a sure sign of spring

Things have been busy busy around here, all great things though, but I do get a bit behind blogging, and blog reading, my Google Reader is filling up!  Yesterday finally felt like the right day to sew the garden.  I got most everything in aside from some pepper seeds that we're starting inside and I haven't put the beans in yet, waiting a little bit on those.  We have an arbor (that my hubby built and we were married under) above our garden this year.  I'm hoping that at the farmer's market somebody will have organic strawberry starts for hanging baskets on the corners of the arbor, then we'll be all set =)  All the seeds planted in the compost, yea!



our chives from last year are so pretty purple and gone to seed obviously.  This year with success we'll have cilantro, green beans, red bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, basil, spinach, lacinto kale, romaine, zucchini, tomatoes, and leeks.  I love to grow and eat heirloom varieties, our garden is all heirloom aside from the zucchini and is all organic.



our seeds for this year.



I'm a seed saver ;)



on the topic of starts we welcomed a beautiful new baby girl niece into our family yesterday.  How's this for a proud Aunt and Uncle? of 12 now..and counting!  I just love all that hair =) 



This weekend we were in Maumee Ohio for another special little guy's birthday party.  Maumee is also home to one of our favorite bars, the Village Idiot so to the bar we went for lunch.  We ordered a pizza that they wonderfully made half with and half without cheese for us and hooked us up with the motherload of toppings of banana peppers, onion, pineapple, and mushroom.  This pizza is SO good, they have this tasty little herb blend they sprinkle on top, and it's totally our kind of place.  The bar back behind all the booze is full of stickers (good ones) and our favorite ones were 'I'm already against the next war.' and 'Be nice or please leave'  Here's our pizza.



cheesefree pizza







Before heading home we also hit up this cool coffeehouse Georgette's Grounds and Gifts which sells fairtrade coffees, foods, and gifts.  They are part of the Sunshine group and employ individuals with developmental disabilities.  This is a place to feel good about supporting.  They also recycle in store and serve drinks in compostable cups.  As seen here with my decaf soy latte.  We stopped in the morning for tea and coffee and then again before we got on the road =)

Here's their mission statment





Last week I was the lucky fish bowl winner at our local Chipotle, so Mom and I were treated to a free lunch, awesome!  David and I first came to love Chipotle when we lived in Las Vegas where there was one around the corner from our apartment and then when we moved back home they were in Michigan as well, we were so excited to find this out and have kept up our 1+ a week habit ;)



Here's Mom with her burrito bowl



and me.  I get the same thing everytime a veg bowl with peppers and onions, pico, guacamole, and romaine and sometimes a grapefruit Izze when Dave is there to help me drink half of it ;) other times I bring in my Kleen Kanteen of water.  I have recently tried the corn relish and it is delish too.  I've sent a message to Chipotle to see if they'd ever consider offering brown rice, how great would that be?





They have also started offering in store recycling of glass and plastic.  I'd also be cool if they had a bin for the burrito foils to be recycled, not a big deal though, we just bring it home with us.





We had a fun day of shopping and enjoying eachother's company that ended back at the house for dessert.  I had put two pieces of the raw mint bars in the freezer for just this purpose =) 



raw dessert makes us happy!



I'm afraid this is improper food combining, but it sounded so great.  I filled these strawberries up with peanut butter, different but delicious.



I've been eating these fabulous champagne mangos from WF.  I think they are sweeter and smoother than red mangos.  Be sure to let them get real ripe and very soft before you eat them unless you're into the holy tart and bitterness of unripe fruit  :/-



For dinner one night I made the Coconut Pie Pancakes from LaDolceVegan.  Here they are in my beloved cast iron pan.  I just love it when pancakes come out so well, it seriously makes me happy. 



I topped mine with coconut milk, thawed raspberries, and a champagne mango. 



Leftover coconut milk, mango, date, banana, almond butter, and spinach smoothie.  Now this is one of the best parts of waking up, a green smoothie in your cup ;)



I made Monica's Thumbprint cookies for a bake sale this weekend.  The bake/garage sale was a huge success raising $1300 for Great Strides, and I was told the cookies all went in the first hour =)



my inspiration and a thought for the day: 
'The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.'

~Thomas Paine