubles for my ornament wreath

The other day, when I bought these containers and a new outside deck/porch broom, I ended up looking at the oven mittens.  I don't know about you but my oven mittens/pot holders have seen better days.  I cook and bake so much that they are used just about everyday.  I even still use the one I had in college and let me just say that's been several, several years.  hahahaha  Anyways, I grabbed some red potholders to go with my red and white checkered oven mitt and then I saw VEGETABLES!  I put the red ones back and started grabbing.  :)

Here they are. 

Up close:

Adorable:

Just love these!

I grabbed two of the mittens and two of the two packs of pot holders.  So, I have four pot holders and two oven mitts.  That's a good stash.  I put all my old ones in the laundry room to wash them.  :)  I might go back and get a few more in this veggie pattern so I have an extra stash on hand.

What awesome dollar tree finds have you gotten lately?

4th Work Food Swap

Last week, a co-worker asked if I could organize a food swap.  I said sure.  We choose to do the swap today.  

1st Work Food Swap

2nd Work Food Swap

3rd Work Food Swap

Last night, I made my homemade mac n' cheese.  It's so yummy and a crowd favorite.

I purchased some containers the other day from the dollar tree to use for my swap items.

We had 8 participants today.  One lady was unable to attend, due to an emergency.  

We like to do an even trade so everyone gets to take home each item.  It spares hurt feelings and makes everyone happy to get one of everything.

Here's the table full of goodies.  Before we dug in we each took a turn explaining what we made and why.  :)

Here's my mac n' cheese.  :)

Sam, made 'Chicken and Quinoa soup. 

Recipe:

Chicken and Quinoa Soup

Ingredients

·         1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, all visible fat discarded, cut into 1-inch cubes

·         4 cups fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth

·         1 large onion, chopped

·         3/4 cup water

·         1 medium carrot, sliced

·         3 large garlic cloves, minced

·         1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

·         1 medium dried bay leaf

·         1/4 teaspoon pepper

·         1/3 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed well under cold running water and drained

·         2 ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed and sliced diagonally

Preparation

1.      In a large saucepan, stir together the chicken, broth, onion, water, carrot, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 5 minutes.

2.      Stir in the quinoa. Cook for 5 minutes.

3.      Stir in the peas. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the quinoa is tender and the chicken is no longer pink in the center. Discard the bay leaf before serving the soup.

4.      Cook’s Tip: Look for quinoa near the rice and other grains in the supermarket. Unless you buy prewashed quinoa, rinse it in a fine strainer under cold running water until the water runs clear. This is done to remove the bitter coating called saponin.

Sharon, made to die for.....chocolate chip cookie dough.  OMG......this stuff is addicting.

Yeah...we scraped the bottom of the bowl.  haha  :)  I think this would be awesome with using M&M's or even crushed up Oreo's.  Mix it up and make it your own.

Sue, made her Grandma's chow chow.  So yummy.  I liked it on a triscuit.

Deirdre, made deviled eggs with her Mom's recipe.  (I didn't get a picture of the eggs uncovered).  These were very good.  Deirdre, said the secret to them is "celery salt".  She used a little mayo, sugar, paprika and celery salt.

The eggs didn't last long.....haha

Gayle, made a Southwest Chicken Chili.  It's a family favorite.  It was really good.  She served it with little buttermilk cornbread muffins.

Stacy, is doing '100 days of real food' with her family.  She has this book, and she's made some of the recipes.  She made popcorn using organic popcorn kernels in a brown paper bag.  It was awesome!!!  Who knew you could do this in a brown paper bag?  It's so much healthier than those microwavable popcorn packages.

Stacy, gave each of us a Mint plant from her garden.

Stacy, also gave me 2 plants as a hostess gift for organizing the swap.  The one on the left is my mint.  The middle is a brown-eyed susan and the one on the right is lambs ear.  They are perennials so they will come back every year.  :)

We had fun and we can't wait to do another food swap.

Produce Stand 4/19

I went to the produce stand on Sunday morning while I was out.  This is the first time this year that I've been.  They just recently opened the stand.  I'm so glad it's Spring so I can get farm fresh veggies.

Here's what I got:

2 cucumbers

1 squash

1 zucchini

green beans

I spent $4.65 on everything.  Under $5!  :)  

As of today (4/21) everything but the cucumbers have been eaten.  :)

2015 Garden Update- #16

Lots of things happened last weekend with my garden.

I got my first squash flower of the season.  This is a male flower.  I have no females open yet so I couldn't pollinate them.  :(  It sure did look pretty though.

I noticed green in my little egg carton garden.

Upon closer inspection. I saw that I have sprouts!  Cherry tomatoes, parsley and basil.

YAY!

In my front flower bed the tulips popped.  And there's a bunch of them.  They are such a vibrant red.

Beautiful

My green beans at the end of the week.

Green beans over the weekend.  :)  PURPLE flowers!!!!  :)

I ran a bunch of errands on Sunday morning.  Wegmans, farm stand, and Target.  I stopped off at the city dock to breathe in some fresh air.  There was lots of people fishing and catching catfish while I was there.  I took a picture of a bridge too.  :)

I stopped at my parents for farm fresh eggs.  Which was perfect timing because I was out of eggs.

I took a picture of my mom's lilac bush.  It was a clipping from my Grandma's bush so it's awesome that it's growing so great at my parents.  :)  Memories of my Grandma.

So pretty...

I did some gardening.  Plants needed to be re-potted.  The starter plants I got at home depot had a bunch of gnats hanging around in them so I needed to get them outside with some fresh dirt and pots.

I put them against the house because we were due for some storms so I didn't want them out on the middle of the deck.  I figured the house would give them some protection.  On Monday, morning I noticed some plants did end up getting a lot of rain.  The 3 green pots closest to window got a lot of rain water.  I left them alone.  My BFF said maybe with the heat the water will evaporate.  I checked on them when I got home from work and she was right.  Most of the water evaporated from all the humidity which was nice.  Hopefully, all the plants will be okay.  :)

Here's what the inside looks like right now.  Not that much left inside.

Gene Birthday 2015

Last weekend, was busy.  I had to work a remote for a new Verizon.

It was the grand opening so there was a lot going on.  There was a caricature artist, balloon artist, baseball team giving away tickets, and some Rita's Italian ice samples.  

I gave away chipotle gift cards and some concert tickets.  I also had some swag from Verizon to hand out.

After some radio peeps talking me into it, I got a drawing done.  I was hesitant because I know these drawings bring out the worst flaw you hate about yourself.  haha  But mine actually came out kinda cute.  :)

I had a balloon made for my niece.  It's a little monkey.  Not sure when I will see her again but hopefully it was still be inflated.  haha

After work Nate met me at the station so he could record a short story in the studio.  More on that later.  :)  Once we were done with that we went down to his parents to celebrate my father-in-laws birthday.

We waited for my mother-in-law to get home from work.  I walked around outside looking at her flowers and garden.

I also got to sit in my father-in-laws corvette.  I backed it out of the garage and I revved the engine.  :)

It's a nice car.

We went to dinner at the Hickory Notch Grill and then came home for cake.

I baked the birthday cake from scratch the night before.  It turned out cute and delicious.