Snake Beans

:) Watching my babies get bigger and bigger is exciting stuff! Im not goin to go on i will just show you how well they have done since sprouting!

What do you do with a snake bean?
The crisp, tender pods are eaten both fresh and cooked. They are at their best when young and slender. They are sometimes cut into short sections for cooking uses. They are used in stir-fries in Chinese cuisine. In Malaysian cuisine they are often stir-fried with chillies and shrimp paste (sambal) or used in cooked salads (kerabu). Another popular and healthy option is to chop them into very short cubes and fry them in an omelette.

How good are they for you?

They are a good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and a very good source for vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and manganese.
In a serving size of 100 grams of yardlong beans there are 47 calories, 0 grams of total fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 4 mg sodium (0% daily value), 8 grams of total carbohydrates (2% daily value), and 3 grams of protein (5% daily value). There is also 17% DV vitamin A, 2% DV iron, 31% DV vitamin C, and 5% DV calcium. (Percent daily values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Individual daily values may be higher or lower depending on individual calorie needs.)

What do they look like come harvesting time?

Adentures in Home Made Pizza!

So here it is the boys have been wanting pizza and i have been putting it off for a while now.... SO yesterday i spent the day making home made pizza sauce (recipes will come at the end) Which turned out VERY tasty according to the boys! So i was going to use some of my bread dough from my ABin5 but i felt it was way to sticky and i was NOT in the mood to play around with all sorts of doughs... i sat and loked threw my bread bible and looked stuff up on line and i jotted down notes as to what most pizza doughs were made up from..and by the time id sat there and done this i didnt realise i had been sitting there for over 2 hours! It was already to late to make a pizza dough and let it rise for a few hours so i looked up quick pizza dough recipes and i found one that looked alot like what i had jotted down in my note book and best thing was it only took 15 mins to rise according to this recipe! A winner!! So i made it in the kitchen aid mixer it was VERY sticky but i dealt with it, it was a very light dough i must say but it baked wonderfully it wasnt heavy and it didnt rise and get to thick like some doughs. So anyway here it is my first attempt at making piza sauce from scratch and dough from scratch!

I cooked this sauce for hours and hours and it was well worth it!

This dough once dusted in flour was very easy to work with.

The boys wanted diced ham, pepperoni and italian blended cheese.

It baked really nicely and the smell was delish!

~Quick and Easy Pizza Dough Recipe~

5 Cups of bread flour or all purpose flour

2 Tablespoons of Oil

2 Cups of water
4 Tablespoons of dry active yeast

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Warm your water and disolve the yeast into the warm water.

Stir in the oil and water into your flour you can do this by hand/food prosessor or hand mixer until it forms a ball.

Cover the bowl with a kitchen, place on top of your stove while your oven is pre heating.

Let it rise for about 15 mins

Use your hands to grab a handful to make a personal size pizza.

Dust the area your working on with flour and your hands!

Press the dough out to your desired thickness with your hands or rolling pin.

Place on a baking tray that has a sheet off parchment paper on it and let it rise for a couple mins.

Top with your fav sauce and toppings!

Bake for about 15-20 mins.

Preheat your oven to about 375-385'F (depending how hot your oven gets)

And make sure you place your tray towards the bottom of the oven!

~Home Made Pizza Sauce~

The spices i used;

Fresh Oregano

Dryed Thyme

Dryed Rosemary

Freshly Ground Black pepper

Onion Powder

Onion Flakes

Dryed crushed Fennel

Garlic Powder

Other ingredients;

1 Large can of crushed tomatos

4 Small cans of tomato paste

4 Cups of water

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Take your can of crushed tomatos and put it in your blender, blend till the tomatos are smooth.

Take your pan and add the water to it and your blended tomatos and tomato paste.

Let the mixture heat up slowly till the paste combines with the rest of the mixture.

Slowly start adding your herbs i wont give you exact amounts because my house hold LOVES bold strong flavours. Add a little at a time and let simmer so the flavours of the herbs will release into the sauce and taste every once in a while to see if you need to add anything. Do NOT be afraid to play wih the herbs :) this recipe is so simple and the amount that this makes is perfect to freeze in smaller batches for later! It makes a wonderful dipping sauce as well. Cook until it thickens and cooks down!

Let the mixture cool a little before you put it on the raw dough.

Frugal Tomato Cage!

Yep i refused to buy tomato cages! I went to my american parents house (Kev's mum n dad Jim and Margaret) and i cut down a bunch of bamboo and made my own cages! So far so good next step? Making frugal bean and pea stakes/cages!

So thats what they looked like after being staked! Its only been like a week since i did this and my tomato's have gotten so much bigger! My cherry tomato's have 4 lil fruits on em!! I cant wait!

STRAWbaLISIOUS! Say What?

Yup my strawberry patch has been going crazy! I have picked over 125 strawbalisious strawberries in the last wk! They have ranged in size but the flavours have been super sweet and oh so tasty! Ask the local rabbit he will agree.....YES his been eatting my strawberries as well! The other day i was in the back end of my patch and i found the tops of about 5 strawberries...and when i was out there today i found another 5! So im guessing chicken wire fence will be going up in the near future! Here are some pics of the berries i have picked from a wk ago to today!

Gotta LURV Freebie stuff!

So i got the mail today and was happy that we didnt have one single bill (better not say it to loud knowing my luck 2morro ill have a bunch of bills UGH!) But i did however have a lovely suprise that i forgot about! My free reuseable shopping bag i got from Earthbound Farm!

It came with some information about their farms, their products some recipes and a couple of coupons! I hope everyone seen this freebie and signed up to get one as well!

There's a hole in your bucket, dear liza!

No not really but hey its been YEARS since i heard this lil sing-a-long-song! Does anyone else know it? Anyway onto my post! So can you guess whats in this bucket??

OO hmm nothing? Nope i havent blogged in ages COME ON! You can do better then that! Hmmm how about flour? Well i do have a bucket just like this that is holding my bulk bread flour but thats not what is in this bucket! Okay so if you guessed Liquid Laundry Soap! You guessed right! So my best friend Angie has made her own liquid laundry soap for a while now and seeing money has gotten a lil tight around our house hold Frugal living has become something we are participating in! This past wkend we replace every single light bulb in the house with energy saving bulbs in hopes that this will bring our electric bill down a little! So back to the soap! Here is my "kit" so to speak!

Whats the kit? Borax, washing soda and grated ivory bar soap! And ofcourse a pot to melt it in :P I doubled the batch and made 4 gallons of laundry soap! I did some laundry with it already and it works great! I started getting the fixings around today to make dishwasher soap but i have put that on hold until i look into it more, looks like theres mixed feelings on what home made stuff can do to ur dishwasher so we will see!