Working in the Garden – Doing A Lot With Limited Space - Delicious Obsessions
I am constantly surprised at what you can do with a small space in regards to gardening. I have been able to grow a lot in my teeny tiny yard. My garden area is 5 feet by 12 feet. It takes up about half of the backyard – the other half is a concrete pad. But, I still manage to produce quite a bit of food, and I’m hoping this year will be even better. I’m learning more about what works and what doesn’t, and I have made a commitment to fertilize my garden often (once per week)! In-ground garden in 2010 The first two years that we lived here, I just dug an in-ground garden. I don’t know how many people tell me that they don’t have the space to garden. Now that I am crazy about gardening, it makes me want to do more to be sustainable. I highly recommend the fertilizers and soil amendments from MightyGrow Organics. If you’re a budding urban gardener, here are some of my favorite resources – I checked the books out at my local library. Pepper and tomato plants in containers
7 things you can make yourself instead of buying
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Backyard Gardening Blog
Fitness Friday #8: Top 13 Foods You Should Eat At Least Once A Week
This week for “Fitness Friday” I enlisted the help of an expert! Yoplait Light’s Swap Coach, Christina Meyer-Jax. She is a registered dietitian and Nutrition Communicator at the General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition. I asked her to help me compile a list of the “Top Foods You Should Eat At Least Once A Week.” She offered 13 delicious suggestions as well as ideas on how to incorporate them into your diet. #1) Yogurt: Just 1 cup of most yogurts provides a good source of the daily value of calcium and has phosphorus, potassium, zinc, riboflavin, vitamin B12 and protein. Usage Idea: Yogurt can be eaten at any time of the day- breakfast, snack or dessert. Frozen Red Velvet Cake #2) Flaxseeds: Flaxseeds contain omega 3s, which are essential polyunsaturated fats that are typically low in the average American diet. Usage Idea: Sprinkle seeds or ground flaxseed on your cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, salad, or sandwiches. Bran-Flax Muffins Watermelon and Feta Salad with Pumpkin Seeds
A How to Guide to Growing Bulbs : : You did it
This is a guest post by Amy Fowler. There are several clever methods of growing bulbs all year round. Naturalising and forcing are just two examples, amongst a number of others. Storing Bulbs If, for whatever reason, you cannot plant your bulbs on the same day as you buy them, make sure you store them correctly. Planting Bulbs Of course, the most important part of growing bulbs is making sure you plant them correctly.This requires more than just healthy topsoil. 1) Bulbs grow most efficiently when they are planted in groups of 6-24. 2) Large bulbs should be planted eight to twelve inches under the topsoil. 3) Applying mulch and water in abundance will make sure the soil does not dry out during the summer. 4) It is a common misconception to believe that every time you plant bulbs you need to apply fertiliser to the ground. Other Tips Unfortunately, freshly planted bulbs are more than appealing to squirrels. If this does not work, then it is time to invest in some good old chicken wire.
Sugar-Free Peanut Butter, Oatmeal and Banana Cookies - Vegan Cookie Recipe - Sugar-free peanut butter cookies
Using flour with oatmeal and relying on a dash of maple syrup for sweetness, this sugar-free cookie recipe is a healthy dessert that will be sure to please every health-conscious cookie lover! This cookie is also quite low in calories. See also: More Sugar-free Cookie Recipes Prep Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 10 minutes Ingredients: 1/3 cup peanut butter2 ripe bananas (overripe is fine)1 tsp vanilla2 tbsp soy milk2 tbsp maple syrup 2 ½ cups quick cooking or rolled oatmealdash cinnamon (optional)1/4 cup flour Preparation: In a large bowl, mash bananas with a fork until smooth. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 13-16 minutes at 350 degrees, or until done. Note: This recipe is only truly sugar-free if you used unsweetened peanut butter and unsweetened soymilk, so read the ingredients list and look for soy milk that says "Unsweetened" right on the label. More vegan desserts
How to Keep Onions
My nephew’s football team was selling 25 pound bags of Vidalia onions a few weeks ago as a fund raiser for their team. Of course I snapped them up, thinking of all the delicious dishes I could make with 25 pounds of onions. And then they were delivered. Well, luckily, I remembered my Grandmother would always have onions on hand from those she’d grown in her garden. You know that smell? Yeah, I do too. So I decided I either had to crank out one onion dish after another for a week or get busy storing them as my Grandmother did many years ago. Here’s how you store onions using the good ole pantyhose method. 1. So now, don’t be afraid of buying your onions in bulk.
Goddess Inspired Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free, Soy-free Millet No Oatmeal Coconut Raisin Cookie Recipe | Book of Yum
As you might have noticed, Baby Yum has been keeping me extremely busy lately. So busy that there have been fewer posts here at the Book of Yum, but I still post at least once a week. With less posting and Baby Yum’s allergies, you might think that I haven’t been cooking much- but it couldn’t be further from the truth! With Baby Yum’s allergies improved I’ve incorporated more foods into my diet, including sorghum.
Tips for Growing Great Carrots
October 4th, 2011 Yesterday, some readers asked if I had any tips for growing great carrots, so I thought I’d share a few things that work well for me. I’m by no means an expert carrot grower and sometimes things work well in one place and not in another. If you’ve had difficulties growing carrots, keep trying new varieties and different methods, keep amending your soil, eventually you’ll find a variety that works for you. Carrots like loose rich soil, preferably a little sandy, and soil that’s been worked quite deeply. Carrot seeds take a while to germinate and they like even moisture during the process. Carrot seeds like to be planted close to the surface of the soil, the general rule: plant one and a half to two times the width of the seed. I usually plant one big wide row of carrots four feet wide and about ten feet long. As with all root vegetables, carrots appreciate a lot of phosphorus in the soil.
Honey Lemon Apple Jam Recipe
For months now, I’ve been working on finding a way to make a jam from apples that is satisfying and, well, jammy. The problem with apples is if you try and cook them raw with sugar, which is the way you approach the fruit in most jam recipes, the apples don’t break down. They stay hard and firm, releasing little of their sugars and leaving you with a final product that is closer to marmalade than jam. In some recipes, such as my Cranberry-Apple Jam, this isn’t such a bad thing. The cranberries and sugar do the jammy work, and the apples add nice texture and mouthfeel. This time, I cooked the apples down into a sauce with two cups of lemon juice before adding the sugar. You may be wondering why I’m so excited to find a good apple jam technique. Before, I jump to the recipe, I want to talk pectin. Ingredients Instructions Prepare your canning pot, as well as seven pint jars, lids and rings.
