Archive for Green Lifestyle
My Organic Garden – The Garlic Decision
Posted by: | CommentsHello fellow green living gardeners. I am writing today as I find myself at an impasse. The summer is coming to an end and as 
the harvest approaches my quandary is this; should I plant garlic in the fall? We all know that garlic is delicious and an integral component to any Italian dish, but did you know of its health benefits? Garlic is an antioxidant like the blueberry which tends to garner all the attention.
As you may (or may not) have read, antioxidants are believed to help ward off heart disease, cancer and even prevent premature aging. Apparently garlic can do all that plus help lower your bad cholesterol, is good for diabetics and can help those with a blood pressure problem. That’s a whole lot of goodness packed into that clove.
When adding garlic into your diet you should know a few simple facts:
- The smaller garlic is chopped or diced the more pungent it is
- Store unpeeled garlic in an open container in a cool, dry place away from other foods
- Whole unpeeled cloves should never be refrigerated or frozen because moisture is a natural enemy to the garlic clove. There is a loophole to this fridge rule though. To save time you can store peeled cloves in a sealed airtight container in the fridge, this helps when cooking in a hurry during the week (say for Meatless Monday). However, garlic should not be store in the fridge for long periods of time. I would say no longer than a week to ten days.
Meatless Monday with Roasted Tomato Bread Soup and White Bean Salad
Posted by: | CommentsHappy Meatless Monday! Are you short on time? Do you want a meal that you can make in about twenty-five minutes? Do you
also want it to have fewer than five ingredients? If you answered yes to all or most of these questions, then you may want to try this roasted tomato bread soup with a white bean salad. Why a soup? It’s perfect comfort food for a rainy, overcast summer day plus produce tastes best in the summer. These recipes come from Claire Robinson of the Food Network show 5 Ingredient Fix. Both recipes have five ingredients because you never count salt and pepper. Both dishes are family friendly as they are fresh and have great texture.
Roasted Tomato-Bread Soup Ingredients
1 pound vine-ripened tomatoes, quartered and seeded
3 tablespoons garlic-infused extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup finely sliced fresh basil leaves, plus more leaves for garnish
1(28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes (recommended: San Marzano)
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 loaf sourdough baguette (day-old) or 1/4 loaf country bread, torn into 1/2-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
White Bean Salad Ingredients
1 red bell pepper
1 (15-ounce) jar stewed cannellini beans, drained
2 large heads Belgian endive (red or green or a combination), trimmed and thinly sliced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons garlic-flavored olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Meatless Monday with Burritos with Squash And Goat Cheese
Posted by: | CommentsHappy Meatless Monday and welcome back to the blog! What do you think of when someone says burritos? Probably 
something fairly unhealthy as it’s generally full of meat and can be a tad greasy. Well here is a new take on the meat-filled burrito we are accustomed to. With this recipe, a burrito is made delicious and healthy and will fit perfectly into your Meatless Monday plans. You will not even miss the meat in this dish; the squash will replace it just fine. Here is a great way to enjoy this perennial favorite and you know it will be easy to make because it comes by way of the chefs at Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, such as safflower
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 package (10 ounces) frozen cooked winter squash, thawed (or you can make the equivalent yourself - this just makes it easier to make quickly)
2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 package (10 ounces) frozen leaf spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
Coarse salt and ground pepper
4 flour tortillas (10-inch)
5 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup store-bought salsa, plus more for serving
Directions
My Organic Garden - An Arbor is Born
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Hello my fellow organic gardeners, I have some interesting news to share. As you might remember from my last garden post, my Sicilian zucchini plant was bent on total garden domination. Luckily the good people at Martha Stewart’s Sirius radio show gave me some advice on how to deal with this situation. Their advice was to build teepee like structures out of bamboo to give the plant a structure to grow into. I went to the local garden center and found a package of thin bamboo stakes that were only four feet tall. I decided to be industrious (and frugal) and purchase this large (and cheap) package of bamboo and just attach them together with some duct tape to get the proper height. What a mistake that was. I built three teepees for my two zucchini plants that quickly started to bow under the weight of the plants. This was when I started doing some more research on my teepee options.
I knew buying the proper bamboo would be quite costly so I figured I needed to think about it more before I delved headfirst and (potentially) wasted more money. While watching a gardening show, I noticed that they had an arbour with various squash and zucchini growing on it. That was when the idea hit me - I would build an arbour. I quickly realized I had some scrap wood from a previous project and could enlist the help of a very handy person. The design was simple - it was really just four posts with a box-like structure on the top that had polls going across for the plants to grow over. I set out to tackle my project and in an afternoon, my little arbour was born and taking care of business. I am happy to report that the tentacles of the octopus-like zucchini plant have been tamed and now stick to their own area in the arbour. The nature of the structure allows for more polls to be attached to the open sides (if need be) and I fear if we get more rain I will be attaching more poles.