We had big dreams for our blog but sometimes things don’t go as planned. I have found myself wrapped up in to many projects and my blog is coming in last. I will be headed back to blogspot and continue there (when I find extra time). I really love my readers and have meet great friends along the way. Thank you all and I hope you will continue to follow me at TwoBGardening.blogspot.com
Squash
It’s been about a month and your seeds should be starting to grow. Time to transplant them to a bigger more roomier pot. Save all your plastic containers to reuse again. I usually use the larger, one container pots and save the 4-6 pack for starting the seeds. But by all means, use what you have. Milk carton, cardboard egg cartons, just make sure you have holes in the bottom for good drainage. You don’t want to drown the little things.
Tomato
Put some soil in the bottom of your new container, just about an inch. Now you need a plastic knife or a popsicle stick, something small. This will be your digging tool to remove the seedlings. DO NOT grab the plant by it’s stem. The cell walls are very delicate and if you crush them, they will die. Grab the leaves, put your plastic knife under the roots and give a gentle tug while lifting out the plant. Gently holding the roots hold the plant in the center of the new container and fill with soil all the way to the top. Trying not to touch the stem. If your plant is below the top of the pot, stop filling at the top of the plant. I like to have most of the stem under the soil to establish a good strong stalk.
Tomato
I know they look to small for those big pots, but they have lots of room to grow and be big and healthy. If your weather is nice, above 65 degrees during the day, set your transplants outside in a shady/sunny spot. You don’t want to much sun. The sun can be not nice to these delicate little guys. They need to learn how to stand up when the wind blows and how to handle the sun light. This is called “hardening off”. If the temps at night fall below 60 degrees, I would bring them in. Set them back out in the morning. Keep doing this for about 2 weeks. By that time the plants and the weather should be just right for transplanting to your garden. Until next time, Happy Gardening 
Banana splits are one of my favorite desserts. I love to top my banana split with wet walnuts, pineapple sauce, caramel and a cherry. But, all of these things are horrible for you, unless you make them yourself. No, I’m not saying they are healthy because you make it yourself. I’m just saying you don’t have to add in the “high fructose corn syrup”, the “red” or “yellow dyes”, just simple ingredients, that’s it!
Start by washing your pineapple. Cut your pineapple up, saving the skin and middle section. Throw the skin and middle section in a sauce pan and pour 2 cups of water over top. Keep the remaining pineapple handy, your not done with that yet. Try not to eat it all.
Cover saucepan with a lid and boil for about 15-20 mins. Line a large bowl with a strainer. Pour your boiled pineapples into a strainer and drain off the juice. Add juice back to the saucepan, should be around 1 cup of juice. Combine 1/2 cup chopped pineapple and 1/3 cup sucanat (or plain sugar). Mash pineapples with potato masher. Boil until juice has evaporated and pineapple sauce is starting to thicken. I like mine a little runny, cook longer for thicker consistency. Let it cool or I promise, it will melt your ice cream!
It’s that time again. Time to start your little seeds indoors. First you need to select what you want to grow. Some seeds can be planted straight in your garden, like corn and green beans. But some seeds should be planted indoors about 6 weeks before your first frost. I’m about a week late starting these, but no worries, it will be fine.
I have selected tomatoes (3 different varieties), cucumbers (2 different varieties), yellow squash and purple pepper. I have read some things that suggest planting cucumber seeds straight in the garden but I’ve always started them by seed and have lots of luck, so no reason to change now.
Start with a good seed starting mix. I use an organic soil, the less chemicals, the better. Select good organic seeds (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is awesome). You can reuse the black plastic containers that flowers and veggies come in. Reuse Recycle Don’t worry about the pots being small, you will transplant them later. Fill each hole about 3/4 full with soil. Place 3-4 seeds in each hole. Sprinkle some more soil to top of seeds. Seeds should be planted 2-3x’s deep as the size of the seed. Example: Say your seed is 1/2″long, maybe a pumpkin seed. Plant the seed 2-3x’s of 1/2″, which would be 1″-1 1/2″ deep. So a tomato seed is tiny, 1/8″ so plant about 1/4″ deep.
Mark your pots with labels so you’ll know what you have growing. I use sticks from my yard. Take a razor blade, scrap off the end bark, write the seed name on end and stick in container.
Labeled stick
Squash seeds
Water your seeds and place in a sunny window. I always put my containers in a leak proof pan to catch any water drainage. Keep the soil moist, not soaking wet, not dry. Just moist. In a few days, maybe a week you should start to see your babies starting to grow. Make sure to rotate your plants so they don’t grow side ways.
It’s time to start thinking about your summer garden. What do you want to grow? How much are you going to grow? When is your last frost date? Is your garden ready? Do you have seeds ordered? Don’t forget the soil.
Around here, central Va, zone 7a, our last frost date is April 15, so you can start most of your seeds indoors around the first week of March. Some seeds like to go straight into the ground and not be started indoors, like corn and watermelon or green beans. There are plenty of seeds you can start in small pots in your house. Most seed packs have instructions on the back stating to start indoors or direct sow outdoors. This year I’m starting off Tomatoes and cucumbers in doors.
If your going to plant potatoes, they will go in the ground around St. Patrick’s Day. My neighbor and I shared a 50lb bag of red seed potatoes. Yep, there will be plenty of potato salad to go around this summer.
Last piece of advice, keep a garden journal. I write down where I bought the plant or seed, how much I paid for it, when I planted them, how they did and how many pounds they produced. You will be amazed at how much your grocery bill will go down. Happy Gardening
Instead of giving candy or flowers for valentine’s day, I decided to make a valentine’s fruit arrangement for my sweet hearts. Yes, I have more than one sweet heart, my mom, daughter and sister.
You can whip these up in no time. It took me about an hour to make all three. I tried melting some white chocolate to dip the strawberries in, but I guess I had the wrong kind of chocolate. It didn’t work. Very fun and inexpensive. The fruit cost less than $15 and I had all the other stuff at home already.
Don’t you just love the apple shaped hearts? They are my favorite.
This easy avocado dressing can be modified to your liking. I really like garlic so I added garlic. If you like parsley, rosemary or just plain salt and pepper that’s fine too. I made this dressing a little thick so I could dip my veggies in it. You can add a little more milk to make it thinner for salads.
First, cut your avocado in half and remove the seed. Scoop out all the yummy insides into a medium bowl. With a fork, mash the avocado up, keep mashing, make it smooth. Add 1/2 cup milk, 1 Tbsp homemade mayo, 2 tsp. Garlic Garlic dried seasoning (you can use garlic powder as well, this is just a blend that I love). Stir until all ingredients are mixed well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Was that easy or what?
That’s a long description for these little guys, but you won’t be disappointed with their taste. I just love the colors of these carrots. Hopefully we’ll be able to grow some rainbow beauties in the garden this year. Fingers crossed X.
When I was browsing around the produce area of the grocery store, the rainbow jumped out at me. “Pick me” screamed the carrots and in my basket they went. In the refrigerator they went and off to work I went. When I was at work I thought about these beautiful carrots and how I was going to eat them. Should I cook them with potatoes? Should I just eat them raw? Should I roast them? The ideas were endless, I couldn’t wait to get home and experiment with my new gems.
The verdict was in, roast them. I saved some to eat in my salad for lunch and have some for a snack later Here’s the easy and delicious recipe:
1lb rainbow carrots, cut approx. 3″ long, the really big ones, cut in half
3 Tbsp. olive oil or grape-seed oil
salt and pepper to taste
zest of an orange
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. melted butter
2 Tbsp. juice of orange
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut your carrots. In medium bowl toss carrots with oil. Sprinkle on salt and pepper. Lay on cookie sheet so carrots are not touching. Bake in oven 20 mins. or until tender. In the same medium bowl, zest orange, squeeze orange to get juice, add vanilla and melted butter. When carrots are done cooking add them to your orange butter and toss until all carrots are coated. Serve warm. Delicious and Beautiful
My next veggie experiment is purple potatoes. Any suggestions?
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” We have heard that saying over and over again. Well, it’s true. Breakfast can be fun, healthy, quick and filling.
I love experimenting with new breakfast foods. Granola and eggs are my favorite two ingredients for breakfast. No, not together, hummm you got me thinking now. Eggs and granola? I’ll get back to that later
Granola is so versatile. You can add pretty much anything. Fruit, nuts, honey, cinnamon. My favorite granola breakfast is: granola, peanut butter, banana, walnuts, cinnamon and honey. Delicious! I ate this the other morning for breakfast around 8:30 am and by 2pm my stomach finally started growling. I only had an apple in between as a snack. It only took me about 5 mins to make this. And that includes boiling the water on the stove because I don’t own a microwave. Shorter time if you nook your water 
Not recommended.
Eggs are another favorite. Add veggies to your eggs and wow what a healthy breakfast. Chop up some broccoli, onions, spinach or kale and through it right in with the eggs. You can make these scrambled, make an omelet and add some homemade salsa or make a egg sandwich. The possiblites are endless.
This was my breakfast this morning. Omelet with spinach, red onions topped with avocado on homemade rosemary garlic bread. It sounds complicated but believe me it’s not. I made the bread a while ago and froze. Popped it out of freezer a few days ago, sliced, toasted. Whipped up egg and veggies, in the hot pan they go. Flip, slice avocado, add omelet to toasted bread and done. From start to finish it took about 5 mins. Wow!! What will you try for breakfast tomorrow?
Do you love those little square cheesy, crunchy goodness crackers? But hate the ingredients? Well, look no further. This recipe is for you. These are very easy to make, just try it.
My daughter is a cheese-a-holic and cheese crackers are her favorite. I use to buy the bad crackers, then I learned to read labels, ditch the fake foods and switched our diet to REAL foods.
I came across this recipe for Homemade Cheese Crackers and had to try it. Wow!! These little snacks are amazing. Add some homemade hummus and you can feel good about feeding this snack to your kids.
