Monday, April 26, 2010

Baskets of Plenty!


Bountiful Baskets!


Anyone who knows me, knows that I kind of
"march to my own drum"
and I don't do every little "trendy" thing that comes around.
However,
I can't believe the wonderful service that we have available to us.
It is called "Bountiful Baskets"
and you get around 30 pounds of fruits/vegetables for $16.50.
Here is a link to the Bountiful Baskets website:
(click here)

You order on Monday nights on the website and then you pick up your produce on Saturdays (at your choice of location).
There are many locations in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Washington that have this available.

Our Saturday pick up is just 3 miles away from our house.

I have been thrilled each and every Saturday we have done this.
GREAT produce at a GREAT price!

I have had several friends
that have been a little nervous about doing this as they didn't know if their kids would like everything, or if there would be "scary" things to eat, so I thought I would share some of the yummy things we got and the ways that I put these yummy things to use to feed my family.
Along with us each having apples, bananas, oranges assorted berries or pineapple to eat each day, here are the many things we have made to enjoy our Bountiful Baskets to the fullest.

Since our family LOVES fresh produce
it is has been a treat to have yummy salads to eat each week as there are always yummy things for salad fixins' in the baskets.

This is the first basket we purchased...
the little orange things were "Kumquats" and such a unique and interesting treat.
We had 3 bunches of asparagus that were SO yummy too.
EVERYTHING was yummy that we got!

SMOOTHIES
are a big hit in our family and to have smoothies each week has been a real treat!

We steamed up Asparagus
for dinner, but then decided to steam it up and put it on top of our scrambled eggs with Swiss Cheese...YUMMY!

A delicious lunch...
we took a tortilla and spread cream cheese and mustard on it...
put slices of tomatoes, avocado, lettuce and grilled chicken breasts and rolled it into tortilla wraps.
The kids REALLY loved this!

Need I say more...
We are enjoying mouth watering salads each and every week.
Since we don't have a garden right now, this is VERY much a treat we enjoy!

We got 2 Mangoes our first week
and I finally got to try my hand at cutting a Mango.
Both of my boys foundered on this delicacy!

What kid doesn't love
"Ants on a log"!


Minestrone Soup
(For recipe, click here)

(we got a bunch of "Orange Cauliflower"
and so that is why it is orange)
Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup
(For recipe, click here)

Week 2...
the kids were THRILLED to have corn on the cob to eat in March!

Whatchagot Soup
(For recipe, click here)

Broccoli Soup & Broccoli Salad
(For Salad recipe, click here)

Meat Ball Stew with Winter Vegetables
(For recipe, click here)

Week 3...
Ethan was snitching an apple as I snapped this photo.
I am truly amazed how much children LOVE things that nourish their bodies. If they are given a choice for a piece of fruit, or candy, they always choose fruit.

Wild Rice Soup
(For recipe, click here)

I made up a batch of Poppy Seed Dressing
for Ethan's Baptism dinner and we have been using this yummy dressing on our weekly salads!
Jade is thrilled
when there are salad leftovers and he can take a salad to eat for part of his lunch at school.

Ethan was grabbing chunks
of his steamed Swiss Chard before we even got our pasta dish put on the plate.
He asked for seconds and LOVED it!

This is what we got on April 24th!
Looking forward to putting this to good use this week.

Tracy made up a pancake breakfast
for lunch after church today and I cut up bananas and pineapples and made fruit kabobs to go with our pancakes.
I had to make up a second batch because they begged for more.

In a nutshell,
I am loving Bountiful Baskets and Tracy and I are SO close to getting one of our debts paid off that for the next three months the only shopping we are going to do is to buy a weekly Bountiful Basket and a gallon of milk every other week.
Between living off our food storage and supplementing our diet with "Fresh" produce from our weekly basket we will be able to get a debt paid off in three months instead of six months.

Have a Happy, Healthy and Nutritious week and hopefully you will try and like Bountiful Baskets as much as me and my family do.

8 comments:

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

There have been so many people at work that are talking about it, that I tried to order....without success. Apparently they are having a few glitches on the computer.....because I'm SURE it can't be OPERATOR error!

Your baskets look like they are fabulous. The hospital has been set up to be a drop off so I know that I'm not going to have an excuse now.

Thanks for sharing that. I'm getting excited to give that a try. Everyone says the quality is outstanding and I'm certainly ready for some FRESH produce.

Hope you have an awesome week. (I'd better go pay attention to the hubs...he's getting ready to leave to leave for two weeks to Canada...I hate when he's gone)

PS..Your Wild Rice Soup looks absolutely yummy. I think that's going to be a meal this week.

Candace said...

That is soo cool about being even closer to getting your debt paid off. I am so proud of you guys!! I love to see all that you made with the produce! You got a bit different stuff that we did.

Connie said...

I just heard about it yesterday! I'm going to take advantage of it. Your meals are making my mouth water! You're so inventive, frugal, and a good cook! I'm amazed at what you do even while working full time and keeping a blog!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

CB said...

I too have heard so many people talk about this and have actually had people send me e-mails about it.
We do not have a site close to us yet - but I know it won't be long the way it is growing!
That is neat that it is only 3 miles from your house - It all looks SO good!!
And looking at all your yummy pictures just makes me wish you could adopt me - Ha Ha - You truly are a magnificent cook and wonderful mother!!

Ann Marie said...

This is soo funny. My MIL just called me today to tell me all about this. It looks delicious.. and I hear it has great results.. ( people are always happy.. ) anyway.. I guess they are doing this with breads also.. so people can get nutricious breads they love. I will have to check into it!

All of the food you made looks so yummy! I am all about fresh foods.. and every single thing looked yummy!!

What a lucky family that has you for a mother to always provide such yummy food! :)

Brenda said...

I do the bountiful baskets here in AZ too! Love it! You sure make all the veggies look good...better!! Thanks for all the reciepes! It sure feels good to have a plan and stick to it...Good LUCK!

CreativeMish said...

Doesn't look like its in South West Idaho yet... I'll keep watching for it..

Our Paper Plates said...

You make your own poppy seed dressing!?! Amazing! Do you mind sharing the recipe since it costs us an arm and a leg to buy the actual dressing. Thanks!