I love having a garden, there’s just nothing like home grown vegetables. They always taste so much better than what you buy in the store. We are still in the process of landscaping the back yard and so we don’t have a veggie garden yet. Hubby did build a nice raised bed frame, so hopefully we will have that filled and ready to plant by the fall. In the mean time there are some of the most wonderful Farmers Markets. There is one that I really like to go to every Saturday in a park not too far away. Lots of home grown vegetables for sale and some are even sharing their home made jams and honey.
Here is a repeat of a post I did a few years ago from the garden we had in our last house. It shares some of my favorite recipes that our family loves. Just a few things from our summer garden at the time.
2013 – Our garden has been producing so many wonderful tomatoes, zucchini, onions and watermelon. I love them all and we are really enjoying using them in some of our favorite recipes.
I have used onions like crazy in every recipe you can imagine. We love them. I also made some fabulous Onion Rings. I love onion rings, but I don’t like the ones that are tons of batter and the onions seem all limp and soggy inside. I have a recipe for the best Beer Battered rings you will ever eat, and so easy. You can find the recipe here.
These are the onions DH is getting ready for me to use next. Gorgeous aren’t they? They are so wonderfully sweet.
When the temps are 118, the oven or even BBQing is just too hot. So the crock pot is the best. A fabulous hearty roast with no effort at all. Potatoes, onions and carrots line the bottom of the crock pot.
A sale priced chuck roast is always super tender. Rubbed well with garlic and pepper, then add half water and half broth to almost cover.
Just put it in the crock pot on low and forget it for the day. Dinner will be fabulous and the house will smell soooooooo good. This is enough for a couple of meals and you can even have guests over.
Tomatoes, who doesn’t love tomatoes? Aren’t these beautiful. Everyday we’ve had at least two bowls full like this. They’re so sweet, I love to eat them just like grapes. These little cherry tomatoes are so easy to grow and they are so perfect for all kinds of wonderful salads.
Besides tossed salads, I love them in pasta salads too. On hot days I don’t think anyone wants a heavy meal. Something light and cool just seems to be best. You can find this Chicken Salad recipe here. This is one I take to all the summer pot-lucks too. It is definitely a crowd pleaser.
Gardening is fun and full of surprises too. Sometimes a plant hides behind the leaves and you miss it, such as this absolutely huge Zucchini. Now if you are going to roll in a cornmeal/flour egg wash mixture and fry, it will be fine, but sometimes when they are this big they taste a little pithy, or bitter. However they are perfect for baking.
How about some Zucchini Bread. This is a fabulous recipe and makes two loaves. Perfect for now and one to freeze for later.
Doesn’t this look yummy. Just letting it cool then I will add a powdered sugar glaze to the top. Wrap it well and put one in the freezer for later.
Since I had the oven going and I was in the mixing mood, I also had some over-ripe bananas, so how about a loaf of Banana Bread too. This is the most moist Banana Bread you will ever eat, it has sour cream as the secret ingredient. Love it.
Doesn’t this make your mouth water too. I think I will glaze this one also, and put it in the freezer for later too.
All three glazed with a little mixture of milk and powdered sugar. I poke a few small holes so some of the glaze runs inside for extra yumminess.
Here they are, tucked away in the freezer in the laundry room. Now when I need something sweet or a hostess gift, I can just wrap one of these in a pretty cloth and basket and I am ready to go.
I LOVE watermelon and I have eaten as much as we can grow. We just brought this one in and it is so sweet and so good. I just cut it in cubes and enjoy.
I love having the garden and love being able to cook from it. How about you, do you have a garden or do you visit the local Farmers Market? I actually love to grow my own and find other things at the market.
If you like Thrifty & Chic on a Budget, I would love to have you follow me.
Have every post delivered to your inbox with Bloglovin
Check out Pinterest & See behind the scenes on Instagram
