Urban Garden

Thankful Thursday

~ todaysadventureis ~ 2 Comments

Today I’m thankful for my little garden.

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Fresh Sage I cut for dinner the other night.

I love being able to cut fresh herbs, and ingredients for recipes right from my garden.

Even though gardening can be maddening, my garden is a bit sad this year…things are not growing like I’d like and there is a never ending battle with ants/bugs, but I still love it. The pruning, watering, harvesting, and taking notes…..while it is work, it’s relaxing.

Mostly I love how much better food taste when I know it’s fresh ingredients that I grew myself.  And, I love that Sky will spend time working in the garden with me. Well, she mostly eats the strawberries till she’s full, but she does like harvesting the salad stuff and prepping it for dinner. I’m also thankful that Mark builds what I need for the garden and comes up with great ideas to make it better and easier for me!

 

From The Kitchen

~ todaysadventureis ~ Leave a comment

I’m always a little behind with my cooking magazines. I get 4 or 5 a month, and it takes a little time to read them, decide which recipes will be a good fit for our family, and if anything needs to be subbed out to accommodate being GF & DF.

As a result I’m just now trying some of the recipes from the June Rachael Ray Magazine. Once again I’m finding tons of good stuff in her magazine. Most of my go to, 30 min, yummy meals are from Rachael Ray!

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I spilled too much Cotija Cheese on mine and was too hungry to make a fresh salad just for a photo.

I’m loving this Chorizo & Chicken Taco Salad from the June issue. It’s also on her site if you want to check it out: Chorizo & Chicken Taco Salad with Chipotle Dressing

I pretty much followed the recipe without any changes. For the dressing there is an option between acacia, honey, or agave syrup and I used honey. In the salad I forgot to add the green olives, so I don’t know how they add or take away from the salad.

I really love this recipe because you get rotisserie chicken, shred it up and cook some chorizo, which cooks really fast, so dinner is ready so fast, super easy, and accommodates individual taste if you let each person build their own salad.

Rather than toss it all together I tossed the lettuce and dressing together, and then left all the other ingredients separate so Mark and Sky could pick and choose what they want. For example I left the jalapeno’s, onion, and chorizo off of Sky’s salad and gave her extra chicken instead.

This is a great summer recipe and pairs well with a crisp, chilled white wine or margaritas.

 

Thankful Thursday

~ todaysadventureis ~ Leave a comment

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Watching my garden grow…that’s what I’m thankful for today.

Sky and I started those seeds last weekend and already some are sprouting…soon it will be time to transplant into the garden, and watch them grow and grow until they are ready for harvesting.

I’m thankful that I get to grow some of our own food, in our small garden. That Sky’s excited about growing vegetables, and even picked what she wanted…broccoli and cauliflower.

There’s such a disconnect for most people between the food on their table and where it came from/how it got there. I feel a need to bridge that gap for myself and for Sky. I want to get back to how I grew up…on land, with a garden, raising some of our own meat…I used to know where the food came from, and every step it took to get it on the table.

I want Sky to have the satisfaction of growing, harvesting, and preparing the very vegetables she picked out. To have garden dirt under her fingernails, drinking sweet tea while caring for the garden in the hot sun, to enjoy the simple act of planting a seed and watching it grow. I want to share a little bit of how I grew up…with her…in our urban setting.

I’m thankful for finding a little bit of simple life in our garden.