Canadian Mom, I'm so sorry to hear about all the stuff you have going on. I hope you have a good support system to help you during this time!
I've had an decent day of eating, though I've been hungry all day (I really hate those days when I want to chow down all day). I just got back from an hour walk - my legs felt heavy/tired, so I didn't do any running, but I'm glad I got a solid hour walk. I am determined to get down a few lbs. 135-6 would be soooo nice! I am just feeling really big in all my clothes right now. I'm rededicating myself to losing 5 lbs!
Well, have a good one gals. I'll check in again tomorrow.
Oh, Kim, I made 'rat tails' tonight! We make ratatouille a lot, actually, I just had not heard it called that. Also, I put eggplant in mine. I put tons of herbs in when I made it today - 2 kinds of oregano, basil, and lemon thyme. It smells wonderful. I've got to go cook the tabouleh. Gotta love a garden!
Barbara you are always using fresh veggies in such delish recipes. Tell us about your garden - do you do most of the work or along with dh? Is anything new about to be harvested? Here we have had such a drought it is sad.
Yes! There are two bell peppers that are just now turning red; any day now they'll be ready to harvest. They will be the first (and quite possibly the last, the way our summer has been going) bell peppers of the year. But I'm very proud of them; they are nice and big, perfectly formed, and turning bright red; they look just like bell peppers you would buy at the store. Right now we are also growing beans, tomatoes, eggplant, basil, melons, cucumbers and a few straggler plants of fennel and lettuce. So far the eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and beans have been the biggest success of the year. The basil and regular tomatoes are also doing well. I really need to get out there and plant some more fennel. The melons and cucumbers are languishing and there is nothing to be done about it. Some years we have gotten as many as 15 melons, but it hasn't been warm enough this year (next year I am going to put black plastic down). I've never been able to grow cucumbers even though I try every year. I also have a very sad zucchini plant but I don't think "growing" is really the right word for what I am doing to it; more like starving it for sunlight (I put it in too shady a spot). We also have one sad little blueberry bush that isn't getting enough sun.
In the winter, I usually grow turnips, snap peas, mustard greens, kale, radishes, lettuce, and arugula. We also grow fava beans but mostly as a cover crop to restore nitrogen to the soil, we don't let too many actually fruit. We try to garden organically because we've found that the plants just do better without chemical fertilizer.
Permanent plants include rosemary, tarragon, lavender, lemon verbena, sage, chives, mint (an invader from our neighbor's yard), and strawberries.
And we also have 3 lemon trees, a lime tree, a pomegranate tree, and a guava tree. Oh and we just put in a avocado tree a couple of weeks ago. The guava tree was here when we bought the house and always produces a remarkable bounty for fruit even though we completely ignore it all year--last year I made around 60 half-pints of jelly in addition to all the guavas I just ate straight off the tree. The rest of the trees we put in. I don't know what we will do with all the lemons we are likely to have if all three trees ever end up producing full crops, but they are three different varieties (Eureka, Meyer, and Pink) and I really wanted all three.
The vegetables are pretty much my responsibility; my SO is responsible for all the ornamentals, the trees, the lawn, and the compost bin. He will sometimes prep the soil for me because I'm so lazy about it and he knows I do a half-a___d job with it. The hardest part is getting everything planted (and that is a chore--I am very grumpy on planting days); once everything is in the ground, there's really not much to do except harvest (and, for the most part, that's a pleasure). All the vegetables are on a drip system, so we don't have water once plants get past the seedling stage. It absolutely does not rain from June until October, so the drip system is critical. Before we had it, we had a hard time growing anything.
I supplement what I get out of our garden with purchases from our farmers' market. I go to the farmers' market every Saturday. I'm so dedicated to this routine that my trainer does a group session on Saturdays and I've actually gotten him to schedule it around my trips to the farmers' market (my trainer is so awesome!).
And speaking of delish recipes, I found the best recipe for a salad today:
Yogurt Vegetable Salad
1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt (I used Trader Joe's Greek-style)
1/4 cup garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2.5 oz diced cucumber (about one pickling-sized cucumber)
1.5 oz cherry tomatoes (about 4-6), halved
5-10 leaves of fresh basil, minced (you can also use mint)
1-2 tsp dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Mix it all up and eat it. This is one generous serving (it makes a nice snack) and it comes to about 85 calories. To make it a little more substantial, I added 1/2 fillet of BumbleBee Meskite Grilled Tuna, which increased the calories to 160. It tasted like summer!
Okay, that's probably more than you really wanted to know about my garden.
Your garden sounds amazing!!! I had to stop for a second when you mentioned what you grow in winter - we grow snow here in winter
Even with the drip system that's such a great deal of work to look after all of those plants. And it must make you feel so good to step outside and harvest what you're going to eat that day/night.
WOW!! and WOW to all other gardeners on the site. I can barely keep the houseplant (yes that's singular) I have alive. And I do try - I must have my family's "black thumb"
Barbara, your garden sounds wonderful! I have a substantial shrub/perennial garden, and really want to add a vegetable garden. However, space on the sun side of the house is at a premium, and I feel a bit guilty taking away one of my son's few remaining play spots. I'm hogging most of the other space with my shrub border. (It also screens a fairly busy road, so it's not totally decorative.)
A vegetable garden would also require a serious fence and other critter control measures: we have resident groundhogs, rabbits, and mice, plus near daily visitations from deer and, recently, raccoons. Not sure how the historical society (which must approve all outside changes to the house & grounds) would feel about us installing a 6' tall deer fence in the front yard. Maybe if I bribed the review board with fresh herbs...
Wow Barbara, your garden sounds amazing! I'd love to have a veggie garden someday when I have a house! We tried to grow mint in a box on our balcony, but some pigeons moved in and laid eggs in the box On the plus side, the baby pigeons were cute!
Well, I'm still not doing well in the food department. Arg. I was so motivated last week! I guess its a combination of stress and approaching TOM that is making things tough this week. Oh well...I may not win the challenge, but I'll get back on track eventually, and make it down to my goal. I wanted to be close to goal for Sept. 15th, when I'm going shopping with friends in Buffalo...but that may not happen.
I also haven't been running, because first I was too busy, and then I hurt my ankle...I'll see, hopefully I can get out today!
Wow! You must have a nice bit of land for all those fruit trees! Man, your garden sounds like a labour of love if I ever heard one. It must be so satisfying having all of that variety in your own backyard. My DH has a green thumb. He got me a mixed potted plant for Mother's Day last year. It has African Violets in it. They blossom like CRAZY under his care!!! And they are usually so finicky! He got two more similar mixed potted plants this week as condolence gifts from friends which each has African Violets again! It's going to be so nice having the extra plants around! My balcony boxes are AWESOME this year. That is my contribution to the plants around here. I have tried something new each year and I have to say, this is my favourite creation this year!
Well, I have been somewhat off plan for a few days, but today I plan to plan!
Barbara - I LOVE the sounds of your winter garden! My DH does most of the prep and planting of our veggie garden, and I do most of the herb and flower gardens. He mentioned yesterday wanted to try a few fall/winter vegetables this year - we'll have to see how that goes. Our summer gardens are very similar, but we are in hot Va. so we get tons of the zucchinis, squashes, etc. We have all the same herbs in our herb garden too...do you have any lemon thyme? I've been putting it in just about everything this summer - I made a great orzo salad for our dinner Monday - I put red peppers, tomatoes, onion, cukes - all veggies chopped very finely. Then I added sliced kalmata olives, feta, olive oil, lemon juice and tons of chopped herbs - the dominant one being the lemon thyme. It was a hit. Your fruit trees sound wonderful too! I think I may give that yogurt salad a try today - YUM!
Ilene - I hear you on being back to work - I teach, and gosh, aren't the summers simply wonderful. I've had that sorta sick feeling of dread all week, which is terrible - shouldn't I be excited for the new year?? I'll be ok once I get into the groove, but man, do I LOVE NOT WORKING. I'm never bored, and I feel much healthier - better sleep, food, etc. Enjoy your day off today!!! I had staff development Mon and Tue, was off yesterday and today, and tomorrow we start full swing.
Nic - sounds like you've had a pretty stressful and busy week ... don't worry, I know you'll be back on track in no time.
As for me, well, I was doing great yesterday - healthy food, low calorie range, an hour brisk walk... then I sorta blew it by staying up to an ungodly hour and munching on some snacks I did NOT need. Arghhh. Today I will not do that!!!!
I have a very difficult time growing anything here in the desert. I have attempted tomatoes twice (you plant in September and hope to harvest before the chance of frost--yes, it does get cold here!). Usually they grow and get a few little tomatoes on them and then they die. I don't know why. If the fruit does mature, then the rabbits get to it. It's really pathetic. I do have a nice grapefruit tree and mandarin orange tree that both do well (under the care of the gardeners!).
I have one plant that I have decided that I love! Christmas cactus. It's actually a succulent rather than a cactus, but I got one 4 years ago and it is huge and blooms almost non-stop from Thanksgiving until after Easter (with the majority of the blooms at Christmas). I've since added two more, but am thinking that this year for Christmas, I'll ask for about 6 more. I think they'd look lovely surrounding my huge bathroom tub (which we really don't use). I also bought a plumeria this year and it is thriving in a pot out in my back yard. I may plant it in the garden next summer.
I am holding at 143 today!!! I got in my run this morning and I feel great! My calories yesterday were slightly over 1300 and I didn't eat any cookies once again!!!! Can't say the same for DH, though!
Way to go for all you gardeners! I gave up since I never got to eat any of it - I just grew for the neighborhood squirrels!
This was such a crazy week for me to start getting serious about all my weight/health stuff ~ on a personal level, things are just not right and yesterday I sat in a 3 hour meeting fantasizing about getting up, walking out of the room, packing my desk, and just taking off.
All I want to do this week is hide under the covers and call for delivery! (can they deliver straight to the bedroom!?)
Then again, maybe it was a good week to start, because if I didn't ~ I probably would be eating my own weight in food this week!
I'm reading everyone's posts and signatures and capturing some of the great motivational words into a document so I can reference them as needed.
Wow, thanks for reading my incredibly long post on my garden!
Mudpie--Actually, it really isn't that much work once the plants are in the ground. We use mulch to cut down on watering and that also has the effect of keeping the garden pretty weed-free. I add some amendments to soil when I put the plants in, but after that I rarely fertilize. I also don't worry about bugs. When something starts to get buggy, I figure that it just a sign that it is at the end of its life. And with the drip system, we rarely have to water anything. I literally completely ignore the plants until they start producing fruit. I am the world's laziest gardener.
I'm from Chicago, so I'm familiar with growing snow in the winter. It's why I moved to CA. And it's true, one of my favorite things about CA is that we can have a winter crop!
kaw--We are very fortunate in terms of garden pests. Our biggest problems are snails (but I think this year we may have finally hit upon an organic solution) and birds. For the birds, we put up netting on bamboo poles and that pretty much keeps them out (although it does make harvesting harder). But we don't have any deer. I know there are raccoons, squirrels, etc. in the nieghborhood but they mostly leave our veggies alone. For a while, there was a squirrel eating the guavas, but we get so many guavas, we were happy to share. We actually put the soft ones out for him to eat. It was fascinating how precise he was in eating them. He would eat a little strip around the exact center of the guava, gnaw it in half, and then completely hollow out both halves.
But almost our entire winter crop was eaten by birds last year. I spent and entire Saturday putting it in; it took all day, I was even out there with a flashlight trying to finish up in the dark. And then all the seedlings sprouted and we were so excited, and then we went out there a few days later and all the seedlings were gone! The only thing that survived were the fava beans. Piggy birds! We put out food for them so I really don't understand why they have to eat my veggies. That's when we came up with then netting solution.
Clykk--Actually, no, our lot is just a standard 1960's CA lot--about 5600 square feet. All the trees are dwarfs and they are pretty much the only trees we have. Three of the citrus trees are along side the driveway and the pomegranate is in the front yard. So we just have the guava, a dwarf lemon, and the new dwarf avocado (which is tiny right now) in the back. We have reduced the size of our lawn quite a bit to make room for the vegetable garden.
SusanB-- It's true! I had this one shady spot and I thought I'd put the zucchini there because they are so rampant that I thought they could grow anywhere. But it turns out that's not the case. Live and learn.
stiebena--Baby pigeons are awesome! You created a habitat for wildlife! I love it when birds nest in our yard (although I do get irritated when they get into the veggie garden).
alinnell--tomatoes are harder to grow than people think. They are very sensitive to water. Without a drip system, it's hard to water them regularly enough. What might work would be to use a lot of mulch (like an inch or so thick), really flood them with water, then wait until they are just about dried out to water again.
walking2lose--I do have thyme, we have two varieties, regular and lime thyme. We use the lime thyme as a groundcover along with camomile, so we have a fair amount of it. But it is such a hassle to pick all the little leaves off that I almost never cook with it. Have you found an easy way to do this?
OK, gals, throw me a shot of motivation. I seems to be suffering from the late afternoon blahs, and it's not even late afternoon yet. I have an appointment in another half an hour to get a "head-shot" photo taken for work, and the photo studio happens to be next door to the gym. You'd think that this would be enough... and yet, I just want to curl up on the floor of my office and have a little nap. I'm sure this will be a great photo if I can barely keep my eyes open. Cheezzzzzzzzzzz....<snort> I'm awake! I'm awake!
~ I probably would be eating my own weight in food this week!
I did that this afternoon. ARRRRGGGHHH!!
I set myself up too. Premeditated and began it yesterday. And I knew exactly what I was doing and why and why I shouldn't. And then I did it anyway. Blew 4 days of dieting in 2 hours.
My brain (the adult) always seems to get overpowered by my emotions (the child). I haven't been able to get the adult in control of the eating - YET!! I can't come to the group instead during the day 'cause there's no computer at the beach (unless one of the dogs knows something and isn't telling me) .
And that's always when I sabotage myself - in the afternoon after work and before dinner. It's amazing how many cookies/chips you can eat while driving home from the supermarket.
I'm not even really angry at myself - just really frustrated that it's taking me so long (I've been on a diet/watching what I eat for over 37 YEARS NOW) to stop this destructive life pattern.
I'm now looking at my healthy salad/sandwich dinner. I knew it was waiting for me at home. But the cookies call so loudly some days - SIGH.
Barbara - My grandmother would love your garden. She grows tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, carrots, radishes, swiss chard....and a few other things.
Stiebena - Are you going to the Walden Galleria during your shopping trip? My guess is that you'll either end up there or the Boulevard Mall. They've both added new stores recently.
After 2 ALC days I'm back on track with my food. Today one of my co-workers asked me if I wanted anything from Burger King, and another co-worker asked if I wanted anything from Tim Hortons. No!
At the nutrition seminar yesterday I didn't learn anything new, but it was a good reiteration of what I already know. Plus I got a $10 Target gift card just for filling out a questionnaire about my eating and exercise habits!
Barbara that's awesome!
On the plus side, the baby pigeons were cute! 
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It's true! I had this one shady spot and I thought I'd put the zucchini there because they are so rampant that I thought they could grow anywhere. But it turns out that's not the case. Live and learn.
intentional (!) meltdown today
all done now - thanks!
