Garden tips for the frugal, busy and/or lazy gardener!

I've been gardening for about 15 years. Even though keeping up with it now with three young kiddos can feel overwhelming, I can't stop gardening. I feel compelled to grow stuff, especially food. I'm certainly not an expert gardener, but I learn a little more each year. Here is my hodge podge of garden tips.

Tip #1 Grow what will get eaten
Most of us have some kind of limit to our growing space, so if you're going to grow food, grow the food that will get eaten! That sounds so obvious, but I know I'm not the only one who has started ten zucchini seeds (seems so harmless!) which became ten zucchini plants that I simply had to plant because they were like my babies! You probably don't need more than two zucchini plants, lest you become that one person who foists the 20-pound zuke on the neighbors.

Another example: I'm not a huge fan of most winter squashes, but I love spaghetti squash, so for the last couple seasons I haven't bothered with acorn or butternut or other squashes and have just grown spaghetti squash. I figure I can buy a butternut squash that one time that I may want one, but I know we'll eat every single spaghetti squash we grow. One year we did have a pumpkin patch, though. Totally worth it.

Green beans are the other one that can get quickly out of hand. So easy to grow pounds and pounds of them and be totally overwhelmed with beans that end up getting too big on the vine or molding in your veggie drawer. After all the effort! Noooooooo!
Bonus tip 1: Conventional wisdom says you have to parboil green beans prior to freezing them. I actually did a comparison test with frozen beans, parboiled and not, and the two were IDENTICAL. I chop them into 1-2 inch pieces, stick 'em in a ziplock in the freezer and cook them from frozen into stir-fries, quiches, thai curries, etc, all winter long.
Bonus tip 2: The beans that have gotten too big and tough to eat fresh make the best dilly beans. They hold up way better to canning than the slim ones.

All that said, please don't misunderstand me! I'm not trying to "squash" your veggie-growing dreams and I'm all for planting food. My plea is just this: don't let it go to waste! If you grow it, make someone eat it!

Broccoli Raab 

I'm a huge fan of growing strawberries. The "everbearing" kind give us berries from June-September.  

Tip #2 Free (and functional) garden art 
Before I buy anything for my garden, I like to see if I already have something on hand that might work. A little funkiness adds personality to any garden, if you ask me.

My husband is a borderline hoarder (his words, not mine, but I concur). But, he does bring home some pretty awesome useful stuff. I don't even know what this thing is, some kind of railing? But it makes a perfect ladder for growing stuff up. I use it for squash or beans.

That netting was also free. Old fishing net cast off that you can find in piles at the marina.

Other random found and free "art:"

I found this frog in our woods.

Another free score a la Jarrod

Tip #3 Reseeding veggies and flowers
Aka: FREE PLANTS
Some of my favorites in my garden are arugula, calendula, nasturtiums and red orach. The gifts that keep on giving year after year. I've dug up the reseeded calendula or nasturtiums and used them to fill pots instead of buying plants. My tomatilloes also reseed. I pick the best and strongest ones and transplant them to where I want them for the year.

This is some kind of red mustard/mizuna thing that reseeded itself this year. Bonus, it's spicy so the rabbits and slugs have left it alone!

Tomatilloes and nasturtiums

Calendula and tomatilloes

Tip #4 Plant that eyesore
Cinderblock wall or old toilet? Put a plant in it, on it or next to it. We had this huge stump, so I made the "stump garden."

That's me at 5 months pregnant.

The stump garden

Tip #5 Compost
Your garden will love you for it. There are many tutorials online about how to compost and many of them, probably most of them, are way better than mine, but for what it's worth, here's my half-assed, lazy gardener's method.
Collect kitchen scraps and dump them in my black composter. Next to that black composter, I pile woody stuff like stalks from cleaning out the garden in the fall and prunings from plants like sage or blueberries. Then, when I have time, I spread out the black plastic and make a pile by alternating layers of the kitchen scraps with the woody debris, breaking or snipping everything up into the smallest size I have the patience for. I use the plastic simply because I want to keep the weeds from growing up through my pile. There's trailing blackberry in this part of our yard. I wrap the plastic loosely around it and let it go to work. I might stir it up a couple of times. If I made a bigger pile or stirred it more often, I'd probably get compost faster.

Tip # 6 Mulch!
Use that compost to mulch your plants. Use spent coffee grounds to mulch acid-loving plants like berries or rhodies. Wood chips for the garden paths. In the winter, I cover the garden beds with plywood, cardboard or plastic - keeps the weeds and kids out!

Happy gardening!

Grandma's Never-fail extra-flaky pie crust

My Grandma will be 93 this year. She is one of those people that everyone loves. Her attitude is just...good...all the time. I really wanted to describe her personality more fully in this post, but I found that I struggled to convey how awesome she is without sounding cliche.  But there are a couple of things about her (other than her pie crust recipe) that stand out to me so much that I'm going to put them here.

Warning. Religion talk ahead! Proceed at your own risk or scroll to the bottom if you just want the pie crust recipe already!

If you who want to know more about Grandma, here are the top two things that impress me about her:

1. Faith. She's the best Christian I know. That sounds so weird and I feel like I need to explain that a bit since the word "Christian" might mean different things to different people. To me, a Christian is a Jesus-follower, someone who believes that Jesus is who he said he is, and therefore accepts his gift of love and grace. And in turn, a Christian pours that love and grace out into the world, just as Jesus did for them and asks them to do for others. My Grandma is totally that person. It's easy to talk about "loving everyone," but what does that really look like? My grandma loves by sacrificing herself to serve other people. She isn't judgmental or self-righteous or exclusive. Even when I wasn't a Christian, I thought , "if I was going to be a Christian, I'd want to be one like her."

2. Marriage.  While it was apparent that my late Grandpa loved my Grandma very much, he was also gruff and could be really grumpy. He would scoff at things she said or be condescending toward her in front of people. Her reaction?  She'd chuckle. Not in a passive-aggressive, manipulative, or even embarrassed way.  She'd just kind of giggle, like she was amused. In response to things that would leave many of us fuming, defensive and eventually closed off and resentful, she'd laugh, and let his humiliating words or cruel tone just hang there unanswered, and then, move on.  I don't know if she cultivated that response or if it came to her naturally. I also don't know if she responded differently when she wasn't in front of her grandkids, or if she ever confronted him about how he spoke to her. I suspect she might have. In any case, I remember it impressed me even as a kid.

Oops, religion and marriage got into my recipe post.  Back to pie crust.
My understanding is that my Grandma doesn't really love to cook. Nevertheless, her pie crust recipe is the best!  It totally lives up to its "never-fail, extra-flaky" name. The original recipe calls for shortening, but I use butter.  It would be interesting to try it with one of the vegan, non-hydrogenated shortenings, so if you do that, let me know!

Blogging is weird

So many things I should/could be doing right now while the baby is asleep and the older two kids are being entertained by Daddy.  But no, I'm gonna sit down and write a blog post about blogging that maybe someone in the Ukraine and my husband will read. What the... Why?!

I love to read blogs.  I always sort of thought I'd like to write one, but it always felt so narcissistic to me. I'm not really an expert on anything, so what? Write about my life, the weird thoughts tumbling around in my head?

If you read blog posts about "how to start a blog," what you come away with is that before you start a blog, you must buy your own domain name, buy a camera and take a photography class, write loads of good content, be proficient in branding and graphic design, be on every social media platform, etc. This is all very good advice, I'm sure! But if I did all that first, I'd never start a blog! I'm still outlining the reasons in my head about why I am blogging and deciding whether or not I'll even continue to blog, but here are the reasons so far that I'm going to keep trying this out for awhile:

1. Perfectionism - I have that disease. Like don't start anything or do anything unless it's going to be perfect.  Well, when you have 3 kids, 4 yrs old and under, it's about impossible to make anything "perfect," let alone a blog post, without yelling at them and/or ignoring them, or at least it is for me. (Props to the moms who can, because I'm sure there are some out there).  Blogging is a way to get stuff out there in it's imperfect form and just be okay with that.  I have to get over the fact that my house, my food, my photos, my writing is far from perfect. That's uncomfortable so that's good.

2. Learning  - I'm a gen X-er. Techie, bloggy stuff isn't second nature to me.  One of my goals is to figure out some of the technical aspects of this blog that are clearly lacking so far.  This is totally simple stuff, like categorizing my posts and creating a nav bar.

3. Vulnerability - This kind of goes along with combating perfectionism.  I have some posts in draft form that are much more vulnerable than recipes or tiny house stuff.  Stay tuned to see if I get that brave!

4. Recording - I do want to record these years. Our kids are small.  Our property is a mess. We're living between two houses.  When I look back at the pictures from even a few years ago, I'm amazed at how quickly things change.

Same corner of the little house separated by six years.

 Pole barn house taking shape!

I really wish I had better pictures. Maybe I should heed those "15 Mistakes Amateur Bloggers Make" posts and work on getting some better photos.  I'd also love to comb through some more photos for some better before/after shots, but my 2 yr old wants me to read her a book, so "publish," imperfect as it is.

I'd love to read your blog about nothing if you have one!  And if you don't have one and you want to, write one!  I'll read it. I'll even comment!

Carrot muffins with carrot butter "frosting": sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free

I got these rad silicone muffin cups for $7 off Amazon and thought they looked so "Easter-y," I had to make some carrot muffins.  I had grand visions of making bunny faces on them out of carrots and raisins, which I did, but they didn't turn out as cute as I imagined they would.  (Scroll to the bottom for a pic of the scary bunnies).

In my usual fashion, these are date-sweetened.  The muffins themselves are not that sweet.  It's the carrot "frosting" that really gives them their sweetness.  The "frosting" is on the soft side, so while you can frost them (I did), be aware that it can be a bit messy to eat ,especially for kids. The other option is to use the frosting more like a butter that you spread on just before eating.

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients 
5 medium carrots
8 dates
1 cup oats
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
5 Tbs coconut oil, divided
3 eggs
2 Tbs chia seeds (optional, but I do think they help the frosting set up a bit more)
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a muffin tin or grease well with coconut oil.

Wash and chop the carrots into rounds.  Place carrots and dates in saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until the carrots are very soft. Strain, reserving some of the cooking water, about a 1/2 cup.

While the carrots are cooking, place oats in food processor or blender and process until finely ground. In a small bowl, combine oats with almond flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and ginger and mix well.

Puree the cooled carrots and dates.  Add a small amount of water if necessary to get a nice smooth puree, but don't add more than 1/2 cup.  Add 1 cup of the carrot puree to a large mixing bowl and set the rest aside. To the mixing bowl, add 2 Tbs of the coconut oil and the eggs.  Whisk to combine. 

Add in the dry ingredients and mix well. Mix in the raisins.  

Divide batter into 12 muffins and bake 13-15 min (see note!) or until a knife comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 10-15 min before removing to a wire rack.

NOTE!: The oven I had while testing this recipe ran HOT! Chances are you'll need to bake them for longer, 25-35 min. 

For the "frosting" 

In the food processor or with stick blender, puree the remaining carrot puree (about 1.5 cups - ish, depends on the size of your carrots) with the remaining 3 Tbs coconut oil and the chia seeds. Refrigerate until firm.  Wait until the muffins are completely cooled before frosting them.

As promised, the scary bunnies

Use-what's-in-the-fridge veggie croquettes

We've been eating a lot of sweet stuff around here lately. Date-sweetened muffins and fudge-y bite things, all in the name of experimenting. Now it's time for some vegetable experiments.  I've been wanting to make some veggie pancakes or muffins that my kids would like. So today, using my zucchini pancake recipe as a rough guide and whatever veggies I found in my fridge, I made these croquettes for lunch and they were delicious.  The kids and I ate them plain, but they could be drizzled with a buttermilk dressing, dipped in hummus, topped with fresh tomato slices and/or avocado, or whatever else you come up with.

Also, this recipe is begging to be played around with in terms of adding different herbs and spices. Cumin, dill, paprika?

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups veggies, grated or minced. I used grated carrots, some leftover corn cut off the cob, parsley and salad greens!
1/2 cup chives, green onions, or some dashes of onion powder
1 clove garlic or some garlic powder
2 eggs
3/4 cups flour (I used 1/2 cup regular flour & 1/4 cup almond)
1/2 tsp salt + a few shakes on top after they are finished cooking
Fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp baking soda
Olive oil

Directions

Whisk together the veggies, eggs and chives.
Mix together the dry ingredients. Add to the veggie mix and combine well. Liberally coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet with oil, about an 1/4 inch. Heat the oil until it's shimmering, then lower heat a bit. Put spoonfuls of the batter into the pan and use the back of the spoon to flatten them to roughly 1/2 an inch. Fry 2-3 min per side, or until golden. Remove to a paper-towel covered plate and enjoy as soon as they are cool enough. Leftovers can be reheated in a toaster oven or briefly under the broiler, or they can just be eaten at room temp. You could make mini sandwiches with them!

Peanut sauce

This is one of my go-to recipes. An easy, budget-friendly way to dress up veggies, chicken, tofu, grains, noodles, caulirice, whatever.  I've also used it as a dipping sauce for fresh spring rolls. We are having this tonight over a cabbage carrot stir-fry, quinoa and chicken.

Ingredients
1/2 cup peanut butter
3-4 tsp fresh grated ginger (I'm loving those squeezy tubes of ginger from Trader Joe's...so convenient!)
Juice of 1 lime
1 clove garlic
4-5 Tbs soy sauce
1/2 Tbs honey
2 Tbs rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup olive oil
Sriracha to taste.  I usually leave this out so it's not too spicy for kiddos and just add Sriracha to my meal.
about 3/4 cup water or broth

Place all ingredients except the water or broth in the blender - or use a stick blender - and blend well. Add the water or broth and blend to incorporate.  Heat in a small saucepan over low-med heat or put in a Pyrex with a pouring spout and microwave.  Pour over desired meat, veggies, rice, etc.  Garnish with peanuts, cilantro, lime wedges.

P.S.  Photos are not my strong suit, obviously, but seriously, how do you take a picture of peanut sauce and not have it just look like brown glop?!?  Advice accepted.

Breakfast muffins: blueberry banana oat. Gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free

I love baking with dates and almonds, but it can get expensive. Today, I was out of dates, so I tried raisins, which worked very well for these breakfast muffins. I used mostly oats to save on the almond flour, and make them more budget-friendly. They came out super moist! They are sweetened with raisins, apple and banana!  My kids just ate four apiece for lunch!

Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup raisins, soaked in hot water at least 15 min
1/2 cup peeled (or not) grated apple
1 ripe banana
3 eggs
2 Tbs coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups blueberries

Directions
Pour boiling water over the raisins and let them soak to soften.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease a muffin pan very well with coconut oil, or use wrappers.  I oiled the pan well and they slid out no problem.

Process oats in food processor until finely ground. Mix ground oats, almond flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger in large mixing bowl and set aside.

Strain the raisins and put them in the food processor with the banana, apple and coconut oil and process on high. Add eggs and vanilla. Process until well-combined.

Add blueberries to dry ingredients and stir to coat them with flour.

Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and gently mix until combined. Spoon mixture into muffin pan.

Bake about 25-35 min, until an inserted knife comes out mostly clean. Let them rest in the pan for 10 min, then remove them to finish cooking on a wire rack.