Bountiful Baskets April 21, 2018

As usual my kids and I purchased our share of produce from Bountiful Baskets. Just like any other Saturday morning we were up early and at the park at 7:45 a.m. to volunteer at our local drop point. Even though the number of baskets that were purchased was a bit on the low side we stil received a great variety of produce for the week.

This weeks baskets contained: 4 zucchini, 2 cucumbers, 1 bundle of asparagus, 2 bundles of cilantro, 2 bunches of broccoli, 10 russet potatoes, 1 mango, 2 kiwi, 7 granny smith apples, 7 oranges, 6 bananas & 1 lb strawberries. Each share costs about $18.00 for all the items I have listed. It really is such an amazing deal. Normally for my family I purchase 2 shares so I receive double of the items listed and it lasts my family of 4 adults for just over a week.

I know that 2 shares seems like alot of produce for a family of 4. Trust me, we go through alot of produce. My husband has had some health issues and as a result we eat alot of fresh fruit and vegetables and Bountiful Baskets is an extremely cost effective way for me to make sure he is eating a healthy diet and as an added bonus the rest of us are eating healthy too.

This week I am really pleased to have the oranges, I love oranges and I eat them every morning with my breakfast, I quarter them and include them in my husband’s lunch daily as well. I am generally the only one who eats bananas and I will take one with my lunch daily. What I can’t eat before they get to brown goes into the freezer, my daughter will use them in smoothies. Kiwi are a favorite of my daughter and husband. My husband likes to put them in his multi grain cheerio’s and milk. Now for the mango… This time of year we tend to get alot of them in or baskets and we really don’t love them. I can chop them up and put them into a fresh salsa when I am having pork carnitas taco’s but normally my daughter just chops them up into her smoothie so that we don’t waste them. The granny smith apple’s will be peeled and chopped and put into my crock pot for applesauce. My daughter and husband both like chunky applesauce and making it myself I know exactly what is in it. We do love apples and many nights with dinner or for snacks I will slice apples, but granny smith aren’t our favorite apple to just eat plain. The strawberries will be used a few different ways. Tomorrow I will be making strawberry shortcakes, we will also eat them alone, on oatmeal, and in fruit salad or frozen and used in smoothies.

The vegetables are pretty straight forward. The broccoli we will steam to eat as a side dish, or it will be included in dishes like a stir fry or maybe fettucini alfredo. Broccoli is my favorite vegetable so it never goes to waste around here. The asparagus (which is one of my son’s least favorites) will be roasted with garlic, a little olive oil and Trader Joe’s 21 seasoning salute seasoning blend (this is a salt free seasoning). The cucumbers will be eaten alone or in a salad with some left over green leaf lettuce from last week’s basket. The potatoes will be either baked (like we had tonight), roasted with other veggies, mashed, or fried with onions and garlic. The cilantro is a favorite of ours, I will most likely use it in cilantro lime rice this week as a side dish. The one vegetable I am not thrilled about is the zuccini. Our family really doesn’t like squash at all and most of the time we just give it away to the other volunteers but this week I brought home 4 of them. My daughter wants to try to make zoodles with them. We’ll see how that turns out…

If you are looking for a pretty inexpensive way to include more fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet, check out Bountiful Baskets. They are a wonderful option for families wanting to eat healthy and want to stretch their grocery budget. Check them out at www.bountifulbaskets.org and for more information on them check out this post https://oursimpledays.com/bountiful-baskets/

*This post does not contain any affiliate links.