Making a Meal for Science

We have been learning about plants in science and how we eat different parts of the plants.  Last weeks science lab was to plan a menu or salad from six different parts of plants.  Kent, Katy, and Kaomi each choose two different parts of plants to represent.  I added an extra seed (pinto beans) to make sure our meal would be enough for everyone at lunch.  Here is the menu that I came up with after everyone gave me their choices and we verified that we had it on hand.

Here is how it looked served up at lunch.

I forgot to put the sunflower seeds on the first couple of plates.  I put them next to the cauliflower.

Bountiful Basket #9

This past weekend I got to get up extra early, while the stars were still out to go and get our Bountiful Basket.  This week we ordered an Italian Theme pack which contained: red and yellow onions, garlic, eggplant, green peppers, zucchini and yellow squash, parsley and basil.  We also ordered 9 grain bread and the organic basket.  Our organic basket contained: Romaine hearts, cauliflower, green chard, zucchini, carrots, cilantro, spaghetti squash, garlic, grapes, apples and pears.  Since I volunteered I chose 1 package of blackberries as my thank you.  I was able to get a second package of blackberries because there were a couple moldy ones in it and someone didn't want it (we were able to provide them with a good package because several baskets had extra blackberries).

I came home and fixed breakfast for my family.  We had biscuits with butter and blackberries.

Bountiful Baskets #'s 7 and 8

Basket #7 was an organic box, Mexican theme veggie pack, harvest pack and 9-grain bread.

Basket #8 was a conventional box (left), an organic box (right) and 9-grain bread.  I traded some of my original onions for some extra pomegranates that's why there are several of them.

We have really been enjoying having a variety of "new" foods.  Sometimes we find things that we don't like as much, but usually I can try a couple different recipes and come up with something we can do with everything, that almost everyone will eat.  It's time to try squash again.  This week we received acorn squash and butternut squash.  I also have the squashes and pumpkins from our harvest pack 2 weeks ago that have been decorating our home.  I enjoy the savings by ordering through Bountiful Baskets and I also enjoy not having to peruse the produce aisle in the grocery store.  Then I plan our meals making sure we are using the produce we have on hand.  If we have more than we can use of something I try to freeze it or give it to a friend who will use it.  This also works well if something will go bad before we can use it.

Bountiful Basket #6

This week we ordered an organic basket (on left) and a conventional basket (on right) and 9-grain bread.

We've been enjoying our baskets and having lots of produce to eat raw or use in recipes both old and new. 

This week so far we have had bananas, apples, yams and carrots in our beef stew, and cucumbers.

I'm looking forward to making some kind of gluten free dessert with the limes, if you have any ideas please let me know what I could do with them in the comments.  The pears are ripe now, so we are looking forward to having them with lunch tomorrow.  I'm planning on making some guacamole, as well.

Bountiful Basket #5

This is what came in our Bountiful Basket this past Saturday.

We ordered an organic basket, the Italian Veggie Pack and organic 9-grain bread.  I received the broccoli as a thank you for volunteering, as well.

We've been enjoying it.  I made quiche with chard, mushrooms, onoion, bacon and cheese and EVERYONE liked it.  We served fruit on the side.  I added zucchini, mushrooms and fresh basil to our pasta sauce.  I made fresh guacamole and spread it on tortillas and rolled them up with a slice of ham for my lunch yesterday.  I used fresh rosemary and onion in seasoning our roast chicken on Tuesday.

Update:  I also made Veggie Soup to serve with cornbread on Friday and Used the leftover soup with spicy sausage and rice on Saturday.

    

Bountiful Basket #4

This Saturday I got to take Kent, Katy, Felicity and Clark with me to pick up our baskets.  I hadn't checked my e-mail and shortly after we arrived we found out that the truck was running an hour behind schedule.  We decided to wait.  While we waited Kent, Katy and Felicity made some new friends and had fun playing.  Kent said later he knew two of the boys from Christian Service Brigade.  When we found out the truck was going to be even later I figured we might as well stay since the kids were having fun.  The truck finally came and the kids were glad when it was time to go home.  I wanted Kent and Katy to stay close by and help keep an eye on Clark (in the stroller) and Felicity.  They weren't too happy to leave their new friends, but they did a great job obeying and helping.  I was able to help close to them by helping put hatch chiles into bags before they went into the baskets.  They were ready to go home and eat lunch as soon as I had finished volunteering and picked up our order.  Even though the truck was late and I had to change my plans for the day we all had fun and it was worth the wait. 

I found that the organic basket's veggies by itself lasted about 1 week plus a day or two for our family.  The fruit usually lasts about 4 days.  This time I wasn't ordering any of the special veggie packs again so I thought we would try one conventional basket and one organic basket and see how they work out for our family.  I also ordered the Organic Honey Wheat Bread.

This is what came in our order.

The conventional basket is on the left of the table and included:  cherries, mangotangos?, grapefruit, Asian pears, champagne seedless grapes, Romaine lettuce, cauliflower, hatch chiles, brussel sprouts, tomatoes and yellow onions (not pictured, because I gave mine away).

The Organic Honey Wheat Bread is in the center.

On the right of the table is what was included in the organic basket:  cauliflower, green onions, iceberg lettuce, carrots, broccolette, rainbow chard, curly endive, a personal seedless watermelon, apples, yellow peaches and white peaches.

We received extra cherries and mangotangos as a thank you for volunteering.  I gave our yellow onions away as I have a couple on hand and some in my garden that are needing to be picked as well. 

I'm excited about the brussel sprouts I like them, but haven't had them in a long time.  Katy was excited about the cauliflower because she has a recipe that uses cauliflower in one of her magazines that she wants to try.  Clark thought the grapes were great.  Kent was excited about the peaches and Felicity likes the looks of the melon.  We opened the grapes as soon as we got home to have some with our lunch.

Does anyone know if you can use endive for anything besides salad?

Bountiful Basket #3

I picked up my Bountiful Basket order this past weekend and my Organic Basket included the following vegetables and fruits.

Romaine lettuce, fennel, green beans, cucumbers, yellow onions, garlic, peppers, corn, cantaloupe, bananas, mangoes, pluots.  I also volunteered and received as a thank you for volunteering another small head of Romaine lettuce and 2 bananas.  I ordered the Organic 9 grain bread they offer this time and it is very good.  I will probably order that again.  They ask that you volunteer once every 6 orders, but I find it fun to do something different, so I've volunteered every time I've ordered so far.

We've enjoyed salads this week and ate the corn and green beans with our supper tonight.  Katy finally lost one of her loose teeth in her corn on the cob, too.

Bountiful Basket #2

This past Saturday I picked up another Bountiful Basket.  Our last order lasted us most of two weeks for the vegetables and a little over a week for the fruit.  We have been enjoying the Vegetables and fruit this week as well.  I ordered the organic basket, an Asian veggie pack and a case of corn.  I was able to pick up my basket a little closer to home this time so I volunteered again to see how the organizer of this site did it.  It was fun and the organizer was extremely organized this time around.

Here is the list of fruits and vegetables in our basket:  green grapes, pluots, peaches, blueberries, cantaloupe, basil, green onions, yellow onion, fresh ginger, garlic, celery, peas, eggplant, radicchio, bok choy, nappa cabbage, broccoli, beets, green peppers and tomatoes.  I also got black grapes as a thank you for volunteering this week.  The case of corn (not pictured) had about 4 dozen ears in it.  We spent Saturday afternoon husking and processing the corn for our freezer.  We have about 15 meal sized portions of corn in our freezer, now.  I didn't take any pictures of this, my hands were too sticky.  We saved out enough corn to have corn on the cob twice this week.  It was really sweet and yummy.

Bountiful Basket #1

I found a produce co-op that has a pick-up place fairly close to us.  It is called Bountiful Baskets.  I thought I would try it out since there are no long term commitments and if I didn't like it there was no obligation to return or money lost on something I wouldn't continue with.  I like that you can place an order when you want to.  The sign-up to order your basket is a short period of time, so you do have to plan ahead a little to make sure you place your order early enough.  There are only a limited number of baskets available at each pick-up point, so you may have to sign up as soon as possible to get one.

This is what I received this weekend.  I ordered an organic basket and an Italian Veggie Pack.

Included was: cantaloupe, red and yellow onion, garlic, parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, eggplant, zucchini, raspberries, broccoli, corn, mangos, romaine lettuce, red kale, arugula, bok choy, carrots, peaches, apricots and tomatoes.

I also went early and volunteered.  I have 2 cantaloupes because someone didn't want one and I traded some radishes to her that someone else hadn't wanted and I took.  I had fun and was impressed with what we got, so I will probably sign up for another basket soon.  I also received a box of mushrooms, but knew we wouldn't use them all so I gave them to someone else who mentioned she likes them.