mmm, food all around!

Well, we had rough go of it at first, but we now can say we have a garden! It is getting to the end of the season, but we are just now starting to get some of the fruits of our labor. Sadly, it looks like our lily plants may be done blooming, but here are a couple photos of the lilies. We had the most beautiful lilies!

I also planted a packet of Rocky mountain wildflower seeds in a hanging planter and this is a shot of what we have now.

It is kind of hard to see from the picture, but we have orange and purple flowers, some yellow ones up top, and a whole bunch of little white flowers, kind of like baby's breath. But what we are most excited about, is all the vegetables we are getting/going to get. We already harvested all of our peas, and I didn't get a picture, but they produced huge delicious snap peas for us to eat. The birds got to the strawberries, although there is one plant that has a couple white strawberries on it so hopefully they will ripen and we will get those. But take a look at our...

Jalepeno plant!!!!
We are getting a ton of good sized jalepenos already! Well, it could be an Anaheim chili plant, but we can't tell the difference. Next I have a huge pot of basil. I already picked a ton of leaves and froze them, but I still have more basil than I know what to do with.
Next is our long awaited tomatoes. When Michael's folks came to visit they brought us a ton of home grown tomatoes, and they were so good! so much better than store bought. After two deaths, and replanting, we are finally getting a ton of tomatoes. I mean, these two plants are going to town. We are going to have more tomatoes than we know what to do with.
We also planted onions, and we will pull those once some of the tomatoes and jalepenos are ready so we can make fresh salsa!

Lastly, we have our little cucumbers! They really are little and cute, but should get bigger.
Everyone's garden has been going to town lately, so I have received a ton of squash and green beans...and zucchini. To use up all the zucchini I probably made three batches of bread. In light of trying to be healthier, I have been really trying to use whole wheat and sugar substitutes, like agave nectar. The zucchini bread recipe with the agave nectar turned out great! Almost better than my sugar one!
I made mini muffins, regular muffins, and loaves. If anyone wants the recipe, because it was one of the best recipes I tried, I posted it below. the thing about agave is that it is natural and doesn't spike blood sugar. Try it out! Of course I left out the walnuts and i used almost a cup of agave instead of 1 and 1/3 cups, and then a splash of real maple syrup, just to add some flavor. It does make a lot.

Chocolate Chip and Walnut Zucchini Bread:

Recipe and photos by For the Love of Cooking.net

Recipe adapted from Delicious Meets Nutritious Cookbook

3 eggs, well beaten

1 1/3 cups of agave (vs. 2 cups of sugar)

2 cups raw, grated zucchini

3 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup of canola oil

3 cups of whole wheat flour

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips

3/4 cup of walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat two 8x4 bread pans with cooking spray.

Combine the eggs, oil, agave, zucchini and vanilla in a large bowl then mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Slowly add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and walnut pieces and mix again.

Pour the batter evenly into the two prepared loaf pans.

Place in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes before slicing. Slather with butter and enjoy!