Garden Inspiration

Good Morning!

I'm actually getting to blog in the A.M. instead of the P.M. today. Sawyer is actually doing his school work with self motivation. When that happens, it makes for a very productive day for me.

Yipee!


This morning I'm talking about gardening.
To me, gardening is a four letter word because I'm that terrible at it. Josh says that I'd be good at it if I actually watered the plants, but it's been my experience that when I water the plants, I over water them.

 You can see how this situation would be problematic for a family that's attempting to have an urban homestead.

Well, this year, we're researching not only the foods that we want to grow, but the proper way to actually grow them. I've also been looking at Pinterest for pretty gardens. I don't just want food growing. I want a whimsical garden as well. So, we'll be incorporating herbs and other pretties I hope.

Here's some of my inspiration for making our yard and garden area pretty...

Source

A hammock over lavender.

Source

A natural fence to keep neighborhood pets out.

Source

Natural shade for a sitting area.

Source

A pretty walkway from the garden area to our shed. This one would take a lot of work because there's nothing there currently.

Source

I can't feasibly do this in my yard, but it would be a pretty fake creek in a country yard.

Source

Of course every garden fence need a gate. 

This would be so amazing at an entrance to a walking trail.

 

 

Then, of course, we have the actual garden planning...

Source

 This one is for a fairly large garden. My dad is planting a pretty large garden, so I'm going to print this one out for him.

Source

If you use pallets, make sure that they haven't been treated with chemicals, please!

Source

Such pretty rows!

Source

Here's a great use of rain gutters.

I like to call this picture The Salad Bar.

Thanks for letting me share some of my Pinspirations with you!

If you'd like to see more of my pin boards that I puled these off of, feel free to visit my boards,  How Does Your Garden Grow and Wonderland!

Happy Tuesday!

-Heather

Weekend Recap

Hello, friends! Happy Monday!

I hope you guys had a great weekend! We mostly just bummed around the house for the most part.

Saturday was Yard Day. Yard Day is the first day in Spring when we clean up the yard from the prep that wasn't done during the Fall.

Let me explain, what we're supposed to do around our yard in the Fall is:

• Rake leaves and mulch them, then toss in garden to compost over winter.
• Rake remaining leaves to the curb for city pickup.
• Sort through broken/outgrown yard toys and dispose of/donate
• Mow one last time so snow will be pretty when it falls
• Fall clean the shed to make holiday decorating easy
• Sweep roof at the end of Fall to mak sure we don't have tree litter on the roof.

Okay, those are some of the things that I would like to get accomlished before we're cooped up for the winter.
However, what usually gets accomplished is the mowing and the leaf mulching.

So we spent our Saturday raking leaves and going through  yard toys.

While raking, we saw our first snake of the season. It kind of surprised me, but it definitely didn't scare me, since it's just a little garter snake.

Hey, there, little guy!

After the kids finished their hard work of picking up sticks, Josh made them a shooting target out of the back of an old chair. Unfortunately, the material was too thick for a BB to go through, but it was an awesome idea!

The rest of the weekend was captured in short shots here and there,

like....

Josh getting our garden tilled

 

Our first fire pit use of the year

My family's inability to all pose for a picture at once.

 

Like... Ever.

My discovery that wet chalk works better.

Therefore, I had to chalk everything that was chalkable in the house.

This happened to be one side of Josh's tool cabinet in the back. I painted it with chalkboard paint so he could write measurements down on it. 

 

Now he can never have it back.

 

I've been daffodil crazy for the last two weeks. It's added such a fresh feeling to the house. 

I love Spring.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I woke up this morning and did this. Yes, it's certainly homemade looking, but I didn't have any tacks or stencils around, so I improvised...

...because I'm impatient.

No, this isn't my picture. Here's the link to the pin.

We had potluck this Sunday at church. Usually I don't attempt recipes that I haven't tested yet when other people will be eating it, but I lucked out this time.

They were good.

So, this was my weekend wrap up. How did your weekend go? Hope it was great!

Happy Monday!

-Heather

 

Recipe: Fake-It-Til-You-Make-It Chicken Parmesan

  I haven't been grocery shopping in, oh, about three weeks. I've picked up ingredients here and there, but as far as having cohesive and relevant ingredients in my pantry and fridge, well, I'm falling down on the job. So, when lunch time rolled around, I looked to see what exactly I had to work with. I had spaghetti noodles, sauce, grated Parmesan cheese, and ONE grilled chicken breast left.
Spaghetti is fine by itself if you're a child, or me, but like I've stated before, my husband needs meat for it to be a meal.

*scoffs* Men. How dare they need protein!

So I decided to get creative and try my hand at make a super quick version of chicken Parmesan where one chicken breast would stretch to feed a family of five. Here's what I came up with.

Fake-It-Til-You-Make-It Parmesan Chicken:

Sauce:
1 jar spaghetti sauce of your choice
1/2 C grated parmesan  cheese

Chicken breading:
1 C bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

And the rest:
1 C milk (I used almond milk and it worked just fine)
1 grilled chicken breast cubed
1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti
1/2 C olive oil (for frying chicken)

First, combine your two sauce ingredients in a sauce pot and simmer as low as your burner will go.

Next, follow cooking instructions for your spaghetti noodles.

Then, mix together all of your chicken breading together in a bowl using a fork, then set aside.
Pour your milk into a bowl.

Now you're all set to get your fingertips nice and gross!

Alrighty, now you cube your chicken breast. My chicken breast was already grilled, so the cooking time was cut in half. But, you can of course use raw cubes as well. (However, I like to cheat so I don't burn my breading.)

Heat your olive oil in your skillet on medium-high.

Dip your chicken cubes in your milk and then immediately roll them around in your breading. I set my finished ones on a plate so I can cook all of the chicken at the same time to prevent burning.

Place your chicken in your hot oil and kind of stir them gently every 30 seconds or so. Once all sides are nice and golden brown, take out of skillet and place on a plate.

PLEASE make sure it's a different plate than you used for the raw chicken!

Now you can combine your cooked noodles and sauce together. Spoon into an oven safe dish. place your breaded chicken cubes on top and sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese.

Set under a broiler for about two minutes until the tops is a very light brown.

Then simply enjoy!

Happy cooking!
-Heather