Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sunday Dinner & Bountiful Basket

Have I told you about Bountiful Baskets?  It is a co-op of fruit & vegetable buying that costs $16.50 a week to participate.  For my family of 5 (since one child is at college) I get it every other week.  This week we had the following bounty:
Fruits: Mangos, bananas, plums, blackberries, Crenshaw & nectarines
Vegetables: Cucumber, green onion, tomato, broccoli, kale, cauliflower

We ate the blackberries immediately and are gradually eating the nectarines, plums, bananas and mangoes.  My sous chef cut up the Crenshaw into bite size pieces.  What is a Crenshaw you ask?  Well when a mommy honeydew and a daddy cantaloupe love each other very very much, they produce a Crenshaw.  Seriously, if you close your eyes you aren't quite sure what you are eating.  It is DELICIOUS!

My almost-college daughter said she likes cutting up vegetables so we think maybe she will be a sous chef someday.  She has problems with baking and cooking sometimes so a sous chef would be a great job for her to have.  So, sous chef then cut up the broccoli (which we used in Broccoli Beef for Sunday dinner) and cauliflower for easy snacking.  I cut up the green onion and put it in a Ziploc bag in the fridge and used some in the Orange Chicken for Sunday dinner. 

Oh, and while prepping all the food yesterday I made Kale Chips.  Found the recipe here: Kale Chips

So we had Broccoli Beef & Orange Chicken with rice and the leftover Crenshaw fruit cut up.  It was a most delicious dinner and with the help of my 16-year-old son, who loves to help me cook and the help of my neighbor that had vegetable oil for me to borrow (sometimes my prepared pantry is missing an item) we ate in mighty fine style.

As we were prepping the food yesterday, my girl said that since starting the bountiful baskets we eat healthier than we did before.  She said she loves having the fresh food on hand.  I agree.  See if your neighborhood has a Bountiful Basket co-op!