☼ Grow your own damn Food! ☼

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These weekly posts are to share the progress of our garden; sharing photos and our gardening experiments and will hopefully inspire you to grow your own garden too! :) 

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What did we get up to this week? 

Well, our kale has come up and looking healthy and growing quickly--plus they All came up so we'll have to thin them out soon. The radishes and mustard greens are getting bigger. Basically everything in our little outdoor greenhouse has been doing super awesome. Everything else is a bit slow. Although we do have tinie tiny lettuce popping up as well. 

[mustard greens]

[radishes] 

[kale]

We planted some zucchini and cucumber starts this week as well. We soaked the seeds for about an hour in organic fertilizer solution and then planted them to stay inside in the greenhouse to start. Oh and one watermelon. Cory is very determined to get watermelon this year. 

The other seedlings are steadily growing and we had to thin them out today--which I feel guilty doing, I feel like I'm killing a perfectly happy plant :o. In other killing news, the aphids are still being problematic so Cory has been getting rid of them every couple days to keep them from spreading. I can't quite believe we already have an aphid problem and the plants aren't even outside yet! But otherwise, healthy. ;) 

There are also some pretty flower coming up in our front garden beds, because, well, that used to be a giant garden bed so we can expect this even after turning the soil and whatnot. They're pretty and mostly in the corners so far so I think we'll be keeping the ones that have come up so far. 

[pretty flowers]

That's all this week! ;) 

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Cheezy Pumpkin Casserole Ⓥ

This lovely recipe is rich and creamy and packed full of goodness. With a lovely subtle squash taste and a cheesy flavour, it makes for perfect comfort food while still staying healthy!  

Use gluten-free pasta (like I do) to keep this recipe gluten free. :)

Cheezy Pumpkin Casserole

Sauce:

1 can Pumpkin Puree

1/3 cup Cashews, soaked for at least 10 minutes

1 cup Vegetable Broth

1/2 cup Coconut Milk (beverage kind, or other non-dairy milk)

4 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast

1 1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

dash of Black Pepper

1-2 cups water for consistency

1/3 cup Daiya, or other vegan cheese

1 350g pack of penne or other pasta

1 Large Sweet Potato

3-4 small potatoes

1/2 head of Cauliflower

1 can Chickpeas

1/2 cup Daiya (for top)

Chop the potatoes and cauliflower into bite-sized pieces. 

In a medium-sized pot, boil the potatoes and sweet potato in water until cooked and you can poke them with a fork.  

Blend the cashews in a food processor or blender, slowly adding the vegetable broth, until smooth. 

In a large pot, add the cashew mix along with the rest of the sauce ingredients (except the water) and cook on medium heat, whisking to get out any clumps and gradually adding the water as necessary. I never measure the exact amount of liquid I use, so you want it to be nice and creamy but not too runny or too thick. Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. 

Add in the cauliflower and chickpeas, and cook for another 10 minutes. 

Add the potatoes, at which point you might want to add a bit more liquid. 

While everything else is cooking, boil your pasta to the directions on the package. Once the pasta is cooked, add it into the rest of your large pot with the cheese mixture. Again, you might want to add more liquid at this point. 

Preheat oven to 350° F. 

Pour your mixture into a large casserole dish and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of daiya on top to evenly coat. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, broiling at the end to brown the top. 

Serve up and enjoy! 

Makes about 6 large servings. 

*If you want to make not quite as much then you can use less pasta and less veggies, therefor less water and less food. ;) 

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.