Bountiful Basket Goodness

I have recently started participating in the bountiful basket co-op. To find our more go here. What you do is on Monday at 10:00 AM (for Utah) you get on the website and order your fruits and vegi's and any other packs you want. Then on Saturday you go to your assigned location and pick up your basket. This is what I have done so far.

One week they offered organic heirloom tomatoes. Yumm! I ate a lot of BLT's that week. I also made fresh tomato basil soup. This is when I made a fresh marinara sauce. I chopped up all of the tomatoes, some garlic, fresh basil, and some other herbs and spices and simmered it down to this...

I added a can of tomato paste to give it a little more flavor and then blended it up. froze some of it and used the rest in a lazagna.

I used the lazagna recipe that I posted a long time ago but added the fresh sauce and zucchini. In our conventional basket the same week we got zucchini. Both Mike and I are not huge fans of just plain zucchini as a side dish so I added it to the lazagna.

Can I just say it was the best lazagna I have every had in my life!

You also get a tone of fuit with your basket. I have loved getting mangos every week because I get to make this smoothie. I keep it pretty much the same but add different fruits each time. This one had:
2 freshly squeezed oranges.
1/2 carton blueberries
2 mangos
handful of strawberries
1/2 cup peach sorbet
handful of ice.
All of the produce came in my basket. One week they offered an 8lb. box of strawberries for $10. I got it and froze them. Now we have them for smoothies or ice cream.

We have family dinner at my mom's house once a month. This month I was in charge of bringing a salad. Usually my families idea of salad is jello with a thick layer of cool whip on top. I decided to use my offerings from my BB. I used a head of romain lettuce, 1 apple cut up, 3 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 lb. strawberries cut up, 1/2 carton blueberries. All of that came in the conventional basket. The star fruit which you see on top came in a tropical pack that was offered that week. So tastey and beautiful. That was the first Sunday that ALL of the salad was gone! I made a simple poppyseed dressing to go with it.

Some other favorite meals that I have made:
Fresh vanilla bean ice cream (we added some strawberrys to half and it was delicious also! I got the recipe off of Food Network)
Chyote squash pasta. (Found this recipe on Food Network and LOVED it. Like I said eailer Mike and I are not huge squash people...this was delicious. Plus I got to try a new vegitable that I have never had before.)
Mango Salsa (Emily's recipe)
Fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream (oneperfectbite.blogspot.com)
Fresh coconut cake (Food Network)
Apple pie
Banana crunch muffins (Paula Deen)

I don't know if we are eating healthier but we are cooking at home and eating out less...and the best part spending less on our groceries. It is nice to have fruits and vegitables as a part of every meal. Try it...I know you'll love it!