Monday, August 29, 2011

Dill Pickles and More

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I had some things that I wanted to get done over the weekend and I succeeded...yay!    I love it when I get my goals accomplished...don't you?   This morning I had my usual smoothie.  This one was made with green tea, a date, frozen banana, frozen peaches, and some blueberries.  I normally like to add some kale or spinach, but I'm all out.  Looks like I'll have to run to the grocery store today after work.  


Saturday night I had some black eyed peas (one of my favs), some olive oil garlic pasta, and some Sesame Garlic Tepeh strips.  Have you ever bought any of those marinated strips?  I think they are by Turtle Island Foods.   They were on sale at Whole Foods when I went a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to buy them to try.  I thought they were okay, but not my favorite.  I doubt I'll buy them again.  The strips look like they were put in the spot light on my plate, but I didn't think they were spot light worthy.  Apparently the sun did though.  :o)


We've been getting tons of bell peppers out of our garden, so I've started freezing some of them.  I cut them up into strips then lay them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for a couple of hours.  After they are frozen, I then put them into a freezer bag.  Have you ever frozen bell peppers like this?   I figure they'll at least be good to cook with.


I finally tried my homemade pickles yesterday, and they were yummy!  They aren't real crispy, but the taste is perfect.  I had told you that if the outcome was good that I'd reference the recipe that I used.   So, here's the link to the the recipe..  http://southernfood.about.com/od/picklesrelishes/r/r80820g.htm .   The recipe is definitely worth sharing!  I'll be making these again next year. 

Okay, this next picture is for Molly since she likes Dragonflies.  I snapped this picture last week as I was walking to feed the turtles on my break.  I knew Dragonflies ate insects, but never would have dreamed that they ate moths. This little guy was chowing down.  I know it's kinda gross, but it really was cool to stand there and watch him eat.

That's all for today.  I hope everyone on the eat coast is safe!  I've had you all in my thoughts and prayers.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

11 comments:

  1. i <3 black eyed peas too! amazing and versatile and so healthy

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  2. That smoothie is such a beautiful color! I really need to start making more smoothies :) And that's awesome that you made your own pickles! They look yummy!

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  3. I love black eyed peas, and I'm glad to see someone who eats them as often as I do!

    I've never tried the pre-seasoned tempeh, but once I learned how I like to cook tempeh, it's one of my favorites. Oh, glad you liked the pickles - sure looks like you have plenty!

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  4. I have never tried those strips. I am always a litte skeptical of something so expensive. Good to know I am not missing out!

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  5. Glad to hear the pickles were a success. Can't ever have too many pickles!
    Let us know how the peppers do in the freezer too. That's wonderful you got so many peppers from your garden.

    I tried the Coconut Curry tempeh strips a while back...they were ok...kind of yummy in a sandwich.

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  6. Wow! You & Molly can sure capture the wildlife. Seems like a moth would be extremely dry.

    I'm too intimidated to try jarring my own food. Is this your first year doing it? There are so many sterilization rules.

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  7. Hey michelle! About the warrior dash... i was a little dissapointed. first, it was a lot of running in open grassy fields in the heat of the day (in august) in the south! it was over a mile until our first "obstacle". the obstalces were legit hard.. one girl broke her femur and another girl gauged her eyeball out on the barbed wire. I would be very, very careful if you do it. Two guys I know got staph infections and a girl I know got a fungus infection from the water. It's not clean or (apparently) safe to be in. You could smell the stench from a hundred yards away. I'm glad I experienced it, but I won't be doing it again!

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  8. What a great bell pepper harvest! My garden went nowhere this year, but I'm still inspired to keep on going.

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  9. Rick, I think I could eat black eyed peas every day! :o)

    xvavaveganx, I am so addicted to smoothies. I really miss them when I eat something else for breakfast.

    Jessica, I'm just now starting to play around with tempeh, so I haven't figured all that out yet. I'm sure it will take some time. BTW..I could live off black eyed peas. :o)

    HayMarket8, In my opinion, you sure aren't missing out with these strips. I'm normally skeptical on expensive foods too, but it was on sale, so I decided what the heck.

    Rose, you're right...one can never have too many pickles. :) I'll be sure to let you know about the peppers. I bet the strips would be much better in a sandwich...good idea!

    Shen, I laughed when I read your comment about the moth being dry...that's too funny.
    I canned some green tomato salsa last year that turned out good, so I guess you could say this is my second year at trying may hand at the whole canning thing. It kinda weirds me out too, but I sterilize the crap out of the jars and try to make sure I do everything right...so far so good.

    Michelle, thanks for the update on the warrior dash. I think I'll be passing on doing that. I'm glad you made it thru with out any injuries! The first mile would probably kill me anyway...lol

    Blessedmama, My garden was doing great at first then it just stopped doing anything. The only thing that is still producing are my pepper plants. I've heard a lot of people saying the same thing about their garden. Must be due to our crazy weather.

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  10. Thanks so much for posting the dragonfly photo! I had absolutely no idea that they ate moths. That's so cool that you were able to get a shot of one!

    That's great that the pickles turned out. Mike would love if I made pickles. He could eat a jar of them a day!

    We had those tempeh strips once and wouldn't get them again. Seasoning plain tempeh on our own is much better. :)

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  11. That's a beautiful shot of the dinner! The smoothie is very pretty too. Blueberries are so great for that. Yeah, let us know how the peppers work out.

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