I never said I hated it.

I feel as if I have been a little negative about my weekly box of produce. So I aim to make up for it by listing all of the benefits of the box:

1. It is relatively quite cheap. We pay $36 a week for a very big box that is filled to the rim with fruits and vegetables. That is ridiculously less than I was paying for produce at the farmers' market, and much much less than I would pay for a comparable amount of produce at the grocery store.

2. I am also saving money in general on my food budget. I am basing so many meals on the vegetables in the box, that I don't need to buy much to go with them. There are, of course, things I need to buy at the grocery store, but not as much as there used to be. I even anticipate that this will increase as I find more ways to use the veggies and fruits. For example, I make myself a protein shake every morning for breakfast. Until now, I made it with frozen fruit that I bought at Costco. Lately I have been replacing some of the frozen fruit with kiwis and carrot puree. It is just as delicious, and it is stretching my frozen fruit out longer, by using things that come included in my box. I also used the carrot puree in the gingerbread. Of course that only saved 1/3 cup of oil. Not much. But, added up over time, it may help.

3. Of course, those are only financial reasons to buy the box. More importantly, the adults in this house are eating far more vegetables than we used to, and the kids are eating a little bit more. My dinner plate is now 3/4 vegetable matter, and 1/4 other. When I consider the two more willing kids, I have to count a huge success. They are eating much more vegetables. Like I have said,  I didn't always serve a veggie with dinner before. These days, there are 2 or 3 different vegetables on their plates every day. Plus, snacks have switched over from granola bars or crackers to fruit more often than not these days as well. Even the reluctant eater is eating something. It may be a tiny portion, but it is more than it was before.

4. We are eating a far greater variety of fruits and vegetables than we used to. I never in my adult life bought kale, brussels sprouts, red cabbage, collard greens, daikon radish, turnips, parsnips, bok choy, or beets. Chances are, I would have gone my whole life without buying them, too.  In the last four months, my family and I have eaten all of those things. And for the most part, I have truly enjoyed them. One night, I looked down at my plate and I noticed the sauteed red cabbage, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, cabbage, and spinach. They say you should eat a rainbow, and there it was: orange, white, green and purple. I've never managed to do that before!

5. I am having fun cooking, most of the time. Although the sheer number of new things, and the great volumes in which they come to me are very overwhelming, I am really having fun cooking them. I am looking up new recipes, listening to cooking shows on the radio, tearing pages from magazines, paying attention to cooking blogs and recipe websites. I have followed many many new recipes in the past four months. A couple were awful. A few have been okay, but I doubt that I would follow them again. Some were saved on my computer and are sure to make frequent appearances in my house. Importantly, though, it is fun to try new recipes. It is certainly taking the banality out of my meal prep.

6. Some of this stuff just isn't available to me otherwise. As I walked through the produce department of two different grocery stores the other day, I noticed that there really isn't that much variety there. Some of the things I have eaten lately just aren't in grocery stores. I saw no turnips, no parsnips, no collard greens. It is fun to become aware of how much variety is really out there!

7. The quality is just amazing! The food comes to us very very fresh, ripe, and delicious. Plus, all of the farms it comes from are certified organic. So, I know there are no pesticides on any of it.

8. It is also good for the environment. It all comes from local farms. It hasn't used up tons of fuel traveling from the other side of the world. It hasn't ruined the balance of nature with pesticides. This is the closest thing I can find to growing it all myself.

9. It supports small farms and the families that own them. It seems a shame that we mainly eat from factory farms, and we eat such a small variety of things from them. I am happy to help contribute to a small family business any time I can.

My challenge this week

Please excuse the wandering nature of this post. I have lots of little things going on, but not a lot to say about any one of them.

We skipped our box this week, for the first time since signing up. My husband left this morning for a week of travel, and I knew there was absolutely no way the kids and I would make a dent in the box. Besides, we still have some miscellaneous items left from past weeks to use.

My goal this week is to eat all these straggler fruits and veggies, so that when we do get the next box, we have a fresh start.

While I am at it, I thought it would be a fun challenge to see if I make it a whole week without spending a single dime. We have tons of food in the pantry and freezer, and I would love to start digging through it all. There are surely things in there that I have forgotten ever existed. I shouldn't need to go to the grocery store at all. I have enough potatoes to feed us if it comes down to it! We will be busy doing our usual things (school, karate, art class, cub scouts), so we will be busy enough that we don't need to go spend money anywhere else.

I didn't do anything to prepare for our week of no spending... I didn't stock up on groceries (as a matter of fact I don't think I have been grocery shopping for at least 4 or 5 days). I didn't fill the tank with gas. I think I have about a half tank right now.

This is the kind of challenge I think is a blast. When we run out of something, I think it is fun to see what I can substitute from what we have. I imagine we will run out of some lunchbox staple or another... or maybe milk. We'll see what we can do at that point!

Speaking of potatoes, (I was speaking of potatoes. A couple of paragraphs ago. Stay with me...) I have been trying to get to the bottom of the pile. I made roast potatoes for breakfast last weekend, mashed potatoes during the week, and yesterday I found a recipe for Potato Armadillos.  I thought that the kids would appreciate the whimsical appearance, and the recipe is very basic... potatoes, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, oil. Nothing there to hate! Best of all, it used up SIX potatoes. Score! And it was a hit. I will definitely be doing those again.

So how did I happen to come across a recipe for potato armadillos? Well, I subscribed, eons ago, to the Family Fun weekly recipe ideas email. I usually delete it without even opening it. This time, though, the subject line said "Ideas for meatless meals." I figured that meatless has to be vegetable-heavy, no? That little man running the internet found my email address as well, and threw veggie recipes at me again! This time, however, I was in a more receptive mood, and I looked at the website. Not only were the potatoes a hit, there are a couple more things I might try.

And so, the week begins. I made lemonade this morning, using up 6 lemons that were in the crisper drawer. That is the beginning. I will conquer the vegetables this week, I will!

Come back all week to see what I run out of, how I make up for it, how many potatoes and onions one family can eat in a week, and at what point the kids mutiny, grab my credit card, and hightail it to the grocery store.

Loser, loser, chicken dinner

I'll admit, I was a little bit afraid of Brussels sprouts. All I knew about them is that they're green and no one likes them. They are the quintessential vegetable that everyone was forced to eat as a child and therefore will never eat again even with a gun to their head, even if it would cure cancer, even though children are starving. . .

You know where this is going, right? I got Brussels sprouts in the box and now I am forced to cook them. Then, I have to eat them and even pretend I like them as the good, healthy, adventuresome mother and role model that I am.

But here's the kicker. I found a recipe, I cooked the cute litle baby-doll sized cabbages, and I like them! They are mild, a little sweet, and tender. (not unlike yours truly, come to think of it). I would LOVE to see them in future boxes! Plus, they are just so cute. What's not to like?

Except. There's always an exception, isn't there?


My son? The one who cried, begged, and whined about trying the teeniest little piece of bell pepper? Well, apparently that was just a warmup. Tonight. was. miserable. He cried. And cried some more. And followed that up with some crying. At one point, he even somehow managed to fall off the chair, knock a plate down onto himself ... And cry some more.

Did I mention yet that all he had to eat was one-fourth of one brussels sprout? That is exactly one bite. and that one little bite just so happened to be on a plate with some of his very favorite foods... Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy.

Well, it came to be time for him to either eat it or miss his piano lesson. He cut it in half. He looked at it and hated it some more. He ate half. Hip hip hooray!! Right? Wrong. The final half of a quarter of a cute little Brussels sprout... had him so worked up that he chewed and chewed and gagged and spit it out.

Score one for the kid. He won that round.

In happier news, the other boy said it was fine and the girl said it was better than broccoli, which is one of her favorite veggies.



Here is the recipe... And it is very very yummy! I swear!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

3 cups Brussels sprouts, quartered and stems cut off
1/4 cup oil, divided
Salt and pepper
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons sunflower kernels
1/2 cup diced red onion
4 T apple cider vinegar

Toss the Brussels sprouts with 2 tablespoons oil and salt and pepper to taste. Roast in a roasting pan in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool.

In a large bowl, mix sprouts, cheese, sunflower kernels and onion.

Mix vinegar and remaining oil in a separate bowl, add salt and pepper if desired, and toss dressing with the sprout mixture.

Mexican Standoff

Remember yesterday how I said that you should eat things that are grown locally and in season?

Well, I went to the store and bought something that came from somewhere very far away that is ripe in a season that is very far from now. Not only that, but I brought more vegetables into my house. What???

I just couldn't think of any other way to use up my all my extra onions.

So, I bought two tiny bell peppers, and I combined them with 3 onions, to make fajitas. They were clearly very onion-heavy fajitas. Remember my objective, though: To. Use. Up. These. Vegetables.

And the fajitas, combined with a salad made from spinach and some sort of weird Chinese Cabbage from last week's box, made a pretty good dent in the contents of the fridge! Fajitas, Mexican rice, and salad... not bad!

The adults around here ate a ton, and the kids?






Oh boy. I was back to the whole idea that they need to see the vegetable, acknowledge the vegetable, and try the vegetable, before passing judgement. So of course, I made each kid a fajita, carefully picking out only the chicken, leaving the onions and bell peppers in the pan.

Then, I took one small piece of bell pepper and placed it on each plate. I told them, you can eat it plain, you can put it into the fajita, you can bury it in rice, you can use Ranch dressing, ketchup or barbecue sauce. But you HAVE TO EAT THE BELL PEPPER.

My daughter stuck it into her fajita and ate it up. She has finally figured out that if she just gets it over with, she can enjoy the rest of the meal. My younger son avoided the piece of bell pepper for most of the meal, but finally, without a word, stuck it into a bite of rice, and ate it. They both acknowledged that it really wasn't bad.  Maybe next time I will up it to two pieces of bell pepper.

My middle child? Oh my lord have mercy. He cried the minute he saw his plate. He said he didn't want it. He said he couldn't eat it. He begged to not have to have it. He asked if we could just let him eat part of it. He whined incessantly. He flopped out of his chair and back into it. He ate everything else, and asked for seconds. I said, "I can't get out more food while the food on your plate goes to waste." About 20 minutes later, after sitting, staring down, sizing up, and hating the bell pepper, he ate it. And he admitted it wasn't that bad.

Score one for the veggies.

Here, though the next morning, my number one thought is: Why did I forget to put some red cabbage into that salad?