Cream of Mushroom Pasta

Maybe it is just here in Utah, but it seems every mom I ever met knew how to make the universal Cream of Mushroom (or broccoli/chicken) Casserole that involved rice, a few chicken breasts, some condensed soup, cheddar cheese, and milk. My casseroles have never turned out well. I would follow the directions, to a tee, but they always ended up undercooked or dried out...and pretty bland. So, I created a dish that involved cooking diced chicken, then adding seasonal veggies, and adding rice or pasta (I cooked in a separate pot at the same time as the chicken) and the cream of mushroom, sour cream, cheese, and milk.

When I set out to find more vegetarian meals this past year, I started playing with a few of my own recipes to see how they would fare without meat in them. This one has held it's weight. So, here is the recipe I came up with last night. You can make it with pasta or rice, but I am making rice tonight, so I chose pasta this time around. I am sure there are more areas that will need hammering and polishing before I will be completely happy with it (especially as I learn more about healthy foods and preparation), but for now I am just happy to have everyone at our dinner table asking for seconds (and that is quite the feat for a family of 8).

The Purple Sprout: Vegetarian Cream of Mushroom Pasta

2 yellow zucchini

12 mushrooms

24 green beans

2 c. skim milk

2 c. sour cream

26 oz (family size) Cream of Mushroom soup

16 oz whole wheat fusilli (you could use rotini, as well)

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp season salt

1/4 c butter

2 c. grated cheddar cheese

Bring water to a boil in a stockpot. Dice the green beans, zucchini, and mushrooms and put them into a metal colander/steamer that can rest on top of the stockpot. When the water is ready, throw the pasta in the stockpot and put your veggies on top to steam with the lid over them. Stir both the veggies and the pasta occasionally. Boil/steam for approximately 10 minutes or until the pasta is softened and the veggies are moderately steamed. Then empty the veggies into your serving bowl and use the colander/steamer to drain the pasta water. Put 1/4 c of butter into the stockpot. When it is melted, add the herbs and put the veggies back in the stockpot for a couple of minutes to heat through. Add the milk, soup, sour cream, and finally the pasta back into the stockpot. Heating it up with each step. Stir in the cheese right before serving. Salt and pepper to taste.

(This recipe fed our family of eight, with enough for lunch leftovers for 6 of us the next day. We did have some butternut squash with it, and I limited everyone to one bowlful, just to prove to them the theory that you have to wait a few minutes to allow your tummy to register with your brain you are full. I am not sure how many servings there were...12?)

Obviously, you don't have to have exactly 12 mushrooms or 24 green beans, but I have found that I can remember recipes easier when they involve a container of this or that and equal parts or 1 to 2 ratios, etc. So, there are 2 zucchini, 12 mushrooms, and 24 green beans...2x12=24...easy for me to remember. And easy for you to divide in half, just in case you don't have a family of 8 to feed. LOL. Let me know what is missing or what you did to make it healthier...thanks!

We were bummed that we weren't able to get to my sweet friend's home this past week to make bread, on account of being sick, so I will have to post about our whole wheat bread experience next week. I did, however, stumble upon an easy recipe for some absolutely delicious rosemary bread....not as healthy as whole wheat, but made from scratch, and did I mention that it is divine? :)

The kids enjoyed helping me knead the dough...which was a good thing as my hands were getting pretty sore towards the end. They did an awesome job, too! I was very impressed.

I doubled the recipe and then rubbed the top with EVOO instead of eggs before adding a little bit of my extra (fresh) rosemary. Super yummy! You will definitely have to try out this Delicious Rosemary Bread for yourself.

Hope you are all enjoying your week and for those of you who are joining me on my Healthy Adventure, I am excited to share what I have been going without this past week!

~.~ the purple sprout

Winter Wonderland

Today, I was in need of starting up Liahona. She has been plugged in for the past 3-4 weeks, but between Christmas and being sick (and the fact that I loathe being cold....it's been between 11-20 degrees for a while here), I hadn't mustered up the will to venture the 20 steps outside to take care of her needs. I think it was the seduction of the thin layer of frost, that snuck in sometime this morning, which actually caused me to break down and head outside. I just had to explore my Winter Wonderland...


These are the sunflowers that inhabited most of our square foot garden this year. I couldn't bear to pull them out, once they had begun to grow. So, I ended up with several different shades and sizes of sunflowers, all the offspring of the collection which had lined my wooden fence last year.

I grow my sunflowers for my oldest daughter, because they remind me of her. I also grow them to feed the 50 or so birds that frequent our backyard (mostly finches). I usually cut them down in the late fall and lay their heads on the gardening shelf, but I didn't want the neighbor's kitties snacking on our birds (the shelf makes for an easier target), so I left all of the sunflowers standing....and I was so glad I did. Aren't they gorgeous? Even after they have been admired, utilized, loved, and left to die as all annuals must...never to return, they are still absolutely beautiful.


These are my ladies in waiting...see how the one in front has her right hand on her hip and her head tilted a little?


Her crown is all sparkly, bejewelled in tiny crystals....



Her sister is holding her left hand across her chest and has her head lowered...she's a bit bashful.


I noticed the sunflower leaves that were left behind...great texture and I love the colors...a palette of rust and shades of sage green.


I know that it is probably sick and wrong that I love dead and crinkly leaves, but I do.


This was an icicle hanging off of my gardening shed...




...and this is our cherry tree behind it, all freshly frosted in snow.





This hydrangea was once light green, then pink, and finally a light rust....covered in a sprinkling of winter dust.


I love the pastel bokeh behind this well-preserved pinky.

And the devotion that my wisteria and this rogue vine have developed over the past 3 years just melts my heart.



I love the smell of our Russian Olive in June....and their berries are magnificent in January!




Yeah. I thought it was some poor, unlucky animal at first, too....but, it isn't.




It's really just a gardening glove that got tossed into the bushes sometime before the cold set in a few months ago...poor fellow.
Wonder if his mate has missed him these past months?



This watering can is patiently hibernating out with my herb boxes.

I was too wrapped up in taking care of Liahona to get my annuals moved inside before the first frost, so it will be interesting to see which ones survived.

Isn't this absolutely beautiful?

I am a lover of rust, especially if it is contrasted with an interesting pattern snow....

Obviously, I wasn't kidding when I said that I am a lover...I took a few of my garden shovel (as you can see).

(IMPORTANT SIDENOTE: I just have to say that the only reason the flat shovel isn't properly stored right now, is because I have been using it to remove some of the ice off of our drive....I would hate for anyone to report me to DTPS ~Department of Tool Protection Services.)

Have you checked out YOUR Winter Wonderland lately?

Hope you are all having a lovely winter, planning for all of the splendid wonders you will be beginning in a few months. :)

~.~the purple sprout

The Healthy Adventure: Diet

I recently began developing a plan for creating and sustaining a healthier pattern of eating for my family. As the main person who shops and prepares our food, I know that I have a HUGE influence on what my family eats. And because of this, it is vital that I take a more active role in choosing healthy choices for us all. Most of this is new to me and so it is going to be quite the adventure. Come along and enjoy the benefits you will find for yourself and your family!!

So, where does one begin?

Well, for me, it will include eliminating different items from my own diet and choosing healthier substitutes for us all to enjoy. I am aiming for more raw/local/in season/whole foods. I tried to do this last year, but became so discouraged with not being able to accomplish the instant change I was attempting, that I pretty much gave up on most of my efforts. With my lack of success, I decided to sit down and figure out what had gone wrong. I know that I, personally, do well with making changes gradually over a period of time. Trying to implement every aspect of eating healthier, all at one time, was daunting for little old me. So, I am in the process of developing a new system...

The New System
With this new system, I will begin by eliminating one new item per week. While I am eliminating these items, I will be implementing a healthy substitute and developing a plan for future meals and healthier recipes. My system begins with replacing junk foods with healthier snacks, will then focus on eliminating fast foods and eating at home more, and end with tackling the processed foods I have become so dependent upon. Because I will be cutting out a lot of the meats, sugars, and other processed foods we consume right now, my family will be healthier. Following the steps within this system is very important for me. Without achieving each goal along the way, the end result (which is for my family to develop an overall healthier pattern of eating) is impossible. I know that there will be areas that we will really struggle with (chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter fingers, and brownies come to mind as I type this). As I adapt to better habits of eating and choosing foods for my family, I will be evolving along the way, instead of changing everything all at once. I am unsure of how long it will actually take, but I am planning on around 2-3 months. This will be perfect, because that will be right around when the weather is getting warmer and the garden will be calling my name...if we haven't headed out on our adventure by then. ;) Either way, we will be eating healthier, whether here or abroad. Also, it will be the perfect time to begin our family's outside exercise program that I will be working on over the next few months. I am so stoked!

Meal Plan
I have been working on coming up with a 28 day meal plan for a number of years now. I laughed, a while ago, when I found an older list of meals in my recipe cupboard. It was from around the time I gave birth over nine years ago (it had all of the baby names we were deciding between written on the back...that was fun to see!). I am so close to having my meal plan completed...just need to adjust a few things and then I will begin using this plan. The biggest issue I have, is the fear that we will grow tired of the same 28 menu items. To dispel that fear, I will have a couple of "new recipe" nights. I have also debated over creating more than 28 meals...maybe 35 or 42 meals instead. The other fear is that I will have to adjust for church, family, and community functions and that will throw my whole system off. Guess I am just gonna have to be more flexible when those times come around, huh? I am such a nerd. LOL.

Family Cook Book/Recipe Box
I'm also going to develop a cook book and a recipe box that will be chock-full of all of our family's favorite recipes. I am in the process of adjusting all of my own recipes to have less processed and more whole foods. I will give each of my kids one of these cook books when they leave to live out on their own, so that they can continue on with the love of healthy eating that I am hoping to instill within them. You should start up a recipe book for your own kids, like this, if you haven't already. What a great gift to be able to have all of the foods you remember mom and dad making, right at your fingertips!

Junk Food
As far as junk food goes, I don't want to have to be the Culinary Gestapo, so I have asked that the kids and my hubby keep any junk food that they may get at their school/work. This way, I can help the younger kids (and myself) to have healthier options, without having to constantly fight all of the garbage food coming into our home. I know that I can't control what the kids choose when they are away from home, and I am not going to restrict them at school/church functions. I am hoping to make the healthy foods that they enjoy while at home so appealing and educate them on good nutrition, that they won't even want the other garbage.

Fast Food
And the "easy way out" I usually take, with ordering a pizza or picking up some fast food, has got to come to an end. This will take place as of week 3. As a reward for not eating fast food anymore, we will be eating out as a family at a sit down restaurant once a month and the hubby and I will also eat out for our monthly datenight (the other datenights will be spent at home, getting to know each other better, through scrabble, nertz, and spending time learning our new business together...you wanted to know all that, didn't you?).

Family-Friendly Exercise
Eventually I will be adding family-friendly exercise into the plan. I have struggled with exercising for years, mostly because I want to exercise in the morning. It doesn't work well with the fact that I am a night owl, or that I have early birds who still require a lot of attention in the mornings. I look forward to finding creative ways to involve the entire family in my routine. I will begin developing the exercise part of our adventure soon.

I can't wait to share the entire process with others! If you have read any of my posts on here, you know how much I love experimenting with old and new ideas to figure out the best way of doing things....I am really excited to be able to create healthier habits that will effect my family for the rest of their lives!!

Week 1 Goal: No more carbonated/soft drinks
The first week's goal, for any of you who are up to the challenge, is to eliminate carbonated drinks/soda/soft drinks out of your diet. For those of you who are like me, this first week will be easy. I have given it up for years at a time and I didn't have an issue with this part. For those of you who are used to drinking caffeinated sodas everyday...all day long, this may be extremely difficult for you. It may take a few weeks of weaning off, before you are ready to finally let go of the bottle (and I am referring to the baby bottle, folks...Come on! You can do it!). I'm not going to lie to you, it will be difficult. You may suffer from severe stomachaches, diarrhea, headaches, irritability, etc. But I promise you, that you won't regret it! Once you are off these unhealthy drinks for 7 days, you can move on to the next week's goal. But until you get rid of that first item, you will be stuck on Week 1 Goal. Is that motivating or what?

Your replacement drink will be water. You heard me, W A T E R. You should be getting at least 8 tall glasses of the stuff every day. And it doesn't count if it is in juice, vitamin/herbal water, or soup, either. You need a good old stiff drink of pure water, at least eight of them a day. I'll be expecting to hear back from those of you who are up to the challenge of The Healthy Adventure over the next 10 days! I am going to give you all a week and 1/2 to get on board. I'll be back with Week 2 Goal on January 15th (this should give all of you soda lovers a chance to get rid of your addiction). Until then...

It's good to be back!
~.~the purple sprout

p.s. Friday I am going to a friend's home to learn how to grind our own wheat and make some super yummy whole wheat bread with Shooter and Strider....I'll share what we learn later. Have a great week! :)

LOVE

As I have been quite busy lately, with trying to figure out how to homeschool the 5 younger kids, preparing our home to put up for sale, continuing to gather items for Liahona's conversion, and figuring out how to help my awesome hubby start up his own business from home while he is working 3 jobs....this poor blog has developed quite a few weeds. So sorry, to my few faithful followers...I love you all and want you to know that I am truly sorry for being a flake. :(

I came to the conclusion this past week that I need to combine my efforts somehow...but how? Our family's blog, Sun Dragon Adventures, is all about our family's adventures and the conversion of our '92 Blue Bird school bus into an RV...not exactly related to my desire to help others to find success in their gardens, eat healthy seasonal foods, support local farmers and businesses....or is it?

Honestly, I know that I can't keep up with 2 blogs right now. I would like to continue on with The Purple Sprout once we are on the road with Liahona...maybe blogging about all of the food and beautiful local farms we visit while on our adventure (is that an oxymoron...visiting locals all over the US and Central America?) or maybe discussing our family's shift from fast food and the lifestyle that we have come to known out of a "necessity" to keep up with the Jones' to the slow food, letting-go lifestyle I am preparing for.

Do you think that it would be worth checking in for now and then? Let me know with your comments...yay or nay...tell me what you think I could do with The Purple Sprout or if you can think of a great way to combine the two blogs....I would LOVE some feedback. Did I say LOVE? I meant LOVE. :)

Happy to be alive...and well...and full of love,

~.~the purple sprout

Precious Peas

Patience is finally paying off with these precious peas. I am so happy to have planted them when I did....before my life became pure chaos. I just got through snacking on some of these and I have to say that I am very pleased with the beginning of my produce...now if I can just find the time and the decent weather (simultaneously) to get the rest of my garden properly planted.



Right now I have my resilient tomatoes in pots in one bed...




Quite a few rogue sunflowers in another....



And my precious peas in their beds...rising up to say "Hello, we are ready to reward you for your patience."

Happy to oblige...

~.~ the purple sprout

First Loves and Separating

Do you remember your first love? When I go back to when I was a little girl, I remember being in love with my best friend's older brother. He was a family friend and we spent a lot of time together. I was heartbroken when he declined my marriage proposal. At 3 years of age, I remember bawling over his heartless response. But, by 4, I had just about forgotten who he was. There were many other loves, as I was always a bit of a lovey-dovey. When I was 14, I fell in love for the first "real" time. I remember believing that my "first kiss" would be the man that I would someday marry and grow old with. Ha! To be young again, right?

These first loves are quite similar to a plant's first leaves. Each sprout emerges from the soil with its first set of leaves. After a while, the plant's "true" leaves emerge and the first leaves shrivel up and fall off. Their purpose has been fulfilled and they go the way of all living things, back to the earth. I could probably get into the scientific end of why the first leaves do what they do, but I will leave that to another blogger (no need to muddle my mind or yours with too much information).

So, when my hubby examined my tomato plants a couple of months ago and announced that they "weren't looking too good", I laughed at his apparent ignorance and told him that those were the first leaves and that they were supposed to be shriveling up. As I was watering them later that evening, I realized that they really didn't look that hot. Because of the fact that they had received barely any sunshine over the period of their window life, they were not as green as I remember my store bought tomatoes being. Also, they were not filling out as well. But that was another problem completely...

You see, when I planted my seeds into their little trays, I naturally planted 2 seeds in each container. This was to ensure that at least one seed would germinate and take root, just in case not all of my seeds were viable. As it turned out, nearly all of my seeds did well this year and I had several containers with 2-3 tomato plants in them. I had read that I needed to cut one of them near the dirt, as soon as they got their first leaves. Otherwise both plants would die because of the competition for nutrients, water, and light. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Every time I would get close to the plants, scissors in hand, ready to take action...I would remember the fictional book, The Giver. In The Giver, the father, who works in a clinic, has to decide which babies deserve to live and which ones will be "set free". In this fictional society, they base this decision upon the baby's weight and how healthy they appear. There is a scene where a set of healthy twin boys are born, one weighing only a few ounces less than the other (don't quote me on the specifics, it could have been only 1 oz.). The father euthanizes the "smaller" newborn. If you have read the book, you totally get my anxt. Every time I would look at my crowding tomatoes, all I could think about was that scene....I clearly was not cut out for making this sort of decision....I know, I am such a wimp., and a crazy one, at that. You can say it, I am sure you are thinking it.

Anyways, a couple more weeks went by. The first leaves were nearly all shriveled and beginning to fall off, the plants weren't doing very well, and I was really torn on what to do. The situation grew more problematic everyday that my tomatoes grew. How could I end the life of one of them now and which one would it be? I called my local nursery and asked an expert on the possibility of separating my tomatoes and having them succeed. She told me that I could do this, but that I needed to wait until they each had at least 4 leaves on them to perform the delicate procedure.

I waited for several weeks to take on the separating procedure, mostly due to my back feeling like someone was sticking pins in my lower spine (from being rear ended in March) and Mother Nature's fickleness. On Wednesday, April 14th, it was sunny. Yay! And so I took my yellow-green tomato plants outside to soak up the sun for a few days, to help prepare them for their surgery.

On Friday, on the 16th, I very carefully transplanted all of my tomatoes...

and there were a lot of them.

I labeled them all.




They were over 6" tall when I began.



Very carefully, I tipped the plant out of its pot...



...letting it fall into my hand without bending either of those delicate tomato plants...




I gently dug my fingers in, between the twins...

being sure not to harm too many of the roots that had been growing together for the past few months.

Slowly, I pulled them apart.

Until they were completely separated.

I put them in their own pots, as deep as I could put them, covering up quite a bit of their stems. I added a little dirt and fertilizer, labeled them...

Then, like an idiot...thinking that it was only a few weeks away from the last frost...and I could get away with putting them outside...as long as they were protected with a tarp...I did the unthinkable....I left my temperamental babies outside. Big mistake.

These photos were taken on April 18th, when around 100 of my plants were still alive (nearly all of them survived the transplant).

They did okay at first, until it snowed...and those that survived the cold were over-watered...add in that they were all but completely ignored by yours truly...most of them died. Yes, after being so concerned about purposefully killing one of each of those twins, I went ahead and wiped out nearly 2/3 of my babies in less than a week. There were 38 tomato plants still alive when I checked today. The interesting thing that I have learned from this experiment gone awry is that certain types of tomatoes thrived, despite my abuse, and others died. If nothing else, I have now deducted which ones will do better if I do demonstrate a complete lack of judgement again, right? Just trying to find that silver lining.

Do you like the dome?

I may not have enough to sell for our charity, but I have enough to grow for myself, both my parents, and a few friends.

I have been really busy for the past few weeks working on a new path for our family, and so I have had to put some things on the back burner....including this blog. For that I am sorry. And the fact that not all of the tomatoes survived my strange shock therapy, I am sad about that, as well. But I am not going to dwell on my failure, my ignorant mistakes, or the fact that I am not perfect. Instead, I am going to focus on what is important and promise not to bite off more than I can chew. I am also going to be more consistent on here. I know that there are only a few of my dearest friends who are reading this and for that I am thankful. Thanks for taking an interest in this crazy lady's strange and sometimes ridiculous thoughts. I know that I am annoying, random, and completely insane most of the time. But I do have something to offer to the world, even if it is just a brief glimpse into the mind of a gardening fool...and you just read my entire post, so what does that say about you? :P

~.~ the purple sprout