1 package of sweet cherry tomatoes
2 bunches of collard greens
5 bananas
8 regular pears
2 asian pears
7 persimmons
2 heads of cauliflower
1 5lb bag +1 russet potatoes
1 bag of black seedless grapes
1 bag of fresh green beans
1 small bag of brussels sprouts
7 fuji apples (1 not pictured Isaballe grabbed it and I didn't realize till later that she had already munched half of it! haha!)
I thought I'd give you a little look at how I prep everything for the week. First of all don't throw these little tissue papers away!
If you store your pears on the counter in the same basket as apples (or even in the same refrigerator drawer with apples) you will need these little guys! You see apples let off ethylene gas as they ripen and that little tissue paper barrier will protect them from getting ripe and going bad too quickly. It will provide a little wall that the ethylene gas cannot penetrate. Also if you store your apples with greens or other veggies it could cause your greens to wilt and carrots to turn bitter! Not my idea of good food...So don't throw them out!
I also prepare as much as I can on Saturday when I pick up my basket so that there are no excuses when it comes to dinner time! This week the only prep work was to wash all the fruit. But usually there are veggies to chop and peal (I'll touch on this later). So I washed all of the apples, pears, and persimmons. Re-wrapped the pears and put them all in the fruit basket. One of my pears was missing its tissue paper...that one will just get eaten first!
Then I picked all the grapes off of the stem and washed them in a colander. I put them in a bowl with a paper towel in the bottom to soak up any excess water. Finally I put them in the fridge right at eye level. This way when we open the fridge because we are bored or just a tad hungry we see the grapes first and grab a handful of them instead of a handful of say M & Ms.
But I'd never do that, ha! j/k But a handful of grapes obviously has significantly less calories, more nutrients, and energy that lasts! This also makes packing snacks easier because grapes travel well. They are already washed so it takes 2 seconds to throw them in a baggie for the girls! My bowl has a couple extra red grapes on top leftover from what we bought last week. We usually eat at least 2 bags of grapes each week!
Usually we get lettuce in our basket. I'm not entirely sure why we didn't this week. Maybe the collards were instead of lettuce? I dunno. But I usually cut the lettuce for salads (smaller pieces) and sandwiches (the ends in bigger leaves) and wash it in our salad spinner. I then put it in a ziploc bag with a paper towel lining one side of it. The towel will grab any excess water and keep the lettuce crisp for sometimes up to 2 weeks! If it lasts that long. We usually eat at least 2 heads a week!
I do the same for any other veggies for carrots I'd peal and wash them, then cut into sticks. The sticks can then be eaten or chopped for a recipe. Celery I wash and cut into sticks. I don't generally do broccoli or cauliflower ahead of time because it tends to get stinky fast!
Our dinner meal plan for the week will look something like this:
Monday: Grilled thin cut porkchops, roasted cauliflower, baked potatoes, and a salad of some sort.
Tuesday: Pork stir fry using green beans, cauliflower, and onion (that I'll grab from the store) with some Trader Joes General Tso's sauce. Maybe I'll try to make some homemade egg rolls this night. If they turn out I'll post a recipe for you guys!
Wednesday: I think we'll try Ms. Jessica's @ How Sweet It Is brussels sprout salad although I will add grilled chicken to it for some added protein and to make this a "dinner entree" salad! We have ballet Wednesday so I need something quick for this night. I think this dinner salad will be quick!
Thursday: Pulled pork sammies in the crock pot with bb q sauce, with collard greens and a big salad. Although this recipe looks really good! We'll see how the week goes. If I've got tons of leftovers come Thursday we'll just eat leftovers for dinner and make this dip later on for a snack or dinner appetizer thing.
Friday: We are going out to dinner for my birthday. PF Changs, my favorite! Followed by a stop at Allegro's Gelato for half chocolate, half strawberry gelato. yummy!
Saturday: My Mom is here so I'm sure we'll be heading out somewhere for dinner. Either Chipotle (her favorite) or Grimaldi's Pizzeria (they sent me a free pizza for my birthday! gotta love free delicious pizza!). Also pick up day for a new basket!
Sunday: Chili topped baked potatoes and salad. I'll start chili in the morning and bake some potatoes to go with it! Along with a big hearty salad to finish up the rest of whatever veggies we have left!
We usually eat leftovers for lunch or a sandwich and veggies. So I don't plan those out for the week.
Breakfast at our house is the same every morning eggs of some sort (I like mine over easy, the hubby likes egg whites, and the girls scrambled) along with some veggie sausages, whole wheat toast, and fruit.
The other fruit will get eaten as snacks along the way. The grapes will be gone first along with the bananas and apples! I'm not entirely sure what to do with the persimmons yet being I've never tried them before. Do you guys have any ideas? If you do leave them in the comments and I'll try them out!
Seriously you cannot beat these prices for the amount of produce you get! If you happen to be in Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Texas, Arizona, or Nevada you have to try it out! You will not be let down.
If you have chance stop on by InspiredRD and check out Ms. Alysa's amazing little blog! She has been a really amazing friend, trainer and dietician. She and Ms. Aubrey (this amazingly motivating Momma) have helped me lose over 45 pounds since having Isabelle. My body has completely changed is so much more muscular and I feel 100 times better than I did before.
Oh, and by the way if you already get a basket they are changing ordering time to Monday/Tuesday instead of Tuesday/Wednesday. So ordering for Arizona will start at 9am Monday morning instead of Tuesday morning. This will start this coming Monday November 8.
Love and Hugs,
4 comments:
I wish so badly that they had this where we live...but they do have several co-ops. I really need to join.
Looks so tasty!!! I love your menu too.
So, I was a part of a long FB corespondence this weekend about Persimmons...here is the info! Scroll to very bottom for a wonderful autumn salad idea I found!
Peggy Hazard- Help! Got a boatload of persimmons in my bountiful basket today. I've never even eaten one before. Who has a good recipe?
Thomas E. Buchanan- Haven't made this, but it sounds like you can't go wrong. Make a simiilar date-nut bread, and loaf pans work fine:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1650,157172-231193,00.html
Abbey J. Pierson- meg made some persimmon bread a while back. they're good to eat, but i dont' think ours are ripe yet
Marti White- I did some research -- since I cannot use gluten in my kitchen, baking is a bit dicey, but I found a gluten free persimmon pecan cake -- looks moist and dense. What I also found out is that for baking a different variety of fruit is better than the one we got which is best eaten like an apple -- they didn't tell me when they were ripe though.I'm wondering if I can use a gluten free flour mix for Thomas's recipe which looks good.
David Cole- like an apple . . . in a salad . . . watch out for them seeds, which some Jewish scholars say are equal to the many names of J*H*OV*H
Peggy Hazard- Tom, this sounds good...will see what recipe my daughter used as well...this could be nice to have on hand for the holidays...or to gift.
Nancy Matayosian Brock- What's a persimmion? I just threw myself under the bus with that question!
Megan Thompson- Marti may be right...I think your kind are the apple eating kind (not baking kind)...you eat them when slightly crunchy...if they are the other kind (for baking) you wait till they are SOOOO mushy you are sure they must be rotten (can speed... this process in the freezer). I used the James Beard's recipe for persimons bread...I will find you the link.
Read this first though for info on determining your type (fuyu vs. hachiya)- and instruction on ripeness etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persimmon
Abbey J. Pierson- we got the eating kind. though i still think they're not quite ripe. mine are hanging out with some green bananas
Peggy Hazard- I found two recipes for persimmon (the kind we have) salad with pomegranate seeds (which we also received).
Monica Surfaro Spigelman- Persimmons are always on an Italian family holiday dessert table. Eat em plain, with nuts, cheese and wine if needed. Grew up with those lovely mushy sweet fruit.
Megan Thompson- Here is the recipe I used for my bread (for future reference since you guys got the OTHER kind of persimmons):
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/11/persimmon-bread/
This is some info (from the web page I have linked above) from David Lobovitz about the kind of persimmons YOU ALL GOT in your Boutiful Basket:
“the other common persimmon is the Fuyu, which is more squat than the Hachiya and matte-orange. Unlike the Hachiya, the Fuyu is meant to be eaten hard and is delightfully crunchy. I peel them, then mix pieces into an autumnal fruit salad along with dates, slices of Comice pears, pomegranate seeds and yes…even some bits of prunes!”
I think THAT salad sound amazing! Wishing I had been able to get a basket last week! Good luck everyone!
Looks amazing. Bring some over to my fridge and kitchen anytime :)
I'd love to hear how you like your brussel sprouts salad. I made a really yummy one last night!
Glad to see someone else posting their menu plan based on the Bountiful Baskets haul. I post a weight loss menu plan each week.
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