15 Cheatsheets For Smoothies, Juices, Sauces & Snacks

What is happening on my Facebook page? A proliferation of charts! Of what, you may ask? Cheatsheets on how to grow vegetables, make smoothies, sauces, green drinks and more!

They are nifty charts you can put in a Google image search to see if you can link them back to their original sources. They seem to be passed around on social media. For our blog purposes, they are just a collection of practical information, all neatly on a single post that we do not claim ownership of and are free for all to read. Enlarge the ones of interest to you ...

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1. Romaine Lettuce  Similar to celery. Keep the base of your romaine lettuce in a bowl with 1/2 inch of warm water. Let it sit in direct sunlight, and in a week or two, your lettuce stem will produce fresh, new lettuce leaves for all your great salads. Transplant your lettuce to soil to continue growing. They should be fully grown in 3 to 4 weeks. This process works for Bok Choy as well. 2. Garlic Sprouts Are those tentacles?! Nope, those long green things growing out of your garlic are green shoots. You can put them in a little water, under a lot of sunlight, and grow a bunch of garlic sprouts. They are milder in taste than garlic cloves and are great in salads, pasta, and as a garnish. 3. Carrots Plant the end of the carrot, and when it begins to sprout, take those seeds and plant them. Pretty soon, they will begin to sprout delicious greens from the top that are a nice addition to meals. Using a deeper container and more water, use toothpicks to keep carrots halfway in the water and wait for them to root. Once they root, you can plant them in your garden for a continuous supply! 4. Turnip Like carrots, cut off turnip tops and leave them in a shallow container with water until they begin growing roots. This can take a couple of weeks. Once they’ve sprouted, plant them outside the same way you would your carrots! 5. Sweet potato Unlike most vegetables, sweet potatoes aren’t started by seed but by slips (or shoots). Clean and cut a sweet potato in half, then place it half in/half out of a jar full of water using toothpicks. Over a few days, your sweet potato will begin to sprout slips at which point you remove them and place them in water to grow roots. You should have rooted slips with the week. Next, plant them in loose, well-drained soil and water every day in the first week, and then every other day (or as needed) the following weeks.

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1. Asian Honey Marinade  Ingredients:  1/4 cup soy sauce  1/4 cup honey   2 tablespoons rice vinegar  2 cloves garlic, minced  1 teaspoon grated ginger  1 tablespoon sesame oil Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Marinate chicken for 1-4        hours for a sweet, savory, and umami flavor. 2. Jalapeno Garlic Marinade  Ingredients:  1/4 cup olive oil  2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped  4 cloves garlic, minced  Juice of 1 lime 1 tablespoon honey Salt and pepper, to taste Instructions:  Mix ingredients well. Marinate chicken for 2-4 hours for a spicy and garlicky kick. 3. Italian Marinade  Ingredients:  1/4 cup olive oil  1/4 cup red wine vinegar   1 tablespoon Italian seasoning   2 cloves garlic, minced   1 teaspoon dried oregano   Salt and pepper, to taste   Instructions:   Combine and marinate chicken for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Expect a classic, zesty Italian flavor. 4. Fajita Marinade   Ingredients:   1/4 cup olive oil   Juice of 2 limes   1 tablespoon chili powder   1 teaspoon cumin   1/2 teaspoon paprika   1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)   2 cloves garlic, minced   Instructions:   Whisk ingredients together. Marinate chicken for 1-3 hours to get the vibrant, tangy, and spiced fajita flavor. 5. Honey Mustard Marinade   Ingredients:   1/4 cup Dijon mustard   1/4 cup honey   2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar   1/4 cup olive oil   Salt and pepper, to taste   Instructions:   Mix all ingredients. Marinate chicken for 1-2 hours. The result is sweet, tangy, and creamy. 6. Nashville Hot Marinade   Ingredients:   1/2 cup buttermilk   1/4 cup hot sauce   1 tablespoon paprika   1 tablespoon brown sugar   1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)   1 teaspoon garlic powder   Instructions:   Combine ingredients, and marinate chicken for at least 1 hour. Expect spicy, smoky, and slightly sweet notes. 7. Teriyaki Marinade   Ingredients:   1/3 cup soy sauce   1/4 cup brown sugar   2 tablespoons mirin (optional)   1 teaspoon grated ginger   2 cloves garlic, minced   1/4 cup water   Instructions:   Mix until sugar dissolves. Marinate chicken for 1-4 hours for a traditional, sweet-savory glaze. 8. Cilantro Lime Marinade   Ingredients:   1/4 cup olive oil   Juice of 2 limes   1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped   2 cloves garlic, minced   1 teaspoon cumin   Salt and pepper, to taste   Instructions:   Blend all ingredients. Marinate chicken for 30 minutes to 2 hours for a bright, zesty, and herbaceous flavor.

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The next 4 charts are healthy snack choices. Ideally a snack should be 100 - 200 calories. Protein snacks, including a handful of nuts, stop hunger in-between meals. At work I always got hungry at 4 PM, so began eating turkey sticks or almonds because pretzels, a carb, made me hungrier!  Protein is the better choice.

Fruit makes an excellent snack as well because fiber fills you up and takes time to digest. I consider fruit "free" food since it's packed with vitamins and doesn't add up to many calories. If I have a day I'm always hungry, I eat an apple, move onto a orange and if still hungry, follow up with a banana, or a pear, a handful of blueberries until my appetite stops bothering me!


Hope you learn a tip or two from these cheatsheets.

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City Gardener Extraordinaire

I work for a magazine. In early May I brought home a tiny bell pepper plant from a photo shoot, transferred it into a big flower pot, began watering it, added a weekly fertilizer and sat it in my windowsill just to see what would happen.

Later I bought sweet basil because herbs are like weeds, easy to grow. Than I received two free tomato plants [which I know] require a lot of sun to produce tomatoes. Still nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I transplanted both -- a male and female -- into a single large pot and tended to them too.

Now I have enough basil to make a pesto sauce and three bell peppers that are getting surprisingly big, mature enough to pick soon. The tomato plants have tripled in size. A dozen little yellow flowers have blossomed on each one, and I understand those turn into tomatoes. Had they been outside receiving 6-8 hours of full sun each day, tomatoes would be falling off the vines already. Regardless, I'm thrilled they're doing so well indoors. And plants are pretty. Even without the produce, all the greenery spruces up the apartment. So my experiment of growing the unlikely in flower pots is paying off. With a minimum of time, effort and experience, I'll actually serve fresh picked “garden” peppers, tomatoes and basil for dinner. And straight from my windowsill, I'll savor the sweet taste of success.

Update: Other easy to grow herbs include: mint, oregano, chives, sage, parsley and lavender. The red peppers and tomatoes were delicious! Another way to pollenate tomato plants -- and as it turns out all plants like air -- is to turn a fan on them. Most herbs need 4 hours of direct sunlight to live, but you can use an inexpensive fluorescent light to make up for not having enough sun.