Veggies Garden: Year 2

Some of you might remember our first attempt at gardening last year: Veggie Garden: Year 1

This year is no different! Of course, we decided to change things up a bit - a bit less tomatoes, different types of cucumbers rather than all "English", no cabbage (it got eaten by slugs last season!).

First, the customary BEFORE photo:

And here's the collage of the AFTER shots:

What did we plant?

• tomatoes (red and yellow, big and small)
• sweet peppers (various colours) 
• hot peppers (lots! and a variety)
• cucumbers 
• eggplant
• green zucchini
• lettuce
• sweet peas
• celery
• apple mint, and
• sweet basil 

~ Sweet basil: looks so yummy, I want to eat it now! ~

Some of the herbs I planted last year came back, yay! - parsley, dill, mint, cat nip, caraway, tarragon, asparagus, and chives (the latter actually didn't grow last year, but popped up now!).

Finally, we planted one carton of watermelon (those little black squares of plants). It's so tiny right now that all the space we alloted for it seems wasted. Here it is as of yesterday:

~ Watermelon space ~

 And up close :)

 

Will we be eating home-grown watermelons this summer? Technically, we could; it's hot enough here and if we don't get a flood of rain this summer, maybe we would...

Stay tuned for our progress!

I do make supper :)

Some of my friends that do not see me often ask whether I make suppers or if we just order delivery all the time. Although we do like an occasional Chinese or a pizza, I do make things at home as well! After all, I am an Eastern European woman that grew up in the Soviet and early post-Soviet era.

So, here are some examples of what I recently made - feel free to ask for a recipe :)

Chicken w/ roasted vegetables

Veggie salad

Soup w/ spinach & Italian sausage

Chili (very successful, might I add)

Herb-stuffed potatoes

Roll Call

My girlie is 7.5 months now, so I thought it would be good to look back at how many new things my baby has tried, food-wise.

FRUITS

• Apples
• Pears
• Avocado (hates it, see: the "eating avocado" video)
• Banana (liked it after the 2nd try)
• Mango
• Banana + Grape + Prune mix

VEGGIES

• Carrots
• Sweet Potatoes
• Butternut Squash
• Peas
• Cauliflower

CEREALS

• Rice
• Oatmeal
• Barley
• Mixed cereal w/ fruit

PROTEINS

• Chicken
• Egg Yolk

What's next for my little munchkin? Maybe some cabbage, green beans, peaches and plums...
What are your baby's favourites?

Baby books

A while back my Miss V and I went for one of our walk to the mall. We went to check out what deals they had at out local Chapters. I found a beautiful board book (large format) with colourful jungle animal in it and lots and lots of fun stuff to look at.

Cost of the book? Only $7.99 + tax, which IS cheap! Believe it or not, books for babies cost an outrageous amount without containing much information (although, I guess looking at shapes, bright colours, letters and numbers would be considered NEW information for babies, he-he).

When I originally bought the book I didn't pay much attention to its back cover. Well, yesterday I did look at it... Like most other books, it listed the price of the book in US and Canadian dollars.

Okay, so $9.99 in the US. But what does "slightly higher" mean for Canadian consumers? I thought it was pretty funny! Maybe the price of this particular book is negotiable, eh? Bring on the good ol' haggling!!!
:)

Baby's first foods, continued...

A few simple steps, and the butternut squash puree is DONE!

How I did it:

1) I've read up HERE on how to bake this vegetable (I've never cooked it before!)

2) After scooping it into a large cup of the Magic Bullet, the squash was blended in a matter of seconds

3) After adding a little bit of water and blending it some more, the mixture was the right consistency :)

4) This time there was so much puree (and I once used half of the squash) that I froze it in the rubber IKEA heart-shaped ice tray

5) Once frozen, I transferred the frozen cubes to an air-sealed freezer bag. Done and done!