Bountiful Baskets Experience

For those of you who aren't familiar, Bountiful Baskets is a non-profit food co-op. It is completely volunteer based, and they ask you to volunteer at least once every 6-8 weeks of participation. That is how the produce ends up so cheap! For more information click HERE. More than likely there is a BB group in your area, as they are all over the nation! If there isn't one, you can even start your own. This week was the first time I had participated and I loved it. I paid $15 for the conventional basket (as opposed to organic) and this is what I got:

1 Honey Dew melon

1 brown lunch-sack full of Fava beans

5 HUGE bananas

7 Roma tomatoes

 2 heads of green lettuce (NOT Iceberg, GREEN!)

5 ears of corn

1 Butternut squash

1 head of Cauliflower

6 Apricots

2 Mangoes

A MASSIVE Sweet potato (4 servings?)

I think that is it...I might have even forgotten something. I started searching for recipes to employ all this fresh produce and found some yummy looking dishes! I am not a huge fan of raw tomato, but I love me some Bruschetta. I found a pretty standard recipe and BAM! Delicious lunch. As far as the squash goes I can't wait to make THIS little baked side dish/dessert. I plan to have a feast of grilled corn one day, and keep it simple there. Chili powder, butter, salt....heaven. I found lots of recipes for the Fava beans but THIS one really struck my fancy. Finally, the two heads of lettuce worried me, since I don't want to eat myself sick of salad before they go bad. I found THIS little gem hiding on the internets. I am the most excited to make it, as I am very fond of soups. They seem to stay good in the fridge forever, and they even freeze well!

I had some of the needed ingredients already in my house, and the only things I have to get from the store to complete all of them is this short list:

1 lemon

Goat cheese

Basil

A baguette (I could make this even)

Parmesan cheese

Chicken stock

Tah Dah! I am definitely going to make this a weekly part of my groceries. It is an easy way to save money, it is fun, and it "forces" me to find interesting, new, and healthy recipes. It is worth noting that there are also usually "side items" you can add to your basket, like fresh bread and treats of all sorts. If any of my local friends or neighbors want to hitch up with me and volunteer together sometime (if you choose to get involved) that would be fun! I choose to go to the Plano-Skaggs Elementary School location. 

EXCITING!!

Today's Bad Decision

Let's cut to the chase. We have known each other too long to beat around the bush about something so trivial. I tried to cut my own hair in the mirror and failed. Here is the long story:

A few weeks ago...more like a month and a half, Forrest and I decided we were going to lose weight. Well, my handsome husband is currently 30lbs lighter and I am just about where I started. I decided one day that I needed more motivation. I told him that if I could lose just TEN pounds that I would reward myself with a good haircut. I love going to a salon and having my hair scrubbed by someone I don't really know and then getting a gloriously overpriced coiffe. Unfortunately with a baby and a budget and more things to care about than myself, this does not happen too terribly often. Not because Forrest won't let me go, but because I am a real cheapskate. So, back to my reward system and failure thereafter. Today I got the harebrained idea that maybe...just maybe I could get away with trimming it the mirror myself. I would not be breaking my bet/challenge and my mother-in-law does this regularly and she is still alive to tell about it. Why not, right? Anyway, about 10 minutes and a sink-full of hair later I decided to call it quits and declare myself the loser of this ill-chosen game. I couldn't seem to make my "tiny trim" even on both sides and my hair kept getting shorter...and shorter. I was even using a makeup mirror to trim the back. YIPES!

I ran to the phone to inform Forrest that I needed what I dubbed an "emergency hair cut" and then called a salon to see what they had this afternoon. Two hours later I came home with much shorter hair, but I am happy to say that the gristly home-dyed blond part is all gone! I was really enjoying having long hair. I had even begun to master the tricky art of self-French-braiding. Oh well. It'll grow again!

Here are a few "selfies" that I took of my salon cut. Enjoy!

The Dallas Zoo

Or: How "What a waste of money!" turned into "I need a season pass!!!"

Every good mother of a young child knows that there will probably be at least one day each week that neither of you will get out of your pajamas, and there will also be at least one day that you reserve completely for fun times. That is how things run at my house at least. Today I took Augie to the Dallas Zoo and we had quite a day. It didn't start out that way; I don't know if it was the wrong time of day or what, but it seemed like hardly ANY animals could be seen. Then we got to the snake area, and Augie got to pet one!

That was super cool, but wasn't enough to make the $8 parking and $15 ticket worth it. We also saw some penguins...

Once again, cool but I was still miffed. Then, it happened. Right when I was about to leave this sad excuse for a "zoo", we found the The Stream. Seriously, look it up-- it is named "The Stream". It is inside the Children's Area and is was *amazing*. 

Needless to say, we were completely unprepared for this and Augie just played in his regular clothes. I wanted to let him swim naked, but I am not sure everyone else there shared my hippie mentality. 

This kid loved it and when I finally had to take him away he was arching his back and crying. My stoic little Augie-bear threw a fit. It was adorable. I couldn't stop giggling at how badly he wanted to stay. I love water too, Augie. I get it.

I mean, look at that face! "Mama!! Is this heaven?"

But alas, we did have to leave and since this unprepared mama had no change of clothes we just went to the car like this. No pants. I literally got laughed at by one lady. She spoke Spanish, but so do I. Also, it doesn't take foreign language skills to understand what pointing and laughing means. Estupida mujer. 

So, I loveloveloveloveloved the water feature, and I will someday go back, pay $8 for parking and $15 for a ticket and head STRAIGHT to The Stream/Children's petting area and make a day of it. Or maybe I will try and go on a half-price admission day. Ooo, lala.

Garden Update

My little pretties seem to be finally making so progress. One of my zucchini has a flower! 

And my sloooowwww growing little tomatoes are making progress, too...

Even my teensy little onion sprigs are looking peppier. This photo is blurry because I can't figure out how to get a close up of small things without blur. Sarah?

I have also noticed some lovely things growing on my porch. Check out this little jewel. What it that?!?! I have never seen such a lovely "weed" but I have also never seen a tiny miniature pansy. Anyone know?

And finally, I am in LOVELOVELOVE with the moss that is growing between the stones. It makes me feel like I have entered an English garden or something whenever I step outside. I thought only really old places were graced with such ...je ne se quois.

I <3 my backyard, and Augie is starting to look a little tan! I guess hope he has his papa's skin genetics?

Wheat Grass

This week I have been growing wheat grass and documenting its growth every couple of days. It is basically "full grown" as of today, and it has only been 6 days!

Crazy fast progress, if you ask me...

I bought the bag of seeds for $11 and did the actual planting on some wet paper towels layered on top of a meat roasting pan. Check out the root system!

And in case you are thinking "ELEVEN DOLLARS FOR A LITTLE TRAY OF WHEAT GRASS?!?!" Oh, no, no, no, honey-- there is more where that came from! I only used about two cups of seed for this first tray. 

Forrest and I agree this grass is so lovely and soft we want to plant it in the yard...I wonder how it does with mowing?  : P

FUN PROJECT!

Urban Hiking

     Since finishing Augie's year of pictures I have been blogging a lot less. Sort of a relaxing "phew" month, but lately I have been missing it a little. Here is funny (at least I hope so) post about the adventure Augie and I had today. Enjoy.

     This morning during Augie's first nap I decided that I would surprise Forrest with a sweet act of service and mow the back yard for him. His free time is pretty precious, what with work and a masters degree program, so why not help the fellow out? After finishing up the yard (including seeding some new grass in bald spots and watering, what-what!) I felt pretty invigorated. I have to admit, that ever since I married my strapping young buck-of-a-husband I have had to do very little outdoor manual labor, and it felt pretty good! The sense of accomplishment as sweat covered my brow and the sun shone above got me thinking, "Why don't I do stuff like this more often?" I must have been high off grass fumes because this is where my judgement started getting a little questionable. After Augie woke up and I fed him lunch he started acting kinda snotty-- you know how kids do when they are bored and the same old toys just won't cut it? After soliciting any friends to come over and play to no avail I decided to take matters into my own mommy hands; I would take Augie to the park to feed the ducks! That extra bit of crazy that was still running through my blood from earlier precipitated my next decision; We would WALK to the park. This may not seem like a crazy idea, but there are no parks in my immediate neighborhood. I looked at Google maps and plotted the best ways to avoid the highway. The journey there would take 2.5 miles. No biggie, right?! I packed up some water, crackers, Augie, some dollars (I won't tell you how many, because I don't want the internet to know how rich/poor I am) and we were OFF! The journey there was not half-bad. There were a lot of forested areas in the route we took and sidewalks the whole way. Finally, after about 40 minutes, we made it. There was a moment in the middle of the journey there where my inner athlete who had told me to do this in the first place was being strangled violently by the lazy girl, who also lives inside me, who was awoken from her afternoon nap to find that she was stranded across town with no car. Augie had fun feeding the ducks crackers and when we were getting ready to head home I got my supidest idea thus far; Why don't we take the short way home instead?! You see, the shorter way (the way I go by car) is a highway access road. Although it doesn't have a sidewalk next to it, there is at least 100 yards of grass that lead into a woodsy area, so we were never in danger of being hit, but it was a dumb idea none-the-less. Did I mention the grass is in the form of hills? Well it is. In a car it is not hard to go up and down hills. On foot with a stroller it is. Super. Duper. Uggggggh. Hard. Anyway, we finally made it past the hills and into the shopping center right before my neighborhood. We passed by the "Planned Parenthood Express" (What!?!? Express? I have no idea either.) and I really considered going in and asking them what they could do about Augie. You know...really make them uncomfortable and maybe even use an accent to feign ignorance. Say something like, "I hear from friend you take away unwanted childrens, yes?" Basically my mind went down a whole rabbit hole from there, but you get the point. Finally, right before getting home I stopped at the sub-shop and got a chocolate ice cream cone to make up for all the weight I might have lost on my trek. It takes a lot of calories stay looking like I do. I shared with Augie but at this point he was pretty pissed at me and not even chocolate was going to win him over. I put him down for a nap right when we got home and he passed out like a ... fainting goat? We had fun but all in all we were out walking for TWO AND A HALF HOURS and about five miles.

Good to know I can live without a car, but I think that I just need to make Augie more friends so there is always one available. So I can avoid and unnecessary exercise next time.

*The stroller I own has a sun-visor, so no babies were burnt in the making of this adventure.

Garden Update

After the first couple weeks of fast sprouting my vegetable garden has been really taking it's time, hence the delay of photo-evidence. Here is where I am at now:

You may not be able to tell from this view, but this is a full garden. Four zucchini plants, three watermelon plants, around ten tomato plants and five pepper plants, and of course the ever growing collection of onions. Here are some close-ups:

Zucchini!

Tomato!

I bought a little tiny mint plant about a month and a half ago and it is going nuts. It really loves the little blue pot it is in and killed off the cilantro beside it, and is taking up full residence!

This seriously used to be one teeny little plant.

Last but not least, since I am on the subject of gardening, here are the three new Knockout Rose bushes I planted a couple of weeks ago. They already have a bunch of blooms! Forrest had torn out Holly bushes that I hated about a year ago and I finally did something with the ugly, grass-less spot. I even used leftover bricks we had to make them a little retaining wall.

Outside of the living-room window I scattered a packet of wildflower seeds! I will make sure to snap a picture of those if they end up pretty. There are already centimeter high sprouts all around, so I have high hopes!