Before we get to this amazing dinner that we enjoyed last night, I thought I would update you on my vegetable garden progress!
Eric and I built the first of two raised beds for the veggie garden. Each bed is 4 feet by 8 feet. We used this step-by-step tutorial for a raised bed.
Our growing season doesn’t officially begin until Victoria Day Weekend (around May 20th), which is when most gardeners deem the risk of frost to be over. Some gardeners will plant before this date and then use a frost cover if there is a warning though.
Things I still need to figure out:
- Where to buy a 100% organic topsoil (do they exist?)
- Read up on Lasagna gardening method
- Build or buy a compost bin- research options/methods
- Make a list of what I will grow
- Read up on companion planting
- Draw a plan/diagram of where I will plant everything in boxes
- How to get rid of my black thumb!!!
Right now I am thinking about planting the following:
- Onions
- Lettuce
- Kale
- Zucchini/Squash
- Garlic
- Peas
- Beets
- Carrots
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Cucumber
- Herbs!
- Some type of berry (strawberries or blackberries probably)
What do you experienced gardeners think of this list? Is it too much for a 1st garden? Any tips?
In other news, my Mexican food kick rages on!
As does our cold and snowy weather…
When you can’t get warm, make spicy Mexican food, I say. :)
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Taco Chili with Nacho Cheeze Sauce
Chili adapted from Skinny Taste
Yield: 7 cups
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, peeled and diced
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 1 cup dry kidney beans (or 2 cups cooked)
- 1 cup dry black beans (or 2 cups cooked)
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground chili powder
- One 5.5 oz can tomato paste
- 1 & 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
- One 28-oz can diced tomatoes
- 2 tsp homemade taco seasoning (or packaged seasoning, to taste)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh Cilantro
- heaping 1/4 cup Nacho Cheeze Sauce (below)
- To garnish: Nacho cheeze sauce, crushed tortilla chips, and non-dairy cheese
Directions:
1. Cook the beans if necessary. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the onion and garlic in a very large skillet over low-medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the cumin, chili powder, followed by the tomato paste and frozen corn. Cook for a few minutes on low.
3. Add the canned tomatoes and Cilantro and stir well. When the beans are cooked, drain them, rinse, and stir into chili. Slowly add the homemade taco seasoning (or store bought) to taste until desired taste is achieved. Simmer on low-medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, make your cheeze sauce (below).
4. Stir in a heaping 1/4 cup of the Nacho Cheeze Sauce and serve with crumbled tortilla chips, non-dairy cheese (I used Daiya), and Cilantro garnish. Makes 7 cups.
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I bought some frozen Cilantro cubes as a more economical way to buy herbs (I hope to grow some in the summer though). I wasn’t overly impressed when I added a couple Cilantro cubes into the skillet. The aroma was not the same! Maybe I didn’t use enough? I can’t wait until I can pluck some from the garden!
Cook your onion and garlic until translucent.
Add in your seasonings, frozen corn, and tomato paste.
Stir in the can of tomatoes and Cilantro.
When the beans are cooked, drain and rinse, and then stir into the chili.
Simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes to allow the flavours to develop.
Meanwhile, make your nacho cheeze sauce!
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Nacho Cheeze Sauce
Adapted from Ashley.
Yield: 1 cup
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/4 cup salsa (I used Medium heat)
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder* see note
- Shake red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Directions: In a food processor, add all ingredients and process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Note: Next time, I would use fresh garlic (1 clove probably) instead of the powder.
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Now stir in a heaping 1/4 cup of the cheeze sauce into the chili! It makes the Taco Chili sooo creamy and delicious.
I topped a bed of romaine greens with a huge scoop of the Taco chili and garnished it with a spoonful of cheeze sauce, crumbled tortilla chips, and Daiya cheese. I prefer the cheeze sauce a bit warm so I heated it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. It doesn’t heat very well though and it got a bit hard on the sides. It was nothing a good stir couldn’t fix though!
The Taco Chili turned out fantastic! A little spicy, a little creamy, and a ton of amazing flavours.
It was husband approved too…Eric gave it two thumbs up. :)
I’m so COLD this morning…need more tea!
I like frozen basil cubes, they definitely save $$ for almost the same flavor. Planning your garden must be very exciting, but I feel your worries about the black thumb. Just think positive thoughts, and hearty plants!
I had something very similar for dinner tonight, yum.
This nacho cheeze looks so good!!! I can’t wait to try it! I would have never though of that
frozen cilantro cubes?! sign me up. and sign me up for some of that nacho cheeze too!
Definitely got this bookmarked!!! Looks absolutely wonderful!!!
I’m starting my first herb garden this year, so excited! Maybe next year I’ll move on to the veggies. Can’t wait to see how yours turn out!
Whitney
Watch out for those crazy cucumbers! They try to take over the world…
Tomatoes do well when their roots are warm, so I always plant mine in dark/black containers. I also have herbs in those long/skinny planters on my deck and find that they do really well.
That nacho cheese looks so good and I would have never thought to make something like that with cashews! Yum!
Your garden will be fantastic. I was just chatting with my farm boy brother-in-law who is the gardening king- but I can’t really remember all he said.. so I’m no help. Something about when to switch fertilizers. CRAP! I need to ask him again….
I am going to get a patio garden going right away…
Are you still going to post daily glows? Not that don’t like you recipes ( I print like all of them!) I just miss the bits of life inspiring tidbits you gave x:)
Good luck with the veggie growing! Spring should be beautiful once the weather clears :)
I’ve made Ani Phyo’s Nacho Cheeze in the past, but apart from the cashews, yours is so different! I’ll have to find a good quality salsa, as salsa is never something I have on hand!
Your bed looks awesome! We’re building this three compartment compost bin: http://www.ewswa.org/pages/resource/cmpstr1.html It make sense as you have 3 stages of compost: 1)ready to use; 2) half-way there; 3) one that you’re just filling in.
I just thought I would let you know that I made this for dinner tonight, and it was DELICIOUS!! I made it as is, except I added extra salsa and water to thin the sauce out. My 7 and 4 year old boys couldn’t get enough of it!! Thanks for all of the great recipes!
here is some of my area of intrest…
Finally i can give you some advice!!!
Firstly i’d build a compost heap/bin.
If any of your neighbours has one ask for a bucket of mulch from theirs to get it going (bacteria and all that need to be in balance and that is hard to do form scratch….)
put thin sticks in the bottom to start (for drainage and airflow), add leaf and garden waste then your neighbours mulch and top with more garden-waste and keep filling with left over food. potato peels are great, banana peals not so much but they will rot eventually… …
If you shred newspaper it can go in there too. but not whole newspapers ad they block airflow. and never glossy paper.
basically anything goes into it that can rot…
it won’t give you soil until next year but if you feed it pretty much like a pig and treat it well you will have wonderful nutritious earth for your garden. Plus… you will have full control of what goes into your garden.
If you build another then you can alternate which is maturing and which is being fed every second year.
but it’s a fantastic and economical way of gardening.
Look into three sisters gardening. tall plants (corn) supports climbers (beans, mangetout) and crawlers(cucumbers, squash et-c) shade the soil.
try some of your fave beans from your kitchen. They are organic and should sprout quite well if they are not pre-cooked or treated. seed-packets are generally too expensive and you will generally get a pretty good yeld off kitchen stuff…
I have grown broadbeans, haricots and black eyed peas from kitchen-cupboard packets and they tasted wonderful…
I have allready started this years beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and sweetcorn indoors and will transfer them to larger pots as they grow untill the outside soil is warm enough to plant in. that way they are sturdy and large enough to tolerate temperature drops and such when they go into the garden.
herbs… i find that Thyme and Lemon balm and Oregano are hardy plants that come back for years and years, surviving the minus 30 degree C winters we’ve been having latelly.
For a starter organic gardener i will also recommend inter-planting with callendula and tagetes flowers as they keep flies and moths and slugs off your veg reducing greatly your need for insecticides… Some swear to garlic but here in Norway i don’t think the slugs have discovered that garlic is bad for them…
Spraying with garlic water is however an effective remedy against greenfly if they do decide to ignore the tagetes…
Good luck!
Hi Angela,
I just did my research and just planted my first vegetable garden. I highly recommend the book, “The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardner” “A guide ti growing your garden organically” book by Burpee. It’s a really nice book, all color, hardcover, over 400 pages of great information from starting your garden, soil, sun, starting composting, to pests and diseases, companion planting, what grows in your area and all the different kinds of plants. Trust me you’ll love this book. I got it on Amazon, it was the cheapest there.
Oh and I planted a Blackberry bush last year, they tend to take over, and you don’t get blackberries the first year, hoping for some this year. Strawberries are easy and delish, I recommend them, there not picky and you can throw them anywhere in your garden!
Have fun and I’m glad you starting your vegetable garden, can’t wait to see the progress!
This looks really tasty! Perfect for sitting outside with a glass of wine in the sun.
I just recently became an offical, fullfeldged vegan and am loving every minute of it, I am now wondering why the light bulb didn’t go off years ago! My 26 yr. old daughter turned me on to your blog and I love it so much! I find myself looking forward to checking it out everyday and not just once, but usually numerous times to check a recipe, print a recipe or just read about the happenings in your life. You certainly have a knack of keeping my interest (I seem to have a short attention span). I love it when you group together all the ingredients of a recipe and take a picture of them. This is really helpful if you are not familiar with a certain brand, this helps me find items faster in the store when I can see in my head the color of the label and brand name of the item I am looking for.
Thank you for all your hard work, you have done and awesome job with your blog! I wish you lots of luck with your gardening, however I have a feeling you don’t really need it as I am sure it will be a tremendous success!
thanks Pamela and congrats!
Hi Angela,
I am starting my second garden this year. A few things I’ve read and learned from my first attempt are below. I found helpful ideas in Mother Earth News magazine. They have a website as well!
Last year I’m afraid some sneaky bunnies ate a lot of my lettuce and spinach. This year I’ve read that if you plant spinach and lettuce beside things like onion and garlic they tend to stay away from it more. Your raised bed and chicken wire will help a lot!
Your list does look long but if you plot it out you should be able to squeeze it all in. I’ve grown zucchini before and they get huge so keep them near the edge. Tomatoes like the most sun light so you’ll want to place them on an edge. Try not to let anything shade them. Also keep a water schedule I noticed last year tomatoes and peppers split because I didnt keep a schedule! I live in the country near Brantford so I’ve dealt with similar temperatures and weather. I’ve also read putting down and pinning a tarp in between rows of veg will stop weeds from growing. Clearing weeds can be time consuming and I’m still not totally clear on what might be a weed and something I planted :S I didnt get a change to read too many of the ideas above so sorry if I’m repeating things! This is getting long but if you want more ideas I’ve got plenty.
All the best & great blog,
Lindsay
I’ve had gardening in mind for such a long time! I’ll get to this week, but I’ll start out slow :D Maybe carrots or tomatoes. I need to do some reading on this topic. I’m really clueless. Good luck to you though! Can’t wait to see your garden!
Three sisters gardening is definitely something to look into if you want to get into companion gardening. The idea of building an ecosystem comes out of the idea that the output and success of the whole garden will be greater when the plants work together as opposed to just the sum of the outputs of the individual plants. This is something I’m getting more into.
We are also expanding our garden this year and are also doing raised plots. So exciting…
I have to admire your ambition with all those crops!
My last tidbit is that it is far more important to care for the soil than the plants. If you start with the highest quality soil (manure!!) than you will provide the nutrients necessary for the plants to grow strong, and this is actually was sets the foundation for a healthy and vibrant garden ecosystem.
I’ve been on a mexican food kick my whole life. I can’t get enough of it.
Why on earth would you buy cilantro cubes when you can see in the ingredients that there’s dextrose, oil, cornstarch, etc.? Simply buy fresh cilantro, chop and freeze in a container. Then when you cook sprinkle a handful/as much as you need into the food, straight from the container. Pure cilantro whenever you want–cheap, delicious, healthy!
Good point :) I wont be buying them again…I wasn’t a fan
I am BEYOND excited about your garden. I’m a super, hyper, crazy garden lover and any time anyone starts gardening I feel like i just got my wings!
Holy yum! That cheese sauce is delicious!!!
I made this tonight & it is AMAZING!!! I want to eat that nacho cheese sauce on everything!
this is one of my favorite recipes! The sauce made it!! Thanks for sharing!
Made this today, oh Yum! the sauce had an amazing taste that really surprised me.
Get a copy of Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew. His raised bed method is amazing. I’ve been really successful with the soil mix he reccommends and the method of planting. Keep the wonderful recipies coming!
This has got to be the best veggie chili I have ever had! The whole family loved it. And the cheeze sauce just makes it perfect. Thanks!
You should try it once with hominy. I’ve fallen in love!
I make this chili almost every week and serve with tortilla chips and salad. I substitute ROTEL tomatoes and chilis for half the tomato for a little more heat. Even non-vegan teenagers love it.
Just out of curiousity. How would one turn a regularly cooked chili into a crockpot/slow cooker chili?
I’ve been craving comfort food like this.
I get my organic soil on amazon… you can find pretty much anything on amazon :)
This is possibly the best thing I have ever eaten. Yum yum yum! Making a big double batch tonight because it’s great as leftovers and makes a great balanced meal!
I use diced tomatoes in place of the tomato paste (I just never really use tomato paste – I find the flavour just takes over too much).
Do you think you could freeze this dish?
I was wondering if the cheeze sauce could be made with a different nut or seed? My daughter is allergic to cashews.