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Green garden madness – Basil pea edamame soup and Kale hatch chili sauce
My garden is loving the cooler days now that it’s fall! Kale, swiss chard, cabbage, tomatoes and all my herbs are thriving. So much so that I have to be on my toes to keep up with production. We have had enough rain to keep the barrels full and the plants love it. I’ve noticed that if I wait too long to harvest basil, kale, swiss chard or lettuce the bugs seem to really devour it. I try to stay away from pesticides and use neem oil to keep the bugs at bay, but it doesn’t seem to last very long. So I am always trying to come up with…
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Latest DIY projects : hand made shelf and interior door makeover
Handmade bathroom Shelf I love all things handmade and try to stay away from manufactured products, as often as possible. We needed a good storage option for our cabin that would offer space to hang towels and give guests a little area to keep a cosmetic bag or change of clothes. Unless I spent a lot of money, the store bought options were not cutting it. Then I saw these giant bolts at the hardware store and we decided to make our own. We used 12 inch x1 inch x 8 foot “appearance board”(Home Depot $20) for the face and top of the shelf. I felt that it came out…
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Elegant dinner of Seafood Provencal with vegan sides
Seafood Provencal makes an elegant dinner for family and friends. In keeping with my “flex” meal planning, I prepare all the sides as vegan or plant based. This gives everyone options, if they want seafood they can have it but there’s always plenty of plant based sides to fill up on. This recipe is easy and quick, but you wouldn’t know that by the taste! The original recipe is Ina Garten’s but I have altered hers to eliminate the butter and swapped regular onions for shallots(because I didn’t have any). The sides include mashed potatoes, green leafy salad with mushrooms, onions and tomatoes, as well as, steamed broccoli. I like…
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Never buy veggie stock again! Taking composting one step further….
Back when I was eating & cooking chicken, I would roast whole chickens at least once a month and usually save the left over carcass to make chicken stock. I had never thought about doing the same with my veggie scraps. Which means prior to throwing all my veggies scraps into the compost bucket, I add them to a zip lock bag kept in the freezer. The good part about freezing the scraps is that is gives you flexibility for making the stock whenever you can get around to it! The veggie scraps still make it into the composter, just after you’ve gotten everything out of them first. Benefits of…
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Going natural with Farm to Tub products
We’ve all heard of farm to table trends, but have you considered trying farm to tub? Healthy eating and caring about what you put into your body makes sense, but you must also consider what you put on your body. Research has proven that chemicals applied to the skin actually make their way into the body. For example, using deodorants with toxins like alluminum over time is dangerous, yet large manufacturers continue putting toxins into their products. The average woman uses 12 products, containing 168 different ingredients, every single day. With some of these skincare ingredients linked to cancers, allergies, neurological disorders and reproductive issues, it’s really time we started reading labels on everything we buy. I…