Scrumptious Garden Spaghetti

This week I picked yellow squash, zucchini, and green peppers from the garden.  Today I got stuck inside due to torrential downpours, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to make a big pot of garden spaghetti sauce!  My squash and zucchini had gotten a bit large, so they had the soft center.  When this happens, I cut out the center and throw it away, then chop the "flesh" of the vegetable for cooking.  I diced the green pepper, squash, zucchini, and some onion into very small pieces and placed it all in a pot with a bit of olive oil.  You could also add diced tomatoes or fresh herbs if you had those coming in.  

Diced squash, green pepper, onion, and zucchini

I sauteed the vegetables, adding Italian seasoning, minced garlic, basil, and oregano.  I also enjoy a little bite to my spaghetti sauce, so I added black pepper and chili powder.  After the vegetables were softened, I added some browned sausage and canned spaghetti sauce.  You can leave out the meat if you want to make a vegetarian sauce and you can use whatever canned tomato sauce is your favorite!

Scrumptious garden spaghetti sauce with whole grain pasta

Once the sauce was warm and ready to eat, I spooned it over a big plate of whole grain spaghetti noodles and topped it all with some Parmesan cheese!  It was a quick and easy summer meal and used many of the garden vegetables coming in.  The sauce also freezes well, so I suggest making a BIG pot of sauce and then freezing it to enjoy this winter.

Transitioning from spring to summer plants in the garden

Salad season is drawing to an end.  When it gets hot and the lettuce plants grow tall, the remaining lettuce leaves can become bitter.  At that point, it's time to pull up the lettuce.  Once the old plants are removed, churn up the soil making sure to break up or remove any remaining roots.  Then add a little plant food, but be sure it doesn't get onto the leaves of anything you are leaving in the garden as it can burn the greenery.  After you have mixed up the soil, you are ready to plant your summer garden.  It's that easy to transition from the spring plants to summer ones!  I pulled up the spinach awhile back and put red/green bell peppers in their place.  Today I pulled up the lettuce and then planted yellow bell peppers.  I enjoy yellow peppers and have a delicious white chicken chili recipe for them, but I have had trouble finding yellow pepper plants.  Finally someone online posted they had extras for sale!  We'll see if the yellow peppers do as well as the green ones did last year! 



New yellow pepper plants in the middle, next to the more mature green pepper plants on the right.  The colored rocks on the left were marking my radish seeds, which have sprouted.  The seashells are marking carrot seeds, which are just beginning to break the soil.

Remember when planting the pepper plants that they will grow much larger.  They grow taller as well as branching out.  Also, be prepared to support your pepper plants as they grow.  I use wire semi-circle stakes to provide them stability, while some people use small cages.  Either one works, just be sure to get them in place before large peppers grow.  Water if the soil is dry and hopefully that hot, summer sun will take care of the rest!