Garden Days~

Here are just a few pictures from my garden so far this year. This will be my 3rd year to garden and I absolutely love it. Much more than I had anticipated. We have already harvested spinach and red onions, and several herbs. The tomatoes, squash and zucchini are growing like crazy! Can't wait for those to be ready. Growing our own veggies & herbs has saved lots of money and tastes so much better. Many of the recipes on this blog have the garden foods in them.

I just loved the way these 2 pictures came out with the bees~

Mocha Madness vs.Frozen Vanilla Yogurt

At our house, a few of us found this new ice cream "Mocha Madness". You can tell by it's name that it is just going to be bad for you if you are watching calories :(
So, I decided to come up with a better alternative after reading labels to discover that in ONE cup of Madness there are 420 calories. For my walkers and runners that = 3 to 4+ miles for that one cup!
My alternative is Blue Bell fat free homemade vanilla frozen yogurt, 1 cup = 180 calories. Add some of your favorite fresh berries and enjoy a cool treat and healthy alternative this summer.

Creamy Pasta Bake

This meal can be split into two dinners for freezing.

1 jar ( 30 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 pkg ( 16 oz) whole wheat rotini, cooked, drained
1 1/2 cups light sour cream
1 pkg. frozen, chopped, spinach, thawed, drained
1 cup chopped mushrooms ( optional)
1/2 cup 100% grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375
Mix all ingredients. Spoon into 13x 9 inch baking dish
Bake 25 min.