Grow Your Own Herbs and Vegetables

grow a garden
Grow Your Own Garden

Agreeing to blog about vegetarian foods for thirty days, I began looking up different recipes and reasons why people choose this type of diet. To be honest with you, I like to eat meat and dairy products and didn’t want to become a vegetarian. But I like to be healthy, feel better, and grow my own herb and vegetable garden. Since I love vegetables and don’t mind doing without meat occasionally, a thirty-day challenge of eating mostly vegetarian meals appealed to me.

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Eighteen days into my vegetarian challenge, I have discovered or have been reminded of a few realities about myself and lifestyle:

  1. I can go a day or two in a row without meat and not miss it.
  2. Though I love vegetables, I prefer fresh ones. But because I don’t want to have to go grocery shopping often for fresh organic veggies, I get by on what I have on hand in the fridge and pantry. That means I sometimes eat canned vegetables like sweet peas, stewed tomatoes, and green beans.
  3. I like the benefits of growing an organic kitchen garden and enjoying the rich flavors of organic vegetables so much that growing my own kitchen garden highly appeals to me. Currently, I’m in the process of planting a salsa garden (peppers, tomatoes, etc.) and flower garden. Have you ever planted yellow summer squash?

    If you follow my blog, you know that it’s my favorite veggie. It actually tastes good in a salsa, too. So far, I haven’t planted the squash. My plan is to plant a few more vegetables in raised beds.
  4. I still like desserts…like this Strawberry Mini Bundt cake below. It wasn’t made to be a vegetarian cake but could be with a little adapting.
Bundt Cakes
Strawberry Mini Bundts

Recently, I read about the oldest man in the world. He eats sweets. Now that sounds pretty exciting to me because I do love sweets. His favorite thing to do is soak in hot springs and relax. I would say this is a good indication that relaxation and enjoyment makes a person feel better and should be a part of our daily lives.

Feeling a sweet tooth coming on and looking for something vegetarian? Try out Pattycakespantry.com’s Easy Vegan Banana Bread, or

mini bundt pan
Mini Fluted Pan

make the Strawberry Mini Bundts and adapt it to a vegetarian bundt cake. I love baking in my mini fluted pan.

The little cakes are the perfect size to serve guests. You can also freeze them easily in freezer bags for later.

Gardening

Gardening is one of the things I enjoy. It’s work but rewarding. Garden activity has been keeping me busy at my country cottage this week. The cottage is located on a hill. Lately, we’ve had a lot of rain. The rain runs down the slope, and water pools up around the house. One of my brothers helped my husband and I build up the driveway to redirect the water. In addition, he hauled several loads of dirt from a large area where our parents used to garden years ago. Thinking of vegetables I liked the most that my mom put up in the freezer – squash, peas, tomatoes – brought back feelings of comfort. Now I’m counting on that rich soil from the old garden to produce organic veggie, herb, and flower beauties in my own garden. If my mother and daddy could look down on all of this that’s happening at my cottage kitchen garden, they would be happy.

“A person doesn’t need to eat a lot of meat.”

Daddy told me one day when we were eating at Luby’s Cafeteria in Port Arthur, Texas, “A person doesn’t need to eat a lot of meat.” He believed it was necessary to eat a lot of vegetables. He and my mother often kept a garden growing throughout my life. We ate three kinds of greens – turnip, mustard, and collard. Always, there was yellow summer squash, tomatoes, onions, peas, okra, green beans, and I’m sure I’ve left out others.

Why garden when you can buy all you need at the farmer’s market or grocery store?

How familiar are you with Vitamin D and its benefits? Gardening in the sun every day can be very beneficial for your health. You get natural Vitamin D that helps to increase calcium, helps your bones and muscles, relieves stress, and boosts your mood.

In 2015, I experienced severe vertigo for a few months. Awful. The dizziness was so bad that I couldn’t walk without holding a cane or holding onto someone. Staying inside so much and not going out and about was depressing. But I discovered that sitting on a bench outside for about fifteen minutes helped my mood.

When I teach blogging workshops, I include an outdoor exercise for inspiration. It’s free to enjoy nature, bask in the sunshine, smell sweet fragrances from spring flowers, and watch birds and critters. Allow yourself to spend time outdoors with nature to boost your mood. Pay attention to how it makes you feel after relaxing in a chair on the porch or tending to a flower garden. These are simple and easy ways to inspire yourself.

How do you feel about vegetarianism? If you’ve become a vegetarian, how has it helped you? Would you take a moment to share in the comment section?

Thank you for visiting Kitchen Southern Hospitality!

Happy Gardening!

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