Garden Extravaganza!

My garden guard!

He's such a good boy!  He is guarding mama's garden, he knows his brother would go 'raid' all the veggies!

Well with the major amount of heat over for now atleast, I hope (it's back to 80's) my garden has started producing some more veggies.  My cauliflower has come in heavily and my broccoli plants that I have left are producing numerous side shoots.  I'm hoping to have some more broccoli for the fall, we will see.   My green beans have by far taken the brunt of the heat we've had.  I had to pull up a entire box of Contender beans, they produced once then died.  Didn't seem to matter how much I watered either, they just didn't survive.  I've now planted new beans in it's place, which are sprouting already.

So to date I have had countless and I mean countless (atleast 30) humungous cucumbers and they taste sooooooooo good!  I'm definitely going to be stocking up on Biotamax for next year!  IT's made a world of difference on them!  Tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, they too have responded well to the Biotamax, probably woudl have been better I did it when I planted but alas..   I've had to pull one Zuchinni plant out as it died, but it produced atleast 15 fruits.  I have a 2nd one going but it's only got male flowers now, only had a few fruits off of it, so I'm not sure what it's doing.  Beets were pulled and canned already, so I've planted more.  Lettuce has gone to seed, so I pulled that and replaced it with green beans.  Had tons and tons (over 100) hot peppers.. All varities.. jalapeno, pablano, habanero, banana.  My one and only serrano pepper plant didn't survive the drought.  oh well..  Green peppers are doing ok, was hoping for some sweet peppers but nothing is turning red :(  My corn in the raised beds has grown tremendously (albeit now beetles are attacking the ears!) the corn with my pumpkins not so much, it's definitely stunted by the drought and heat.  As is 90% of the rest of IL, and we are feeling it.. Gas prices are up to $4.15 a gallon today!  YIKES!  I'm wishing I worked closer to home so I could walk! 

So with all this mass amount of produce I've been harvesting  We have been eating salad atleast a few times a week, hubby and I are the only ones who will eat the lettuce, which we like but aren't over crazy about every day so we do a few times a week.  Been snacking on cucumbers for lunch, grape tomatoes and green peppers.

I have given countless zuchinni, lettuce and kale to my grandmother and my mom.  They have frozen, shredded and baked zuchinni bread with it.  (We don't eat zuchinni). 

So here's what I've canned/frozen this year so far:

10 pints of bread n butter pickles
9 pints hot peppers (listed above)
7 qts green beans (though I think I over processed them a little)
4 pints green beans
3 pints cowboy candy (candied jalapenos)
4 pints beets
2 frozen pkgs. green beans
5 pints tomatoes
50 white onions

Not too bad for being in a major drought most of the summer with no rain and temps over 100 daily.  The small amounts of rain we have recieved have done wonders for my garden.  Check out some of my produce from the last few weeks:

Beets

Mega cucumbers

Hot peppers, broccoli and cucumbers

Pickles, beans and hot peppers

These I picked Sat.

This was picked 3 weeks ago

2 weeks ago (for the pickles & hot peppers)

AND this is only some of it!  I've given away countless zuchinnis, lettuce, kale, broccoli, cucumbers and green peppers!

I can't wait to be able to make some cheesy broccoli, cauliflower soup.  Waiting for my carrots and potatoes to come in! 



How is everyone else's garden surviving?  I'd love to hear about your garden, the size, what your growing, how it's doing etc. :)

Garden update!

Well I didn't do any regular grocery shopping this last week.  My inlaws were in town and all I did was hit walmart for my nephew's birthday gift and dog food.  Picked up a couple of clearance bakery goods and milk.  Still going to plan out my CVS trip, but that will happen later this week after I get paid.

Now on to the fun stuff!!!!!!!!!  GARDENING!  Whoohoo.. I finally got the rest of my garden planted.  Not everything has grown yet, or even made an appearance but due to weather I had to wait until Memorial day weekend to get things planted!  I have kept some Kale, Swiss Chard, lettuce & broccoli for fall crops as well.  I have 32 tomato plants.. yikes!  How did I get so many?  I have no clue.  I hate to waste things!  I started my own but they were so darn leggy I wasn't sure what was going to survive and what wouldn't.  So I planted them all and figured some would die off.. But nope not yet.  Oh well hopefully that means I'll get to can lots and lots of tomatoes this year!  I definitely have learned some for next years planting.  Going to change things a bit but overall I'm satisifed with my garden.  I also have intermingled some flowers within the beds to help pollination as well as my hanging baskets on the fence.  Still have to get some cheese cloth for my strawberries and my grape vines.  Darn birds keep getting my strawberries and they done picked all my grape buds clear off my vines!  Found some netting at a garage sale and covered up my berry bushes as I've got blueberries, blackberries and raspberries starting. 

Here's some hightlights of what I planted:
(and I only bought about 9 plants, which for me is hard to believe!  5 tomato, 1 green pepper, 2pks cauliflower  and 1 pk broccoli)

Cauliflower
Corn
Beans
Peas
Tomatoes
Green/sweet peppers
Hot peppers (variety, jalapeno, Habanero)
Cucumbers
Kale
Swiss Chard
Arugula
Lettuce
Spinach
Beets
Onions
Potatoes
Various Melons
Zucchini
Pumpkins
Various herbs
Carrots


I will take additional pics as time goes on when they start making more progress.  I've already decided next year I'm going to do a few boxes as the square foot method, so I need to read up on that.  Wish I had done that this year but didn't and then I forgot what I planted where!  So I've got somethings growing I'm not really sure what it is.  Mostly herbs and greens that I can't remember.  Things like beans and peas are pretty easy to figure out.  lol

  Until next time!  Happy gardening!!!!!!!!!  I'll try to get some better pics this coming weekend, as the plants have grown so much in just 2 days since I took these pics!

Garden progress

Oooooh my aching back, arms, legs.. Oh heck you name it!  Man I never realized a raised bed garden would be so much work!  Ugh.  We started by putting the beds together and carrying them over to the spot I want them.  We plan to put 16 x 16 patio bricks as rows (probably next year).  We actually have these patio blocks as a patio right now, so they are perfect.  I put up some cute little butterfly fences to keep my dogs off the berry bushes.  So we have now filled 8 boxes completely and started filling theothers.  Hopefully I have enough dirt and mixing in the compost and garden soil will give enough fertilizer for this year.  In the past when the garden was in my ‘old spot’ the first year I mixed garden soil right in with my top soil, worked great had good production, etc.  The 2^nd year I mixed in manure in the spring and that too was good production.  So since I’m putting in topsoil in the boxes I figure adding compost and garden soil should be good.  I sure hope so!  We finally went and bought a small tow behind the tractor dump trailer, so worth the $100 versus the wheelbarrow!

Here’s some of our progress we made  For some reason I thought 6 would fit, but it didn’t, no biggie my husband said we’ll just go over, since we are going to move the trampoline over into the old garden corner, it won’t matter anyway.  So, alas I still will get my 17 big boxes and I have enough for a 3x3 box that I plan to use strictly for garlic, which is currently growing in a planter.   He’s such a wonderful man.. he’s doing this for me because as far as he’s concerned he could careless about gardening!

Strawberries are showing some signs of life!

(empty beds)

(waiting to have garden soil mixed in)

This is where we are today.  I went last week and got 20 bags of manure and 20 bags of garden soil to mix into my topsoil.  Got to get another 20 bags each to finish.

Mama, this is exhausting work!

My 8 yr old decided he wants to make some planter boxes for flowers, so my mom gave us some flower seeds and my husband said he would help him build the boxes and we’ll figure out somewhere to put them.  The one thing I almost forgot was moving my hanging planters over to my new area so I can hang flower baskets up.  Got my order in to Gurney’s and can’t wait for all that stuff to come.  Berry bushes, grapevines, potatoes and some more strawberry plants!  I’m so excited about this garden, it darn well better show me some major love and produce good!  And I started some more tomato and pepper seeds, I’ll be curious to see how they do, I won’t be putting them out for atleast another month or so.  I’ve replanted all my tomato plants into other containers and they are thriving!

Jalapenos

Cucumbers and Peppers

Tomatoes

Hoping tonight will allow me to plant my beets, carrots and onions.  It’s been icky, rainy and cooler weather.  But the box I wanted to put these guys in is done, so hopefully it will be atleast not rainy for me to do that!

Until next time!

Ham & Cheese Casserole

So last night was the final day I could take my FINAL final exam.  I am now officially done with school FOREVER!  And believe me I have the student loans to show it!  Ugh.. that will be the death of me.  But I now will have my BS, MBA and a PMP certificate.  Can’t ask for much more then that to help further my career, atleast that is what I tell myself.  J  Especially not knowing what is going to happen with my company come Nov/Dec. when they are splitting the company into two separate companies.  Shall be interesting that’s for sure, never know with these Fortune500 companies.  Anyways…….  What I did for dinner was a simple, quick and easy meal that can be interpreted many different ways. 

I didn’t do a ham for Easter, I have one just didn’t cook it.  I know bad mom, but my family is not your typical, Sunday Church people either so (with all due respect), we all went to lunch instead. 

So, what I did have for this recipe was some ham frozen from Christmas, I used to buy the expensive cubed ham at the store, until it dawned on me, Doh! (light going off here)  I can use my leftover ham, from making a ham.  I normally gave that stuff away!  Yep I’m that lazy.  Still had ham from Christmas to use, go figure.  Well I have been only a little busy (kids, work, school, housework, garden, etc.) you get the picture I’m sure.  Last night knowing I needed a quick and easy meal so I had time for my final and still to watch AI and Survivor (poor Colton!)  I pulled out my frozen ham, pasta, mushroom soup, Velveeta and canned tomatoes. What I really like about this recipe is the versatility.  You can make as much or as little, add veggies or whatever else you want!  Here’s what I put together: 

Ham and Cheese Casserole:

I made this in a skillet but it can easily be made in a casserole pan as well.

Ingredients:

Chopped or cubed ham

4 oz Velveeta cheese

Pasta shells (or other noodles) (I used ½ box)

1 Can canned tomatoes – any flavor

1 can cream of mushroom soup

½ cup Milk

Shredded cheese.

Salt

Pepper

Italian seasoning

Garlic powder

1. Boil pasta as per directions. Drain and mix into either casserole dish or skillet
2. Pour in soup and ½ can milk, mix good.
3. Mix in chunks of ham
4. Cut in chunks of Velveeta (easier for melting if they are small)
5. Mix in canned tomatoes & all seasonings
6. If cooking in oven, cover and heat 20 min, uncover and top with cheese.  If cooking in skillet, cover and let simmer about 10-15 min.  Stirring occasionally to mix in cheese.
7. Top with shredded cheese and let melt.

I topped mine with mozzarella cheese, it’s all I had, and some additional pepper to the top.  I used Hunt’s spicy red pepper tomatoes this time.  They gave it a little kick but nothing too much.  Did I mention I hate spicy?

See quick and easy and so yummy!  I served with brown n serve dinner rolls.

And as always checkout many more wonderful recipes over at Dishing It Up.

Beefy Baked Ravioli

Beefy Baked Ravioli!
This recipe is awesome, so quick, easy & everything I have in the stockpile already.

1lb. ground beef
1 pkg frozen ravioli
1 Jar pasta sauce
1 pkg. shredded mozzarella cheese (or cheese of choice)

Brown ground beef (can add garlic or onion if you'd like) mix in half pasta sauce.
Pour remaining pasta sauce in 13x9 baking dish
Layer frozen ravioli on bottom of pan in sauce, layer next with 1/2 the ground beef, 1/2 cup cheese, layer with 2nd layer of ravioli, rest of ground beef and top with cheese.
Cover with foil and bake at 425 for 20 minute or until bubbly and done.

For mine I used Target brand ravioli, it's only $2.87 a pkg. And
I used Colby Jack cheese as that is all I had on hand, normally I use mozzarella.

Voila.. there's dinner! Serve with garlic bread or breadsticks. Cheap and easy meal. We usually have enough leftover for someone's lunch the next day. This feeds my entire family of 5 with leftovers as well. :)

Be sure to check out http://dishingituprecipehop.blogspot.com/ for more great casserole recipes!

~Quick & Easy Chicken Enchiladas~

The following recipe was my tweaking/concoction from one I found on allrecipes.com.  My 3 yr old asks for this everynight and it’s so simple, quick and easy!  I usually have a stash of chicken in the freezer just for these type of purposes.  A month ago I made a whole chicken and for the 1^st time I actually sat there and picked all the chicken pieces off!  I then froze what I had.  What I had leftover has now made 2 meals, last nights I beefed it up some with a little bit of turkey and nobody knew the difference!

You could also make this with Beef, Turkey or beans even!  The possibilities are endless…

Ingredients

• 3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken (more if you prefer)
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 2 tbsp of taco seasoning recipe Here…
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 medium size tortilla shells

Directions

1.                      Combine soup and 1 cup sour cream in a bowl until well blended, set aside.

2.                      Cook Chicken in olive oil until no longer pink, add taco seasoning or chili powder (your preference) and mix/heat well.  Add about 3 tbsp of soup mixture to chicken and cook for about 5 minutes.

3.                      Scoop about half the soup mixture into the bottom of the baking dish and spread evenly.

4.                      Spoon about 1/2 cup of chicken down the center on each tortilla; sprinkle with about ¼ cup of cheese, roll up. Place seam side down in 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Continue until no chicken left.

5.                      Top dish with remaining soup mixture and sprinkle with shredded cheese & tomatoes

6.                      Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Uncover, switch oven to broil and broil for about 5 minutes.  You don’t have to broil it if you don’t want, you can just let it cook another 5 minutes, I broil it so the top has that brown crispy texture to it.

7.                      Serve with sour cream and any other desired toppings such as jalapenos, hot sauce, green chiles, onions etc. 

I have also made this and topped it with a "10 minute" enchilada sauce that I got from allrecipes.com as well. 

Enjoy!

Now of course I forgot to take a picture, so I have borrowed the one from allrecipes.com:

(photo credit: allrecipes.com)

Make sure and check out alot more chicken recipes at Dishingitup

What do you do with your browning bananas???????

What do you do with your ‘extra’ bananas?

So I totally don’t like bananas.. Actually I despise them.  I think they are gross, the taste, texture everything there is about them.  BUT my family loves them so.. I buy them.  And there they sit.. going brown as usual.. So years ago I dug around until I found a recipe for the bread that I actually liked and better yet had my husband’s approval.  So be it.. whoever eats bananas great, if they go brown, I’ll either make bread or freeze them. 

So here’s what I did.. and yes I will eat banana bread, if it’s nice warm and slathered in butter.. ;)  I’m a little wreckless what can I say!

My husband loves when I make this bread.. I become his new best friend.. as well as the guys at his shop.. You'd think I'm the wife to them all!  Men I tell ya..

And I suppose it would be nice if I gave you the recipe eh?  Well I'll have to find it again and post it up, I of course forgot it at home today. :)