a garden update, the seeds are sprouting!

ok, so I found another use for coconut kefir...pancake topper drowner!  It's so good.



this was great with NaturallyNutty Vanilla Almond Butter and coco kefir!



I made extra pancakes (the recipe is Orange-Poppy Seed Pancakes from the Garden of Vegan
and added lots of blueberries for a couple of my bfasts this week.



a yummy dinner lately Tortellini Salad with Fresh Spinach from the current co-op Advantage flyer (scroll down for the recipe).  It calls for cheese tortellini, but why do that when you can have these? 



I will forever remember the first time I had butternut squash ravioli, I was in love at first bite.  Did it help that I was on a date with my hubby in our early relationship days (It was love at first bite with him too ;))???  sure =) but the ravioli was housemade and really delicious. 

Here's all the goodies before I added the spinach.  I subbed rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes and red bell pepper for the fresh tomatoes. 





A savory late night snack...I don't know it just sounded good ;)  An avocado, tomato, Averie inspired dressing with miso added, and Salad Sprinkles. 




we always have to be eating our kale here!  Sesame Kale Soba from Get It Ripe.  (organic Soba/Udon are on sale at Whole Foods right now)



I just realized I didn't put any green curly kale in the garden this year, oh well!  All you fellow kale eaters worshippers will love this:  A girlfriend of mine has a new nephew and his name is...Kale!, why didn't I think of that...well, for starters we don't have any kids, haha ;) I so love it!

I finally broke down and bought lotion...I found this at Target.  I am not familiar with the company but they seem to be a good one and the ingredients looked ok to me.  I searched for this on the skin deep database, they had a different lotion from the two I bought and it was listed by a user not the database folks, it scored a 4...not great, but the ingredients that were not liked I didn't find in either of my lotions....at this point I'm very happy with both of them.  Not sure why I bought two, I guess I just couldn't decide!





It seems like so many little companys are just becoming parts of the big money monster ones, this one may be the same I just don't know it yet!  A friend of mine posted about this recently on her blog here.  If you have a favorite handmade lotion from the farmer's market or the like and it's relatively local I'd love to hear about it!! 

I took a few garden update pictures last week =)

Here's a couple of tomatoes coming up! (didn't mark which I planted where so they're either Black Krim or Cherokee Purples with some cottonwood added for extra fuzziness).


cucumbers



lacinto kale



lots of cilantro!



spinach (last year I realized where the little thin leaves come from in the baby spinach from the grocery;)  They are the cotyledon or the seed leaves).



leeks and carrots behind them



the starts from Frog Holler in their new home! (tomatoes and red peppers)



an aerial view, haha!  Our garden is little(4'x8') and I break the rules and pack a lot of plants into it.  The frame was already built when we bought our house and was previously a dog sandbox/pool.  It was perfect and lined with sand for our garden, each year we add more compost and this year a fence too to keep the vagabond cats from pooping in it, yes it happened and yes it stressed me out ;)  The old zucchini seeds, romaine/butter lettuce, and basil have also sprouted.  Dave's one request of green beans went in last week, hoping they'll sprout soon as well!  I think I have a love affair with the garden, I must look at it a few times a day and talk to it a bit =)

Must get moving, I'm getting sleeping and have lots to do...

thought for the day from Lululemon's manifesto "the pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness"