container gardening

One of my New Year's resolutions is to learn how to grow some of my own food. This summer we bought a lime tree and fully expected to kill it, but we not only kept it alive, we got a ton of fruit! This gave me the confidence to start my own little mini garden on our balcony and in our kitchen. I plan to put Charlie to work to make these mason jar herb containers asap. We don't have much extra space inside, so I feel like this is a good solution that won't take up space, and it will keep them high enough that our curious pup can't mess with them.

via Not Just a Housewife

I plan to add a lemon tree,

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and if I can find one, an orange tree to our balcony.

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I'm also going to try my hand at vegetables and grow zucchini, peppers, and garlic in a container garden. These are on my grocery list every time I visit the store, so I thought it would make the most sense to start with these.

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Wish me luck!

mmmMonday

I forgot to update on my weight loss last Monday, but even with my week-long vacation food binge, I still managed to lose two pounds. That's only 1/2 pound away from my first 10 pound goal, friends!

I haven't been very good about taking pictures of the new recipes I'm trying, but this one was totally a keeper: Grilled Veggie and Hummus Wraps.

Obviously, I didn't create a wrap. I just followed the instructions and put it all on top of a piece of warm naan. I've made this at least three times since last week -- It's that good. I've also been making this eggplant pizza, and making sammies because it's too damn hot to be cooking!

weight loss update

I lost another 1.5 pounds last week, leaving me with only 5.5 pounds to lose in the next two weeks. I've went from eating out pretty much every day to making all of my meals at home and not only have I lost weight, but I feel so much better. I had planned on cooking a new recipe each day, but since Charlie doesn't eat any of this stuff, I have to eat it all myself and can only make about three recipes a week so I don't waste the food. Here are the recipes I made this week:

Eggplant pizza with cilantro and jalapeno pesto. This tasted so fresh, I'd take this over regular pizza any day. To save some calories I used a lower calorie lavash bread and I cut the olive oil in half and it still came out perfect.

Homemade Falafel & Tahini Sauce. I was pretty sure this was going to end in disaster since I realized too late that my food processor was too small for all of the ingredients and had to improvise with our KitchenAid mixer (seriously, there is nothing this mixer can't do), and in the process accidentally lost a lot of the spices. Surprisingly, they turned out perfect. Instead of frying them I used a little bit of olive oil and sauteed them in a pan with no problems. So good!

This is what I eat for lunch practically every day. This vegetarian "chicken" scallopini is so, so yummy (and only 110 calories). I saute it with a little olive oil and pepper for a few minutes and then pair it with a salad and brown rice.