Falling into gardening

The soft glow of morning and the gentle but colder breeze of fall that has finally descended upon florida has rustled something within me that wants to spend as much time as I can outside, padding through the front yard barefoot.

I will confess, again, that even though my writing has been drastically sporadic, I have not actually stopped gardening. I’ve been lazy with it, not necessarily weeding or caring about soil in the way that has proved to be way too important in our lives. But that’s hard when you have a toddler with imaginary wings and a seven year old on an attitude high. Let’s also throw in the pandemic that isn’t serious to groups around me but very much real in my family bubble.

Cabbage seedlings venturing on to bigger pastures.

In an effort to sustain the family on a food source as local as possible, we have chosen to try to growing a portion of our diet in our yard. We are by now means great at this, but it’s worth a try to help the world last a little longer in our life time. Searching for a CSA, community-supported agriculture, can be a little tricky for folks just realizing its a thing. Hell, even I know it’s a thing and I’m trying to figure out financially if I can make the upfront leap for it. We have one in the area that I am eyeing, but honestly, I want to not only get a farm share option from them….I’d like to work/volunteer there so I could inevitably be a better person.

Tell me, how’s your fall going?

Kitchen witchin’

I’ve been spending some serious time in the kitchen this maternity leave. My back is on fire and I’m extremely tired a lot but it’s important that I keep myself moving, specifically with something like cooking. Wait wait wait. Let’s back up.

Last post I talked about my discovery that I must start a dairy free lifestyle if I am to pursue breastfeeding. It’s been a week or so. And not a bad!!! It was shockingly easy for me to cut some of the fantasy dairy products from my life. I make a sad face. I move on.

Yesterday I decided to make carrot cake styled muffins just for snacking. We had 6 ginormous carrots from our farm share that either we used right then or they would end up in the chicken coop. I love the chickens but sometimes I feel like they eat better than I. I haven’t been contributing to a farm, changing my entire lifestyle, just to throw food out. Reduce reuse recycle! But let’s get back to the cooking portion of my life.

These muffins are the bomb. Carrot cake doesn’t really have dairy in it anyway, unless you do frosting. Which I didn’t. But I did find this recipe and modified it hoping that I could replicate one from a website that I cannot remember nor find now.

These beauties are the start of a kale-sausage recipe I also found. I found it on godairyfree.org and it was also amazing. I didn’t make enough for the adults of the house I feel like. Either we have large portions normally or I just had too small of acorn squash on my hands. (They were also from the farm.)

Here is the grand finale. Topped with Panko crumbs minus any Parmesan that the recipe initially called for. I was serious about wanting to eat a bunch of them. I refrained, I only ate one half and then we had plenty of leftovers of it to put in eggs in the am. Let’s see how next week goes!

Hi ho the dairy ….oh

I have to admit it, I’m already rocking a lactose intolerance. Growing up, I had to drink a glass of milk every night at dinner and almost always it didnt end well. College was filled with always knowing where a bathroom was, just in case certain food didn’t agree. And my full blown adulthood? I finally figured out I was also overdoing the hell out of sugar. (If you scroll through my posts, I believe I write about the rollercoaster cutting they does.) I don’t really drink milk anymore but there are times when I crave it. When I work out heavily, all I want to do is chug as much milk as I can. I probably need a better vitamin but I’ll work on that later. So when the newest addition to the family requires me to remove dairy from my diet, I thought I could just avoid my late night bowls of cereal and cheese on my occasional sandwich. No.

I find that I have to cautiously check labels on most things residing in our house. I don’t have to cut soy but Jesus, if that is next, I’m going to either get really skinny or just totally healthy. So far I did release myself from the grips of coffee.

This week I will spend some hefty time looking for alternatives for the things I can live without, and a few moments mourning the things I won’t be able to. Friendsgiving was Saturday and I loved going but I know the host was sad I couldn’t eat very much. She shouldn’t have worried about it because the smoked turkey and salad was divine! Plus, I ate almost all the veggie tray…possibly pushed a kid or two away from it so I can have more…. 😉

Anyone have any recipe suggestions? I did find a lovely site – godairyfree.org is a GREAT place to start. I don’t want to go gluten or soy free unless it’s either yummy or convenient (I mean not costing an arm for the ingredients technically.)

Send me recipes!!

Hot cold flash of life

I yelled at my daughter this morning. I’m spending the day feeling guilty about it. She kept demanding that I do things for her, like rapid fire, mid me trying to get myself situated. Sure, I’m supposed to do things for my child but it felt more Veruca fueled than anything. I’m also trying to get ready too. So how do I not feel bad for wanting just a couple minutes to wash my face without meeting a tiny hands demand?

I don’t know.

I’m in a weird place where I don’t want to be a helicopter parent but I also don’t want to make my child feel neglected from me. I don’t think me telling her to put her pants on herself is neglect but I don’t like that I have to say no and reprimand as much as I do. Parenting isn’t rainbows and sunshine. Life sucks and she’ll get to see that even when I wish she didn’t have to. So, I guess I’m saying maybe it’s good I feel guilty for sticking to my mean mom guns and making her do some things herself. Really wish I didn’t say “move your ass” two mornings in a row. That’s my feel terrible moments this week.

This week I took a suggestion from Gretchen Rubin’s “happier” podcast. There’s a segment about 18 things you want to do in ’18. Less New Years resolution-y more things that are fun/happy/for you. Want to see mine?

So far, I’m killing the running game. I have been working on getting some running in for a few races. It’s not fun for me. I’m considering see a chiropractor to make sure there’s not a back reason as to why I find myself sluggish and having unpleasant training. The actual races are bliss for me. I feel like a dog let off it’s leash and seeing real sun for the first time.

Crafting won’t be hard as much as the time to do it correctly will be. I tend to cut corners as it is, so putting me in a time crunch doesn’t help the cause to learn it the right way.

Visiting a new city seems easy enough but that might be a vague statement. Part of me wants to change that to a new state but my bestest of friends gave me a state park pass for Christmas and I would love to make the new cities actually be new areas of Florida in which I am camping/hiking. I do have this RV dream I visit daily. (I’m not even kidding. I have it decorated in my lovely dream too and I’m also a traveling writer and my animals love the drives while we homeschool and live happily ever after.)

What does your 18 for ’18 look like? Check out the happier podcast to learn more! You won’t regret it! I didn’t add anything about my hot cold moments because I feel those are just hardwired in to me. Overtime I just need to learn to do more self care to avoid frustrating break outs, as well as my kid learning to ask me nicely for help instead of demanding. But she is 4. So she can have more moments of break down than I…..(right?)

When the weight of the world is on *you*

I had a lot of apprehensions about this post, particularly because i was going to Vlog it….But Im a little gun shy about the whole video taping myself. I went from nerves of no one watching to possibly my entire facebook family watching plus a few foreignors. The weight of the world on my shoulders has been a real plaguing symptom that I have had for a couple years. Ive read articles thats its normal but it wasnt until today when a friend posted her feelings about it that i decided this was a good idea to post. Ive been able to squealch the feeling in my twenties ( BOOZE) but in the last few years I realized, Eureka, I am in fact only one person.

I did want to show a small-albeit gross-way to intro myself to anyone that is new to my blog (hi.) and probably solidify my weirdness to those that have had physical encounters with me. (And hopefully we are still friends now.)

Welcome to my weekly or monthly garbage

The reason I’m bringing this up with the world heaviness is because anyone that’s so anxiety ridden/feeling guilt needs to start somewhere. Start with your own trash. Recycle it. There are about 3 things in this pile I cannot recycle. The rest will be. Sure. I dig through my trash every Sunday night, sorting this bullshit out. This is what a couple weeks of lazy looks like. Normally, I sort of recycle instantly( but I was in fear of that serial killer so I was waiting for daylight which really means during a weekend moment.)

Keep in mind, you need to do your city/county research. Plastic bags can’t go in our recycling so a lot of this just goes straight in the green monster bin outside, also another reason to throughly shred mail before tossing it straight in there. One plastic bag can stop the recycling machine at the city of tampa for 4 hours. 4 hours of labor spent fishing out pieces of plastic shreds that take 450 years to breakdown. We won’t even be a twinkle in that plastics eye.

The mickey soap bottle-can be recycled. I’ll take it apart when I do, sometimes the caps make it a pain for machinery too. I don’t drink bottled water and I certainly don’t buy it except for in times of hurricanes.

Toilet paper rolls almost never go in the trash at my home. I save them for various projects because they’re wonderful to paint with or make mock items out of.

All that tissue? I’ll let you guess what it’s from but that’ll go in the recycling bin too as it’s probably just boogie’ing.

I’m just pointing out that, yes, some serious shit is going on but starting small is better than sitting around stunned or finger wagging on the Internet doing nothing.

****Worrying solves nothing.*****

Then there’s this. My house is filled with plastic. I sometimes eat fast food. But I am in fact trying. And that’s something.

I’m not perfect and neither will you be. I don’t believe in throwing a full container of cleaner out because I found out it’s terrible but I will find an alternative source and alter my behavior. I don’t use straws at outings if I can help it and I bring my legit silverware from home for lunches OR I use that damn spoon I accidentally had to use because I was stuck between eating like a caveman, and I use that motherfucker until it decomposes with me at the end of time (when I’m 85, and I do comfortably in my nice little cozy bed with world peace.) I used to ride my bike to work until I obtained a new job and can’t. Instead of potentially dying via road rage, I am just choosing to be conscientious about my carbon footprint and lower it anyway I can, mostly with combining trips/passengers/not driving for fun.

I even sold my soap this week and wrapped in plastic. I single handily hate myself so much for weeks on end for this. I have been looking for an alternative that’s cost effective and biodegradable but I also needed a supply at that moment in time. Lesson learned. Next time there will be the big change.

Here’s what I propose:

1. Don’t use disposable straws. Buy your own. They make steel ones.
2. Ban styrofoam items from ever touching your hands.(we have a restaurant we can’t go to because they use nothing but styrofoam even at dine in!)
3. Get paper when shopping at your local grocer.

Zero impact is quite difficult out the gate. I mean, you really have to have the ability to just gut your shit up. Interested? I have some literature you will want to read or even a documentary you should watch. I thoroughly enjoyed “No Impact Man” by Colin Beavan. His drip dry of pride is probably my favorite part even if it’s not his.

Want to start with community solutions?

Humane society of Tampa needs rags/blankets anything that you might want to toss but feel kind of terrible about just making it garbage. They also need volunteers. Always.

The foundation for sustainable families probably the most near and dear to me because it’s a wholesome family affair. They provide education and family support, they have a farm for volunteering on to provide the community with veggies, they even are working on bee keeping. Constantly working towards a brighter future for all children, they deal a lot with fostering/adoption.

Looking for alternative products to switch to? Look no further than Pacific Beach Organics. They provide sunblock that isn’t harmful for marine life, which is crucial in California and surprise! here in Florida. They also make deodorant, hair products, lip balm and are hoping to have paperboard packaging for all their products coming the new year. You really can’t beat that.

Do try to remember you too, are only one person but making small steps towards greener living has a greater impact that will resonate past your footsteps. The weight is heavy, but know there are a few more of us to help make it easier.

-M

Strawberry Shortcake

Berry Picking.

I mean…have you tried it? Because I never had until this weekend. Uhmazing. To those just tuning in, I feel like a good chunk of my weekends have been giving me results no less than spectacular. Here in Florida we did not have a brittle winter as we usually do, and the weather has been gorgeous. This means that summer is probably going to boil all eggs on a sidewalk by 7 am…so cancel any summer plans to this place. For real. Pavement does melt too you know, so you’ll have fun sinking into it around Disney or Sea World and I’ll just be sitting in my backyard writing about how silly you looked.

But Really.

Strawberry picking was such a beautiful experience to me. Never had I taken the opportunity to do it, I’m quite thankful that my husband was so insistent about it.

Morning in the field

 

Isn’t this gorgeous? Blue sky. Small smears of clouds here and there. Wind that was pretty  killer for my large brimmed sunhat. I ended up getting sand in my eye at some point from how intense it was but it wasn’t enough to ruin the day, just a good reminder of why beaches in March are probably a no go. (Seriously, don’t come to Florida this summer. Is this deterring anyone?)

 

Its days later and we are STILL cutting/freezing/dehydrating berries. It was completely worth it. I even made a strawberry shortcake immediately after coming home and when I say I did it…..my 3 year old actually did it. I just lay out the ingredients and she does her thang. I expect her to be on Iron Chef jr by the time she is 8.

And, dear husband, if you are reading this…..when my upgrade on the kitchen aid mixer is to be purchased….WE (kiwi and I) would like a bigger one. with more gadgets. and a cool decal…

 No?
❤

 

 

 

Baked! Banana bread

Last night I was able to catch a little down time for myself and decided to spread the love via food. The biggest food problem we have in our house is our collection of bananas. Thankfully, we started peeling them and freezing them if we had even the slightest hint that we weren’t about to binge on some potassium. Probably the best idea we’ve ever had.

The recipe is simple so I’ll post it below. I doubled it to make 3 smaller than the norm loaves. I ended up romanticizing the presentation of them by wrapping it in newspaper and ribbon. Like I said, I was alone…

Simple banana bread:

3-4 bananas (peeled and set aside in a bowl to themselves at the moment)

1/3 cup butter

1 egg beaten

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1-1/2cup flour

Your oven should be preheated to 350 and I am assuming you’ll use the standard pan of a 4×8. I really don’t know what the size of the one I used, but it wasn’t standard. I have a crazy silicone 6 loaves pan thing that I just inherited and felt the need to use.

~Mash those bananas! Since mine were frozen, I gave them a nuke in the microwave for 10 and just kind of give them a minute. Easy enough to mash with a fork.

~Pour melted butter in with bananas and mix lightly. The best part about this recipe is the bread will stay fluffy as long as you don’t over mix. This is definitely a “lightly fluff” recipe.  Mix in the egg and the vanilla, next.

~I mix all my dry ingredients together, give them a whisk and then add the dry mixture to the wet, making sure that all gets mixed as I go. I try to stick to the lightly mixing so that everything is still obtaining air along the way. You don’t want a dense stick of bread.

~Pour it in your greased up pan and pop that baby in the oven for 50-60 minutes. If you have turbinado sugar, it would go well on the top of the bread about 20 minutes in to the bake. It gives it a nice sweet crunch once its cooled.

Again, simple recipe. I bet you there are a ton of recipes the same way. I’ve been making it this way for probably 8-9 years. I actually have a friend that only sees me when I make the bread….