Sunday, January 29, 2012

Menu Plan Monday: Bountiful Baskets Ideas

Have you heard of Bountiful Baskets? It's wonderful way to feed your family fresh produce without breaking the bank. For $15, you get several in-season vegetables and fruits. You can also add onto your co-op order delicious bread ($12 for five loaves of nine-grain or organic Omega-3 Whole grain, which is made with honey, sunflower and flax seeds and of course whole wheat. It's delicious!), and themed packs. This week, I ordered an Asian pack and a Tropical pack. The Asian pack (for $8.50) included: 2 packs on green onions, onions and garlic, celery, ginger root, bok choy, Napa cabbage, fresh mint, snow peas, and six whole water chestnuts. The tropical pack ($10.50) came with a coconut, a pineapple, a plantain, fresh basil, limes, kiwi fruit, two vanilla beans, and two mangoes. The conventional pack ($15) included oranges, grapefruit, blueberries, apples, green beans, three red peppers and two green peppers, asparagus, onions, baby red potatoes, cabbage, and romaine lettuce.

Even though I consider myself a frugal shopper, I could never buy that much produce (or that kind of produce) for those prices. Plus, because I shop according to price, buying mostly what is on sale, I would probably never buy a coconut or bok choy and certainly not fresh herbs (except for cilantro and parsley, which are fairly cheap) on any given week because the price would eat up too much of my grocery budget. So we get to try things we wouldn't normally buy, and we are all healthier for it. It's fun!

Since I have a large amount of produce to use up in a short period of time, I am menu planning around my produce and any meat I still have in the freezer (plus a few protein items on sale at the store). Bountiful Baskets allows you to eat healthier, and save money. At our produce pick-up, the ladies in line next to me were commenting how much they've seen their grocery bills drop since ordering their baskets. Really, if you've eating more whole foods, and you're picking up your produce on the weekend, there is very little you need to get from the store (except for more whole foods ingredients to round out your meals, such as rice, meat/protein, dairy, etc.). Any time you can stay out of the store, you're instantly saving money (see this post and this one for more on this subject).

So here are some ideas for how I will be using all this wonderful produce this week (and into next):

(The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (Better Homes & Gardens Plaid) has fabulous recipes for using the vegetables)
 Breakfast Ideas:
 Lunch Ideas:
  • Chicken pasta salad (cook tri-colored rotini, drain and rinse with cold water, add Italian dressing, feta cheese, tomatoes, diced chicken, and any other veggies you'd like--cucumbers, olives, etc.)
  • BLT's on whole-grain bread
  • dinner leftovers most every day :)
  • or...use some dinner ideas for lunch ideas (stir-frys, etc).  
Dessert ideas:
One thing I'd love some help on, though--

Does anyone have any other ideas on how to use fresh mint?

(more menu planning ideas at orgjunkie.com)

34 comments:

  1. Food network has a great tilapia recipe
    That uses mint, citrus, and asparagus.
    thank you for the great idea s, especially the coconut shrimp.

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  2. Food network has a great tilapia recipe
    That uses mint, citrus, and asparagus.
    thank you for the great idea s, especially the coconut shrimp.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Shirley! I have some tilapia in the freezer so I will check that out. Is it pretty easy to find, or do you know exactly what it's called?

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  4. Really nice blog, thank you for sharing. I am wondering about the mint too. I didn't see you mention the vanilla beans from the tropical pack. I used mine to make vanilla sugar, super easy and is supposed to be yummy for deserts and coffee.

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  5. Hi anonymous, thanks for the kind words. Right now we are saving the vanilla beans. I may end up using them in cookies or baked goods calling for vanilla and/or may try making vanilla extract.

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    Replies
    1. Vanilla Extract is so easy, and delish. You really should try it. I did it with a medium grade Vodka, and it is amazing. You just have to be patient.

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  6. You could always make mint juleps as a special drink for lunch or dinner! It will use fresh mint leaves, as well as juice from your limes AND pineapples AND oranges!

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  7. Mint tea, mint ice cream, mint orange Julius

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  8. sharon napierJanuary 29, 2012

    Mint leaves make great tea. Warm, the tea helps calm nausea. I like to add a few mint leaves in to brew w/my regular tea bags for an added zing to iced tea. Mint leaves can be frozen in ice cube trays to add flavor & fancy up a pitcher of lemonade or punch bowl for a get-together.

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  9. Mint tea. And what about a mojito?

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  10. Cook some cous cous, add golden raisins, pine nuts and some chopped mint. Easy and delicious.

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  11. I cut up mint and put it in our fruit salad... Yum!!!

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  12. Stopping by from Menu Plan Monday...

    Bountiful Baskets sounds so amazing! We have a few similar things... we have some great CSAs in our area, as well as a conglomeration of farmers that offers goods for you to buy online with a credit card, and then you pick up one day a week. That is pretty cool.

    Anyway, I completely agree that staying out of the store keeps you from spending money. You can do SO MUCH with veggies and what is in your pantry/freezer. You get so creative when you stay out of the store.

    And you are AMAZING! Look at all of the recipes you are making with your box of goodies. I'm impressed and awed, and I love your ideas. So glad I found your blog!

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  13. Some tabbouleh recipes call for mint. That would use some, but not all. Also, what about putting it in spring rolls?

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  14. My first thought when I saw the limes and mint was MOJITOS!

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