Purchasing Seeds

After pouring over seed catalogs for the past couple of months, today I am ordering seeds so I can attempt to start them indoors over the next few months. I have had mixed results with starting seeds, but I really want to get the hang of it so I can save money by not having to buy transplants.

From D. Landreth Seed Company I ordered a mixture of items: Great Northern Beans, Kidney Beans, Big Red Bell Peppers, Yellow Squash, Feverfew, Zucchini, Sage, Fairy Tale Eggplant, and Queen Anne's Pocket Melon. I'm really excited about the Fairy Tale eggplant, which I bought from a farmer at the wholesale Dallas Farmer's Market and sold at the Saint Jo Farmer's Market in 2010, and Queen Anne's Pocket melon. Tony doesn't care for melons, I think he has a mild allergy, so I wanted something small that I would be able to eat by myself and not get tired of and the Queen Anne's Pocket seems perfect. I can't wait to see what they smell like!

From Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds I ordered tomatoes: Morning Sun, Amish Paste and Atkinson. I was really hoping to get yellow cherry tomatoes again, I grew them in 2010 and had a lot of luck with them, but everyone is sold out so I'm going to try the yellow grape tomato instead. The summer of 2010 I was given tomatoes from a friend at the Saint Jo Farmer's Market, German Queen, and I made the best pizza sauce with them. I'm hoping to do the same with the Amish Paste and as insurance if they or the Cherokee Purple I have don't produce well like this year then hopefully the Atkinson will produce.

Homemade Beauty Treatments

Tonight while Tony is putting up drywall, I'm being a spoiled little housewife and tending to myself. I noticed that the skin on my face was starting to flake so I did a search for homemade scrubs. I found these few links for what sassybella.com calls Recession Proof Beauty. I tried the sugar scrub (simply one part sugar to two parts honey) and it worked beautifully. It is every bit as good as anything I've bought from Mary Kay in the past and doesn't contain all the irritating chemicals. Also the honey has antibacterial qualities which will help with the little bit of acne I've been having the past couple of days.

Facial Scrubs
Facial Masks
Foot Mask

Vegan Blueberry Ginger Muffins

One of the things I miss most about Texas are the Vegan Blueberry Ginger Muffins from The Cupboard Natural Food Store in Denton. I came across this recipe for vegan blueberry muffins a few weeks ago and thought I'd try it this morning. As I was about to stir in the blueberries (I used dried) I remembered I have candied ginger in the fridge, so I diced some up (about 1/4 cup) and tossed them in.

The muffins from The Cupboard are crumbly which make them messy to eat but they taste incredible. The muffins I made this morning are not crumbly and have the taste and consistency of any standard muffin recipe. The ginger and dried blueberries are amazing in them. I think this might be my new favorite muffin recipe and no one would ever guess they are vegan.

Parsnip Muffins

After watching an episode of Good Eats a couple years ago I made some parsnip muffins. I don't remember if I used Alton's recipe or not, but they were incredible. I came across another recipe recently that calls for garam masala and I was intrigued. I decided this morning to make some parsnip muffins but I didn't have all the ingredients on hand from any single recipe, so I mashed together several recipes into my own. These muffins turned out really well. The garam masala and parsnip gave them a nice warm peppery flavor that I love.

I'm hoping this can be a good basic recipe for muffins that I can interchange the fruit, vegetable or spices. I may try it again tomorrow or next weekend with dried blueberries.

Parsnip Muffins

1 c all-purpose flour

1 c whole wheat flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

½ t salt

freshly grated nutmeg

1 t garam masala

1 t cinnamon

2 eggs

¾ c oil

½ c almond milk

1 ½ t vanilla

1 c sugar

3 grated parsnips

Heat oven to 350.

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in small bowl. Add wet ingredients and parsnips to dry ingredients and mix.

Bake 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean or tops spring back when touched.

Makes 18 muffins.

Easy Vegan Black Bean Soup

Since watching the documentary Forks Over Knives a couple of months ago, I've been making more of an effort to make my diet more plant heavy. This week I got my first reward, I dropped down a dress size!

For most of my life I was at a healthy weight. Once I started seeing a neurologist for my migraines, I started packing on the weight as a side effect of the medications. I've been struggling since I went off the meds in 2006 to take the weight back off. I had gone down a dress size fairly quickly and kept that weight off, but then I hit a plateau and even though I was eating healthy and increasing my activity levels, I just wasn't losing any weight. Now I feel motivated to stay on this course of a plant heavy diet and see how many more improvements I make not just to my weight, but also other health issues.

Tonight's dinner turned out super yummy. It's extremely easy too.

Ingredients:
4 cans refried black beans
1-2 cups of water (use what you need to make the soup a consistency you like, it may take more water)
1-2 Tbs minced garlic
1 diced onion
1 can Rotel
Cayenne
Espazote (this is an herb common in Mexican cooking and also used as a tea)
Oregano
Lime
Olive Oil

In a pot, add oil, onion and garlic and cook on medium heat until onions are translucent. Add Rotel and beans. As the beans heat up and spread, add water and herbs to taste. I think I used about a teaspoon of each except the cayenne which was only 1/4 teaspoon. Add a squeeze of lime before serving. You may also serve with tortilla chips.

Homemade Sinus Rinse

I recently ran out of the NeilMed sinus rinse packets and was unable to find them in my local stores, so I set out to find a homemade alternative. The ingredients are simply a non-iodized salt, distilled or boiled and cooled water, and baking soda. It's so much cheaper to make at home and just as effective as the packets, I won't be buying the packets anymore.

If you've never tried a sinus rinse before and have nasal allergy problems, you'll want to try this. The first one or two times you do it it'll be weird, I won't lie. It's not painful, but it can be uncomfortable. Once you know what to expect though it's easy to do and so much more effective than any allergy medication.

1. In a clean glass or measuring cup, add 8 oz water and heat in the microwave in 10 second increments until body temperature. Any warmer and it may feel like you're burning your nostrils. Make sure to mix the water after each 10 second increment as the water on top is often hotter than the water on bottom.

2. In the sinus rinse bottle, add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (this helps keep the salt from burning), 1/2 teaspoon salt, and water. Gently shake to combine until dissolved.

3. Leaning over a sink, gently squeeze bottle into one nostril letting it exit through the other. Blow nose and repeat in opposing nostril.

There are all kinds of videos on YouTube showing you how to do it. Here's one that I particularly enjoy, showing you can do the sinus rinse with a water bottle with a squirt tip:

Post Produce Day

I read in another blog that Saturday, October 22 is Post Produce Day and to blog about what you are harvesting. I'm heading out of town tomorrow for a baby shower, so I'm making my post tonight.

I wish now I had taken photos because tonight I happened to harvest the rest of my basil. It was all going to seed with the cooling temperatures, so I made pesto pasta and it was so yummy!

Soon I'll be harvesting more herbs to dry and use this winter. Next week I will probably tackle the oregano. I bought it on sale at Walmart a couple months ago and unfortunately it has zero aroma or flavor to it, thankfully it only cost me $1.50. Next year I think I'll try planting a couple different varieties and hopefully find one I love.

I have been picking lettuce regularly to use in what my husband calls "Poor Man's 7-Layer Burritos". They are a vegan version and contain 6 ingredients: black beans, salsa, onion, tomato, guacamole and lettuce. They are incredibly yummy though and have become my go-to meal on laundry and shopping days replacing salad with chicken. Now that the temps are dropping, I'm really hoping the lettuce will stop trying to bolt and start filling out again. If not, I've learned some lessons for next year - keep the soil moist and shade the plants.