Asparagus and Cilantro by Surprise

Hi everyone, and welcome back!!

Like I told you, I am blogging the progress of trying to eat healthy within a workable budget and be ecologically responsible, as well. I am trying to throw in some exercise too, but since I really don't like to sweat, that doesn't work out so well sometimes.

I left off last time telling you we had planted some stuff inside, and we were overhauling the yard for our garden.

After some miscommunication (I SAID it...my husband didn't "hear" it) we finally got a plan down. My husband tilled everything (again, I don't like to sweat) and it looks like next week we can plant.

Funny thing...when my husband turned the soil he noticed what he thought was cilantro ALL over the place. Sure enough! It was.

I guess it didn't really occur to me that if I let the cilantro go to seed (last Fall) the seeds would actually PLANT themselves and make more cilantro. I mean, why would I think a SEED would make a plant??? So, bottomline, I will have an enormous amount of cilantro this summer!!! Any suggestions??

The other funny thing that happened was, as my husband dug things up (some REALLY scary landscaping the previous owners put in...I mean SERIOUSLY!!), he looked at this plant in front of him—looked like three to four sticks.

Looking closer it was our ASPARAGUS we had planted last year! I guess it takes a couple years to grow, and this was year No. 1. They were so thin and tiny!!! We had forgotten all about the asparagus! So, now there is asparagus in the middle of my herb garden. Um...we'll see what happens!

The onions (Egyptian Walking Onions) that we're planted are enormous! Looking good! EXCITING! The blueberry bush has flowers, raspberry bushes lots of green, and we found a place to plant the corn!!!! That's about it on the garden stuff. More to come soon!

Now, while I am preparing for our vegetables, etc., I am slowly collecting recipes and suggestions for what to do with our anticipated bounty. In my reading, I have stumbled across (thanks, Brandi and Mom!) these very cool books.

You have heard of them—they are the Eat This, Not That! books. I'm looking at some of the restaurant dishes and seeing what I can do with our veggies to make them healthier.

These are awesome books. Not just the info for swapping out, etc., but for the general information they provide. For example, did you know that in chicken nuggets from McDonald's there are MORE THAN 20 ingredients? Did you also know that the scraps that are used to make the burgers for Burger King/McDonald's and most fast-food (*exception is Wendy's) places is "cleaned" with AMMONIA??? Common sense tells me THAT cannot be healthy.

Bottomline, if you'd like an eye-opening look at your food give a glance at these books. I just picked up one on Amazon.com for fewer than $2.00. Seriously, check 'em out.

Next blog I'll tell you about how we took a fantastic grilled romaine recipe from the Food Network Magazine and cut almost ALL the fat out of the recipe. Also, I'll share my way of grilling corn on the cob with a little "kick" to it!!

Thanks for reading! Have a great week and above all, ENJOY YOUR FOOD!!!!