Wacky Wednesday

Life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving ~ Albert Einstein


In the spirit of eating healthy I decided to try something for dinner, grilled veggies...sound good? I thought so! When we were in Sanibel, we decided to do a little shopping in Periwinkle Place.  For those of you that don't know, it is sort of a strip mall that is set back into beautiful tropical foliage. Several of our favorite stores had closed, which was very sad, but there was a new store there that Jess and Brad found...it is called Sanibel Olive Oil Company.  It's a small store with nothing but flavored oils, spices and balsamic vinegars.  They have little cups by each one where you can sample the different flavors!  Jess had me try the Cilantro Garlic Balsamic vinegar and I loved it, so of course I had to buy a bottle, she and Brad did too....(and another flavor also)!  They even offered chocolate flavored...not sure how I felt about it, it did taste like Chocolate...but was strange since it was a balsamic!!....Anyways...I've been thinking about how to use it so I came up with this idea to keep it healthy and we would have grilled veggies! Well I must say, it was amazing and very easy!....(and I got to use Hubby's Father's Day Grill from Jess!)  I did take a couple of pictures this time, though I felt rather silly....guess I shoulda taken pictures cutting up veggies etc...but remember I'm a newbie at all this blog stuff!! :)  Here goes.....


The recipe:  Grilled Summer Veggies


The seasonings:
1/2 to 2/3 Cup Balsamic Vinegar (of course I used the Cilantro Garlic Balsamic)
1/3 Cup EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
1/4-1/2 cup water
Garlic Grinder Spice (you decide how much!)
Sea Salt Grinder        "             "


The Veggies:
1 Zucchini-Halved longways and sliced fairly thin
1 Yellow Squash-Halved longways and sliced fairly thin
1 medium sized Sweet Onion-Halved and sliced thin
1 Green Bell Pepper, sliced thin
1/2 package fresh mushrooms (Buttons or Baby Bellas) sliced ~ 1/4 " thick
10-12 Baby carrots sliced into 1/4 " thick 'coins'


Slice all veggies, put into casserole with lid or ziplock bag. 

Mix all seasonings, pour over veggies 

Let marinate for 4-5 hours stirring or shaking fairly often, you will notice veggies absorbing the dark balsamic and begin to soften. Grill in foil or on a grill pan @ ~ 350 degrees, stirring often to cook evenly for 30-40 minutes or to desired veggie doneness (how about that for verbiage!) 

Really bad picture...sorry!

Serve over steamed rice!!

I think I need to work on my plating! :)

It was Yumm-o!! We had applesauce as a side, and it was great!! 


We will definitely have this again!! And so healthy!! :)






Prior to our mini cookout, many of the animals around here entertained us.... between and during the thunderstorms!! The squirrels have been driving us nuts hanging on the goldfinch feeder socks, and the 'squirrel-proof' feeder!  We had to move the feeder from the deck up high on the front of our shed, with hopes that they wouldn't get to it....They will actually eat the plastic on the feeder so that it will no longer slide down and cover the holes!! Today I actually 'darned' the finch socks to close up the holes!! (does anyone know where I can buy finch socks made out of stainless steel?) 


While I was at the store buying feeder #3 (since spring) I was looking for, what we call a 'hat' to put over the feeder, well I bought the wrong thing, but out of frustration we decided to put it over the feeder anyway, and leave it loose, so it would move around, hopefully making it a little more difficult for him to reach the feeder.  We enjoyed watching this squirrel try to get to it twice....and I actually got to video it!!  (I played with youtube video editing on this one!) 

This guy was hilarious to watch!

Then he just stood upside down on the roof....still trying to figure out how to get to that seed!!

After watching this for a while, I went out front to the porch and was 'greeted' by the duck 'teenagers', obviously looking for food...and I have NEVER fed them, but this time I couldn't resist!! 

Notice there are 5 brunettes and 1 blonde!! They are so sweet....if you listen closely you can hear them 'beeping'!! 


Unfortunately no Mama Duck yet on the eggs in the garden :(


We also had many finches on the socks today!!

Hubby's favorite Goldfinch and a House finch.....Notice the rubber-band on the back sock...too many holes!!

More Glads are coming in, they are so pretty!!

I hope you enjoyed our Wacky Wednesday!! We did!!


::Hugs::


Cheri

We Have Teenagers!

Have you ever thought about all the ways ducks and geese are integrated into our sayings?
Goose bumps
What's good for the goose is good for the gander

DUCK!!!! (lower your head)
Silly goose
Like a sitting duck
Waddle like a duck
Lucky duck!
A quack (bad doctor)
Get your ducks in a row
Goosed (pecked in the rear)
Don't get your feathers ruffled (any bird)
Let it roll like water on a duck's back
The goose that laid the golden egg
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck
Like a duck out of water
Like a duck takes to water
Loose as a goose
Wild goose chase
His goose was cooked  
Bottoms up!
Just Ducky
Take a gander--to have a look at something

All the Goslings and Ducklings are growing up so fast around here!! We have been very lucky, the total number has not reduced all that much!  They are all what we call 'teenagers' it comes so fast....they'll be out on their own having their own babies before you know it!! :)



Teenagers....the middle one looks like he has on galoshes!!




Growing up....so ugly he's cute



imitating mom! Almost as big as a duck! All 3 teenagers and Mom and Dad spent so much time eating the grass in our front yard....we won't have to cut the grass this week!!

Mom(or Dad?) is eating.....and watching!

Mom and baby ducks...they're teenagers too! All born about the same time, just before Mother's Day!!

Bath Time!!

The replanted princess lilies seem to be doing okay!!

The other lilies are starting to bloom in all the gardens!

Look at the size of this bloom!! It's a small tree but will have as many as 15-20 of these blooms on it...it's so pretty....reminds me of Sanibel Island!!

The premature Glad is about done!!

I thought I would take a couple of videos of the Ducks and Geese to share with you...it's almost like being here!!

::Hugs::

(Sorry about the look this time....Blogger is having issues!)