Its been a while!

Yes its been a while but its summer and life is good.  We just got back into town this afternoon from a wonderful camping trip at the Flaming Gorge.  Have ya been?  If not, it should definitely be on your list of places to see before leaving Utah.  What?  Doesn't everyone have a places to see before leaving Utah list? 


News from the garden....  All is well, everything is growing and veggies are delicious.  When we got home today Jeff picked 3 large bowls of veggies.  I am sure there is a salsa making night in our near future.  For today, Jeff washed, cut, seeded, sliced and bagged peppers for the freezer.  So easy to do, just know that they will not be crunchy but are great in stir-fry, fajitas and making salsa.

Until Next Time....

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

Back From Vacation

We had a great week in Scottsdale Arizona.  Complete with a baseball game, aquarium, water park, shopping and pool time.  But, there is nothing like coming home and sleeping in your own bed and tending to your garden.  Here are some garden pictures.  Tonight Jeff said its a little out of control but I love it.  Its time to start making salsa, sauces and canning veggies.  Hope all are well and there will be several new recipes over the next couple of weeks.  We are on a Clean Eating menu also know as vacation detox.

Until Next Time....

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

She is so pretty....

One of the many perks of not working is being able to water the garden in the morning without Jeff here to tell me I am doing it wrong.  Look at her grow.  And, there is a vine of something that has come through the fence from the neighbors garden, I don't know what it is but I will be enjoying it!

I could not get my shadow out so I waved good morning!

For Dinner...I made this chicken the other day and it was so easy and yummy.  In my dutch oven I put 1 large can of stewed tomatoes (I think they had garlic and celery seasoning),  a can of diced chilies, 1 sliced onion and 2 large chicken breast.  I cooked on the stove top on low heat for about 50 min.  Low heat for a longer period of time.  You don't want it to boil, that will make you chicken tough.  Took the chicken and tomatoes out, shredded the chicken and cut the tomatoes put it back in the pot.  Added about a cup of instant rice put the lid back on for 15 min.  It was great, opened a can of whole pinto beans, shredded a little cheese and made burritos.  Since there was so much left over I bought some Anaheim peppers, cut the tops off, filled them with the chicken, poured some salsa over the top and tonight I will bake them at 375 for about 40 min.  I can tell, its gonna be good!  This might be my new thing...keep lots of beans, tomatoes, diced chilies and onions in the pantry.  You just can't go wrong.

Until Next Time....

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

Garden Update

The garden is doing lovely.  We have eaten some broccoli and some peppers and everything else is blooming.  I can't wait to start harvesting, canning and EATING!

Here are a couple shots of Jeff's bean stock.  Its the craziest thing, you look at it in the morning and then again in the evening and you feel like it has grown an inch.  

This week I am doing some major grocery shopping.  There are items on my list that I need to Google because I have no idea what they are.  I have several new recipes that we will be trying and sharing with you. Lots of beans, veggies, rice, couscous and seasonings that we have never used before.  And of course I will be cooking as "clean" as possible.  Wish us luck!

Until Next Time....

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

Garden/Boswell Update

Starting to feel like summer around here.  We have been doing some fishing, Jeff took his float tube to fish on the side of the freeway and caught 1 bass.  He really loves the float tube.  Baseball is in full swing.  William is doing great.  Bit of a ball hog but he makes some really great plays and its hard to talk to him about his ball hogging.  And I go where my boys go.  Its a good life!

The garden is growing!!!  I am really excited about the bean stock.  We watered this morning and by this afternoon the bean plants have grown an inch.  Cant wait to see them climbing the stock. The rain gutter planter has several spinach and lettuce starts and the herbs are maintaining well.  The rain gutter is really great for the herbs since they do not need large root beds.  Glad we tried this.

We covered the garden with our grass clippings, Jeff read that it will help hold the moisture in and keep the weeds down.  We'll see how it grows.  


I received my 1st Clean Eating magazine this week and I have to tell you I LOVE it.  Big thanks to my Grain Girl friend Amy.  What is Clean Eating???  Here is their definition: The soul of clean eating is consuming food in it most natural state, or as close to it as possible.  It is not a diet; its a lifestyle approach to food and its preparation, leading to an improved life - one meal at a time.  Clean foods contain just one or two ingredients.  Any product with a long ingredient list is human-made and not considered clean.  Cant wait to try some of the meal ideas in here.


Thats todays update.  Hope all of you are well.

How great is this, our pole beans grew an inch in one day.



I feel like ther is room that is not being used.  I'm going to talk Jeff into more plants this week.




Check out our bell pepper.





Broccoli and Cauliflower are growing great.



Until Next Time....

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.   Matthew 6:34

Jeff and the not so giant bean stock!

So we finally had some really nice days here in Utah.  Days in which if we shave our heads and leave the house without sunscreen you will get burned!  Just ask Jeff.

Garden Update:

With all the rains that we had we lost a few of our plants.  Whats a gardener to do you ask???  No biggie, William and I ran to Walmart and got some more.  So everything we had lost has been replaced and the rest of the garden is doing well.  Thanks for asking.

Here is the latest... in Jeff's favorite new book, Vegetable Gardening for Dummies (which I have no reason to read) he found the chapter on beans.   He is at work right now and I cant remember exactly what type of beans he planted but I am thinking they were string beans.  The book said that they grow up poles so Jeff put a wood pole in the garden.  I am pretty excited to see these and my rain gutter spinach grow.   

On a healthy note, the Boswell3 have been working really hard to cut out carbs in the evening and we have been loading up on veggies. I think one of our favorite dinners is a salad, grilled chicken with lemon pepper and grilled asparagus.  From being around some of our family members and friends with kids it is clear that William is a great eater.  He eats everything.  Like his dad he likes peppers hot off the grill (not jalapenos) and eats all veggies.  What a blessing William is! 

Until Next Time....
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.   Matthew 6:34

What Global Warming???

So today I ask the question, if April showers bring May flowers does May snow bring June vegtables??? 

Garden is PLANTED!!!

Woo hoo the garden is planted!!!  Mother's day was rainy so it was put off for a week but now everything is done.  Its time to weed, water and watch it grow.  I did go through with the rain gutter plan and I love it.  I may talk Jeff into another one.  In addition to the "regular" garden and rain gutter we also planted a topsy turvy tomato.  I am very curious to see this thing work.  A tomato plant hanging upside down???  I'll keep you updated.  Here is the final list;

In the ground we have tomatoes, onions, egg plant, mexi bell peppers, orange bell peppers, banana peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, fresno chili peppers, jalapenos and cantelope.

In the gutter we have cilantro, lemon thyme, sweet basil, spinach, lettuce and chives.

And hanging topsy turvy style is a tomato.

Almost Mothers Day

Sunday is Mothers Day (Happy Mom day Mom.) which means that we will be planting the garden.  We got a small start on it last weekend by cleaning up a corner and planting some onions and red carrots.  I'm a bit excited, its great to plant food, have it grow and then eat it.  

Jeff has a master plan for the garden (see photo below) I am more of a lets go to Home Depot and see whats growing kind of person.  But, this year my grain eating,  yoga head,  friend Amy (check her out...GrainGirls.blogspot.com)  has really been in my ear about planning, canning, pickling, cooking and blogging about it.  Amy loaned me a book last week called Apartment Gardening by Amy Pennington, I LOVED IT.  I know I do not live in an apartment but I got some really cool ideas out of it.  My favorite is using rain gutters as planters.  They are light, inexpensive and easy to work with and the book said they are great for growing lettuce and herbs.  My plan is to hang them on the chain link fence around the back of the garden and see what happens.  Garden photos to follow next week.  Cant wait!

The Plan

Yes its that time of year (hopefully, this is Utah) when we start playing in the dirt, planting veggies and hoping for the best.  Here is the plan,  Jeff, William and I are going to plant our garden, give it all the time,  love and care that it deserves and then enjoy the fruits of our labor.  I have a couple of new cook books that I plan to cook my way through, we plan to improve our canning skills and of course make all the SALSA we can eat over the next year.  We are going to share all of this with you,  the arguments over plant placement, the complaining that Jeff does when I don't water "properly", the complaining that I do when he spends more time with "her" this summer and then all the recipe's that we love and probably some we hate.

So there you have it....The Plan!