Growing Food

We planted a small garden at our new house.  The previous owners had a small plot of land with some asparagus and weeds, so my mom and I dug everything up and put in a raspberry bush, blueberry bush, lettuce, zucchini, green beans, and tomatoes.  Every day I have gone outside to water them in this summer of extreme heat and no rain.  Every day Ingrid and I peer into the soil, looking for seedlings, new growth, flowers, and finally produce.

One morning we found we had five zucchinis ready to go!  I have never grown anything like this before, I was so proud!  We made some zucchini bread and gave the rest to the neighbor.  Yesterday we picked four more, and found three more babies on the plant.  Oh my god, I grew food! 

Our tomatoes are getting nice and plump and red, our lettuce is growing huge and we picked some but then promptly forgot to do anything with it and it wilted and shriveled on the counter.  The berries never produced fruit, but maybe next year.  The point is--I grew food!  I live in a city but I grew food! 

I always had this little daydream of living in the boonies with my kids running around, dogs barking at birds in a field, growing a bunch of food, having goats and chickens wandering around.  I still love that idea, but I am a city girl at heart.  I love being able to get to places without having to drive.  So here I am trying to combine the two.  I would still love a goat or two, but I don't think our neighbors would enjoy that too much.  Probably not so much the chickens either.  But food, that I can handle!

Two Super Recipes

I love allrecipes.com. I go there when I'm bored with our current rotation of dinners. Last week I wanted to find new ways to use chicken breasts, and found these two recipes which turned out to be really tasty. Maybe not the healthiest, but they sure do taste good.

Broccoli and Chicken Casserole

-steamed broccoli

-cooked cubed chicken breasts

-1 can low fat cream of broccoli soup

-1/3 c. milk

-1 c. shredded cheddar

-1 TB melted butter mixed with 1/3 c. bread crumbs

Mix together soup and milk, add to broccoli and chicken. Top with cheese, then breadcrumb mixture. Cook at 450 for 20 minutes. YUM.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

-cubed chicken breasts

-cumin

-fresh cilantro

-1 can black beans, rinsed

-1 can enchilada sauce

-corn tortillas

-1 c. fat free sour cream

-1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar

Cook chicken with cumin. Add cilantro and black beans. In casserole dish, layer 1/2 enchilada sauce, 4 corn tortillas, chicken/bean mix, 1/2 cheese, 1/2 sour cream, and layer again. Top with foil, cook at 375 for 30 minutes. Take off foil, top with a little more cheese and stick back in to melt it. Let it set for about 5 minutes after taking out of the oven. Again, YUM!

I'm always looking for good casserole recipes (I'm such an old lady!!!) I just think they are so easy to prepare and a good option for nights I don't feel like doing much for dinner. Anyone have any other good ones? Vegetarian ones?