Friday, July 16, 2010

Beauty, from the inside out!

There is nothing more fulfilling than walking out to your very own  backyard and plucking fresh vegetables! Everything tastes better (have you ever bought a tomato from the store that had no flavor? YUCK!) when you grow it yourself. I love that YOU get to control what goes on your food, npesticides or chemicals. EW! Best of all, you can save tons of money!
 Artichokes are not only good for you, but they're fun to eat!



Yummy heirloom tomatoes. There's nothing like 'em.
When we pulled so many cucumbers, I thought what are we going to do with all of this abundance? I gave a lot away to family and friends (another plus to growing your own food - you get to share!), I made a cucumber salad, then it came to me! A spa I once went to served cucumber water. It's so refreshing, good for you and it's easy to make too!
1 cucumber, sliced and unpeeled (I have seen people peel the cukes too but because it's organic, there's no need), 1 1/2 to 2 liters of flat water, half a lemon, sliced and unpeeled, ice cubes, a few mint sprigs if desired. I have also used orange slices instead of lemon. Change it up. It's fun and delicious! I suggest chilling it in the fridge at least 2 to 8 hours and adding the ice cubes just before serving. ENJOY!
A bowl of fresh raspberries and blackberries. They taste like jam, they are so sweet!
 
Fresh pulled carrots. 
My favorite. I call her the dancing carrot!



Right now we are growing about 4 different varieties of tomato, chives, cucumbers, corn, bell peppers in all colors, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and we just ate the last of our artichokes! Herbs we are growing are rosemary, cilantro, thyme and basil. We are also lucky enough to have a giant pomegranate tree. I can't wait for those ruby red pearls of goodness. Our next step is to grow our own lettuce in a salad table that we already built. It's an above ground table so you can have home grown salad all the way through November! 
Last night we made this amazing CapreseWe bought some crunchy French bread, drizzled some really good olive oil on it and threw it on the panini maker until it was golden and crisp. We took a clove of garlic and scraped it up against the warm bread. YUM! We then topped each slice of bread with a few slices of basil and a few slices of tomato from our garden, sprinkled a little salt and pepper over it, added a slice or 2 of fresh mozzarella and added another sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Of course, you have to drizzle more olive oil over the cheese, how can you not? I have been trying not to eat dairy, but this was a REAL treat for me. So yummy! Maybe next time I will try it with farmer's market avocados...

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