I got my usual basket of lovely produce from Bountiful Baskets on Saturday. Except for the dragon fruit, it was all things I am used to. As I finish up this post, I am drinking a green smoothie with some leftover veggies, dragon fruit, pineapple, and kiwi with the usual liquid and protein powder. This is Saturday's basket.
I got a tropical super pack extra as well. This included dessert wraps, granola, mint, plantain, coconut, pineapple, vanilla beans, mango and another dragon fruit.
I had never seen dragon fruit before. They are a bright pink.
So far, portions of one have made it into two of my smoothies.
Dr. Mercola's site had an update on it just last week, so I had some idea of what to expect. You eat the seedy part inside. I like it.
Amazon has the plants for sale through 9GreenBox.com with a picture of them fruiting. They call it an orchid cactus.
Bountiful Baskets has greatly expanded the produce in our diet. As with the plantain and fresh coconuts, dragon fruit isn't something I would purchase from the grocery store. I truly enjoy the challenge of figuring out menus to use up all the produce we get. If you haven't tried it yet, check the site to see if it is available in your state. It is currently found in 23 states across the US.
Because the Pro is doing an Atkin's induction for the next couple of weeks, I get the fruit all to myself. Because there was so much, the friend within whom I share got quite a lot too. Most of the fruits are not conducive to freezing and I know her family will enjoy them.
Anyone who knows me at all well knows that I do not eat onions. I do not like onions. They give me stomach upset. Raw ones are the worst, but even cooked do it. As a result, I do not eat them. The only family member I can stomach is garlic. I could probably eat the others, but I do not even try any more.
Many of us have foods we will not eat. I have friends/family who do not eat: asparagus, broccoli, salmon, whole grain breads, tomatoes, olives, cheese, red meat, fish of any kind except canned tuna, and on and on.
I love to cook. Since I do not eat onions, there are many foods that I enjoy that I only eat if I make them, since the recipe begins: brown an onion. This limits me when I eat out, but at home, I am very experimental. It is often years between times that I repeat a recipe simply because there are so many wonderful and interesting things to try. I am currently enjoying RSS or Facebook feeds of people who cook paleo or primal. While onions are often a part of the recipe, so are a great many other herbs and spices. I frequently try these new ideas, adapted for our taste buds. That often means not as spicy, as the pro doesn't like very hot, spicy dishes.
I have friends who go the other extreme. They do not cook at all-they heat things up the microwave. I can certainly appreciate being too busy to cook. In my opinion, that is what a slow cooker is for. Throw some things in and when you get back, dinner is ready. I do not like all the chemicals that are added to processed foods, so I try to make things from scratch so that real food is added, not chemicals.
I have an acquaintance who knows how to make only 7 different dinner entrees. I cannot live with such a limited selection of meals. One year, a friend picked up my daughter at gymnastics every Monday night and came to dinner. Both she and my daughter wanted macaroni and cheese every week. I found about 10 different ways to make it, but by the end of the school year, I forced such other items as cheddar cheese soup on them as I could no longer face mac and cheese. I still like it, but it is usually months between servings.
One of the great things that Bountiful Baskets has done for me is to expand the range of fresh produce I use regularly. Before I joined, I had never purchased a coconut, a plantain, fennel, leeks, fresh cilantro (only dried), vanilla bean or the sheer quantity of fresh produce we get each time we participate. I love getting my distribution and figuring out recipes for the upcoming week or two.
For example, I had so much salad fixings, I made a modified 7 layer salad (no hard boiled egg layer for the pro and no onion for me). I also had broccoli from the last contribution left, so I had a nice broccoli salad for lunch. Dinner was barbecued corn on the cob (from a summer case) and barbecued asparagus along side some garlic sauteed shrimp. The next night, more corn on the cob, asparagus vinaigrette, the layered salad and chicken sausages.
I know that many of us did not learn to like veggies as a child. Many are very strongly flavored and too intense for children. The friend I donate my excess to throws a lot of it into soups. Soups are a good way to introduce a veggie-it was how I learned to like cooked cabbage. Oven roasting veggies with olive or coconut oil is a great way to sweeten them and make them more interesting for the timid among us. If you are one of those who has limited taste for veggies, make a resolution to try one new one each quarter of the year (that's only 4-not too much to take on). You don't have to like it, but you may surprise yourself. Make it seasonal and local and you will likely find something good (unless it is onions in which case, I cannot say).
I know there are many who lament all the bad influences the Internet makes available in our lives. I personally love the information conduit it provides. It is so easy to find a recipe that sounds good by simply entering some ingredients in a search. I no longer have to search through cookbooks or my recipe files, although are still relevant in my life. However, I am as apt to have my tablet open to a recipe as I am to have one of those these days.We live in a time of abundance: information, food choices, cuisines and cultures to explore. I hope we take advantage of that abundance and stretch ourselves by trying new things. You just may find something new to love. I certainly have.
Over the past few years, I have decided I wanted more fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet. As I tried to make this change, a friend introduced me to Bountiful Baskets. This is a co-op that gives much more flexibility in getting your produce than a CSA (Community supported agriculture) program does, but doesn't provide as much that is local. Both are great options for increasing the fresh food in your diet at reasonable prices.
With Bountiful Baskets, you join the co-op online at the web site. Each Monday or Tuesday, you can select to receive a basket that upcoming weekend. There are always a number of other items besides the basic fruit/veggie basket. You can opt for organic instead of conventional on the basic basket. You can select from cases of various fruits and vegetables; breads; tortillas; honey from Idaho, Utah, and Arizona; themed baskets like juice pack, Italian, Mexican, tropical or hostess; granola; and other items from time to time. The extras vary each week.
Here in Prescott, on Saturday morning at 7, I go to the National Guard Armory to pick up my baskets. In the summer, I picked them up at Ken Lindley Park. Volunteers are there at 6 to unload the truck and load up the baskets. Co-op members pick up from 7-7:20 although the set up is frequently done early and they start distribution early. If you volunteer, you get to select an extra from the extra items before they are distributed to the rest of the baskets. The site coordinators are wonderful people and have done a great job of making this an easy process for us.
Trying this co-op has encouraged us to eat a far wider variety of fresh fruits and veggies. I don't use nearly as much frozen or canned as I have in the past. We have tried lots of things I would never buy and have loved most of them. I am luck that I have a friend who loves the things we don't. I give her those as well as the excess when we get far more than we can eat before it goes bad. For example, this past Saturday, we got two heads of cabbage and of celery. I gave her of the other things as well.
This was what was in our basket: roma tomatoes, Asian pears, zucchini, peppers, broccoli, blackberries, oranges, banans, lettuce, celery, cabbage, asparagus.
We also opted for the hostess pack:
As you can see, between the two, we filled my kitchen table. This had: pineapple, plantain, coconut, jicama, beefsteak tomatoes, grape tomatoes, yellow onion, snap peas, grape tomatoes, mint, mushrooms, carrots, avocados, cilantro, green onions, limes, and jalapenos. The bag at the top is 3 pounds of quartered corn tortillas for making tortilla chips.
The flexibility allows us to participate weekly, every other week, or just whenever we want. I love that as well as the value that I see in the amount of produce for the price.
The Prescott CSA is also a way to increase produce consumption with entirely local items. I participated in the beef share during the summer. Once each month I picked up a hefty bag of locally grown beef. I saw the various items in produce shares each time as well. They were varied and also a good value. However, I will admit to being very thrifty and I get more in each basket share for the same price. The CSA requires payment for every week, whether you can pick up or not. I understand why, but for now, the model with Bountiful Baskets fits our lifestyle better. The CSA does include other items that can be purchased as extras on many weeks.
Options like Bountiful Baskets and CSAs invalidate the arguments of people who say it is more expensive to eat healthy food. Fresh produce promotes health. Most of the food people purchase instead is really a food product. It has all sorts of additives to try to replace the real food that is missing. Even if we ate nothing else, the $15 we spent for the conventional basket (the first photo), would feed the two of us for an entire week. We would have a lot of variety as well. Spending a little extra for protein sources, like meat, dairy, beans, etc. would not greatly increase our grocery spend.
It is amazing what you can do if you don't buy process food-like things and buy real food instead. Even if you don't have access to a co-op or CSA, there are also farmer's markets, or even the produce aisles at the grocery store. If you filled your cart with that instead of boxes of things, you would still make out pretty well. It would just cost more than what I'm getting.
It is Superbowl time again. My mom's birthday is the same day, so the family is having a huge Superbowl birthday party. Given the teams participating this year, I hope for a good game. Since we can't go to the party, I'm making chili to go with the Bountiful Baskets hostess pack I ordered. (Super Hostess Pack - Are you ready to get your snack on? Corn tortilla chips ready to bake or fry. Veggie tray fixings: hoping for carrot, grape tomato, green onion,jicama, mushroom, snap peas. Guacamole and Salsa fixings: hoping for avocado, cilantro, garlic, green onion, lemon or lime, jalapeno, tomato, yellow onion. ! ) I'm excited to see what I actually get so I can plan menus for next week.
For quite a few years, I didn't get to see very much of the Superbowl. I was working at ISMC-the Intel Sales and Marketing Conference. I was part of the Information Technology group supporting the event. In my case, that meant upgrading software on computers, configuring computers, explaining new features and new options. For at least a couple of years, the first night of ISMC coincided with the Superbowl. I got to see a few minutes of football and one or two of the lauded commercials. Many years earlier, my daughter's piano teacher always had a recital on Superbowl Sunday. We were usually home by the time the game started.
The Romans created spectacles to keep the populace entertained. Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, and European rulers did as well. From archaeological findings, we suspect that most civilizations have hosted events, whether religious or secular, to entertain, educate, and/or engage the populace. In our day, the Superbowl; cricket, soccer, or rugby world cup; Olympics; Majors in tennis and golf; NCAA basketball final four; MLB world series and other sporting events constitute a similar spectacle. Great Britain also has royal weddings that fit into this mix. In older times, we had to be present to participate. Now we can do so comfortably from our couch watching on our tv. We can watch on our mobile device wherever we are. We can watch things in almost every country on earth. These spectacles create a sense of community.
For most of civilization, community was the place where you lived. You knew your neighbors and participated in community events together. This is one reason for public executions. It helped preserve the sense of community (knitting at the guillotine, anyone?). Some of that community activity still exists. Here in Prescott, there are many community activities: Acker music scholarship night (my video blog about that), holiday lighting at the courthouse (another video blog), Christmas and Veteran's day parades, the rodeo, etc. For people who liver in smaller towns, the community in the older sense of the word still exists.
Do you watch Downton Abbey? Did you watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? Do you read Jane Austen fanfiction? These are things I enjoy-and all of them have communities associated with them. Most of this community is virtual, although many of the fans met the actors for Lizzie Bennet at Comic-Con. The Lizzie Bennet communities had Google hangouts where people could talk to the actors and ask questions. In all of the communities, people share with one another, comment, critique, praise, analyze, and discuss as if they were face to face. The Internet has created this ability to have true virtual communities.
Online gamers have virtual communities where they actually talk to one another as they participate in the game. They still don't generally meet face to face although there are venues for that. They talk through specific voice networks they've created as part of the game.
What has all this to do with the Superbowl? With its viewership, the Superbowl is surely one of the larger communities around. It is one of the true modern day mega-spectacles. Millions watch-some for the game, some for the half time show, some for the new commercials, some for the food at the parties. Lots of betting takes place. There are parties all over the United States. More than many other things in the US, the Superbowl is a shared event, creating a community if only for one evening (and the Monday morning quarterbacking afterwards). We're not attending a party-it will just be the two of us, the golf pro and me. However, we will be watching the game, cheering, eating, and critiquing the new commercials and play calling along with most of the rest of the US. We get to participate in this nationwide community event. And that is fun.
