Holy Radish!

Holy Radish Batman!

After my post earlier we went out to the garden and decided to check on our second batch of radishes. They were ready! Look at these gorgeous babies!






Oh yah... looks like we will be having radish salad and some mexican food, and dipping them in hummus!

Yay for garden bounty!

2011 Garden

Well I thought I’d update you all on our garden!

Gardening has been a lot of trial and error. Last year several of the things we planted just wouldn’t grow…like beets. We also had spotty luck with carrots. Some things that did grow got attacked by bugs, like cabbage and brussel sprouts.

Some of it was our own fault for getting too excited and planting early. Our pepper and tomatoes just never really made a comeback from the late frost we got.

Other things did great! Our peas, beans, potatoes and cucumbers all gave us lots of bounty.

This year we added a couple extra boxes, changed a few things around and *patiently* waited to plant most things until mid-late May. We did plant peas, radishes and beets early (thought we would try again with the beets). Our weather was very wet and colder than normal through, well really, just about the beginning of June. Our peas are pathetic, just barely producing. The beets, again, totally no go. The first round of radishes only about half of them actually produced a radish of any size. I planted lettuce seeds and they pretty much have done nothing.

At this point I am glad there is a grocery store nearby and that someone else somewhere in this world has better luck growing things than I do!

In the last month we have planted many starts and seeds of a variety of things. We also tried to grow our own starts of some pepper varieties and some basil. This also was not one would call a success.

At any rate, we have at least *some* promising growth happening out there. The corn, potatoes, tomatoes and the zucchini all look good, healthy, bushy and green. Other things seem to be struggling a bit, but we are fertilizing, trying to deter the bugs and slugs and generally giving positive encouragement to everything.

We also have some new additions to our yard this year. Our cherry tree never fruited last year….but this year we have these:



We also bought 3 blueberry plants, and they are looking pretty good:



No picture, but our lemon is about double or triple its original size.

And to make things look prettier, Chris planted these for me:



Here is hoping that with continued encouragement, heat, fertilizer, and water that our garden perks up and we have a good season.

I can hardly wait to eat my first tomato sandwich!!

Mt Shasta

Mt. Shasta

When the opportunity came for Chris and I to move from Portland, Oregon to Medford, Oregon one of the reasons we decided to accept the job transfer was our love of adventure and exploring. Southern Oregon and Northern California would be an entirely new world to explore. Chris and I were both raised in the Pacific Northwest, he in Olympia, Washington and I in Vancouver, Washington. We had spent our youth and early married years exploring Washington and Northern and Central Oregon, even into parts of Idaho. The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful place, and no we have not explored every little inch, but we have been many places. Maybe future blog posts will discuss old adventures around Oregon, Washington and Idaho. This post is about NEW adventures.

For Spring Break Chris and I decided to head south to visit Mt. Shasta. We had driven by a few times, but never been there. Chris wanted to do some snowboarding and I wanted to relax after a particularly grueling Winter Term where I took 20 credits, not to mention I was still recovering from the emotional ordeal with mom’s Fall hospitalization. I wanted some peace, quiet, and a massage. :-)

We made arrangements to stay in Mt. Shasta City at the Mt. Shasta Resort and golf course. We arrived Friday afternoon and got settled in a cool, newly refurbished mountain cabin. Oh, and it was snowing. It had been snowing for about 24 hours according to the locals. There was probably about a foot of snow on the ground. Chris was excited! Fresh powder on the slopes for the next day!

We went to dinner at the golf course restaurant. Truly, the best dinner out we have had in this area since we moved here. I was still doing my spring cleanse, so decided on a mushroom barley soup, grilled salmon, veggies and rice pilaf. It was SO delicious. The mushroom barley soup was amazing, made with real mushrooms and packed with flavor. The salmon and veggies were not soaked in butter, but truly just grilled and steamed. I don’t remember what Chris got…probably prime rib…but I do know that his dinner was delicious as well. We were both very impressed. We had a lovely view of the golf course, freshly covered in untouched snow.

We stayed up late watching movies and talking. It snowed all night.




The next morning Chris hit the slopes and I headed to the spa at the resort for an hour long facial AND an hour long massage. Without a doubt the best facial I have ever had and the massage was pretty amazing, too. I walked out of there a couple hours later feeling like a big pile of mush…in a good way. It was still snowing. In fact, the road has been plowed before I went for my massage, and after two hours there was already over 2 inches of fresh snow on the road. It was really coming down.

Chris ended up coming back early from the Mountain. The conditions up there were very poor, due to the snow storm. Windy, cold, and so much heavy wet snow that when he would fall down he would be up to his chest in snow and then have to somehow dig/climb out of snow that didn’t have any pack to it. He was exhausted after only a few runs. He came back to the cabin to recharge. Basically the rest of the day was spent relaxing with each other, talking, watching cooking shows and we went for a walk...in the snow. It was still snowing.

It snowed all night.


Sunday morning we decided to head back home early. It was still snowing. Getting out of Mt. Shasta city proved to be interesting as several people who shouldn’t have been were out trying to drive around in the two feet of snow that had fallen. The maintenance crews were focusing on main streets and I5, not side streets.




We headed back home and as we got farther North the snow dissipated and it became dry and sunny. The people heading south were not so lucky. Chains were required. This is the line of trucks and vehicles that were either stopped to chain up, or were parked waiting for the roads to clear.


Our trip to Mt. Shasta was great. An adventure in ways we weren’t expecting. I look forward to heading back there for another special weekend trip, maybe in the summer.

Hello again...again...

Oh, I have been so bad about being here!

I wanted a blog for a long time before I started this and then I finally set it up, I don't use it as often as I should.

I felt like I didn't have anything to say. I felt like my boring little life didn't hold enough interesting tidbits.

However, after doing a little soul searching and brainstorming the other day I realized I have an entire LIST of things that I could, and want to, talk about!

I am not making any promises about how often, how much, or content, or even if the timeline will be in order of events as they happened. What I am saying is that I have set "blogging" as a goal for myself for this summer. I want to spend more time on this project that I wanted for so long.

Thanks for being here. I always love feedback and comments. I hope as I continue this project that you, too, will find something valuable here.

Just for fun here is a recent picture of Chris and I that I really love! It captures the essence of "us" in so many ways.

Cleaning Tips

Cleaning Tips

Since we are officially in the beginning of Spring, I thought I’d pass along a couple of useful spring cleaning tips.

Cleaning Tip # 1

The other day, when I was making my St. Patrick’s Day lentil stuffed cabbage rolls, I accidentally boiled all the water out of my steamer. It made a big crusty, nasty black, burnt mess on the bottom of my pan. This is not my pan, but you get the idea:



(Chris said it was like Chernobyl with the smoke and stink- ha ha)

Well, I thought it was going to be a nightmare to clean up…and then I recalled a nifty trick to clean nasty burnt pans.

First, don’t let it soak too long…meaning don’t let it get cold. It will be immeasurably easier to clean while it is still warm. Do go ahead and get some hot water going in the pan with a bit of soap right away to help loosen things up.

Next, after soaking for just a bit, use a nylon scraper (I have tons from Pampered Chef) to scrape as much of the nasty off as you can.

THEN dump out the pan so it is mostly dry and add a couple of generous tablespoonfuls of baking soda. Using a scrubby pad, scrub the baking soda (it should be somewhat paste like) all around the pan. You will be amazed at how quickly and easily it cleans up the nastiest of burnt on crud!

Cleaning Tip # 2

Okay, admit it. Sometimes the inside of your microwave looks like this:




This is not a picture of my microwave. But, I will admit, the inside of my microwave has been known to be icky.

Not anymore! I have found the secret to an easy clean microwave. It is simple.
Take a glass, microwave proof, 2 cup measuring cup and fill it with water. Add either the juice of half a lemon or a tablespoon of bottled lemon juice.

Stick this in the microwave on high for 5-8 minutes, depending on how crusty the inside of your microwave is. The water will start to boil and steam. This is good!
When the timer goes off, *carefully* remove the very hot boiling water from the microwave and put it somewhere where you won’t accidentally knock it over and scald yourself. (I am clumsy; you may not need this advice.)

Next, simply take a hot wash cloth and wipe the gunk out. It will all be loosened up and the majority of it will wipe clean! All that steamy hot lemon water will have loosened up all the bits and the lemon does double duty: it is antibacterial and it also helps clean the nasty odor out. Couldn’t be simpler and only takes a few
minutes!

You never need to have blackened pots or crusty microwave again!

Now, if someone can just tell me an easy way to keep the shower clean….

Day 14 - The Wrap Up

Well, today is day 14 of my spring detox/cleanse. Which seems kind of appropriate being that today is the FIRST day of SPRING! Happy Spring!

Every time I do this it gets easier and I get more creative in the kitchen with what I make. Because I eat no animal fats or animal proteins during the cleanse, except for fish, I pulled out some of my vegetarian and vegan cookbooks and made some delicious stuff! I don’t have pictures of everything, but I will tell you about some of the yummy yum stuff we had.

Of course I had lunches like this:



I actually really love this lunch. It is leftover quinoa with black beans added. I heat it up in the microwave with a little garlic and cumin; then I add some fresh chopped cilantro and tomatoes. Sometimes I throw in some onion, too. And this time, to get a little good fat, I added a bit of avocado. WOW…talk about good and the different textures really make this yummy.

For dinner one night we marinated, in a basic balsamic vinaigrette, onions (red and white), red pepper and zucchini;



cooked on the grill and then served alongside some seasoned grilled cod and couscous.




I needed some snacks, too. I found this quite yummy recipe on a food blog. You can find it here: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/03/cilantro-lime-white-bean-hummus/




It is a cilantro, lime and white bean hummus. Wow…light, tasty and no guilt! The author served it with pita bread, but I used cut up veggies.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of acorn squash. I eat it periodically because Chris likes it, but it has never been my favorite. He wanted some and it is within the guidelines for my cleanse, so I made it. I served his with the traditional butter and brown sugar, but for me (no sugar or butter!) I added some raisins, cinnamon and a tiny drizzle of honey. It was good.




The weird part: I had some for breakfast the next morning. I really like it. Better than the night before when it was fresh out of the oven and MUCH better than I typically like acorn squash at all! Score! New breakfast food!

Chris said this picture looks gross, but it was a very delicious juice! Apple, carrot, lemon, celery, kale, and red pepper. It was sweet and frothy.




For St. Patrick’s Day, I couldn’t partake of the typical corned beef and cabbage (no animal products) so I made a marinated lentil “salad” and used it to stuff cabbage rolls with. VERY good. After steaming the cabbage rolls I drizzled them with just the tiniest bit of balsamic vinaigrette.

We have also used the lentils just to eat alone and Chris put some in a tortilla with cheese and heated it up like a burrito. I still have some left and think I might toss some on top of some mixed greens for lunch tomorrow. This recipe was from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen.

Lest you think I never make anything that doesn’t taste good, I will share with you a recipe that I made which did NOT taste good. Let me start by saying that typically I am a fan of split peas and split pea soups. I am also a fan of parsnips. However, the recipe I found for split pea parsnip soup (made in the Crockpot) was not good. I think it was a matter of perhaps too much parsnip and the wrong seasoning. It was seasoned with dried thyme, which combined with the sweet of the parsnip just made the soup all wrong for me. I ate the one bowl I dished up and tried to have some leftovers, but it was yucky. :(

On a happier note, from the same vegetarian slow cooker cookbook I adapted a “minestrone” recipe. I didn’t want to add any pasta so I used two kinds of beans: cannelloni and red kidney, along with a yellow squash, zucchini, carrot, onion, celery, can of tomato, and broth, plus lots of seasonings that she didn’t call for. It was pretty good, but clearly needed a bit more “meat” to it. So I had some leftover red rice which I added. That was much better. It gave the soup some heft. Next time I would add some pearl barley or brown rice. It also needed more salt.

Of course we had grilled salmon and grilled cod several times, with various grains, red rice, black rice, quinoa or couscous.

I also made a few very delicious smoothies. One was pineapple, mango, and banana. Another was banana and blueberry (turned out very dark looking) and also a banana, orange and pineapple. All very tasty, and filling.

So, I’m wrapping it up today. I had oatmeal with dates and banana for breakfast; lunch was leftover minestrone with some celery and cilantro lime hummus. Dinner tonight is orange and fennel roasted cod with couscous.

I have my menu planned for the next week as well, and though it will definitely not be as strict, I still plan on keeping my overall eating pretty clean.

I have a couple of other posts coming up soon…in the meantime: HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!

Spring is Sproinging!

Ah yes, SPRING is nearly upon us, officially starting the 20th of March! Only a few short days! And for those of us in parts of the world that feel the need to mess with the time on the clock, Daylight Savings Time begins Sunday March 13. Yes, it is early this year. However, that means we get an extra hour in our day (Spring Forward/Fall Back) starting in mid-March, rather than mid-April! Think of what you can do!

I’m hoping the extra hour will help me get out and start walking in the evenings after dinner. Do you have a plan for your extra hour?

**EDIT - I really mean the extra hour of daylight in the evening...not an extra hour, since we LOSE an hour. ***

With spring upon us, as evidenced by the crazy weather, you know: raining one second, blazing sun the next, intermixed with hail showers, I felt it was time to help my body once again de-gunk itself. In the winter I tend to be, as many are, less active, more hunkered down in my house and I eat more comfort (read: heavy) food. With spring creeping up, it’s time to rid the body of the toxins and sludge it has accumulated over the last year.

With that in mind, I started my spring cleanse yesterday. As a reminder, I use the Supreme Cleanse by Gaia, which can be purchased from any number of online retailers, nutrition or health food stores. It is about $25 for the two week cleanse. The lovely people at Gaia have updated the process so it is simply a “shake” mixture and two different capsules twice a day. It is now much simpler than the old plan which included multiple drops of various liquids throughout the day. This cleanse is 100% herbal, natural and recommended to me by a naturopath doctor. It is not a harsh cleanse. Many people associate cleansing with much time spent in the bathroom. This is not typically the case for me with this cleanse.

I do have side effects for the first couple of days. I usually have a headache and a general feeling of blah, which quickly dissipates and is replaced with a great feeling of energy and a “lightness” in my insides. I highly recommend this cleanse to anyone! Oh, the best part: real good food the whole time.

To get started I had to make a trip to the grocery store to stock up on fruits and vegetables.



The cleanse food is mostly vegetables, fruits, fresh (homemade) vegetable juices, miso, fish, legumes, onions, garlic etc. No sugar, flour, wheat, alcohol, caffeine, etc. Clean, real, good, wholesome, whole foods!

To kick things off I started with this:



And ended up with this:



Very tasty. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it! I know it looks funky, but it actually tastes quite good! Invigorating.

I have also had some oatmeal with banana and raisin, some black rice with kidney beans and cumin, salad, banana, homemade blueberry and banana smoothie, some grilled cod and asparagus.

Tonight though, I created a lovely dinner. My own creation with inspiration from several different sandwiches and recipes I have seen in my life. I am going to share it with you.

Portobello Mushroom & Red Pepper Quinoa Salad
(Serves 2 + enough for leftovers if one of the people doesn’t eat it all!)

2 Large Sliced Portobello Mushroom Cap, gills removed
1 Large Red Pepper, sliced
¼ Red Onion, sliced
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
¼ Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1-2 Teaspoons Minced Garlic
½ Teaspoon Dried Parsley
1 Cup Quinoa
2 Cups Broth or Water
1 Cup Arugula, divided
1 Teaspoon Fresh Parsley, chopped (optional)
Drizzle Fresh Lemon Juice (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Heat the broth or water to a boil. While the liquid is coming to a boil clean the mushrooms and peppers. Remove the gills from the mushrooms with a spoon. Thickly slice the mushroom caps, approximately ½ - ¾ inch slices. Core and seed the red pepper. Slice into thick slices. Thickly slice the red onion. Add mushrooms, pepper and onion to a large bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk together the marinade; olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic and parsley. Pour marinade over the mushroom mixture; toss to coat. Let mixture set for 5-10 minutes, tossing again to coat.



Pour the quinoa into the now boiling liquid. Cover. Reduce heat and low simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until all of the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork and it is ready to serve.
Place the mushroom mixture into the bottom half of a broiler pan or into a casserole style dish. Cook for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees or until onions and peppers are soft and mushrooms have started to darken.

Place ½ cup of arugula onto each plate. Top arugula with ¾ - 1 cup of quinoa. Place approximately half the mushroom mixture over the top of the quinoa. Place a sprinkle of the fresh parsley and a drizzle of lemon juice over the top of the entire plate and serve.

It will look something like this and taste wonderful! You *could* have leftovers, but you probably won’t!






With food like this to eat…who even can tell that I’m cleansing!! My kind of “diet”!

I’ll keep you posted as the next couple of weeks progress!