Menu Plan Monday Garden Edition 9/5/11

Happy Monday rockers! I had a nice menu planned out for you last night and then woke up and picked all of this (Except the bananas). I'll stick that other menu in my back pocket for another week. This menu is pretty typical for most weeks in the summer as the garden really starts to take off. Here we go, in no particular order:

Pasta night-this week spaghetti (uses tomatoes, zucchini and bell peppers)
Pizza night-uses tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers and also the onions and spinach that are in the fridge.
Mexican night-Chicken tacos. I'll throw chicken in the slow cooker with onions and bell peppers. Then make a batch of salsa.
Stir Fry night-Clean the fridge style. I'll use some of every vegetable in the house along with the leftover slow cooker chicken and then serve it over the spaghetti squash.
Sandwich-ish night-this week cheeseburgers with corn and fried zucchini
Slow cooker night-Undecided although I'm fairly sure that it will be chicken veggie soup. Three out of five people in the Headbangin' Household are fighting summer colds, so we could use the extra nutritional boost.
And finally leftover night.

Lunches-leftovers, sandwiches, corndog muffins

Breakfasts-banana pancakes, zucchini bread, baked oatmeal, cream of wheat

Snacks-chips and salsa, peanut butter or jam toast, banana smoothies, fruit, yogurt

Desserts-Zucchini pie, zucchini cookies, smoothies

Until next time, rock on my friends!

Clean the Fridge Stir Fry

Hey rockers! It turns out cell phone pictures aren't that great, but try to ignore the blur, alright? In my quest to make the most of the garden and what we have on hand, I wanted to give you a better look at our Clean the Fridge Stir Fry. I talked about it over here a few weeks back, in case you missed it. After last weekend, our menu for the week is all about makin' due. The cool thing is, makin' due doesn't have to suck. This recipe never turns out the same way twice, which rocks because we never get sick of it. Since we'll have an exploding garden soon, this'll be a weekly staple. I don't follow a recipe anymore, but here's what I did this week: Cooked up a pound of linguine (the kids prefer it over cooked ramen noodles, whoops!) Then, I cleaned out the produce drawer in the fridge. I found celery, carrots, red and green onions and a couple zucchini from the garden. I also ran out back and found a yellow squash, a couple handfuls of green beans, one bell pepper, two jalapenos and three cherry tomatoes. I rinsed, peeled and sliced everything and threw it in my biggest skillet. I sauteed it all up with a couple tablespoons of olive oil until it's cooked to our preference. If I'm adding leftover cooked meat, I'd add it now, but didn't this week. I did however misjudge how much the veggies would cook down, so somewhere in the middle I added a bag of frozen broccoli to the mix to make sure we'd have enough for leftovers. Once it was all cooked up, I mixed two beef gravy packets and about a tablespoon-ish of soy sauce in two cups of cold water and dumped it in the pan. Then, just stirred until the sauce was thickened which only takes a couple minutes. Serve over the pasta. It's really that simple. On a side note, I only put it on the platter for the picture. In reality, the skillet and pasta pot would have been on the table :) Since I was curious, I added up an estimated total cost of this dish and came up with around $3.61. For five people, guys. Plus leftovers! We may just make it through the week after all! I'd love to hear if any of you have a "clean the fridge" dinner of your own. I'm always on the lookout for cheap cheap meals that rock. These recipes definitely make makin' due suck a lot less. Until next time, rock on my friends!

First Garden pick!

You know how it goes. You plant seeds and starts, you water, you weed, you fertilize. Wash, rinse, repeat. For months. MONTHS! Starting the garden in March sounded like a great idea at the time. We had gotten lucky with some nice weather and thought if we got everything into the ground nice and early, we'd see an early harvest.

Meanwhile, back in reality, Mother Nature had another plan. Apparently she thought it's be just hilarious to give California a long winter. Lots of rain. Sun, not so much.

(This week, I can't complain. I finally got to run around barefoot most of the time. That's just how I gauge the weather. If I can run barefoot all day till bedtime, it's officially warm. Anyhow, back on topic.)

So, summer, or spring maybe (?) finally showed up this week. Finally, the garden has produced something. I couldn't wait to show you a picture! We got a couple handfuls of sweet peas, a strawberry, two raspberries, I think 8 blueberries and a whole whopping orange cherry tomato. Can you believe it? I know, it's not exactly enough for a meal yet, but it's a start!

I can't be the only metal head with a garden. How are your gardens growing?

Until next time, rock on my friends!

Just another Thursday...

As I sipped my first cup of coffee this morning, I glanced out the kitchen window. Finally, the sun is shining instead of another day of wind and rain. I flip the switch on the radio, grab my sweater and coffee, and headed out back. This is my favorite part of the day. I gave a quick look at the blueberries and raspberries along the fence. Full of blooms and babies, they reminded me of my good friend that gave me these when we first bought the house. It hasn't even been a year, and I am amazed at how many berries I see starting. I'm thankful for my friend's giving heart. As I walked further along the fence, I sipped my coffee and heard Sixx A.M.'s "Life is Beautiful" through the window. I can't help but chuckle at how fitting the song is for my morning. I glanced at the blossoms on the upside down strawberry plants on the clothes line. I'm happy to see that the little guys are doing well. It's amazing what you can do with a few ice cream buckets and scissors. Underneath the strawberries sits our baby apricot tree. He's not much to look at yet, but I can see evidence of blossoms coming soon. I glanced up at the apple tree. The poor thing was almost dead when we moved in, as was the orange tree. They hadn't been watered in a year, so the story went. Now, months later, they are both beautifully full of thousands of blossoms. I can't wait to share the harvest with friends. I walked over to check the peach tree. He's had a rough week. The wind from our last storm snapped him almost in two. We've done an emergency tape job, and five days later, I'm thankful to see he shows signs of life. I know he needs all the help he can get, so I tell him "C'mon little dude, you can do it," and continue with my walk. We've dug up most of the lawn along every outer wall of the yard and replaced it with rows and rows of corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, artichokes, onions, peas, green beans and herbs. We also dug up the flower bed outside the kitchen window to make room for zucchini, lettuce and spinach. As the morning sun warms my back, it reminds me of how much work and love we've put into this garden. A jolt of relief combined with panic come over me as I think of all the food we'll have this summer....and all the canning, pickling, peeling, chopping, freezing and pitting that comes along with it. I hear "Psychosocial" by Slipknot start playing through the window. My coffee up is almost empty, and the dogs are chasing each other at my feet. I know my morning ritual of checking the garden is almost done for today. A final check of the tomatoes reveals about half a dozen new blossoms on Mr. Stripey, a new flavor this year. After I reposition a couple of the vines from the peas onto their poles, I stood back up and gave a long look at the whole yard. I can picture what it will look like in another month. Full of colors and bushy vegetable plants, these babies will soon be feeding my babies. What else can I say? It's just another Thursday for the Headbangin' Housewife. Life sure is good. Until next time, rock on my friends!

Free Seeds!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a rockin' Easter. As things were winding down last night in the Headbangin' Household, I caught this great freebie on the news. Go get yourself signed up for a free seed packet sample and catalog. I did find a few vegetables to choose from, which was exciting, but they have some great flower samples as well. Until next time, rock on my friends!

Crazy Cheap Homemade Weed Killer

I was reading here about a homemade mixture to get rid of weeds, and decided to give it a try last weekend. Holy cow, this stuff absolutely rocked! It really worked, and worked that day! Not only is it way cheaper than Roundup, but I don't have to worry about the dogs when I use it. It certainly doesn't smell like roses, and stings like a mo' fo' if you get it in a cut, but I know I'll survive. I'm always on the lookout for non chemical concoctions for the yard and garden, and for about $3.50 a gallon, I'm happy to pass this one along! Thanks to New Life On A Homestead for the great recipe! Until next time, rock on my friends!