Good Things to Eat

I think I may have some over-do-it type tendencies. ;-)  I love growing food and I also love preserving food.  I've never really set my own limits on how much to preserve (or paused to do something sensible like figure out how much preserved food a family of food can actually use in a year), I just keep growing to my heart's content and then preserve as fast as I can.  At our old home I actually had four freezers and they were always filled to bursting by September.  I did give away two of the freezers when we sold our old home but I still have two (plus the fridge one) and they get filled with goodness from the garden.

So...we've been trying to use up a lot of the goodies in the freezer before moving (freezers are heavy enough on their own but filled with food they're quite a workout). I've been doing a good job of using the zucchini that I have stashed in the freezer.  We've had zucchini...well...everything.  Today for lunch we had zucchini broccoli cheese soup and that went down a treat.  I think we'll be having that often until we move and that should help put a dent in, what seems to be, the never-ending zucchini supply.

I also unearthed some more bags of the edamame that I froze - it was my first time growing it this year and I'm glad I did.  It seems even more delicious to have it on hand in the wintertime. And I didn't forget Valentine's Day!  We were out all day with activities but I couldn't not make something heart-shaped for my guys - heart-shaped pizzas for all and heart-shaped carrot cake (his favourite) for S (which he kindly shared with the rest of us). ;-) (I admit to a slight twinge of longing for the days when we used to cut out paper hearts and do all sorts of Valentine crafts). 

Of course, we can't have Valentine's without some chocolate so, the next day when we stayed home, I made some of my favourite chocolate nut clusters (picture how-to here if you're interested).

And then today I decided to use up some of our walnuts and hazelnuts (yes, still from my old trees before we sold our home a year and a half ago - those were good producing trees!) to make some seed and nut bark.  I toasted them with some sunflower seeds and almonds as well. 

Then added the toasted nuts to some homemade granola, flax and hemp seeds. I simmered some honey, with a bit of water and grapeseed oil then poured that over the nuts and granola, mixed it all together and pressed it into a greased cookie sheet.  Pop it in the fridge to cool and harden and it is done.  That's our house-hunting snack. ;-)

And E decided that we needed some more snacks too so he made his peanut butter chocolate chip biscuits too.

Love that my boys love to cook!