How to make delicious Brussels Sprouts

I love brussels sprouts. Seriously, I love them. They are like little balls of deliciousness. I hadn't ever eaten a sprout when my good friend taught me how to make them a few years ago. I haven't stopped eating them since.

First step: Steam the sprouts. I use fresh sprouts and trip the hard part on the bottom off. I steam them until tender.

Step 2: Heat up a little olive oil and butter in a pan. I often will saute minced garlic or some chipped onions in the butter before adding the sprouts. Add the sprouts to the pan.



Step 3: Saute sprouts until slightly brown on outside.

Step 4: Enjoy!


Instead of garlic and onion you could also use bacon or something similar. This variation is also delicious but I generally don't have bacon around so the garlic version is easier!

Note to self: stop being lazy and use a real camera instead of your camera phone!

Harris Teeter Super Doubles

I decided to take a trip to Harris Teeter to see what I could get since it is a Super Doubles week. Unfortunately, pretty much everything I had a coupon for was out...(extreme couponing?!?) so I just got a few things.


3 bags of steamfresh broccoli
1 bag of steamed rice
2 bags of cheese
1 box Kashi granola bars
1 GINORMOUS jar of tomato sauce

Total value: $23.23
Paid: $7.08

Not a bad trip!

My Coke Rewards

A tower of coke tops ready to be put into my My Coke Rewards account. This has got to be one of the EASIEST ways to earn prizes. Well, easy if you drink Coke products!

I started collecting bottle caps at the end of January and I already have enough points for a free photobook from Shutterfly! Wahooo!!! Now the question is, do I trade my points in now or save them for something else? Hmmmm!

CSA Week 1

I am BEYOND excited that it is CSA time again. I know that in about 5 weeks I will be totally sick of greens but when I opened that box today and saw all of those beautiful veggies I almost wept with joy. Ok, so that might be a little dramatic, but I was pretty darn excited.

There was a surprise in the box this time - radishes. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH RADISHES? I have no idea blog readers, no idea. It is time to work the google on the internet machine to figure something out. I will of course report back with what I came up with. I am not sure I've ever eaten a radish before....

Anyway, here is what was in the box:

2 heads of lettuce
1 bag of arugula
1 bag of misc. greens (no clue what it is...but it tastes ok)
1 bunch broccoli
1 bunch radishes
1 pint strawberries

Of course I split this with a friend so my haul was half of all of that. Here is my half:

Doesn't that look delicious? I am hoping to get more strawberries next week! Oh, and no arugula is visible in this picture because I don't like it and made my friend take all of it! :)

2011 Garden

I was inspired by my friend Jack's rocking container garden, and decided to give container gardening another shot. Long-time readers may remember my garden from last year. I'd call it moderately successful. I did grow some plants, but a lot of them ended up as breakfast for a furry critter.

So this year I'm trying gardening 2.0, the table top edition.

But first, I had to do some serious damage control. At some point this spring some weeds decided to take over my pots.


Anyway, I got rid of the weeds, added some fresh soil and went to town. The result - a table top full of plants!

I have: tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers, basil, sage, and rosemary. I planted A LOT of basil. I really love basil and want to have enough to try to make homemade pesto this summer.


In fact, once I finished I had a few more plants than I had pots so I created a little bed next to my house for the extra basil plants. The pieces of wood were left in the yard by the previous owner so I decided to repurpose them. Hopefully that (or the scary flamingo from my mom) will be enough to keep the rabbits away but we will see!

Menu plan, week of 4/25/11

I am hoping to get back to a much more normal schedule this week after the past few weeks of craziness.

This past weekend while my friend was in town I cooked us a feast of butternut squash risotto, baked chicken, brussel sprouts, and homemade rolls. So I'll be eating my way through those leftovers for most of the week.

Plus, this is the first week of my CSA so I am guessing that I'll have some veggies to get through once I pick up my delivery on Wednesday!!

Breakfasts:
Homemade granola bars
Fruit

Lunches:
Sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners:
Panera night w/Candice
Leftover pizza
Misc. Leftovers

Snacks:
Apples
String cheese
Graham crackers
Chocolate chip cookies

Final Update: Day o' Productivity!

I think I am about to call it a day. As you'll see, I was pretty darn productive!

The final tally:

Outside:
- Sweep front steps
- Sweep back patio
- Clean patio chairs
- possibly purchase patio table if I see one
- plant flowers in front
- plant veggies in back (pictures coming in future post!)
- clean out car (well...I got all the junk out. I wouldn't exactly call it "clean" in there yet though)

Upstairs:
- Guest room laundry
- Guest room bathroom
- Master bathroom
- Vacuum
- Declutter master closet
- Dust

Downstairs:
- Vacuum
- Wipe down tables
- Dust
- Mop hardwood floors
- Bathroom
- Tidy up dining room
- Clean out fridge of old food and completely clean it
- Toss old coupons
- Install programmable thermostats (this looks hard - might have to wait for an assistant)

Errands:
- Lowe's to get plants, soil
- Return library book
- Grocery store (waiting for HT Super Doubles this Wednesday!)

Hopefully the rest will get done the rest of this week!