Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

2 cans black beans
1 large carrot, diced
1 can pumpkin puree
2 can of broth (beef, chicken or vegetable)
1 can corn
1 can diced tomato 
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Dump everything into a pot and let it simmer for an hour on low heat :)

I drained the beans and the corn but included the liquid in the tomatoes. I also used beef broth because that is what I had but next time, I am going to use vegetable instead.  

I also like my soup chunky but you can always puree the tomatoes and beans if you like.  If you puree the beans, make sure you have an extra can to add actual beans to the soup. 

Next time, I am going to use dried beans instead as I try not to do canned stuff. 

Garden Update - Tomatoes

The Big Boy seedling I bought a couple of weeks ago is starting to flower. I must be doing something right :)

Urban Gardening

I've lived in the same apartment in L.A for nearly 4 years. Every year after the summer is over, I always say that I need to start growing my own vegetables in the uber sunny corner of my kitchen. Well, this is the year that I finally did.

I'm starting small first to get a feel of things and will expand as I gain more experience (and reconfigure the kitchen to utilize as much space as possible).

First up, strawberry and tomato seedlings. All the plastic lids and containers I didn't throw into the recycling bin have finally come in handy!


I'm also very cost conscious and recycle/reuse as much as I can. Instead of running out and buying purty containers, I cut the top of a two liter bottle and used it to house one of my tomato plants. I used a rectangular food container I already had to house my two strawberry seedlings. Since I also had an abundance of non-recyclable plastic bottle caps, I hot-glued four of them to the bottom of the strawberries' new home to help with draining (after I drilled holes into the bottom of the container). The bottlecaps act as "risers" so that the bottom of the container is not sitting in the drain tray (which is the lid of the rectangular container).

Strawberries to the right and lettuce to the left.


I also got super inspired to grow lettuce, cucumbers and daisies from seeds. I decided to try out the lettuce first as it wasn't warm enough yet to start the cucumbers. Again, I used a food container I had laying around and drilled drain holes on the bottom and glued four bottlecaps to the underside. Various blogs on growing container vegetables suggested putting the container into a plastic bag after seeding to create a makeshift greenhouse so the condensation from within will keep it moist and help with germination. Holes were cut on top of the plastic bag to help with ventilation.

In the next few days to a week, I will be seeding the cucumbers and daisies. Will also start seeding another variety of lettuce. If all goes well, I will cut down on the amount of produce I will have to purchase.

As long as I can stay motivated, I will try to update at least weekly the progress of my urban garden.