I got lots of yummy leafy greens, bananas, radishes, MANGOS, and bok choy.
Yeah. Bok choy.
I knew what it was because I know the produce section of my grocery store well. When they actually have it, it's nestled between celery and kale, both of which I purchase frequently. I've never prepared bok choy, or eaten it, for that matter.
Which got me thinking: what else haven't I tried?
I grew up with a mom who learned to cook from her mom who grew up during the Depression. We added oats to our ground meat. We had a loaf of bread and a tub of butter on the dinner table EVERY NIGHT. We ate a lot of potatoes. None of this was out of necessity. It was habit. And this is not to say my mom isn't a good cook. My mom's cooking is super tasty, but she didn't have Pinterest or internet or even cooking shows. She prepared what she was familiar with, which was based off a diet developed when there wasn't much around.
While living at home, I never tasted avocado, mango, asparagus, cauliflower, spinach, celery, kale. I tasted kiwi candy in fourth grade because a classmate brought it back from their vacation to New Zealand, but I never had a kiwi fruit. And to this day, I've never tried brussel spouts, starfruit or bok choy. Actually, last week was the first time I ever tasted leeks. They were delicious.
I am a typical American and that's sad.
Getting the Bountiful Baskets has completely changed the way I cook and look at food. I am trying things I've never experienced. I am raiding the annals of the internet for tasty recipes to try. And I'm loving it.
What haven't you tried? It's easy peasy for us to look up recipes now. You should go nuts and try something new. Then tell me about it!
This week's meal plan:
Monday: Asparagus Bok Choy Frittata
Tuesday: Salad with radishes (need to use those babies up!)
Wednesday: White Pizza using the same recipe for the crust as last week. This time, we're going thin crust.
Thursday: Salad again. We got A TON of leafy greens that we want to munch up this week.
Friday: Left overs or smoothie. We have a game night Friday night, so we will be munching.
This week I had to stock up on some basics. At Costco I bought cans of chicken broth, refried beans, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. I also picked up plums, apples, grapes and mozzarella. The total came to $46.90.
My Bountiful Basket was $16.50.
My grocery bill, which included baby food for Clara, a chocolate Easter bunny for her basket, some unscheduled guacamole for me and a 1/2 gallon of the most amazing ice cream in the world, came to $53.69.
My weekly total for eating healthy? $117.09 leaving me $182.91 of my $300 bi-weekly allotment. Not too shabby, especially considering nearly $50 of it was for ingredients I didn't NEED for this week's meals.
Snacks will be oranges and apples (we have a ton) and lunches will be PB&J, salad, smoothies and left over soup.
i seriously envy your organization.. though I also live with a carnivore, I mentioned baking a mac and cheese dish tomorrow and the look I got because it didnt include meat was DIRTY haha.. such is life, I get back at him by sneaking sweet potato greens into his smoothies :) hehe
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever cooked with escarole. I've had it prepared in restaurants, but never ventured into making it myself. I just found a recipe for an Italian white bean soup and escarole soup that I'm excited to try soon.
ReplyDeleteWe eat a lot of bok choy when in season - great in noodle dishes, stir fries... anything Asian, really! And you HAVE to make potato and leek soup!! Add some cracked pepper and crusty bread, and I'll be there in 5 ;)
ReplyDeleteI also love leek soup. Have you tried making corn tortillas? A bag of mass is super inexpensive. The directions are on the side. They make a great meal with some pinto beans and salad. My son loves to make them. It is a great staple to have in the house.
ReplyDeleteI got my first Bountiful Basket on Saturday and had no idea what the bok choy was! Thanks for the information. Lots of people put it in the "donate or trade" basket at the pickup!
ReplyDeleteNever eaten Brussels Sprouts? You ain't lived girl!
ReplyDeleteLast year, I made a list of 27 things to do while I was 27. I liked it so much, I decided to do it again and do another list of 28 for 28 this year. One of them is to try cooking 12 new vegetables this year, because like you, I realized that I'm really boring with veggies. I don't love cooking or veggies, so more often than not, I just sautee zucchini because it is so easy to do. So I am trying to challenge myself this year. So far, I've only done one, so I'm behind, but I got malanga (a root veggie from South America and Central America) and put it in chili. So it was a pretty wussy way to cook it, but I counted it. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for your suggestion of doing a meal swap in your last response to me. I realized while writing this I never responded to that, but I'd really like to put that into place in the next few months.
A friend of mine was talking about making rutabagas, and I had to admit I'd never eaten them, maybe next week?! And, have you considered buying "Better than Bouillon" instead of cans of broth? It may have more sodium, I don't know, but it makes me happy to eat anything from a glass jar rather than a can (I am slightly BPA paranoid, and avoid it if possible).
ReplyDeleteFor the love of bok choy! It can even be frozen for a sewing day:)
ReplyDeletehttp://onceamonthmom.com/paleo-garlic-ginger-chicken-with-bok-choy
First of all I envy your pantry! Second we also got a bountiful basket but ours didn't have any radishes in it! LOL. We did however get bok choy and asparagus and I have never done anything with bok choy in my life,..so I am going to check out this recipe you posted and we may be trying it!
ReplyDeleteThat frittata sounds delicious! We've never had bok choy either so I may have to try that recipe!
ReplyDeleteROFL, unscheduled guacamole, love it! Actually I hate it, but that's because I have a taste and sensation issues with avocados. Stir fry the bok choy next time, it's fab.
ReplyDelete