How To: A Raised Vegetable Garden

Since we've moved away from the farm, we had to get a little more creative with our gardening.  I guess we could have just tilled up some land in our backyard and planted a little garden as always, but that wouldn't have been nearly as pretty :)  I somehow convinced Justin that it would be SO much better for us to have a raised bed, and that our plants would just grow SO much better.  I've heard this is true....this can be our experiment.  Here are our tips:

1:  You need to have super cute helpers.

2:  I wanted our bed to be 10 feet long and 4 feet wide.  We purchased 2 boards that were 2x4x6 and 1 board that was 2x4x8.  Justin cut the 8 foot board in half, then screwed the boards into place to make a rectangle.

3:  I lined the bottom of the bed with newspaper to help keep weeds out.  Newspaper is biodegradable, so this will need to be redone in a few years.

4:  Pour in your soil.  We used top soil that we purchased from Lowe's. You don't have to do this, of course.  You could just use regular dirt.

5:  Plant your vegetables.

6:  Don't forget to water it :)

7:  Hopefully, in a few weeks, we'll be harvesting some good stuff!


Do you have any experience with a raised-bed garden?  Any tips for us beginners??

Clean Eating, Take Two

With all the traveling we've been doing lately, my clean eating train has been derailed.  I've done pretty well through the week, it's the weekends (when we are traveling) that get me!  Eating clean on the road is TOUGH!!

We fully intend to stay home the next few weeks, so I'm jumping back on the clean eating train.  I'm even going to ATTEMPT to take out that pesky daily Dr. Pepper.  No promises, though. :)

In addition to clean(er) eating, I'm gearing up for my next half marathon--the St. Jude Country Music Half in Nashville, Tennessee.  If you've been reading my blog, you know that I had major hip pain after my last half three weeks ago.  I haven't run much since then, but what little I have ran, there has still been hip pain.  Nothing too bad, but enough to make me worry that it'll get worse once I start longer runs.  I've spent a lot of time the past few weeks stretching, and I really thing that is helping.

I'm also going to make a point to cross train.  I think that was part of my problem as well--those hip muscles weren't used to anything other than a steady run on a treadmill.  I'm going to run 3-4 days a week, with one long run on Sunday.  The other few days, I'm going to do my friend Jillian Michael's Yoga Meltdown DVD (which I love) and attempt lifting a few weights.

Hopefully, when I check back in with our progress, I'll have some good news to report.  And maybe even a few good recipes to share!

The Wests Go Clean (Eating, That Is)

I've been giving a lot of thought to our eating habits lately.  As a family, we survive on junk:  Cheetos, Lunchables, soft drinks (not so much the girls, but definitely me and J)....you get the picture.  I've been attempting small changes in our diet (Deceptively Delicious brownies with spinach, green smoothies).  We are working toward a clean(er) lifestyle.  I am never one to go cold turkey on ANYTHING, so I'm not saying this will be 100% clean eating.  I can already tell you that I, personally, will cheat in 2 areas-- I will still be having one small (12oz) Dr. Pepper each day and I will be adding regular sugar to my coffee (I've tried the natural kinds and just don't like it.)

After much studying of websites like 100 Days of Real Food and He and She Eat Clean, I think I have a good grip on what eating clean really is.  The obvious foods are fruits and veggies, water, things that come straight from nature.  When it comes to packaged foods (crackers, chips, etc.), the '5 ingredient rule' applies--the ingredient list must be 5 or less ingredients and you must be able to pronounce those ingredients.

With this knowledge in mind, I created our menu for the week.  We plan to be traveling over the weekend (as long as the weather cooperates), so I only planned for Monday-Thursday.  It looks like this:

We made our grocery list and took a trip to Publix.  Funny story:  One of the items we purchased was whole flaxseed.  Flaxseed aids digestion.  As we were walking through the store with it in hand, a male employee stops me and says "You know you have to grind that up or else it'll go right through you whole?"  Yes, I did know that, but thank you for the education :)

To help make things easier during the week, we did prep-work over the weekend.  The girls helped.

I made homemade oatmeal and raisin breakfast bars.  I boiled eggs for breakfast and lunches, washed grapes, and pre-made green smoothes.

Overall, my MAIN goal is to add more fruits and veggies to our diets.  If I can accomplish only that, I'll be one happy mama.

I also HOPE to start back exercising this week.  My hip still bothers me, but it hurts worse when I'm being still--sitting or at night while I'm trying to sleep.  Fingers crossed that running will stretch it back out and make it A-OK :)

Do you eat clean?  Any tips or favorite recipe's to share?