Vertical Garden -inside or out!

I am always looking for ways to maximize growing space in my small, central Phoenix yard. The more you grow, the more you look for new places, new ways to grow even more food. It it very addictive. On an episode of Growing your Greens on You Tube he features a new item from a garden show that looks really neat for just that. Its called the PhytoPod. (Im thinking I could even DIY this.) You can use it inside next to a window or outside on a small patio. It gives up to 20 feet of plantable garden space! I'd love to hear about how it works out for people using it. John on the video said he would keep us updated. 

Vegan Treat

Butterscotch Marshmallow thingy at NAMI in Downtown Phoenix. Ate this along with my hands down favorite beverage, the Affogado: shot of espresso, soft serve ice cream and Chocolate syrup. I'm sure its not "healthy" but If you need a (vegan) junk food fix, this is it!

Bread Starter / Rustic Bread

I am so excited to find this how to and great recipe. I am going to try it with Spelt flour since hubby cant eat the wheat. I read that a spelt starter is possible. I'll let you know how it turns out.

December Vegetable Garden: What to plant

Yes, there are vegetables you can plant this month in Phoenix, AZ. We are so fortunate to have weather favorable for a beautiful winter garden. I have compiled a list of items I have found from other websites, blogs, and nursery's for items that can be planted for each month.

These can be planted in December:

Artichokes
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Peas 
Radishes
Onions

Leafy Greens such as:
Lettuce
Arugula
Spinach

Most herbs

Be sure to plant in areas that get plenty of sunlight.

If you know of others please let us know.

Gutter Garden DIY

Gutter gardens are a good idea if you are limited to space. It is good to keep it for smaller greens and herbs since there is limited root space. They also take less water and soil. Be sure the space you are planting has adequate sunlight. My space could use a little more, but I am planting herbs that will do fine there. 

This was a very easy project, and took few tools. What you will need:

*A galvanized gutter, these are $6 for 10 feet at Home Depot. I just saw that there are also 5 inch gutters, might be better for root space for $9 ea. I used the 4 inch.

*the gutter end caps (2 for each gutter).

*Wire.

*A Hammer

*A Nail

*Organic soil

Use the nail to punch your holes. I punched 3 holes on the bottom for drainage, one on each end and one in the center, or, about one every 3 feet.  

 Then for hanging the gutter to the chain link fence, I punched 3 sets of two holes, on the ends and one set in the center. The wire will loop through the holes and then attach to the chain link fence.

Pop the ends on both sides.

Voila!

Add soil. I also added chicken wire because the birds were digging up the seed and and the sprouts.

Please email pictures or comment if you have a gutter garden that has been successful. 

Black Bean Veggie Patties

I was dreaming of Kerbey Lane in Austin. It is one of the most memorable Diner style meal I've had, and better yet it was vegan. It is almost impossible to get a table most mornings and not wait more that an hour for it, and so well worth it once your'e seated and you get to order the vegan breakfast platter with a vegan pumpkin pancake which I highly recommend. Not everything there is vegan, and it is very popular for both vegan and non vegans, but they have an amazingly tasty vegan menu. Everything I have had there has been so good.
That brings me to todays post. I wanted to make a black bean sausage patty. And it turned out really good. In trying to avoid soy, wheat, and processed foods, that cuts out many vegan patties you can buy at the store. These taste 10 times better than most of those and they are pretty easy to make. I always try to have brown rice, and some sort of bean (I usually alternate between black, pinto, great northern and Cannellini) cooked up in the fridge for quick and nutritious meals, so I made sure I had some black beans on hand. I dont really like canned, and once you start cooking your own you will feel the same way. The taste is incomparable.

In the blender I threw in: 
1 carrot
1 tomato
1 stalk celery
1 green bell pepper
1/4 cup diced red or yellow onion
2 tbsp red chili
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder, or a few cloves fresh garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp yellow curry powder 
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup black beans
3/4 cup brown rice

Blend on low to med so it is still a little chunky.

Then in separate bowl add:
3/4 brown rice
1 cup black beans
3 sprigs chopped green onions
1 cooked potato mashed
1 cooked sweet potato mashed
2 Tbsp Flax seeds
1 cup brown rice flour (add more if mixture is too loose)

Stir together with the mixture from the blender.

Form into patties to order. This makes a good amount so we've been eating them for breakfasts with toast and eggs, lunches, my husband eats them as a taco since he is off of wheat. I think with the next batch I will make them all up and freeze them.

Stuffed Dates-Sweet and Salty

For some reason I thought I wanted to make a mix with avocado and shove it in a sweet date. It sounds a little crazy but believe me, it is so tasty! 

I got an avocado and chopped it up, added sunflower seeds, salt, cayenne powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, a small squeeze of lemon, and a tiny bit of finely chopped onions. 

Then I seeded the dates by cutting them in half and stuffed them with the mixture. If you are a dairy eater a little feta would be good in them too. However, without it it is a completely RAW and tasty snack.

Took a little vacation...

It has been a while since my last post. Wedding Showers, Baby showers, weddings, and my baby have been keeping me nice and busy. I do hope to get back on the blogging wagon as soon as possible. Here are a few pictures of shower cakes I made. 

Wedding Shower Cake.

Baby Shower Cake.

It has been a very long time since I have made any cakes and I really enjoyed doing it. On the wedding shower cake I experimented with Marshmallow Fondant and I really liked it. It was not as intimidating as you would think, and it functions well. 

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Chocolate Mint Bath Salts

This was a fun DIY gift.

I started with a few drops of vanilla and a few drops of peppermint oil in a large bowl. (Easy on the peppermint, its strong!)

Then I filled the jar with the epsom salts. This was to measure the amount of salts I needed to mix. Then I poured a jar full of the salts into the vanilla/peppermint mixture and stirred thoroughly. Then I added a couple of Tbsp. of Cacao powder and stirred well. 

Decorate the jar.

Its so much better to make items such as these yourself because, #1 its cheaper, and #2 have you ever read the ingredients of what is in the stuff? You know exactly what you are bathing your body in.

Seed organization

My favorite tea (Barney and Sons) tin is the PERFECT size for my seed packets.

Sweetly Raw. Source for Raw Desserts.

My favorite RAW food blog. Heather Pace is a Raw Dessert Chef and is a genius with raw/vegan food. Her recipes are amazing! Please check it out if you are trying to eat healthier. These are decadent alternatives to great desserts, as well as dinners.

http://www.sweetlyraw.com/

Other items from her blog:

Coconut Milk Creamer

This is my new favorite creamer. Non dairy and non soy. This particular brand is super creamy so you only need a tiny bit. It is every bit as satisfying as any dairy or processed creamer and so much better!!! I also had it on granola last night (cherry pecan granola from my bountiful baskets order, which by the way is so good!!) and it was so amazing. I diluted it a little with water although it was really good and rich undiluted as well. You can buy coconut milk in the carton but oddly I find there are more additives in those, so I just use the canned which is thicker anyway. So far I love it and I keep finding more and more uses for this in place of dairy.

"Cheesy" Veg Pasta Salad

Its Friday!

Its also almost time to pick up my next basket so I need to use up what I have in the refrigerator. A few great ways to do that is to make soup, stir fry, or pasta. This recipe is for pasta, I have most of the ingredients for one of my favorite pasta dishes and it will use up some of what I have. A huge key to eating healthy inexpensively is to use what you buy, and Friday is a great day to plan a use-up-whats-in-the-refrigerator meal. This is my "Cheesy" Veg Pasta.

This is what I have:

This is what I picked:

Cooked the pasta. I always use brown rice pasta. I love the flavor/texture of it and its not as processed as white wheat pasta. I get it at Sprouts or Fresh & Easy. Toss it with olive oil and garlic once cooked.

Choop up everything I pulled out, add salt and pepper, and garlic. Fresh basil would be great in this too.

Throw in the pasta. I like too add it when its still pretty warm. It helps mix everything together and its a nice temp to serve. Then I added about 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast which adds the cheesy flavor and is packed with nutrition as it has lots of essential amino acids which is great if you are avoiding animal proteins.

Veggie pizza

I love making this once a week if I can as a little treat or some variation of it. I get the whole wheat dough at Fresh & Easy. They freeze really good by the way if you want to stock up. Its nice to have them on stand by.
I roll it out and drizzle olive oil, add garlic and salt and bake it.

Then in this recipe I sautéed:
Garlic
1 onion
A little crushed red chili pepper
And a few capers in olive oil

Then added:
1 zucchini diced
1 yellow squash diced

When those were done I turned off the heat and added two big handfuls of baby spinach and some fresh chopped basil and stirred until those were just a little wilted.

Now your crust is like garlic bread, yum. Cut it as you would pizza and top with the veggies. I also like to add tomatoes to this recipe by adding them to the stir fry vegetables when I add the onions and garlic. Of course you will find what you like to add.