Beet Green Salad-- beetlicious

Made this quick and easy salad. 

I love beets, they taste so earthy. 

I always soak my lettuce in vinegar water before starting dinner. I leave it for about 15-20 minutes. Than I rinse it well and spin it, to remove any excess water.  Super clean....

Beetlicious salad

1beet

I head Lettuce

Half cucumber

2 Green onions

Salt to taste

Oregano to taste

1 garlic clove chopped

Olive oil

Vinegar

Look at that water after soaking the lettuce for about 15 minutes. 

Gardening days

As promised here are a few photos from my spring garden clean and planting.

Hope I inspire you to start your own organic vegetable garden. It's easy, and very rewarding. Planting is time for myself, it's a sense of peace. A soul rejuvenation :-) 

Happy planting

My vegetable garden

My fruit trees ( pruned and treated)

And my angel garden, all it needs now is water and watch it grow beautifully.

Got around to planting my vases, and some more flower gardening.

Everything looks so much refreshing and alive in the spring. Hibernation over, spending most of my days outside. Vitamin D provided naturally :-)

The only thing that this great weather brings that eat me alive are mosquitoes. Boy do they ever bite.. I have searched and purchased mosquito traps, repellants, candles, sprays, garlic powder, garlic water, burned sage and so far none really work. So I'm asking you, if you have any suggestions to repell Mosquitos please do share. All recommendations are so greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance...

Planting season

Hello everyone, spring is finally here. Spring means outdoor cleaning and planting for me. It is excitting, I spent last weekend planting my vegetable garden with family. It is so rewarding to see your own vegetable garden produce. Yes it is hard work but it is so rewarding in so many ways. What better than your own organic vegetables, straight from the garden to your plate. Doesn't get any fresher than that:-). This year we expanded my vegetable garden and here is the list of vegetables planted:

Tomatoes

Romaine lettuce

Swiss chard

Kale

Celery

Spanish onions

Onion Chives

Garlic chives

Hot peppers

Potatoes

Beans

Cucumber

Zucchini 

Eggplant

Brussels sprouts

Corn

Parsley

Spinach

Yeap, that's all for this year. It has been a week since we planted and all vegetables are adapting well to soil and weather :-). I was a bit skeptical of my soil this year since it's a new area and the soil was only prepared last fall. But my veggies are adapting pretty well.

Asides from planting I also pruned all my apple and pear trees a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately our canadian frost only left a couple of weeks ago. But looking forward to great sunny days.

I will be adding pictures of my vegetable garden sometime this week. 

My father has always grown his own vegetable garden. He is a wonderful father and an expert teacher. I love listening to all his advice on what and how to plant. He also shares all of his planting strategies that he's adapted through out the years, and all the tales of gardening from back home, Portugal. It's not only soothing to garden but to hear old stories that fill my soul with laughter and memories. 

One thing I learned quickly you can't change an old habit, your elders are always right lol, so they think :-).

Well that's all for today. I promisse I will post pictures of my garden very soon, till than hope you have a great weekend.

My everyday green smoothie

I prepare the juice every night so my boys take it with them in the morning. My family and friends love it. 

It's easy to make and so deliciously healthy. I sip on it through my morning, sometimes I'll still have a bowl of steel cut oats with some blueberries, raspberries and blackberries if I feel hungry.

Green smoothie ( makes 3 bottle servings as shown on picture below)

Instructions:

In a blender pour 1 1/2 bottle of distilled water.

1 small head romaine lettuce

A bunch of spinach

2 celery stalks

1 granny green apple

1cup chopped up pineapple 

Juice from one lemon

Blend veggies first, than fruits. Enjoy this light delicious green smoothie.

Sometimes I add one of the following;

Carrot, pear, banana,papaya, cucumber, grapefruit, or I substitute the spinach with kale.

Hope you try this delicious smoothie, I know you will enjoy it as much as I do.

A gift well thought out

I made this simple but beautiful arrangement for a friends birthday. I picked colors that would go well in her house and used white birch to fill the vase. It was a hit, she loved it and so did everyone else lol. In fact I have more orders than I wanted lol;-).

Hope you all like it.. And get inspired...

A nice summer refreshing look..