Veggie Wedgies & Growing Garden

Last night for dinner we had "Veggie Wedgies". A couple weeks back we had ordered one from a local restaurant. It was pretty tasty ~ so I decided to recreate it here at home. :) Here's my recipe: prepare pizza dough (I made this in the bread machine). Spread out onto baking sheet and bake for 6 minutes at 350*. Meanwhile stir-fry some green peppers, onions, and garlic until tender. Spread grated cheese (I used an Italian blend) on the pizza crust and sprinkle generously with basil (or whatever seasoning suits your fancy!). Put this in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese Pull it back out and spread the heated peppers, onion, and garlic along half of the pizza - fold it in half (creating like a Stromboli of sorts). Toast on both sides in the oven until desired doneness. You can turn the oven off now. :) Open the Stromboli and top it with the raw veggies of your choice. I chose thinly sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow squash, and lettuce. Spritz with some type of Italian dressing (I used a vinaigrette). Fold back over. Cut. Serve. Eat. Mmmm. It was so good!! Couples well with a pasta salad and/or chips.

You can see above that our garden is growing - or I guess you could say spreading. I've added four rows of corn behind the pea trapeaze and also a mound of zucchini to the right. So far our lettuces, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers are sprouting. It is so exciting. I've been walking outside each morning with much anticipation to see what took place during the night. :)

Still loving our grain mill~!!

Since January we have consumed nearly 40 lbs of freshly ground wheat berries. :) I am sooo glad that Tony surprised me with this awesome machine!! I just scoop out the desired amount of berries, drop them in the top of the machine, and wa-la! Flour comes out the bottom in a matter of seconds. It's truly amazing if you ask me. ;) The main reason we choose to grind our own flour vs. buying it from the store would be for the health benefits. Here's a short science lesson for ya! A wheat kernal is made up of three basic parts: the endosperm, bran, and germ. (If you search wheat kernal diagram in the google serch engine, you can see a picture. Gotta luv google. Haha). This kernal is filled with over 30 vital nutrients and vitamins. These kernals will keep indefinately. But, as soon as the outer shell is cracked, the nutrients began to oxidize. Within 72 hours, most of the nutrients are gone. White flour that you purchase from the grocery store is made from the endosperm only - leaving out all together the treasure of nutrients found in the bran and germ. And through the process all nutrients are gone - that is why they have to "enrich" the flour; but they only put back about 4 of the vitamins out of the 30 or so that were lost. Wheat flour from the grocery store does use all parts of the kernal ... but because it is well over 72 hours since it was milled, it is nowhere near as nutrious for you as it could be. Hence the great benefit of having a mill right in your own home. (Who would have thought??) Then you can grind the wheat kernals as needed ... and recieve lots of yummy-good-for-you stuff. :)

Solid Rock

Birthday & visit from Mimi

Well, Tony is officially 27 years old today. I am so very blessed to have him as my husband! {HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE} We had a family celebration at his parents house on Sunday. Hamburgers and hot dogs with lots of sides and Heath ice cream cake for dessert. The nieces and nephews sang "happy birthday." Cute!

I took a walk around "Papa and Nanny's" yard with Cayleigh, Mary Grace, Marshall and Peyton (who was being pushed/dragged by Marshall. I had to remind him that Peyton wasn't a toy. Ha!) The girls held my hand as we walked through the woods along the back of their property. A big stick got wedged up in the wheel of Peyton's car which prevented it from rolling. Marshall and Cayleigh were quick to repair that. As we left the woods, we stopped by the chicken house where Cayleigh picked up 1 fresh egg - in her pocket it went. Next stop was the bike ramps. We ran up and down several times and pushed Peyton up and down (gently of course). :)

We stopped by the sand pit / construction site. Below they were building a nice sturdy ramp so that Peyton could be pushed up into the garage. :) Back to the ramps we went for more ups and downs. Then we made our way to the swing set - picking flowers as we went. It was a nice little walk just the five of us. :)

That evening we went to my parents house - Mimi (dad's mom) and Keith came for a visit from the mountains of NC!! :) We talked a lot, ate a nice meal of chicken breasts stuffed with tomato, basil, and provolone cheese; green beans, pasta with pesto, and dinner rolls. Yum! Two pots of coffee were devoured along with mom's carrot cake.

Matthew and Keith provided some music - guitar and harmonica. Some of us even danced along. Lots of fun! :) Then we opened our gifts from Mimi.

Monday morning Keith and Mimi gradually packed up their things. Mimi got some different plants from my parents yard to transplant into hers.

See my dad's contribution of weeds on top - he said they grow really well. Haha!

Time for some pictures...

Dad, Mom, Keith, Mimi, and I went treasure hunting at Ollies discount store. And ate a late breakfast at the Lantern Inn. Then we said our goodbyes.

Glimpse of our garden and other things

Carrots, cucumbers, lettuces, spinach, and arugula planted in the garden box. I noticed little lettuces poking their head out today. So exciting! :)

Big tomatoes and midget tomatoes planted in buckets
that will eventually be hanging upside down.

Peas planted around the "trapeze" and green bean bushes planted
in the two rows. There's still more to be planted ... corn, peppers, zucchini, flowers ...

Freshly mowed grass

Bridal shower for our niece.

Spending time together.

Baby shower for our friends.