Connecting With Jeannie

Growing and Eating Healthy Food

Hubby and I took care of a huge garden before we went into greenhouse growing. We grew lots of vegetables, like tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, peas, green beans, carrots, onions, cucumbers, beets, broccoli and cauliflower. We also grew watermelon, squash of all kinds, and green, yellow and red peppers. What we didn't eat, we sold at the farmer's market.

When my husband got diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2011, we had tickets to go to the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre - Jesus Christ Superstar was showcased. He had to miss it because he was in the VA hospital as the doctors were trying to figure out why he had such horrendous stomach pains.

This is when we changed our eating habits. I changed with him, and concentrated on eating more vegetables along with our love of meat and potatoes. I found a great recipe in my mother's collection using tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, and carrots. I make this now and then along with many other recipes I have in my favorites online or in my binders.

It's called Garden Salad

7oz. of Le Veneziane Gluten Free Pasta - cooked - (Anellini Little Ring Soup Noodles)
1 medium tomato (diced)
1 green pepper (diced)
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 small cucumbers (peeled and diced)
2 carrots (grated)

Dressing

3/4 to 1 cup salad dressing
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vinegar

Shake in jar until mixed. Pour over salad ingredients, toss.

This recipe is quite good, it's filling, and my family loves it. If you don't want to make this much, you can cut this recipe in half. You can use Creamette Macaroni rings for this recipe, too.

We're of German heritage, and love our meat and potatoes combo. As I said before, I love to cook, and love to make different dishes, but to no avail. All my hubby wanted was meat and potatoes! I do stretch my skills on holidays, though, and on these days I can shine, and then back to making meat and potatoes. Boring! Anyone else have this problem. Well, we're at least eating fruits and vegetables again, and I'm happy about that.

“Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat.” — Guy Fieri