Frugal Foodie Mama: Finally Got to #DigIn & Plant {& A Recipe for Spiced Pineapple Mojitos}

Friday, May 24, 2013

Finally Got to #DigIn & Plant {& A Recipe for Spiced Pineapple Mojitos}


I am so thrilled to have this opportunity to work with The Home Depot and to have received product to help make our dream of growing an organic edible garden a reality.

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Yes, yes... I know.  That looks tasty and refreshing, right?  ;)  I promise we will get to the recipe for my Spiced Pineapple Mojitos in just a sec.  But first we have to put in a little hard work, sweat just a little to earn one.  I mean, seriously.  This cocktail is the best ever to sip on your deck in the evening after a hard day of yard work or gardening.

And about that garden...
I am sure some of you all are curious as to how our attempts at growing an edible organic garden are going so far.  When we last left off, I was giving you all a glimpse of our shopping trip to the Home Depot to get everything that we would need to get started with our organic vegetable garden.

Since then we have tilled.  (Okay, not we.  The husband did. ;) )


And ended up with a nicely tilled, perfectly sized plot to start planting our garden in.  
Yep.  We were all ready to go.
And then five straight days of rain came.
And then a two night cold snap that made me glad we had not got our vegetables in the ground the weekend before like I had wanted to...

Yes, my entire vegetable garden still in there Bonnie pots are under those sheets.  Temperatures dipped below 30 degrees for two nights in a row.  
Craziness...


But I was able to at least get started on potting our herbs on the deck before the cold snap hit.  You all may remember when I was planning our edible organic garden that I wanted to keep all the herbs potted on the deck since the door off from the kitchen leads straight to the deck.  I love being able to just hop outside for a moment while making dinner or a salad and just snip off a few fresh herbs that I need.
I planted the basil and the parsley together on a deck mounted planter we found at our local Home Depot.  The mint got it's own pot.  I have grown mint before so I know of it's aggressive tendency to completely take over wherever it happens to be planted.  Potted by itself is best. ;)

Now, we did get the garden planted last weekend.  
Finally.  
I consulted The Home Depot Garden Club website to make sure I had the planting times, depths, and so forth correct before we started. 
We have 3 tomato plants in, 4 different kinds of peppers, cabbage, 4 mounds of cucumber seeds planted, 2 rows of carrot seeds in the ground, and we also planted spinach and lettuce from seed.  We reserved the bottom end of our garden plot for a small pumpkin patch for baby girl to enjoy come fall.

There hasn't been a ton of progress as far as growth goes yet.  The tomato, pepper, and cabbage plants look wonderful though, and we are still waiting for the seeds to sprout.  I would say by this time next week we will start see little seedlings popping up in rows. :)
(And why yes, I am wearing the super cute gardening gloves I just had to have from The Home Depot!)

But the one plant that has been doing well (as would be expected) is my mint plant...
And what can you make with fresh mint??
You got it, folks- Mojitos!! 
And not just any mojitos for us...
Spiced Pineapple Mojitos, please!

What you will need:
1 lime, quartered
handful of fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup of fresh pineapple chunks
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup of spiced rum (like Captain Morgan)
ice
Splash of club soda

Squeeze the juice from the lime quarters into a cocktail shaker.  Throw the quarters in there and then add in the mint leaves, pineapple chunks, and sugar.  Using a pestle or a wooden spoon, muddle together everything in the bottom of the cocktail shaker very well.  Then pour in the spiced rum.  Place the lid back on the shaker and shake, shake, shake.   Fill two smaller glasses with ice.  Pour the muddled rum mixture evenly into the two glasses.  I go ahead and pop in a little of the mint leaves and the pineapple chunks and lime quarters into each of the glasses.  Then just top off each glass with a little club soda and give it a quick stir. 

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And there you go!  Two refreshing Spiced Pineapple Mojitos to cool off and reward yourselves after a day in the garden. :)

Are you growing herbs this year?  Tell me you bought a mint plant, right? ;)

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.
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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.