Veggie growing, and eating!

Over the last week I've been getting out and cleaning up the garden after neglecting it most of the winter.

While weeding the veggie patch, I pulled up a rogue beetroot. I love growing beets. I love to roast them or make beetroot relish! That lonely old beetroot looked good for lunch anyhow.

I roasted it with eggplant, capsicum, garlic and onion, with some spices. When the veggies were      ready, I mixed in canned brown lentils and warmed them through in the oven. I served it with feta cheese broken up over the top and fresh parsley.

Growing my own veggies is something I love to do. I haven't always had too much success, which is why cooking with the veggies I do get, gives me so much pleasure. 

Summer helped me plant more beetroot seeds, and Isabel climbing beans and carrots over the weekend. Neither of them enjoy cooked veggies, but they will eat them raw!

Mum recalls me sitting in the pea patch as a kid and eating peas straight from the garden. My girls love to do that too, so I would recommend if you have kids to let them grow peas, snow peas in particular.

After getting rid of most of the ivy from around the garden there is a lot more space. I've planted some butternut pumpkin seeds, and as I commented to my uncle yesterday, I probably don't need to as Mum grows enough pumpkins for everybody! I still have some saved seed from the jack be little pumpkins(minis) that I grew last year. They are a little closer to a squash type of pumpkin. I grew them on a trellis last year, with cucumbers successfully growing below.

I planted broad beans back around Easter. They are flowering now and wont be too long until we are eating yummy broad beans. I love them with bacon, cream and pasta. My son loves this too. The last time I made it he came around the next day to see if there was left overs! Summer likes to eat broad beans raw, and well Isabel, it's hard to know what she will eat half the time.

I try to eat a wide variety of veggies, scouring the shelves at the supermarket for something new to throw in the trolley, or something I haven't had for a while. Like bok choy, which I cooked up this week in a chicken stir fry, also cooked under some fish wrapped in foil in the oven.

Do you grow your own veggies? Are you adventurous when buying veggies at the supermarket? Why don't you try something new when you are shopping next.

An InLinkz Link-up