veggie supper

I wasn't in the mood to cook last night so I literally threw this together in under 30 minutes.(hmmm, who does that sound like?) An almost completely vegetarian meal, minus the cotija cheese on the salad.
Paul was in heaven even after a hard day's work, he was still very satisfied. As he was stuffing his mouth, he was quoting a good friend of ours, Mike Cafasso, who came to eat supper at our house one night while we were still living in Grove. Mike questioned, with a mouth full of spring rolls and Vietnamese fried rice, "So, uh, do you guys ever go out to eat? Why would you?" Truly a sweet compliment.

Plated up here is a simple salad of romaine, arugula, and spinach, topped with dried cranberries, red onion, sunflower seeds and cotija cheese.(you could use any white crumbly cheese(Mexican) or Feta). Then I steamed some broccoli and jasmine rice, and while that was cooking threw together a fresh pineapple salsa( or hawaiian pico de gallo, as I call it) to go on top of the hot rice.No butter is needed for this rice.

Recipe for Hawaiian Pico de gallo:
1 small sweet bell pepper(red, orange or yellow), diced
3 rings of fresh pineapple(you can use canned, but I never do), diced
2 small roma tomatoes, diced
5-6 green onions, chopped
handful a fresh cilantro, chopped
the juice of one whole lime
OPTIONAL: 1 small avocado, diced and one jalapeno, seeded(for the whimps) chopped

The salad in the picture is topped with Caesar salad dressing but I prefer, with this meal, homemade Fresh Orange Vinaigrette. Only takes a few minutes to make I just didn't have any fresh oranges on hand.
Recipe as follows:
the zest of 2 oranges                                            fat free version and smaller amount:
the juice of both oranges                                              1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 clove of garlic minced                       OR                   zest of one orange
about 2 Tbls. balsamic vinegar                                     2 Tbls. Balsamic vinegar
1/3-1/2 olive oil                                                           1Tbls. dijon mustard
salt and pepper                                                            about 1-2 Tbls. honey

I put the ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake well.

Patio Plot of Potted Plants

 My patio plot of potted plants is doing ok. Since this is my first year to garden strictly out of pots I have been met with a few challenges. One being, they need more "food" during the hot weather. Since I am trying to go strictly organic and REFUSE to use "Miracle Grow" which kills all the friendly bacteria
 and good "friendly" garden insects, I have chosen fish emulsion as my supplemental food and eggshell water. Well, that and my faithful standby, mushroom compost.(which isn't organic, but I'm sure by the time the heat has broken it down I would hope there wouldn't be too many harmful effects left.) It sure made for beautiful gardens back home in Oklahoma. 


So pictured here is my tiny bounty I picked this morning. :) Not pictured is the second round of huge comfrey leaves I have drying in the basement and a large handful of basil leaves which are now sitting in a glass of water in the fridge for tonight's fresh basil rolls. *mouth watering even now at the thought*

I sure miss my huge gardens and flowers beds back home but this is the hand that has been dealt to me now, so I am enjoying these few, small, simple pleasures of my patio plot. Truly, gardening veggies in pots is far more challenging than in my large plots of ground, but I'm not complaining. This venture is teaching me new things every day. So....I'm off to plant a mixed variety of exotic lettuces to hopefully enjoyed in a few short weeks. As Alfred Austin, English Poet Laureate"The garden that I love" 1905, once said, " There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even it's oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder." *I smile thinking,* There's hope for me.