All posts in category Bountiful Baskets

Food Budget Week 2

I think we bought a little more than expected this week.  There were 4 trips to the store, plus I bought a Bountiful Basket this week.  I can’t remember the last time I got a basket!  Unfortunately, there were a lot of duplicates from what I had bought at the store.  We went back to Sprouts and got a case of oranges for $8, plus apples were on sale for 49 cents a pound so I got a bunch of those.  And of course the basket had oranges, apples, and celery (I now have 3 bunches of celery in the fridge :lol: ).  I was happy with the basket overall though.  We also got mini peppers, grape tomatoes, brussels sprouts, avocados (though mine don’t look too good), strawberries, oro blanco grapefruits, and bananas.  I think that’s it?!  I’m going to order another next week and maybe even volunteer too.

SAM_0546

Okay, here’s what else we bought:

  • Co-op produce and grass-fed beef $32.54 – I haven’t been getting an emailed itemized receipt for some reason and I don’t remember individual prices.  I did get parsnips, beets, cucumbers, zucchini, mozzarella, cheese curds, and 3 pounds of ground beef.  
  • Apples $4.22
  • Celery $1.76
  • Pre-cut and bagged rainbow chard $1.99
  • Salad mix $3.69
  • Mushrooms $1.69
  • Oranges $8.00
  • Butter $14.68 – overboard yes.  They had Kerrygold butter at Costco and I wanted to try it, plus we got our regular organic butter there.
  • Cottage cheese $5.00
  • Sour cream $2.69
  • 2 Organic chickens $22.86
  • Cashews $6.99
  • Coffee $11.69
  • Organic mayo $3.49
  • Pistachios $4.99
  • Whole wheat rolls and pitas $4.68 – yes this is somewhat of a cheat on the real food rules, but I didn’t have time to make my own and I’m not being anal ;)
  • Crackers $5.86

So we ended up spending $157.60.  Yikes!  That is $32.60 over the budget for the week.  We did spend less last week but I wanted to keep it lower still this week.  There was a lot of stuff we definitely didn’t need on here too, like the nuts and crackers and probably even the meat.  We also bought the meat CSA for $180 too.  Ah well, I’ll try and do better this week for sure.  We shouldn’t need much stuff, if anything.  It feels like the fridge is bursting with produce and leftovers, and the fruit basket is full ( the pantry too).  I am going to do my best to just not go shopping unless we REALLY need something!!

I guess there is a bright side though.  I know we would definitely be spending even more if I wasn’t tracking this stuff!

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by Lauren on January 13, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Bountiful Baskets, Budget, Food, Goals, Life

Posted by Lauren on January 13, 2013

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/food-budget-week-2/

Food & Budget 3.17

We checked out the Community Food Co-op’s Market Sale this week on Thursday.  I liked it!  I think I would do this regularly versus ordering, I guess because we don’t really use that much prepared stuff and are pretty picky with our meat.  Anyway, we got a few things and spent $34. Not bad, considering the tamales were $5 for each package.  I also wanted to try the eggs even though they are a little pricey.  I can get a dozen and a half for under $3 at Costco and I mostly use them for baking, sometimes breakfasts.  We’ll see how I like them.  Anyway!  We got:

  • 3 pounds of strawberries for $4.05
  • Cabbage $1.00
  • Celery $.77
  • Red bell peppers $1.72
  • 6 grapefruits $2.22
  • Mushrooms – white and portabello – $2.84
  • 5# bag of potatoes $1.62
  • dozen eggs $3.75
  • 3 packages tamales $16.89

The tamales were not really my idea by the way, but The Boyfriend loves them.  Not bad though, still.

We also bought an organic Bountiful Basket.  It had:

Pineapple, blueberries, apples, oranges, cabbage, green onions, tomatoes, green beans, mushrooms lettuce, bok choy, and carrots.

We also went shopping and bought:

  • Avocadoes $4.99
  • Green Beans $1.27
  • Cilantro 1.00
  • Green onions $.50
  • Habaneros $1.44
  • Jalapenos $.69
  • Org. Romaine $1.50
  • Onions $.25
  • Oranges $1.02
  • Mozzarella $7.99
  • Gallon heavy cream $10.99 (Need to make butter again!)
  • Gallon milk $4.99
  • Small Yogurt $1.59 (To make more yogurt)
  • Shredded coconut $6.59
  • Coconut flour $7.68
  • 50 pounds Kamut berries $43.95
  • Dried figs $7.99
  • 8 pack of Hansen’s Soda made with cane sugar $3.99
  • Apple cider vinegar $1.79
  • Vanilla $6.89
  • Whole wheat pasta $9.79
  • Pistachios $14.49
  • Frozen berries $10.99

Ok so this was not great!  But we did do some stocking up so I guess it’s okay, and we spent less the last two weeks.  I did buy some impulse items too.  I need to try harder next week :)  The total we spent on food groceries was about $226.50.  Yikes!

We also now have way too much mushrooms, celery cabbage, apples, oranges, and green beans!  I should have known better than to go to the co-op before the basket pickup :lol:  Oh well!  Time to look for ideas and recipes to get them all gone.  I also don’t think I will do any co-op baskets until we go through some more of our canned fruit.  I don’t want any to go to waste, and we still have some applesauce and peaches left.  So I will probably skip next week and just do the sales flyers.

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by Lauren on March 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Bountiful Baskets, Budget, Community Food Co-op, Good Food, Happiness, Health, Life, Local, Unprocessed challenge

Posted by Lauren on March 17, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/food-budget-3-17/

Food and Budget 3.10 – Will Work for Kale

I volunteered for my Bountiful Basket today.  It went well and I even got a little bit of a workout carrying boxes and doing lots of squats :)  I got kale as my extra!  We just got a conventional basket this week, still had lots of produce in the fridge from last week.  Here is what we got in the basket:

Bananas, pineapple, apples, oranges, blueberries, carrots, green onions, romaine, more kale, asparagus, cucumbers, mini sweet peppers, and anaheim peppers.  It was a pretty good amount of stuff.

In the past week I really really tried to not go shopping.  We did have to get a few things but not much.  I bought:

  • The basket of course $16.50
  • Carrots 20# I think? from Costco $5.79
  • Garlic $.23 – 2 pounds for 99 cents at Rancho!
  • Onions $.68 – 6 pounds for 99 cents at Rancho!
  • Spinach from Costco $3.89
  • Cheese $10.30
  • Milk $7.28 – we bought a gallon and a half – I made lots of yogurt.
  • Heavy Cream $3.79
  • Eggs $5.98
  • Pork belly from Caputo’s $18.52
  • Corn Starch $2.79
  • Chocolates $1.20
  • Olives $4.64
  • Ancient grains cereal from Costco $6.99

So the total spent this week was $88.48.  Not too bad, considering we went to Caputo’s!!  We usually walk out of there with at least $50 worth of stuff :lol:  I really wanted some olives and pork belly though.  I will try not to go there until next month just to be safe!

I want to share more of what I’m making this week and possibly even do some planning for the week.  I guess I need to to make sure we get all of this stuff used up!  I do see a lot of salads in my future…

Have a great weekend!

 

 

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by Lauren on March 10, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Bountiful Baskets, Budget, Good Food, Happiness, Health, Life, Unprocessed challenge

Posted by Lauren on March 10, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/food-and-budget-3-10-will-work-for-kale/

Food and Budget 3.3

I am proud to say that I didn’t go to the grocery store and buy food this week!!  We had plenty of food and I really didn’t need to go.  We did go and buy doughnut pans, but that doesn’t count ;)  The doughnuts were meant to be!

Anyway, here is what we spent over this past week.  Our grand total with the baskets and groceries is about $62!!!  (Without taxes)

  • Avocados $4.99 at Costco
  • Grapefruit $6.00 at Sunflower – they were 4/$1 which is the lowest I’ve seen in a while and we still have a bunch!
  • Gallon milk $4.99 – this made 10 cups of yogurt and the rest we drank :)
  • 1 1/2 dozen eggs $2.99

Wow!  I did awesome :)

We also got 2 baskets from Bountiful Baskets – 1 organic and 1 conventional.  I’m thinking this will last us into next week, so I’m not sure if I’ll get another basket for next weekend or not.  We’ll see.  I was very happy with the amount of produce we got!

Here is the conventional basket.  We got bananas, pineapple, yukon gold potatoes, cantaloupe, apples, kiwis, cucumbers, butter lettuce, anaheim peppers, green bell peppers, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and atulfa mangoes.

In the organic we got swiss chard, green leaf lettuce, broccoli, pineapple, roma tomatoes, apples, small yellow onions, zucchini, kiwis, bell peppers, apples, strawberries, and blueberries.

I will have to come up with some ideas to use all of this stuff, besides snacking on fruit for ALL snacks :lol:  We still have grapefruits, kiwis, bananas, and mangoes left from last week!  It’s good though, we all need to be eating more fruit and veggies.  If I come up with some kind of meal plan I’ll post that too.

Have a great weekend!!

 

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by Lauren on March 3, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Bountiful Baskets, Budget, Diet, Good Food, Happiness, Health, Life, Unprocessed challenge

Posted by Lauren on March 3, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/food-and-budget-3-3/

Food and Budget 2.25

Well folks, this has been another big spending week.  I guess I wasn’t really serious about sticking to the budget this week!  I won’t say that I’m definitely going to this week either.  When I’m ready I’ll do it :lol:  We ended up putting in an order on Nuts.com for some dried fruit and powders, and in the interest of saving on shipping I got 10 pounds of stuff!  I also ordered an organic basket from Bountiful Baskets this week.  I just went to the store(s) too many times, and I couldn’t resist over buying.  Oh well.  We didn’t spend all of our other grocery budget so it evens out.  I still would eventually like to get back to not overspending.

So here is what we got in the basket this week:

Bananas, kiwis, oranges, mangoes, apples, a pear, romaine lettuce, zucchini, fingerling potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, bell peppers, tomatoes.  I think this was a pretty good basket.  I’m glad I was able to show some restraint with the vegetables at the grocery store :lol:

What we also bought:

PRODUCE:

  • Bell peppers – $3.30 – the yellow and orange were so pretty and on sale!
  • Cabbage $.66
  • Organic celery $1.50
  • Cucumbers $.99
  • Garlic $.94
  • Medjool dates $8.49
  • Grapefruit $2.00
  • Habaneros $1.26
  • Organic romaine $3.00
  • Key limes $.44
  • Yellow onions $2.39
  • Pasilla peppers $.68
  • Organic baby spinach $3.89

DAIRY:

  • Organic butter $4.99
  • Gruyere $11.33
  • Heavy cream $11.32 – a gallon!!

MEAT/EGGS:

  • Organic chicken $22.56
  • Eggs $2.99
  • Organic ground turkey  $15.17

GROCERY:

  • Organic sugar (not that we are out :lol: ) $11.49
  • Brown rice noodles $2.99
  • Coconut oil $13.98
  • Masa $6.97
  • Wasabi paste $1.99
  • Crackers $9.98
NUTS.COM
  • 2 pounds dried cranberries
  • 1 pound dried blueberries
  • 2 pounds chlorella powder
  • 1 pound dried plums
  • 2 pounds mesquite powder
  • 1 pound gummy bears
  • 1 pound candy drops
Things to note:
  • I tried the Rancho market this week because they had some irresistible prices on some produce.  I got 20 limes, 5 heads of garlic(!), 6 pasilla peppers, and a dozen really nice habaneros.  I could have also gotten a great deal on oranges and onions but didn’t really need them yet.  I will watch for the next flier and probably go there again.
  • The cream was bought at the Winder Country Store`.  I don’t really like going there since it is an old smelly building :lol: , but I wanted a lot of cream to try making butter with.  Which I did!  It worked great and I figure I saved quite a bit of money doing that.  I can go into that in another post.
  • By the end of the week we finally came close to using up all of our stored onions.  We bought a 50 pound bag of yellow onions and a 10 pound bag of red onions last October, and they lasted us until now!!  We are definitely doing that again this year.  It was kind of weird having to buy them after so long!
  • We bought meat at Costco.  I don’t normally do that, but I thought we’d give the organic chicken a try (it’s been a while) and we found the turkey there as well.  I don’t know if I’m completely down with ground turkey, but we used it for tacos and it was pretty good. The second package and chicken went into the freezer for another day.
  • Nuts.com – The candy!  I know, but it is made with evaporated cane juice and completely natural flavorings, like from fruit.  I guess I was feeling deprived?  I don’t know :lol:  Anyway we are NOT eating any until after our Unprocessed Challenge is over!!

Ready for the grand total?  With the online stuff we spent just over $175.  Way too much.  But we got all of that bulk stuff so I guess considering that it isn’t too bad.  Can only go up from here!

 

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by Lauren on February 25, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Bountiful Baskets, Budget, Food, Life, Local, Unprocessed challenge

Posted by Lauren on February 25, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/food-and-budget-2-25/

Food and Budget 2.18

Not a stellar week as far as the budget goes!  I overspent a lot.  The food items total a whopping $184!!  I did buy a few bulk items which helped spike the total.  We also took a trip to Kitchen Kneads for baking items.  Here is what we spent:

Organic Co-op produce $26.50

Produce

  • Asparagus $.94
  • Bell Peppers $1.61
  • Cilantro $.69
  • Dates $8.49
  • Ginger $1.11
  • Asst. herbs $5.18

Dairy

  • Buttermilk $3.69
  • Cotija cheese $4.99
  • Cream $3.79
  • Milk $6.00
  • Sour Cream $2.69
  • Yogurt (to make my own) $1.59

Grocery

  • Oat flour $3.51
  • Vital wheat gluten $3.06
  • Barley Malt (for fun) $7.82
  • Balsamic vinegar (Costco) $10.99
  • Cashews $6.10
  • Baker’s chocolate $3.79
  • Shredded Coconut $5.38
  • Chipotle Tabasco $3.79 – I want buffalo pizza lol
  • Peanut butter (online special, this was for 6 jars) $32.55
  • Poppy seeds $6.99
  • Sesame seeds $4.85
  • Canned tomatoes $7.69
  • White vinegar $3.59
  • Walnuts $16.89

I guess I should figure out just how cost effective it is or isn’t to make my own yogurt.  I don’t know if it matters though, since I love the yogurt I make.  We spent quite a bit on dairy – I wouldn’t normally be buying buttermilk but I did want to make some ranch dressing.  Worth it to me :lol:  We’ve had plenty of produce, heck we even had some this week left from 2 weeks ago!  The peanut butter I got through Open Sky, there was free shipping and I’ve gotten the peanut butter before and we really liked it.  I don’t normally buy from Open Sky but when something seems like a good deal I will take it.  I don’t like having overspent so much :(  I will really try to do better this week.  I think it is time to focus more on the pantry and move through some things without buying new for a while.  I’ve planned out all of my prospective grocery items for the weekend already, and I ordered an organic basket from Bountiful Baskets for Saturday.  I hope to keep the grand total under $120 next week!!

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by Lauren on February 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Bountiful Baskets, Budget, Food, Goals, Life, Local, Utah co-op

Posted by Lauren on February 21, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/food-and-budget-2-18/

Bountiful Baskets 2.4

I haven’t gotten a basket in a long time, felt like it was due for another try so here we are. I’ve been pretty content with buying from the grocery store just what is on sale, but our produce consumption has really gone way down and it was becoming slim pickings.  So I figured getting a basket wouldn’t hurt any.  I don’t quite know what exactly I was thinking though when I got an both an organic and conventional basket, plus 25 pounds of carrots?!?!  It was a lot of food :lol:  I guess it will be a good push to get us eating a lot more produce.  Here’s what we got:

Conventional basket – Potatoes, celery, bell pepper, broccoli, romaine, asparagus, onions, tomatoes, radishes, strawberries, asian pears, apples,  and pineapple.

Organic basket – Celeriac, kale, romaine, broccoli, cilantro, snap peas, onion, tomatoes, juicing oranges, apples, pears, asian pear, and strawberries.

I wanted to see which was better because we’ve gotten organic in the past and it wasn’t a lot of stuff.  I think we got a little bit more stuff in the regular basket, but the organic was definitely more than before.  I’m satisfied.

After we picked this up we went to pick up another meat CSA!  They just happened to have a package of spare ribs with them too!  Smoked ribs will be on the menu soon I’m sure, The Boyfriend just can’t help himself :)

So now our fridge and freezer are PACKED once again.  I like it that way!  Especially when the fridge is full of produce.  I may have to go to the store for some dairy during the week but other than that we are set!

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by Lauren on February 6, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Bountiful Baskets, Budget, Food, Goals

Posted by Lauren on February 6, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/bountiful-baskets-2-4/

Bountiful Baskets 7/2

When I ordered my baskets on Monday the website wasn’t quite working right so the option to get organic wasn’t there.  so I ordered two conventional baskets.  I think I kind of fell out of love with the organic basket anyway.  I’d rather pick my own stuff when it comes to that, not that the basket was really bad – only a couple of things I was really unhappy with like celery and peaches.  I guess any produce is good versus no organic or none right?

Today’s haul was crazy!!  I was not expecting this much food, especially four bags of grapes!  I don’t know what we’ll be doing with all of them :lol  Well besides some sangria ;)  Also I have never even seen a bunch of chard this gigantic, the thing is bigger than my head.  Today I’m going to prep some stuff and get what we didn’t use up from last week planned to use.  What would you do with all of these nectarines??  And butternut squash?  We made a lasagna last week that was awesome so we’ll probably do a repeat but after that I really can’t think of anything.  Time to surf the internets for ideas!

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by Lauren on July 2, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Bountiful Baskets

Posted by Lauren on July 2, 2011

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/bountiful-baskets-72/