Composting – the Easy Way?

Recently some friends were talking about composting. We’re very new to composting and I didn’t want to invest in a ton of equipment. It’s absolutely crazy how much composting equipment can cost. Between tumblers and fenced in wooden boxes you can really spend some cash. So instead I did some searching online and this is what we came up with:

A trash can with holes drilled through out.

We roll the trash can around a bit after adding our kitchen waste, but I’m not sure that’s very effective in terms of actually being able to see if any compost is actually being created and actually retrieving that same compost.

Now that the weather is getting warmer, we actually seem to be generating some compost.

What works for you in terms of compost?

Half Marathon Complete! And Maybe I Need to Set Harder Resolutions Next Year?

As faithful readers of this blog know (Hi Mom! and others… you know who you are — there is a special spot at my virtual table for you anytime. Thank you for reading!!) this blog was created as part of my three pronged New Year’s resolution.

Let’s recap, the resolutions were:

1. Start a blog – check that bad boy off the list. You are reading this after all!
2. Start a vegetable garden! Woo-hoo! The garden is growing – Weedless Wednesday is evidence of such growth.
3. Run a half marathon — oh yeah, thanks to this weekend that is now done. Hip hip hooray!

So I guess I should set more difficult new year’s resolutions next year? Maybe give up sugar for 6 months or go vegan? hmmm….we’ll have to see about that…

While I’ve got you here, I’m going to go completely off topic (it’s my blog, I can do such, right?) we’ve got an issue with our sunflower plants. All four of them have basically broke in half, like someone took a pair of scissors to them. Any thoughts? I thought their stems were supposed to be really sturdy and the bottom half the plants are still standing tall. So what is that about?

Have a great week and thanks (as always!) for reading!

Friday Finds: Carrot Cookies, Parenting, Father’s Day Gifts, Make Ahead, Blogging

Happy Friday!

Hope any fathers out there have an especially great weekend!

Here are some of my favorite links from the week:

• These carrot cookies in Oreo dirt from the Kitchn are super cute.
• Any parents of young children would do well to read this post from The Lawsons did Dallas – very nice perspective!
• I liked these Father’s Day gift ideas from Zen Family Habits.
• Wisebread offers this: Make-Ahead Food: 10 Things to Cook on a Sunday. I think it’s a great list.
• I haven’t had the time to thoroughly read though this post for new bloggers From Grandma Loy’s Kitchen, but there’s a lot in there if you are interested in blogging etiquette, techniques, etc.

Happy Weekend!

Weedless Wednesday! and What is That?

Hi Friends,

Happy Wednesday! It’s so fun to stop and take a conscious look at the garden each and every week. The progress is notable and this blog creates a visual journal for documenting the garden’s progress.

No deaths to report this week, but I do have some questionable things growing and I’m hoping you might be able to help with some identification.

Here’s where things stand:

The full view:

Here’s some detail on the bed on the left:

Here’s a view of the bed on the right:

Okay, now on to the questions —

A) Is this carrot?

B) What’s this?  Maybe a cucumber?

C) Hmm… a weed?

Thanks too for the suggestion to leave the free space near the pumpkin free — it’s hard not to want to grow yet another thing, but the pumpkin is totally growing quickly and I think the space won’t be free for many more Wednesdays!

Friday Finds: Joyfear, Chubby Mommy, Baking Mix, Fall Garden, Crackers

Hey There!

What a week! Sorry for posting so much this week, but I guess there was a lot to say. This week Friday Finds is a little less about recipes and a little more about attitude and running. Hope that’s OK!

Here are some of my finds from the past week:

• I really like this concept of Joyfear talked about by Leo from zen habits.
• Runners out there (mamas too!) may enjoy this guest post on MizFitOnline called how the chubby mommy running club finally turned real, that makes me also want to follow the Chubby Mommy Running Club
• I think it’s a great idea to make our own baking mix — here’s a recipe in From Grandma Loy’s Kitchen
• Yikes! It’s a bit overwhelming, but this post from Simple Bites has me thinking about starting a fall garden.
• These Rosemary Cheese Bites from GoodLife Eats look delicious!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

News! Figgsandsuch Featured!

Hi There!

Just wanted to share with you some fun and exciting news!

I was so flattered to learn that Loy who blogs at From Grandma Loy’s Kitchen highlighted figgsandsuch today in her series — Skipping Through Blogland!

How fun is that?! Go check it out!

Thanks again Loy!

 

Weedless Wednesday!

Hi There!

I’m taking a break from celebrating the mighty granola bar (gasp!) and wanted to give an update on the garden.

We’ve had some morbid developments in the last week: my cucumber plant officially died and I think some sort of animal/insect attacked my beets.

I also introduced some “new” life in the form of another cucumber plant and a pear tomato plant.

I looked back at the last Weedless Wednesday post and you can really see some growth, so that’s exciting.

Next up I’m going to figure out what we can plant in the spot previously occupied by beets. Any ideas?

Oh and I’m so incredibly excited about tomorrow….will tell you more in the morning….

Granola Bar Week: Playgroup Granola Bars

Hope you’ve enjoyed this celebration of granola bars! This is the last recipe I’ve got to share and it’s a good one — Playgroup Granola Bars posted on Allrecipes.com

I’m not sure many would consider these “healthy” but they are nut free, easy, and we enjoyed them — so if they are a little light on healthy we’ll just ignore that and move on!

Here are the ingredients:

Here’s a pic of all the dry ingredients (oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, and salt) together with some dried blueberries. The recipe calls for raisins – which we’ve used in the past, but I wanted to mix it up a bit.

Here are the wet ingredients (honey, egg, vanilla and oil) in the “well” created in the dry ingredients:

And mixed together:

In the baking pan:

Post baking:

And the finished product:

The verdict: Very good especially if you like chewy bars. Be sure to cut these before they cool completely, otherwise they get pretty tough and cutting them is sort of tricky. I’ve had good luck freezing them and then putting them in the microwave for just a few seconds before serving!

Hope you’ve enjoyed these granola bar recipes! Please share your recipes, I’d love to try them!

Granola Bar Week: Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa Recipe

We are once again celebrating granola bar week, here at figgsandsuch!

I wish some granola would start coming down like confetti as I type, but seeing as though that hasn’t happened — Here we go with recipe #2 .

Ina Garten’s Homemade Granola Bar Recipe

I must say from the outset that I highly recommend giving these a shot. Very tasty, but not sure these are healthiest granola bars around. Click on the link above to get the recipe.

Here are the ingredients:

Here are the almonds, oats, and coconut before and after toasting:

Here’s the brown sugar, salt, butter, honey, and vanilla pre boiling and boiling:

Here are the oats and the sugar mixture together and then with the raisins/dried cranberries added:

Here’s the finished product in the pan and cut up into bars after they chilled overnight:

A winner of a recipe! Do you have any go to granola bar recipes?

Granola Bar Week: Yummy Banana Oat Bars

Welcome to Granola Bar Week!

This week I’ll be posting about three granola bar recipes we’ve recently experimented with. The first one is Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s Yummy Banana Oat Bars

Here are the ingredients (applesauce, raisins, oats, bananas, sunflower seeds, and coconut):

I used sunflower seeds instead of nuts because I’d like to send these in lunches to a nut-free school.

All of the ingredients together (this is a one bowl recipe!):

All of the ingredients mixed together:

The bars in the pan prior to baking:

Post baking:

And the finished product:

The verdict: These are not sweet at all, so if you’re looking for a granola bar that offers some sweetness look elsewhere. I did used the full 1/4 cup of applesauce called for, otherwise I think they would have come out too dry. These will be good healthy additions to our sack lunches, but not sure the recipe wowed me.