My black thumb

When we bought our house a little over two years ago there was a wisteria bush growing up along the back fence, but it was pulling the fence down with its weight so it had to go.  We finally got rid of the last of it this past winter and were left with a barren section of dirt about two feet wide all along the length of the fence.  Instead of trying to make the grass grow back there we decided to plant some herbs and vegetables and flowers and have ourselves a nice little garden. 

Unfortunately Mother Nature had different ideas.  We bought some seeds and seedlings from a local nursery and planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, peas, mint, basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, and some vincas, for color, two weeks ago.  The basil was the first to look sick, but now almost all the plants are dead.  Well, except the peas.  They actually look pretty good!  I don't really know what to make of it.  We've been watering every day or two, and it hasn't even gotten all that hot here yet.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it's the soil.  My mom told me that sometimes other plants, such as oak trees, can leave the soil surrounding them acidic.  So I'm wondering if the wisteria changed the pH of the soil in that section of the yard.  We did plant some of the leftover vincas in pots with potting soil, and they seem happy and healthy.

Part of me thinks I need to figure out the problem and fix it.  But, then, part of me doesn't care.  I do like having fresh herbs with which to cook.  And no store bought tomato can compare to one you grew yourself.  But I'm starting to think that I don't really like gardening.  I feel like I SHOULD like gardening.  My parents are serious gardeners, and our friends have successful herb and flower gardens.  But when I think about gardening it just makes me feel overwhelmed.  And I don't really care enough to do the research to find out about different plants that thrive in the dusty West Texas plains.  Maybe I just need to cut my losses and move gardening into the "tried it but didn't like it" column.

Move Over Kraft Dinner

So yesterday I was figuring out the calories in the mac'n'cheese I was planning on making for dinner (using the awesome recipe analyzer over at Calorie Count) when the results kind of smacked me in the face.  I mean, I shouldn't have been shocked.  It's macaroni and CHEESE for crying out loud.  But I wasn't expecting 800 calories per serving!  Ugh, even with a grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli, that was more than I could afford for dinner.  But I really wanted that bowl of cheesy goodness, so I started to mess around with the proportions.  The recipe came from my beloved America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, so really, it shouldn't be tinkered with.  They've already done that.  But I got rid of the butter and reduced the amount of milk and cheese and came up with a dish with a more reasonable 500 calories per serving.

And as I was adding the nutritional info to my food journal (an awesome app for my droid from FatSecret) I realized that this new and improved mac'n'cheese had 30g of protein!  Not nearly as much protein as a chicken breast, but still enough that I really didn't even need the chicken for protein with dinner.  Cutting out the chicken would save an additional 250 calories from dinner.

I decided to add a salad just to provide a little more volume to the meal.  So, what started out as a 1100 calorie meal ended up being a 600 calorie meal which allowed me to stay under 1500 calories for the day.  And the mac'n'cheese did not suffer for it.  In fact, the last time I made this recipe (without any alterations) I found it to be too soupy.  I ended up liking my lower calorie version better.  Here's the recipe:

Creamy Stovetop Mac'N'Cheese adapted from America's Test Kitchen
Serves 4

8 oz macaroni
2 large eggs
5 oz evaporated milk
1 tsp dry mustard
8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste

- Combine the eggs, evaporated milk, mustard, salt, and pepper together in a bowl.
- Boil the macaroni until al dente.
- Drain the macaroni and return to the pot.  Add the milk mixture along with half of the cheese.  Cook over low heat while stirring and gradually adding the remaining cheese until thick and creamy.

Nutritional information per serving: 527 calories, 25g fat (15g sat. fat), 165mg cholesterol, 431mg sodium, 48g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 27g protein