living healthy, growing my own food.

So as you may have seen in past blogs, I am trying to live a healthy lifestyle.  I admit, I fell HARD off the bandwagon. I gained weight, and my health began to once again decline.  I blame stress mostly for this mishap. I allowed stress to take over my life, and I slipped.

My little piece of farmland. 

My husband built me, my own little piece of paradise in the backyard.  It has 2 large beds, a smaller bed, and now an herb box. It also has a planting table, a pretty pink bench, and room to built a few more raised beds.  This year I planted a good variety of fruit and veggies all from seed. I am so happy with our harvest already. We have 5 tomato plants, different varieties, Pickle sized cucumbers, spinach, watermelon, cauliflower, butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, green beans, basil, cilantro and sage. There is a great thrill in harvesting and cooking food you grew! I cant tell you how excited I get.  The carrots are one of my faves. I pick them, wash them and eat them almost immediately.  Who knew carrots tasted so good? They taste so much better than store bought. I have put my carrots and green beans in homemade soup, stir fry, and just eaten them fresh.  Today I picked the spinach and after cleaning it, we cooked it down.  It was so delicious. Recipe will follow.  Although I have to admit I was nervous eating the spinach.  Its a new variety of spinach, and it looks and feels almost rubbery. And picking it, there were bugs, and dirt.  I asked for help picking it, and my daughter and husband were squeamish too.  I said, ALL spinach is grown in the dirt, with bugs! Of course I cleaned it thoroughly.  Its a weird adjustment to grow your own food.  We get so used to buying it in the store.  Although now days, thats not any safer.  How many times have you seen the news report bad spinach and greens, with salmonella? Far too often!  I know my spinach is completely organic, not chemicals, just fresh dirt, with no animal interference. I know how it was washed, and where it touched.  I am incredibly proud of myself for being able to grow food, that I have never even seen grown before.  Of course its all a learning process, because I grew up in the ghetto. Although, my mom and grandpa did in fact grow limited veggies. So I do have some exposure.

Spinach recipe

Big fat bowl of fresh spinach leaves.  I am going to say at least 3 lbs. (wash thoroughly)
one jalapeno sliced open, but left whole
lemon juice (half lemon or 2 tbsp)
a good heavy pinch of kosher salt
1 tsp chipotle powder (gives a smokey flavor without using a hamhock)
put everything in a pot, cook over low-med heat for about half an hour. when all the liquid is about gone, add a splash of chicken stock.

This recipe is really great for you
 Low in fat and even lower in cholesterol, spinach is high in niacin and zinc, as well as protein, fiber, vitamins A, C, E and K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and manganese. (info taken from http://foodfacts.mercola.com/spinach.html )

If you make it this way, its flavorful and low in fat, and calories.  Because we added all the flavor without adding the traditional hamhock or fatback. 

I will try to include more recipes in future posts.  

Just 2 weeks

Just 2 short weeks of including more of my veggies, and eating less processed food has made a huge difference.  I already dropped one pant size. I have a pair of shorts, that I grew out of  months ago.  These shorts sit in my drawer and torture me.  Yesterday, I tried them on and they fit.  They fit me really good, and even a little baggie in the legs. 2 weeks of just changing my food intake, nothing else.  amazing isnt it?