Here's the latest in the garden of eatin'!

Cowpeas, beans, corn, onion and mustard

Lettuce, carrots and raddish

2 of my happy broccoli

 My love affair....these are the first 2 on the 1st of 8 plants

Basil and cilantro...I think they're ready for a new home

Getting rid of paper towels and napkins

A while back we made the switch to using mostly cloth in our kitchen. We stopped using the wipes you get from the store, and use a spray bottle with our own cleaner inside, and kitchen rags.

I haven't been entirely satisfied, as I still have to occasionally buy paper towels. Well, I made a run to the fabric store the other day, and picked up some scraps and decided to make cloth napkins now, so I will no longer need to buy paper towels!!! These will go in the same dirty wetbag I have for the kitchen towels and will not create more laundry for me.

Yesterday, I made the first set of napkins for the kids. I have many more to make.
Here are the first one's for the kids.

Update on Garden

So, here's some evidence that I'm doing something right in our garden. First, we had a strawberry, ripe and ready to eat. I was going outside to take it's picture before sharing it with the family, and my toddler found it, squished it, and smashed it all over the place. May it RIP. It was our first ready to eat fruit from the garden. Now, we have to wait again.

Broccoli!

Carrots

Radish

Cilantro

Mustard

Beans

Peas with corn. Even if the corn doesn't germinate, the beans will climb the stalks.

Ladybug friend

Tomato's

Cucumber bloom

Future Strawberry

Free Seeds

Mail call!!! Thanks Seeds of Change for the 25 free organic seed packets I got today!!!

Get your own.

Google Trick

Just wanted to let you all know about a great trick I use to find things online. Sometimes, I'm looking for something on a specific site, and either it's not very user friendly, or not giving me the results I want. I go to Google, and type in the name of the website I want to search, followed by a ":" then the title of what I'm looking for. Example: I love Southern Savers website, and today someone wanted a Ziploc coupon she could print from home. I went to www.google.com and typed this into the search box

Southern Savers: "Ziploc"

Press enter.
This will give you all the results on that specific website! How cool is that?

Chicken-pasta Primavera

This is a family favorite! I love summertime, because this dish always tastes better with the vegetables in season. I have used frozen broccoli, and minced garlic, but really it's best to use all fresh, and freshly grated parmesan. It is so light and fresh, yet filling! Enjoy it leftover too as the flavors marinate.

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped broccoli
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 carrot, cut into very thin strips
3T olive oil
2 cups cute-up cooked chicken or turkey
1 teaspoon salt
4 medium tomatoes
4 cups hot cooked pasta (wheels, bowtie, shells)
1/3 fresh grated Parmesan cheese
2T snipped parsley

Directions:
Cook and stir broccoli, onion, garlic and carrot in oil in 10 inch skillet over medium heat until broccoli is crisp tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in chicken, tomatoes and salt; heat just until chicken is hot, about 3 minutes. Spoon chicken mixture over cooked pasta; sprinkle with cheese and parsley.
6 servings; 290 calories per serving.