Its Not a Cucumber At All

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=organictaste-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000XTJH6G&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrI’m off my rocker. Today I discovered that the cucumber I was growing is no cucumber at all, but instead a cantaloupe. I discovered this when my husband insisted it wasn’t cucumber and told me to go look outside. I thought he was crazy and admitted that the cucumber is awfully round and the yellow flowers were slightly different…. He insisted I go look.

I hadn’t looked in two days and really didn’t expect to see the change I did. Sure enough the skin on this vegetable now fruit had hardened and began to develop those common rough spots seen on cantaloupes. It looked exactly like a cantaloupe, except it was still green. LOL. I’m an idiot!

The good news two years of trying and I have successfully finally grown a cantaloupe. The bad news I don’t label my seeds as well as I should. The good news I discovered that when cantaloupe is picked early before the skin begins to harden it tastes like cucumber with thick skin. The bad news I now don’t have cucumbers on the trellis and I didn’t prepare for growing cantaloupe. The good news…. I have cantaloupe!

Chew Slowly and Savor Your Food Rule

Food vanishes from this house quickly. My oldest and quickly growing daughter can eat as much as I do and I have a big appetite for a small woman. People are amazed at how much food I can eat. At the grocery store I avoid buying the snacks, the cereal bars, the candies to save money, for the environment and to live healthier. Instead, I load up on vegetables and fruits (local and organic if affordable). I buy some meat (mostly whole natural chickens) to make up for the days we run out of CSA meat. I buy cold organic cereals for the morning, eggs, potatoes, rice and organic milk. These are the basics. Sometimes I’ll buy stuff to make homemade snacks and I always buy crackers to eat with tuna.

When I look at the grocery cart I am amazed at how full it is? When I pay for the groceries I swear under by breath and sometimes out loud that the food better last a month, but when I look at the fridge two weeks later I am shocked that it didn’t.

Where does it all go? I stretch the food. I ration it out. I no longer cook enough to make leftover unless I know %100 percent we will eat them for lunch tomorrow. I don’t let the fruits and vegetables rot. I…. I don’t understand. Not long ago I heard this story on the news about a women who fed her whole family for a month on something like $100. She fed them things like noodles with veggies inside. She’d make soups and save the chicken bones for flavoring etc. etc. She’s also a coupon clipper.

Now I do most of that, except save the bones. I give those to my dog. I also don’t coupon clip though I have been meaning too. I have a box of coupons waiting to be clipped and used. In the past though, looking through those coupons I found little of use. There are no coupons for fresh fruits and vegetables. There are very little coupons for organic foods and frozen vegetables and fruits. I use what I can find, but these coupons are usually for the expensive organic brands. I buy store brand organic because its less expensive even if I use the coupon with the organic name brand. I guess I could double up coupons, but some coupons state on the coupon not to double up and some stores don’t allow double up. I will have to do more research in this area. If anyone out there has some experience feel free to send me a message.

In the mean time I’m going to have to find a new way to make fresh food stretch farther than it usually does in this household. I am going to have to keep reinforcing the “eat slowly and savor your food” rule (which no one likes) a lot more. I’m also going to have to keep trying to succeed with the garden. I’ve saved a lot on money on herbs, mint tea and cucumbers. If only I could get other things to successfully grow.

Speaking of success. My basil looks amazing. It is thriving! My camera battery died before I could download the pictures I took of it. I will have to post a picture later.

"Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants"

Today’s posting will be short. Please cheer quietly as it is late at night. I am aware I haven’t posted in awhile. Some times there just isn’t much to say because some times there isn’t much to recollect.

This month I have done little with the garden (actually most months are like this) but I have been thinking a lot about food. I have Squidoo, RocketMoms, the Foodlover’s group, a fitness challenge at work, a food diet blog tour and my sister’s wedding to thank for that. My goal is to eat healthier. My husband say we already eat healthy enough especially compared to the rest of America.

I’m not eating healthy in comparison to others. I’m doing it for me and to lead by example for my kids. If only it was that easy. The CSA baskets and the CSA meats are great but they don’t last long and when they’re gone or out of season I still have to go shopping at the grocery store, filled with tempting things like Hostess cupcakes. I don’t buy them but when I’m home I find myself craving them all day. I hate it. Just writing about them and my mouth is watering.

I tell myself I’m going to start learning how to make my own sweets and desserts but unless it’s a special occasion I really don’t have time to make them. Speaking of desserts, I picked up a few healthy eating books at the library yesterday (they had a snake exhibition at the community center right next door my hubby and I took our kids to). One of the books I picked up was Food Rules. Its a great one day read with a lot of simple healthy eating ideas I needed reminding of. This is what eating healthy should be about. I never understood the need for calorie counting or any of that nonsense. I wish there were more books like this and a whole lot less of the ones that read something like this, “Loose 10 pounds in 8 days eating cookies!”. Seriously?

As for my garden and everything else… the cucumber and squash are still growing despite the heat and the basil in the front yard looks great. I learned last year basil likes this weather. Earlier this week I picked a bucket full of ripe figs from my neighbors backyard (he let me) and today while grocery shopping I bought two spagetti squash. I can’t wait to try them with tomorrows dinner. What a tasty week.

I really can’t keep it short can I?

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My Vegeterian Meal For My Daughter

I made shiitake spaghetti with arugula salad on the side yesterday. The only animal product was the cheese in the salad and maybe the pasta if it was made with eggs. The spaghetti was yum and the salad would have been had I used a different lettuce. I just can’t get use to the arugula texture.

In the recipe the salad had: pecans, avocado, crumbled Mexican cheese, Parmesan cheese, tomato, green onions, arugula, and ginger sesame vinaigrette. The spaghetti had: sautéed shiitake mushrooms with a few green onions, tomatoes, rosemary and parsley. It was all simmered in organic spaghetti sauce. Then it was all poured onto cooked spaghetti noodles. Yum!

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The Science Teacher, The Second CSA Week and a Toast to Great Meals

In the oven right now is a whole chicken cut in half covered in olive oil, salt and fresh CSA rosemary. Next to the chicken dish are 3 small CSA sweet potatoes. We will have a salad with the chicken and the sweet potato. In the salad there is CSA radishes, fresh from the farm today tomatoes and fresh from our garden cucumber. My stomach growls in anticipation.

At the grocery store, Kroger,  the organic milk was on Manager Special so it came at half the cost. At the farm not only did we buy fresh tomatoes, we also bought a pumpkin. The pumpkin looked great. When our girls arrived home we carved the pumpkin. My husband did most of the work but it was all very enjoyable and gooey. The seeds were separated and are waiting to be baked. Half will be baked with sugar the other half with salt. The inside gunk was thrown in the compost bin and then a soy candle was lit in the carved and cleaned pumpkin head. Yes, I have pictures.

Today, despite the heavy rains we had to drive in, has been a wonderful day. Soon we will all sit at the table and eat a fresh healthy meal, part local, part organic, all fresh and I will smile because I and my husband are giving my family the best we can, on a budget, for our health and our future. My heart leaps in excitement.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the meeting with the Science teacher C.G. about the school garden. It went very well. Then I will tell you about this weeks CSA adventure. It’s dinner time.

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CSA, Liver, Dogs and Organic Food

Did I tell you I asked to skip this month on the CSA delivery? I did. I asked to skip it. It wasn’t in my budget this month. Did I tell you I finally cooked the CSA liver? I did. I’ve never liked the taste of liver. No matter how it’s cooked I still can’t stand it. Unfortunately, the same rings true with the liver that came in the CSA meats. I waited until I was all out of other meats before cooking it. I sauteed it with onion and salt. I really don’t know any other recipe. It smelled great. Wonderful in fact. My kids were going on and on about the how good it smelled. Liver does have a nice smell to it. When it was done cooking I gave a small piece to each of my girls who were so excited to get a taste ( I hardly ever let them taste before a meal) they hopped with joy. My oldest took a huge bite and said yum and just as quickly as she said yum her mouth and face turned into a look of disgust. My youngest was to busy confused about the texture of the meat that she was taking pinches and putting the tiny morsels into her mouth. Then at the same time the both stuck their tongues out and looked at me and told me they didn’t like it. Secretly I knew my picky girls wouldn’t like it, but a part of me was hoping they would. I wish I were a better cook and maybe I could have somehow made it taste better, but the texture from the liver alone is enough to turn me off and apparently my girls too. Yes I tasted it too and I just…. couldn’t bare it. I was so disappointed. All the other meats from the CSA meat have been remarkably better compared t regular meats that I assumed the liver would taste better too, but it wasn’t. Not in my opinion or my daughters. I hated to waste it, but I knew there was no way we would eat it. So I gave it to my dog who enjoyed it very much. He ate it up in less than 5 minutes. That made me think about an article I read somewhere, wish I could remember where, about why dogs should be fed organic meals too. I looked at my dog and gave him a pat on the head and told him, “I wish I could sweety, but I can barely afford to buy organic foods for us”. The next time I went to the big HEB I looked for organic dog food, just to check out the prices, but there wasn’t any organic food available for dogs that I could find. I continued shopping for my organic food, wishing there was more selection there too. Then I began to wonder how I would come up with the money to buy organic food in the next couple of months. The job security situation has me a little worried for once. Then I began to wonder why I am worried about organic food at a time like this. Maybe because I believe doing so completes the circle. You know, the circle of life. Don’t laugh. I’m serious. It is what will pull us through. If those few of us who can still afford to buy organic foods, eco-friendly products and such still keep doing what we can to buy it, we help others keep their jobs (local farmers, eco-friendly companies, green organizations, etc) and if they keep their jobs they can grow big and create more jobs, more green jobs. More green jobs means a healthier economically sound non-toxic country, perhaps world. In the end this all means a healthy stable world for our kids. Its hard to think so far ahead though when in the next few months anything can change. What if I can’t even pay my mortgage? Should I buy the organic tomatoes that cost twice as much or regular tomatoes that I can afford, but have pesticide?

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