Yummy Veggie Surprise!

Today I went out into the garden and realized, "I have way too many veggies!" if there is such a thing. I've been in a pasta mood lately so I decided to make a veggie packed pasta. You can use whatever veggies you want but these are what I had on hand and needed to get rid of before it went bad. It's not my favorite pasta ever but it is certainly healthy and packed with a ton of nutrients. Check out the nutrition facts below!

Pasta with Vegetables
Serves 6

3 cups tri-colored pasta (I used organic bow tie)
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 cup chopped carrots
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup sliced colored sweet pepper
1 cup organic zucchini, cubed
1 cup organic yellow squash, cubed
2 tsp. organic Italian seasoning
1/2 cup organic fresh basil, roughly chopped
1 can organic chunky garden pasta sauce (I used Meijer Organic)

1) Cook pasta according to the package.
2) Heat chicken broth in a skillet. Add carrots first. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then add peppers, zucchini, squash, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper as desired.
3) Cook vegetables until tender (I like mine a little crunchy still).
4) Add the basil, seasoning, and pasta sauce to the pan and let heat through.
5) Toss pasta into sauce and serve.

Calories: 196
Fat: 2 g
Carbs: 37
Protein: 6.5 g

Welcome to my garden!

This is my organic garden. The only "fertilizers" we use are leftover fruits, vegetables, lawn clippings and coffee grounds that have been cooking up in our compost pile.

This is my third year tending to a garden, and as you can see, I'm running out of room! Next year John and I are going to expand it to at least twice it's size to make room for more fruits and vegetables.

It is fenced in because Griswold and Lola love nothing better than to sit in the garden all day and eat our harvest! Tomatoes are their ultimate favorite but Griswold also loves to gnaw on squash and zucchini! Although we appreciate their love for organic vegetables as much as we do, we really wanted to be able to eat some ourselves!

This year we are growing yellow squash, zucchini, celery*, beets, carrots*, different kinds of peppers, cucumbers, pole beans, lettuce, sweet corn, pumpkins*, tomatoes, cilantro, lavender, mint, rosemary, basil, chives and oregano. Last year in addition to most of the list above, we also tried our hand at strawberries, soy beans, raspberries, egg plant and onions. We decided not to grow these things again because we either had bad luck with them, space limitations, or simply the fact that we just didn't use them as much as we thought!

When fall comes, we dry our herbs and can our tomatoes. In addition, we also can many of the fruits we pick and make tasty jams with them as well!