Bountiful Baskets

 We have discovered something great here in our corner of Oklahoma. It is called Bountiful Baskets. Truth be told this something great is probably available in your own corner of wherever you are. I highly recommend checking it out and getting signed up. The basic concept is this:
On Monday you get online around noon (or whatever time your local site goes live). You pick what you want. They have different options such as an organic or a nonorganic basket. Then there are different add-ons. In the past there have been 15 lbs (36) organic tomatoes, a citric box, and an Italian add on. Those are the ones that we have done but there are many more options usually. You pay for it all online and on the following Saturday you will go to the site listed for your area and pick it up. It is amazing and simple! And the whole way home your car smells amazing! This has been worth every penny we have put into it. It has greatly helped our grocery budget!! We have been trying to become more aware about what we are eating and keeping around the house. This has been the perfect way to do that. Now I plan the meals I fix around what is in our basket. Often we have a dinner that consists of organic black bean hummus, organic salsa, fruit and veggies. It is delish, simple and refreshing!
I've added pictures of our last two pick ups. I'll list the price we paid and what was in them. I don't have the details for the last few pictures.... but they are pretty nonetheless. (I LOVE my new Iphone4! I take pictures all the time now!!)
Enjoy!!


This is our CONVENTIONAL Basket. It was $15 and contains:

• 8 (lunch sized) Gala Apples 
• 6 BIG green peppers (can't remember their real name) 
• 5 Kiwi
• 1 Pineapple 
• 1 Cantaloupe (I ate half today for lunch... Yum!) 
• 2 Bunny Mangos ( I don't care for Mangos but the hubs LOVES them!!) 
• 2 English Cucumbers 
• 1 head of living butter lettuce 
• 1 bag butter potatoes (I think I'm going to roast them!) 
• 3 heads broccoli
• 2 dozen brussels sprouts (This is the only thing we have ever gotten that neither one of us will eat... so we are giving them to some friends!) 

All that... $15. You can't even do that at Wal Mart! 

 This is the Asian Themed add-on. It was $8.50 and had:

• BIG Bok Choi 
• Celery
• 2 onions
• 1 head fresh garlic
• bag of snap peas 
• a fancy Asian herb that smells like licorice 
• Fresh water chestnuts 
• Green Onions 

This basket is going to require some exploration and research for me. I don't like anything that smells like licorice, tastes like water chestnuts or even know what to do with bok choi. But... I'm up for the challenge and need to find some chop sticks for a date night at home this weekend! 

These are the FRESH water chestnuts. I have never seen them ... I'm curious about how I will make them or if I will like them. I'm thinking stir fry... 

 I don't know if I like it but this is Bok Choi... but isn't this beautiful!!

 The ORGANIC Basket. This one was $25.00 and has:

• Beautiful leave lettuce 
• 3 heads broccoli
• green chard (not sure what it is but I think it looks like a type of lettuce)
• 2 beautiful yellow peppers 
• small box of blue berries (fact - I didn't like fresh blueberries until we started doing Bountiful Baskets. Now I love them for a snack!) 
• Strawberries 
• 7 Tomatoes 
• 3 Kiwi 
• 3 Ambrosia Apples 
• 1 Pineapple (dinner tonight)
• 2 cucumbers 
• 6 of the cutest onions

How pretty is this?!?! OH my heavens!! 

If my body could handle it ... I would live on fruit alone! 

Why OH why does Pineapple have to be so hard to get into? 

These are the Organic tomatoes that I got. I roasted some and made homemade Spaghetti sauce and used some to make organic salsa. (more on that later!) 

This was our citrus box! There were these things called Pumellos in there. They were yummy but So hard to eat. Like a difficult grapefruit! 

Cucumbers, cherrie tomatoes, onions, baby carrots... YUUUUUMO! 

Kiwis, mangos, apples and oranges! 

This was an Italian add-on that we did. It had amazing basil, parsley, onion, bay leaves, lemons and EGGPLANT!! I made the best Eggplant Parmesan out of this stuff!! 

All that green!! Who am I?? This use to make me cringe... now my heart gets all happy!! I love it!! 

I am so excited to see what our spring and summer baskets hold. They are sure to be even yummier than the fall and winter ones. We now have our "Bountiful Basket Monday" marked on the calendar so we don't forget to order. One of the best things is that over half the people I saw there this Saturday go to Church with me. We even made the joke that next time we just need to bring our Bibles and have someone say a message and we can all sleep in on Sunday! :)