Plant-Based Living and Gardening
Edible Gardens · plants · Recipe

Plant-Based Living and Gardening

PlantsandBeyond

Plant-Based lifestyle is full of color, fresh choices, juicy goodness, creativity and vital nutrients that will make you thrive.

Growing my own organic edibles, flowers, plants, vegetables, and herbs in the backyard garden has always been a passion of mine. However, it could be difficult or downright impossible to maintain gardening activities during the Summer months in hot Florida or Winter in Northern regions. During the slower, reflective months, we have more time to research our garden growing needs, cooking appliances, backyard layouts, envision new planting space and find innovative, delicious recipes that fit our lifestyle.

Here are some ways to preplan a perfectly powerful plant-based storm in your kitchen, backyard, green space and embrace a new way of living.

      1. Grow Your Own Flavors

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When you chose a plant-based diet or lifestyle, it’s easy to get repetitive with the flavors you use. You can avoid this by creating your own herb garden, whether that is on your kitchen windowsill or outside. Grow your own flavorsome herbs such as garlic, chives, rosemary, basil, sage, lemon balm, oregano, tarragon, basil, marjoram, mint, lavender, thyme, cilantro, dill and even sprouts, you will always have fresh, wholesome and seasonal tastes to add to your dishes. If you could only smell the fragrant aroma that exudes from your own grown herbs, you would never go back to the store again!

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     2. Choose Local Produce

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Support your local farmer’s markets and try to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables from farmers that grow their food lovingly. This way you can be certain your produce was not stored for weeks in some dark containers, in the refrigerator, tossed back and forth, locked away from the solar life force energy and then shipped. Choose organically grown produce whenever possible, which will make your plant-based dishes all the more delectable.

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        3. Research Some Recipes

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Plant-based recipe books are great and of course, there are lots of recipes on the web that are pertinent to the healthy lifestyle. When I research different world cuisines, I instantly get motivated to use unusual ingredients and spices in my home prepared dishes. From cauliflower and chickpea curries (Indian flavors are my favorite) to succulent old world beetroot salads you can create stunningly colorful plates full of fresh goodness every single day.

        4. Discover The Best Equipment

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You can’t cook up a storm in the kitchen without having the best tools installed. For example, if your burners are not igniting, then there is no way to stir-fry your veggies. Consider updating the stove cooktop. We do not use microwaved due to its radiation and nutritional food value loss. Thus, the central kitchen stove is our primary appliance to go to. During my stove research, I found this guide Best Pellet Stove on the internet. It peaked my interest because I never knew about this efficient stove type before (would have loved it leaving in Maryland) and curious if anyone of you ever utilized it. It is fun for me to learn about new ideas and the Pellet Stove left me thinking about its possible uses in the household and possibly in the outside area.

5. Experiment and Have Fun!

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If you are new to cooking then try not to be too rigit with recipes as you follow them. As my grandmother’s written recipes were all an approximate estimation of ingredients, why not use your own judgment and ideas. In any circumstance, I find that all my saved recipes get altered to healthy flours, sugar substitutes, and different spice ingredients. Use your own taste buds as inspiration and really hone in on the flavors that make you feel satisfied.  Experiment and really just have fun with your new found inspiration.

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I hope you revamp your cooking style and ideas this Summer season with found new healthy plant-based recipes, functional appliances, and locally grown fresh produce.

Lots of Hugs,

Until next time, my dear friends.

Luda@PlantsandBeyond🌿

The photographs listed here do not belong to Luda @PlantsandBeyond.com

©PlantsandBeyond.com  

Published by PlantsandBeyond

Green Plants Based Living and Gardening

52 thoughts on “Plant-Based Living and Gardening”

  5. I love it. I always wanted to have a herb garden for myself. Made a little progress on that though with some herbs and it smells and looks so lovely. The corner has become my favorite in the garden to sit and relax.

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  8. Wonderful post, Luda! I dream of my own vegetables and fruit garden one day! I know it´s a lot of work but my great-grandparents had one and I know it´s totally worth all the trouble. 🙂

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  15. Love the luscious photos, as always. I always have fresh herbs in the summer, though I can’t ever seem to use anywhere near as many as sprout up! I do hope your readers will take to heart the message to experiment and not be rigid with recipes. I use lots of substitutions and it rarely goes awry. It’s fun!

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    1. Hiiii Eilene. Thank you so much for your comments. Wow. You have more than you can use? What a great dilemma to have 🙂 Have you tried freezing herbs or drying them? That works for me. I just made a coconut curry Indian dish at home and the amount of herbs that they use is astronomical 😉 However, it turned out so amazing. Maybe our culture is not using enough 🙂

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      1. I do dry some of them, but even then, when cooking for two, I would still be overwhelmed! I am not a big curry eater, so maybe that’s it. I do love spicy, but I live in the southwest, so we eat lots of chile!

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  20. I cooked some penne the other day, and instead of making a pasta sauce, since I had a lot of tomatoes I needed to get rid of, I decided to use it in more of a salad instead. I could taste the flavour I wanted in my mind, but couldn’t dial it in. Why? Because it really needed some fresh basil. The dried basil was alright but didn’t quite have that fresh kick I wanted.

    As for recipes, I’m an ex-chef and dump-it cook. I don’t know what goes into a recipe most of the time. I imagine a taste and dial it in. This, that, and the other thing. I like to get slight variations to well known recipes so they don’t get too boring. Then again, I often make my own. We have a whole recipe book of something I once concocted that was good and gave it a name. It’s hard to reconstruct though when you’re not accustomed to measurements.

    I guess you ticked of some things on your list that were currently on my mind. I have to get some fresh herbs in the garden!

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