Wednesday, April 22, 2020

A Recipe for Compost

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Use a mulching mower or reversible leaf blower to shred Fall leaves, save them in bags or bins, add them to your kitchen scraps to create nutritious soil.

http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2014/09/a-recipe-for-compost.html

Please enjoy this post from several years ago--relevant now more than ever!


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I've added a gardening tip here and there over the past few years, but I've always included a recipe for a food that uses whatever vegetable or herb I've been discussing.


Today's post is a little different. I feel strongly that an appreciation of fresh food leads invariably, inevitably, inexorably back to the source: where your food comes from.

More folks getting interested in fresh local food means more folks trying their hands at growing some portion of it.

Maybe it's a windowsill with some herb pots in an apartment, or maybe it's rotation planting of your annual garlic and basil crops in raised beds.

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to make your gardening efforts succeed is to make compost. 


Tuesday, March 31, 2020

How to Make Chai Tea Concentrate for Homemade Iced Chai

Make your own DIY Chai concentrate and treat yourself to a fancy iced sipper while giving your wallet--and your stovetop--a break! This recipe uses the sun and then the Instant Pot to create 6 quarts of chai concentrate from only 16 tea bags.


image of a glass of iced chai with a bottle of chai concentrate, an Instant Pot, a bottle of simple syrup, and a jug of milk.



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I first shared this recipe nearly 5 years ago. I make it multiple times a week, year round, because I can guzzle iced chai during a polar vortex as well as during a heat wave. I thought I was being pretty frugal by making my own drink--then I took it to another level.

Last summer, after reading about making tea in an Instant Pot in one of my pressure cooker cookbooks from the library, I decided to experiment.

Instead of throwing the teabags from my half gallon of sun chai directly into the compost bucket or worm bin, I put them in my Instant Pot then added a gallon of water and made an additional batch of Chai concentrate.

It was delicious! Out of used tea bags I got twice the volume of chai tea concentrate with a smooth, rich flavor and intense color. That experiment worked so well that it became the most frequent recipe I make in my Instant Pot--and the simplest!

Friday, February 28, 2020

Peanut Butter, Spinach and Banana Smoothie--an Allergen Friendly Recipe

Creamy, satisfying, and green--this peanut butter, spinach and banana smoothie has it all. A smoothie you drink because you want to AND because you want to feel good about what you're eating.


image of a peanut butter, spinach, and banana smoothie in a glass with a blender behind it



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Ready for a fresh meal in a glass? One that you can meal prep, too?



I've got a yummy green smoothie for you--it's what I've been living on the past few weeks. I figured it's a good time to republish this recipe post.

Pin for later!


Image of a blender of peanut butter spinach and banana smoothie being poured into a glass


If you are already a green smoothie person skip this paragraph. If you're not, why not? I used to drink green smoothies (spinach or kale combined with fruits in an attempt to make the greens palatable) and feel virtuous, not satiated, so I understand the lukewarm feeling towards the green smoothie. But I would like you to try this one, if you've got spinach and banana lying around and feel so inclined.