March 30, 2014

Garden Update: Week 6

It's been 6 weeks since planted my seeds for my garden this year.  It's always a nice surprise when you see new sprouts and growth on your plants.

First thing is first.  Yesterday, I made spaghetti squash for dinner and I saved some seeds from the squash.  I planted some of them but accidentally labeled the seeds butternut squash.  I fixed that today and made the correct label.  :)

As to my surprise this morning, I see a sprout in my mixed bell pepper pot.  :)

Adoraable little baby.  :)

No sprouts yet on this sweet bell pot.

My peas are doing great.  They keep growing and growing.

The zucchini needs to be replanted soon.  It's been raining the last 3 days here so I'm not treading out to the shed until it's dry out there.  Hopefully, I can get them repotted this week.

Petite yellow peppers

Purple bell peppers

Cherry tomatoes

Eggplant

Cucumbers

Squash....probably needs to be repotted soon.

Marigolds

Little terra cotta pots

Many happy sprouts!

The only sprouts in these pots are the top right.  Top one (mixed bell) and underneath (petite bell).

I have 2 sprouts on my red potatoes.

Up close on the bigger and first sprout.

In my kitchen window sill I have 3 little flower plants.  I got them from the dollar spot at Target.  They are doing wonderfully.  :)




March 29, 2014

Spaghetti Squash

I came across a blog recently for Spaghetti Squash.  I decided to make it for dinner.

How delicious does it look?


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

First, you need a spaghetti squash.  I picked a medium size one.  Wash it real good and then dry it off.  I can't wait to see these at the farmers markets this summer/fall to get farm fresh ones.

Cut it in half as evenly as you can.  I had my husband do this b/c I don't like big knives and don't need to cut myself.  (I'm on blood thinner and it's not a good idea to use a big knife).  :)

Scoop out the seeds and goo.

Nice and clean.

Add some olive oil, minced garlic, pepper and a little salt all around.

Put them in a glass dish cut side down.  I brushed them with some olive oil.  Bake on 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.  While your squash is baking you can cook up your meat sauce.  I used lean ground turkey meat.  I cooked it up with some W sauce, pepper and Italian seasoning.  Once it was done, I drained it and put back in the skillet and added spaghetti sauce and let it simmer.

My squash halves were done at about 35 minutes.  I poked a fork in them and it went right in so I knew they were ready for the next step.  I turned the oven down to 350 degrees.

I carefully used tongs to put the squash halves on a cutting board to cool a little while I 'scraped' the spaghetti with a fork.  It was so cool scraping them.  It looked like spaghetti.  I tasted it and it was yummy.


I put some of the spaghetti in a bowl.  How cool does it look?


I then added some of the minced garlic back to bottom of squash (from the baking dish).  Then I sprinkled some pepper and parsley flakes.

Next, I put the squash halves in a clean baking dish.  I added a little meat sauce and spaghetti to the halves.  Then I layered some more meat sauce and then topped with cheese.  I also sprinkled some pepper and parsley flakes on top. 

Perfection!  So yummy!

And.......when life gives you seeds.....PLANT THEM!  I planted some of the spaghetti squash seeds.  But I accidentally labeled it butternut.  So, I'll fix that tomorrow.  :)

March 23, 2014

Garden 2014- Week 5

My Garden is doing terrific!

Here's how it's currently set up.


I have 3 eggplant sprouts.


Lots of sprouts tucked in.

I have a new pea sprout...

And then the next day on the other side of the container....another pea sprout.  I had planted a few more last week since I ended up breaking some of the peas during repotting.

The zukes are growing bigger and bigger everyday.  They are going to have to be repotted soon.

The peppers have finally started sprouting over this week.  I was so happy to see the sprouts.  I was getting worried that I wasn't going to have any.  They grow much slower than other things.  
I have a few yellow bell sprouts.  

A purple bell sprout.

A red bell sprout.

Just this morning....I'm happy to say I have a few petite yellow bell pepper sprouts.  These are from seeds I saved from the petite peppers I had grown last year.  
It was from a plant that I saved from Lowe's that I got for $3.  

I love my garden and can't wait to see how much it grows.  :)

Fun Weekend

Yesterday, my sister, niece and BFF went to the Women's Expo at the Richmond Raceway Complex.  I got free tickets from work so we figured we'd go.  

My sister and BFF bought a few things from some vendors.  I bought a block of Heini's Cheese.  It was awesome that they were there.  The swiss is awesome.  My Amish pen pal, Lovina served me some of this cheese with chocolate cake when Nate and I were visiting one time.  It's good together.  :)

Afterwards, we went to Ginter Park to some little handmade show and checked it out.  It was very small.  There was a lot of cute stuff but everything was pricey.  I get it's homemade but come on.  LOL  

We then went to Tinker and Company.  This little shop is ADORABLE!!

They had a cute little sign out front.  Hello Spring!

After we looked around there the BFF and I went to Cinebistro to watch 'Divergent'.  Dave met us there.  I had a handful of popcorn and the delicious bistro burger with some fries.  The movie was really good.  No spoilers here.  :)

This morning, I ran some errands and then met my friend Melissa at the Expo center so we could go to the Home and Garden show.  I had free tickets from work.  We didn't see anything there that we needed.  We then hit up the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday for lunch.  I love the salad bar there. It's so cheap and yummy.

Melissa gave me a dozen of fresh farm eggs!  I have 10 brown eggs, 1 green egg and 1 blue egg.  AWESOME!!!  I love farm fresh eggs.  :)

March 18, 2014

Garden 2014- Week 4

Well.....it's time for a Garden Update.  (Just a few days late)

Marigolds

Sunflowers

Finally some new sprouts....

I finally have yellow bell pepper sprouts.  It's about time.  This little guy popped up this past Friday.

I also now have an eggplant sprout.  YEY

And another yellow bell pepper sprout.

A zucchini spout poking through after 1 week of growth.

Nothing yet on the newer mixed bell peppers I planted.  It's been a week since I planted these seeds.

No potato sprouts yet either.  It's only been 1 week for them too.


Here's the squash.

And the cucumber.

My basil sprouts have a few more.

Happy little sprouts.


My peas are doing great.  They are wrapping themselves on the trellis.

I planted a few more peas in this pot since there was room.  Hopefully, they will start sprouting soon.

Yes, there's snow outside.  We got hit with another storm this past Sunday night and yesterday.  I can't wait till Thursday.  It's the first day of spring and it's going to be Sunny and 62 here.  Bring it on!  :)