The method of tying them in nylon stockings really worked–only about 2 sprouted and 2 went bad. But those were not able to infect the other onions, so I feel like I maximized my harvest.

Eating a Paleo Diet

For the past two months we have been eating a Paleo diet. The basic idea behind this way of eating is to go back to eating like man did before he settled down and grew crops. Basically, this means eating meat, veggies, fruit, and fat. It means NOT eating grains or legumes (think wheat, barley, oats, rice, beans, peanuts).

Before you freak out, I’d like to offer a few bits of background. First, this diet was recommended to my husband by his physician in response to his latest physical exam and blood tests. He has not been officially diagnosed, but we’re pretty sure he has metabolic syndrome. If left unchecked (by diet and exercise), he will surely develop diabetes, heart disease, and be at increased risk of a heart attack or stroke. Sounds like most of America right now, doesn’t it?

Second, we haven’t made drastic changes all at once. We maintained two diets (regular and paleo) for quite a while. I often cooked pasta or rice for the kids, with a paleo substitute for the adults. My husband has been more careful and strives for 80% paleo compliance, I’m eating paleo about 50% of the time, and the kids about 25% of the time.  This was an expensive, but effective way of gradually building new recipes into our diet.

Finally, though the paleo-lifestyle permanently excludes grains and legumes, I expect that once my husband reaches his health goals we’ll probably have them as a minor part of our diet. We like the 80% rule–try to eat this way at least 80% of the time. This allows for eating out, eating with friends, holidays, etc.

What Paleo Eating Looks Like

When my husband first brought this to the table (literally and figuratively!), I thought it was a crazy meat-eating diet that would be impossible to maintain. Boy was I wrong!

Before we started I leaned a bit toward the vegetarian side, so I often used less meat (3/4 of a pound instead of 1 pound), and cooked meals with meat only two to three times a week. Now I try to incorporate meat into most meals, using amounts that would be typical: 1 pound of ground beef for an entire recipe or 1 small chicken breast per person.

The main difference is that I replace all our former grains with vegetables. So, instead of rice, I make cauliflower rice. Instead of pasta I make spaghetti squash or cabbage. I also make veggies as a side dish–broccoli, asparagus, green beans, green salad. We easily eat twice to three times as many vegetables as before.

We still enjoy dairy (which is controversial in the paleo world), but have moved to whole dairy: whole milk, full fat sour cream, cottage cheese, etc. And butter! You see, there are fewer calories in vegetables than in grains, so the fat is an important source of energy and calories.

Another part of the paleo-lifestyle is fruit and nuts. We’re eating the same amount of fruit and slightly more nuts than before. We enjoy it, but don’t go crazy on the fruit. They make a great treat (strawberries and cream) or as a snack with lunch.

Finally, we’ve loved the addition of coconut to our diet. Coconut milk is a new staple, and I cook with coconut oil. I’ve always cooked Thai and other Asian dishes with canned coconut milk, but felt bad for the high fat content. But this type of fat/oil is recommended when eating paleo style.

Benefits of the Paleo Lifestyle

Both my husband and I have been losing weight, which is great. But the biggest benefit I’ve seen is with his appetite. After eating this way consistently for a week or two, he lost many of his cravings. His energy is more consistent, without the early-afternoon crash he used to experience. He’s a cookie/doughnut junkie, and while he still likes those foods, he doesn’t NEED them like he used to. When he was eating grains, he found it nearly impossible to give up those bad foods. But now it’s easier to abstain (or during the holidays, enjoy just a few).

I’ve loved the increase in veggies for my children. My oldest has gone through a picky eating phase, and was routinely asking to eat just pasta with butter and powdered Parmesan cheese. Now even when he refuses the main course, he eats spaghetti squash and butter, along with a small salad and broccoli. What an improvement!

I’ve totally stopped buying cereal, chicken nuggets, and most snack foods. My kids beg for fruit or yogurt as a snack, enjoy eggs for breakfast, and leftovers for lunch.

As for me, I can feel a huge difference with the increase of veggies and reduction of grains. I had already given up all white bread, which brings my already slow digestive system to a standstill. Replacing starches with fiber has helped even more. I find that I experience a different sensation of being full after a paleo meal. I am satisfied, but not stuffed, and that feeling lasts a while. Meals based on carbs always left me overeating, wanting more, and craving a snack within an hour or two.

The Cost of Eating Paleo

For a point of reference, I usually spend $300 a month to feed our family of 4. That includes food and paper goods, pretty much anything you buy in the grocery section at Wal-Mart. On top of that we budget about $130 for eating on the go.

Even though it’s been two months, because of the holidays, travel, etc. I don’t feel like I have an accurate view of what these changes cost in money. My gut feeling is that it will cost somewhat more (maybe 25-30%), but less than it cost at first (no idea, I can’t even think about it). You see, at first I was buying double. Or I should say, my husband was buying paleo-friendly food while I maintained our normal supply for me and the kids. He likes to experiment, and sometimes one trip to the health food store was $50! With 2, 3, 4 or more such trips, I would not be surprised if we spent double.

Honestly, I decided that the cost of food, even if it’s double for a month or two, is less than disease, medicine, and other potential problems and losses we might incur without this change. So I chose to let go and see how it all settled out. I think it’s evening out and I’ll report on it at the end of January.

The biggest cost has been in time and preparation. I had my repertoire of recipes I could whip out at a moment’s notice, and this has made me scour the internet for ideas, run to the store for extra items that aren’t in my pantry, and spend WAY more time cooking.

We also don’t have a great option to get pizza or eat out as often as before. So it creates more responsibility for me, since I’m the one who cooks around here (my husband is willing, but remember I said he likes to “experiment”?).

The upside–I got a new Cuisinart for Christmas. Highly justified, highly used, and highly loved by me! Also, winter is slow in my garden, so I have the time for cooking. And who can complain if I warm the house up with cooking or baking?

Summary

So overall, it’s been a great change for our family. Like I said, I’ve found some great recipes that use lots of vegetables. Some veggies that we rarely ate before (cauliflower, cabbage, squash) have become staples. I’m excited to pass some of these along to you and  link you to my favorite cooks and sources of these recipes. Some are paleo, others are not.

This will also change how I plan and plant my garden. I’m looking forward to planting more spring veggies–salad greens, cabbage, and broccoli. And I’m less focused on tomatoes (though we’ll still have lots of those) and more focused on squash, green beans, and root veggies. Growing a garden will really start to impact my budget, since we spend more on vegetables than we used to.

Won’t this be fun?!? Here’s looking forward to a great year enjoying my square foot garden!

Cuisinart Pro Classic 7-Cup Food Processor

My mom thought I needed a Cuisinart, and I had a list of objections:

1. One more appliance.

My cupboards and counters are full of kitchen helps, and I didn’t feel I had room for more. I’ve gotten along just fine without it, so do I really “need” it?

2. Overkill.

I have a little food chopper that has been doing a great job for many years, and I didn’t think I needed something “bigger and better”.

3. Lid.

It seems like the lid to the Cuisinart ends up being a million pieces. Actually, it’s only 3 pieces: top, big plunger, and little plunger. Still, this would take up nearly the entire top rack of my dishwasher! I wanted something simple with a bowl, blade, and lid.

To buy or not to buy . . .

After doing a bit of research, I found what I thought was the perfect machine. We ordered it (three days before Christmas) and I used it Christmas day. Indeed, it is PERFECT! All my concerns have been resolved:

1. One less appliance.

I was actually able to get rid of two appliances I had–my small food chopper and the Magic Bullet. The Cuisinart food processor can do everything they did, only better. Truth be told, my chopper blade was so dull that it had a hard time with parsley. The Cuisinart is so sharp, it shredded carrots, sliced celery, and chopped jalapeno like butter. It’s also SO MUCH quieter.

I’m waiting until salsa season comes around, because it might replace my manual salsa chopper. For sure I’ll prefer to chop all my onions, garlic, and peppers in the Cuisinart, but I’m not convinced it will be as good with tomatoes. I’ll let you know!

2. Perfect Power.

I opted for a smaller size–7 cup bowl instead of 9, 11, or 14 cups. I have a family of four, and this is perfect for our needs. I’ve found it does a better job at chopping onions and peppers than my small chopper, even with a bowl capacity that’s twice as large!

3. Extra lid.

Not all the models came with this, but you might be able to order one for the others as well:

It came with a compact cover to use for chopping. That means that I only have to wash three pieces: bowl, blade, and lid. Just like before–woo hoo! The compact lid has a little removable top in the middle that allows you to add liquid and small items while the blade is running.

If you’re happy and you know it . . .

I LOVE THIS APPLIANCE!!! I watched the instructional DVD, and had to give it a try that very day. I made a quick Cole slaw for dinner.

• Using the chopping blade, process 1/4 cup of fresh parsley until minced.
• Add 1/4 of a medium onion and process until minced.
• Add 1/3 cup of mayo and 1/2 TBS red wine vinegar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper and pulse until combined (up to 10 seconds).
• SWITCH TO SHREDDING BLADE
• Shred 1 carrot. Cut to size of feed tube and lay down horizontally. This will give you long shreds.
• SWITCH TO SLICING BLADE
• Cut 1/2 cabbage into wedges, then slice each wedge.
• Dump contents into a large bowl, mix, and serve!

Here is my haul–peppers (New Mexico Big Jim’s, bell, and jalapeno), zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I pretty regularly pick one or two cucumbers a week, but these are ALL the tomatoes and peppers I’ve gotten so far. Pretty soon I’ll have enough for fresh salsa!

Honestly, I didn’t plan ahead. I got my list of veggies to plant from my Fall Planting Schedule, (mostly semi-hardy and hardy veggies), pulled out my seeds, and with a few glances at my companion planting chart, I planted seeds in the ground. I did write down what I planted where, and then transferred it to the computer.

I left the existing veggies that are growing (peppers, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini), and just filled in most of the squares with onions, lettuce, spinach, chard, beets, beans, and peas. I tried to put all my greens (chard, green onion, lettuce, and spinach) in one garden bed–I’m hoping to come up with some kind of cold-frame/row cover to extend my season even longer.

I planted the head lettuce and green beans in a separate garden bed–first because I ran out of room, and second because the green beans won’t live past the frost (they are tender) and I don’t really expect the head lettuce to work. It tends to require consistent temperatures and moisture, and I don’t feel like the weather is that predictable. But I had some seeds, so I figured I’d give it a shot!

If you’d like to post your Fall Garden plans, follow the instructions found at this link.

All that’s left in this garden are carrots (right), peppers (middle) and one parsley plant. I moved these peppers because they were doing so poorly. I have a few small fruits, but the plants are tiny. Transplanting so late seems to have stunted their growth.

Lesson learned: if something is struggling, best to leave it where it is. I would have been better served by fertilizing (9-59-8) and adding egg shells more often.

This garden bed has cucumbers on the left trellis, cherry tomatoes on the right. The tomatoes have gotten a little out of control, but so far they are the ONLY tomatoes I’ve harvested at all, so I don’t mind.

I’ve picked probably 8 medium to HUGE (whoops!) cucumbers, and we’ve loved eating them sliced with some salt. I’ve tried pickles in the past, and the truth is we never eat them. So this year I’m focusing on eating as much fresh from the garden as possible.

Check out my onion harvest (pulled from this garden):

Once most of the onion tops fell over, I tipped the rest and let them sit in the ground for a week. Then I put them outside in the shade for another week. Here they are ready to be trimmed up and stored for the fall. I cut off the tops and the roots, brush off the dirt and then store in a cool, dry, dark place.

Someone gave me the tip to store in nylons–drop in an onion, tie a knot, add another onion, knot, until it’s full to the top. When you need one, just snip off the onion at the end. This keeps them dry and separate. Since I can’t remember the last time I actually wore nylons, I’ll have to get some cheap at Wal-Mart.

I harvested 25 pounds of onions from 12 squares. My yellow onions did FANTASTIC–here you can see the biggest one I grew. Fertilizing at 6″ and 12″ made a huge difference! My onions were much bigger this year. For some reason nearly all my red onions grew stalks and started flowering. They ended up being smaller and not as good as the yellow onions. Oh well, I’ll have to use them right away!

Lesson learned: Fertilize onions!

Here are my potatoes. As you can see, I’ve pulled a few stems and started digging for our dinner! This means I won’t have a very accurate count on how much we’ve harvested, but we love eating these straight from the garden. Can you blame me?

I can tell the potato season is almost over because the leaves are starting to yellow and fall over. They used to be lush and green and flowering.

Here you see the saddest tomatoes ever. I have three tomato plants: the Roma on the back left is so tiny, but it does have a few fruits. Last year my Roma’s got as big as the plants on the right! I think this might be a nutrient deficiency, because they are all sort of small and yellow. I just added egg-shell water and 9-59-8. We’ll see if these perk up at all.

The plant on the back right has blight:

I should have caught this earlier, but at least it is treatable with anti-fungal spray.

The zucchini have been off again on again, failure and success. I got two huge fruits early in the season, then I pruned them. I think it must have shocked the plant because I didn’t get zucchini for a while. Now the plant is back to a pretty big size, and producing zucchini every 4 days or so. I have 4 just sitting on my counter!

This sad looking garden contains 5 pepper plants. The plants have finally recovered from the cool, wet spring and are nice and big. There are a few fruits, but not much to speak of. I’ve just fertilized these as well, so we’ll see how they do. I moved several pepper plants from this garden, and in the right four squares I had green beans. Those were a smashing success: I got 5-6 pounds of beans from 4 squares! We ate them nearly every night with a little butter and salt. YUM!

Now these tomatoes (4 of them) are my only hope for redeeming the summer veggies. They are relatively big and have bunches of fruit on them. I’m hoping to scrape at least one batch of salsa from these.

Lesson learned: Plant more tomatoes next year. My family just can’t live without home made salsa!

To say my broccoli is huge would be an understatement. They almost took up 4 squares each. The good news about that–I had THREE harvests of broccoli before it got too warm. I had read about harvesting the main head, fertilizing and getting side shoots, but this is the first year I’ve experienced it! I seriously got as much broccoli from my second and third cuttings as I did from the initial heads I harvested.

And, my peas doubled in height since last month, and have since been producing delicious, crisp pods. YUM! I keep harvesting my parsley to keep it growing well, though it is infested with aphids. I have yet to tackle that problem.

Here are onions, two more broccoli plants, and even more onions. I planted cucumbers and a cherry tomato on the left, but they are too small to see in this picture. I also planted beets on the front-right, and Swiss chard in the back. As it grew I kept wondering what it was, and I had to go back to my garden plan to figure it out (this is my first year growing chard).

Here are my potatoes. You can see that the garden was not yet full–as the plants grew I kept filling and covering them up with soil. Now the soil is to the top, and they’re getting tall.

The big plants you see are spinach, and I harvest it nearly every other day. Remember, the more you harvest, the more it grows! The tomato cages look pretty optimistic, since the plants are just tiny in this picture. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll get any tomatoes at all!

The happy plants are lettuce and green beans. The spindly sad plants are peppers. I hope it makes everyone feel better to see some of my utter failures. I’m seriously going to the store to buy more pepper plants in the slight chance that I might harvest some of my own and not have to buy them to make salsa.

Here are three more tomato plants, but I only caged one of them. The other two are surrounded by lettuce and chard–I should have put the cages in sooner, because now I don’t have the heart to crush them. I know it won’t be long before the lettuce is harvested, and I’m thinking of transplanting the chard, since it should produce all summer.

So there is my garden in the middle of June. All the hardy and semi-hardy veggies are thriving, and my tender veggies are struggling. Now the heat has kicked in, I expect the tide to turn, and I’ve already seen a lot of growth.

Isn’t it just like life, though? I mean, we can’t control the weather, but every season and situation comes with its advantages and disadvantages. I may be short on salsa, but my family has feasted on broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and peas. Some years we barely have a spring, and then are overrun with tomatoes. So it goes!

I am swimming in parsley! Even though I don’t need it all, I learned last year that if I don’t cut and harvest it, the plant sends up a big, thick stalk and won’t keep producing as well. So I cut a little off the outsides.  I read somewhere that you can keep it like a bouquet right on the counter. It’s working for me so far!

I’ve also got lots of spinach. The key with spinach is to keep harvesting, and it will keep growing and delay going to seed. I tried to find a meaningful way of measuring (ounces? pints?) and decided on Corelle cereal bowls–two full of spinach!

This is only the trimmings for one salad. This looseleaf lettuce doesn’t stay as crisp once it’s picked. But I have LOTS more where this came from.

And the crowning glory: BROCCOLI! I harvested four medium to large heads. The plants are already developing side-shoots (pictures coming this week), so as long as the temperatures stay mild, we’ll have greens galore.

I’ll do another post soon with pics of my garden!

The ugly truth is: I didn’t start my plants from seeds this year. I was just too busy with everything, and thought “I’ll just buy them–it’s nearly as inexpensive as seeds.” Boy, was I wrong. To get a nice sized tomato plant is $5 EACH!!! Smaller plants are $3, and you can buy a 4-pack of TINY tomatoes for $1.65. I went with the tiny.

Check out my peas! When they were half this size I fertilized with 9-59-8 and they shot right up. I’m going to fertilize again soon!

This is the same garden from the side, so you can see the other plants. I realized that I should have given my peas a little more room–the parsley is a bit crowded next to them. But my big, beautiful broccoli is doing great.

The plant seems disproportionately large compared to the head (only 1″). I fertilized these with 21-0-0 about two weeks ago, and I can tell it really helped. I’m going to fertilize again now, and then right after I harvest the heads (to promote side-shoot growth).

From right to left are onions, more broccoli, and more onions. On the very left you might see a cherry tomato plant. I have also planted beets, swiss chard, and cucumbers (but they’re too small to see).

This is where I planted my potatoes–I am waiting for them to sprout above the soil so I can add more soil, and hopefully increase my yield of potatoes.

In the corners are spinach, and then I planted three tomato plants. The one on the top left is so small you can’t really see it. I may have to break down and buy bigger ones. ARGH.

This garden bed always gets too much water (still trying to figure that one out!), so I decided to grow my peppers here. I’ve already got some small leaf lettuce growing, and I added Big Jim, Anaheim, and Cayenne peppers. I just bought some Bell and Jalapeno that I need to plant.

And finally four more tomatoes. Doesn’t this box look sad and scraggly without the grids? I’m going to invest in or invent more! Some days I wish I had wood, so I could just use string!

So that’s my garden update. If it would ever get warm I know things would grow. But honestly, I think of the people suffering from flooding, the farmers who will have no crops to sell, families without homes, and I realize how small my concerns are. But experiencing the frustration of the elements helps me relate, if just a little, to those who are impacted by the earth and the weather.

On top of that, I have decided this is officially the LONGEST WINTER EVER! Here in Utah temperatures are averaging 20 degrees lower than normal, and we keep getting snow, sleet, and rain. I really wanted to start my tomatoes early with Walls-Of-Water, but I simply can’t believe they can survive these weather conditions!

The good news is, I have planted my peas, onions, broccoli and parsley and they are thriving in this cool weather!

In front by the trellis are the peas–snow peas and sugar snap peas. Next is parsley, and then towards the back are two broccoli plants.

This garden bed has onions, onions, broccoli, and more onions.

You can see that my onions are about 6″ tall, which means it’s time to fertilize!

If you are having the crazy spring/winter weather like I am, follow this rule of thumb: plant according to schedule if the veggies are hardy or semi-hardy. These vegetables will only benefit from the long, cool weather and they can tolerate the dips in temperature.

On the other hand, wait to plant tender or very-tender vegetables until there is no danger of frost. These types of veggies cannot tolerate frost, and for some even cool temperatures will stunt their growth. Many of these vegetables require certain temperatures to germinate the seeds, which is delayed by cold weather.

How long should you wait? Well, one way is to ask local gardeners when it’s safe. Around here the rule of thumb is “after Mother’s day” or to be REALLY safe, “after Memorial day.” Another way to do it is delay by about two weeks, and see if temperatures are more “normal” at that time.