Last night's dinner was Noodle Salad with Peanut Mmmm Sauce. Another awesome recipe from Mama Pea. When I went shopping for ingredients, they were out of edamame. So I substituted, uh, lima beans. They kind of look the same, yes? Even though lima beans aren't typically found in any sort of Asian cuisine I've ever heard of, the salad still tasted amazing. We had no leftovers.
At lunch today, I made a pint of strawberries into strawberry-nectarine-vanilla smoothies for the kids. They are really into smoothies now. It's been a long time coming. Jackson never cared for them in the past. But Olivia has decided she loves drinking anything with a straw. And of course, Jackson wants whatever Olivia has. Yes! Now my plan is to get them drinking smoothies on a regular basis, and then start adding greens.
Tonight's dinner ingredients...can you tell I did not feel like cooking?
Soy curls, my omnivore husband's very favorite faux meat product. And Taco Bell sauce just makes everything better.
Tonight I had to run to Whole Foods and picked up some $2.99/lb. organic cherries. They are normally like $7.99/lb. Score!
I see cherry smoothies in our future.
Finally, a little update on my mini-garden. The poor tomato plant had six or seven little tomatoes on it, and just as they were turning red, Jackson plucked them all off. And I think he sent the plant into shock, because it hasn't done anything since. The jalapeno and cherry pepper plants flowered, but never produced fruit. I think maybe I needed to get two of each, so they could pollinate? Not sure. The strawberry plant fried in the heat pretty much immediately. I thought it might be too late in the season to try for strawberries when I bought it, and I guess I was right.
But wait, there's good news! The lavender, rosemary and aloe vera are all champs. Totally indestructible. And I have BASIL!
Y'all know I love basil more than words can say, so it's absolutely delightful to go outside every few days and harvest my own fragrant little bundles of leaves. And then, next week, it grows back! You gardeners are like, "Uh yeah, that's how plants work..." but this is all new to me, this watering and checking and the payoff of having fresh basil to use whenever I want. What's your favorite way to use basil?
Gotta get my night owl babies to bed...have a great weekend!
I'm definitely making that noodle salad! Peanut sauce is one of my favorites, as is edamame.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful that the kids love smoothies. Such a great way of getting them to have their daily produce servings!
Great score on the cherries. I haven't seen them at our co-op yet, but I'm hoping they have them soon. Yum!
You are the second blogger I have seen use those soy curls. I am tempted to order some and try them out.
ReplyDeleteI imagine having a garden in Texas isn't the easiest thing. Does it get pretty hot where you guys are? The area of San Diego I am in gets some intense sun but never much hotter than 90. So glad you have some basil to harvest at least. I just harvested some and was debating what to do with it. Last year I made the discovery, via my compost bin of all places, that strawberries and basil are an amazing flavor (or smell via the compost) combination. I think I might try mixing them in a smoothie.
I've never tried nor heard of soy curls! But seeing as how your omnivore husband loves them, surely mine will also! Where do you get them? On a different note - the picture of your little one made my heart melt!
ReplyDeleteSDV - I love San Diego's weather. OK, I've only visited once, but still :) It was so lovely with the gorgeous flowers blooming everywhere. It's been averaging around 100 here. 102 today I think. Strawberries and basil sound good to me! Or maybe watermelon and basil?
ReplyDeleteJesse - I ordered my soy curls directly from the company http://www.butlerfoods.com/
the cherries this season have been incredible!
ReplyDeleteYour tomato plants should be fine, if they're the "indeterminate" type, they'll flower again when the weather cools off a little bit - like hopefully by August. If they're the "Determinate" type, they only produce one crop, ripen all at once, and then they're food for the compost heap. If you can remember what the name of the plants are that should let you know whether they'll be ok or if they're spent. It's too hot to set fruit right now. The peppers should be ok in a couple of months, again, too hot to set new fruit, but keep watering them for August. They are self pollinating, but if you didn't have a lot of bees this year, that might be why they never set fruit.
ReplyDeleteWe totally jumped on that cherry sale! We ended up getting 18.5 lbs of them (whoa) and then pitted and froze a bunch for smoothies. Right now, I'm looking for any ideas on how to use up a bunch of cherries. haha
So glad to see someone else using Butler's Soy Curls! They are an underused gem. Unlike chicken, they soak up ALL the delicious marinade like a sponge! You can veganize anything by Bobby Flay with them! My hubby loves them too=)
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