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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Our Organics Plan + This Week's Produce

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Our Switch-to-Organics Plan

I had been wanting to make the switch to organic produce for quite sometime, but it was always so darn expensive and I just didn't feel like we could afford it. So when I started couponing, I realized that maybe we'd finally be able to save enough that we could start purchasing it. We decided to take the plunge after watching The Coupon Project's webcast about saving on organics.

Between the webcast and doing some research of our own, we decided we ultimately wanted to end up feeding our family a primarily organic diet. Our goal: to be eating organic produce, dairy, grains, and meat by the time we have kids eating solid foods. Not having started a family yet, we knew we had some time to make this transition happen and forth came our switch-to-organics plan. We decided to tackle one food category at a time (one of the great suggestions in the webcast). Since I had been wanting to transition to organic produce anyways, it seemed the natural place to start (and maybe one of the cheaper places).

Utilizing some of the resources suggested in the webcast, I found Terra Organics, a produce delivery service that brings fresh organic produce to your door every week (or less often if you desire). We are absolutely loving the service and our intake of produce has more than tripled!


This Week's Box

Fruits
2 Ataulfo Mangoes
2 Bartlett Pears
1 Lemon
1 Lime
2 lbs of Murcott Mandarins
2 Honey Spice Apples

Vegetables
1 bunch of Celery
1 lb of Carrots
1 bunch of Baby Broccolini
1 bunch of Arugula
1 bunch of Kale



A few of my ideas for using the produce

I got the mangoes with the intention of using in breakfast smoothies! I plan to cut and freeze them since I love to make my smoothies with frozen fruit as opposed to fresh (comes out a lot thicker that way!) Anyways, usually I toss 6-8 strawberries, 1/4 cup mangoes, half of a frozen banana, 1/2 cup orange juice, 1 cup vanilla yogurt, and 1/2-1 scoop of protein powder in the blender and voila: healthy, filling breakfast!

Tonight I used the baby broccolini (plus some of last week's left over vegetables) in my Cheesy Tuna Veggie Casserole. It was a big hit with the guys at family dinner! I made a double batch and there was only one serving left when we were done, which hubby plans to take for lunch tomorrow!

The last idea I'm sharing I haven't actually tried yet, but am very excited to! I was searching around for recipe ideas and stumbled upon an organic recipe for whole wheat pizza crust. The recipe also includes topping ideas, one of them being argula. I don't think I've eaten argula before, but I've been wondering about it. So when I saw this homemade pizza recipe, I jumped on it! I'm hoping to try it out Sunday or Monday for dinner. We'll have to see what the results are!



1 comments:

  1. Hannah Stevens said...

    i love making homemade pizza dough and i have a great recipe that i thought i'd post for you.

    Pizza Dough
    2 1/4 tsp. yeast (one packet)
    1 cup of warm water
    1 TB. sugar
    1 tsp. salt
    2 TB. olive oil
    3 cups flour (can substitute half of the white flour for whole wheat flour)

    Dissolve sugar and yeast in the warm water and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes. In a bowl measure out about 2 1/2 cups of flour and leave out the last half of a cup to add is as you knead the dough. Then add the salt and olive oil. When the yeast is ready, pour it in with the flour mixture and knead the dough, adding in the remaining flour as needed. Form the dough into a ball and put it in a greased bowl to rise. Let it double in size, then punch it down. Spread it out over a cookie sheet and let it rise for 15 to 30 minutes. Press it down, then add the desired toppings. Bake at 450 degrees until the edges are golden brown. And enjoy!

    Love you Erica! Enjoy! :)

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