Category Archives: Health

Apr 1 2011

Grapefruit

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grapefruit

In our basket this week we received 2 grapefruit.  I’m not ashamed to say that I hogged both. I remember as a kid going to my grandparents place and watching my Aunt Sandee eat a grapefruit.  At that time I didn’t particularly care for the bitterness of grapefruit but my Aunt showed me a new way to eat it (new to me).  She sliced it in half and then took a knife and ran it between each segment.  Then she sprinkled the top with sugar.  Okay, okay so the sugar thing might not be good for me but it does help with the bitterness of the grapefruit.  I’ve heard of people sprinkling the top with salt but I haven’t been brave enough to try that. Grapefruit is high in Vitamins A & C.

Mar 30 2011

Hawaiian Haystack

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Hawaiian Haystack

Hawaiian haystacks were another staple growing up.  Traditionally we ate it with chicken and a chicken gravy but I had some left over gingered pork that I needed to use up.  I cut the pork up into small pieces and then added some water and terriaki sauce.  I brought it to a boil and then thickened it with cornstarch.  Never done this before but it turned out alright.  A haystack begins with a layer of chow mien noodles.  Then you add a layer of rice.  Lastly you top it with what ever toppings you like.  Today we had, from the basket, fresh pineapple, celery, and tomatoes.  I also added cheese and onions.  Then you top it off with some gravy.  This was pretty good although I think I still prefer the chicken and gravy.  Pineapple is high in vitamin C.  Celery is a good source of Vitamin C & A.  Tomatoes are high in Vitamin A & C and a good source of potassium.

Mar 29 2011

Baked potatoes

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Baked potatoes

Growing up my family would always have a baked potato bar for dinner.  My mom would bake some potatoes and than give us what ever toppings we desired on them.  So every so often I do the same for my family.  I love putting broccoli on my baked potatoes.  I used to make a cheese sauce and also pour it over the top.  This is a healthier version of that.  The broccoli is from last weeks basket.  It’s too late now but I wish I had baked up some of my sweet potatoes and used them instead of your normal potato.  That is also a great way to mix things up a little.  Guess I can to that for lunch sometime.  Even though the potato didn’t come from the basket I’ll tell you that potatoes are high in vitamin C and a good source of potassium.  The broccoli is high in vitamin C and folate.  It is also a good source of dietary fiber and potassium.

Mar 27 2011

The experiement week 5: final week

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I’m on the last week of this experiment.  So I decided, since the bountiful baskets are possible primarily because of volunteers, that I would volunteer this week.  The pick up time was 9:45am the volunteers have to show up an hour earlier at 8:45am.  When I got there there were already 5 others there to volunteer.  We unloaded the produce from the truck and then started putting them in baskets, 60 baskets to be exact.  There were other volunteers who showed up after me and we ended up with about 10 people there.  Everything went very smoothly.  We were done putting all the produce in the baskets ready for pick up by 9:30 fifteen minutes before pick up time.  Once everyone started showing up it went very quickly and I was home by 10:00am.  However, this isn’t how it always goes.  It is all dependent on how many people volunteer.  Last week there were only a few volunteers and they didn’t finish until about 10:30.  They had a line of people waiting for their baskets. When you volunteer you get an extra big item or 2 extra small items.  I choose for my extra a bundle of spinach.

This week I feel is better than last because I feel we got a lot of produce.  When I tallied everything and priced it out it ended up totaling $23.57.  Really not what I expected.  I expected that I would save a lot more this week but really this and last week savings are around the same. This weeks basket contained:

1 pineapple           6 bananas         2 bundles of asparagus

2 zucchini              3 mangoes         3 tomatoes

2 grapefruit            6 apples             6 sweet potatoes

2 bundles of spinach             1lb carrots              1 head of green leaf lettuce

Just because I say this is the final week of the experiment doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll stop getting the baskets just that I’ll hopefully form a conclusion and then stop blogging about it.  This week is spring break and, in theory,  I should be able to find a little more time to blog about what I have done with my items.  I hope I can end this experiment with a bang.

Mar 24 2011

Mango Salsa

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Mango Salsa on Red pepper Parmesan Talapia

It’s been a busy week and I haven’t found as much time to blog.  I had to take time to blog about this.  I love mango salsa.  Corey and I especially like it on fish.  The mangoes we got from the basket this week have been perfectly ripe and very sweet.  To make the mango salsa I cubed a mango, chopped red pepper and jalepeno finely, zested and juiced a lime, chopped some cilantro, and added salt to taste.  Corey and I aren’t very fond of fish and have really tried to figure out how to make it.  This recipe was good.  I got it from a new cook book that I bought from Taste of Homes website.  It had a little kick to it so the kids weren’t impressed.  I, however,  really enjoyed it.  Again, mangoes are high in Vitamin A and a good source of Vitamin C.

 

Mar 21 2011

Bountiful Basket Week 4

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There were a few things that went wrong for this week.  First off I got a little busy last Monday and totally forgot to put my order in until 4:30 pm.  When I did put my order in all the spots were taken for the site I usually pick up at.  So I had to pick up at a site that was across town.  It’s only about a 15 minute drive but when you’re used to going just a few blocks from your house it’s disappointing.  The other down side was the pick up time was 2 hours earlier.  It was at 7:45 am.  The one I normally go it is at 9:45 am.  On Thursday I started to come down with some kind of cold.  By Saturday I was in no mood to do anything.  Luckily I have a wonderful husband who volunteered to pick up the basket for me (no really he did).  He even took Levi with him and they made a daddy son time out of it.  I was a little disappointed with the basket turn out.  Here is what we got this week.

3 Mangos                          4 Tomatoes                   12 Tangerines

5 Apples                            1 Carton Blueberries       8 Bananas

1 Cantaloupe                    1lb Asparagus

1 Head of Cauliflower       1 Stalk of Celery                3 crowns of Broccoli

The reason for my disappointment is I felt there wasn’t very much this week.  Usually we end up with something exotic and new.  All of these fruits and veggies are things I’m familiar with.  Don’t get me wrong I still love what I got just not sure I got a great deal this week.  I took my list to the grocery store and priced everything out.  If I had bought all this at the store it would have cost me  $22.03 plus tax.  This is only about $5.50 savings.  Since we had to drive further to get all this I’m not sure it’s worth the money.  If I was consistently getting the same results I might not even bother with the basket, but in the previous weeks I have saved a considerable amount so I don’t think I’ll let one week sway me.  I did end up with some blueberries and more cantaloupe. I’m very excited about that.

Mar 18 2011

A little Detour

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I’m taking a little detour from the basket for a moment.  This time I’m going to talk about that dirty little word sugar. As you see from the picture I’m about to eat my birthday cheesecake which happens to be loaded with sugar.  Sugar is a dirty word for me for different reasons than it is for most of you.  For most people sugar is about calories and diets.  For me sugar is about pain and nausea.  You see I’m sucrose intolerant.  Meaning my body lacks the enzyme sucrase to break down sucrose (table sugar).  When I was younger I used to get really sick whenever I ate even a little bit of sugar.  I still get sick just not as much as before.  I’m not going to go into detail about what happens to me believe me it’s not pleasant.

So why am I eating cheesecake?  Well just like a lot of you I have weaknesses.  Cheesecake is one of my weaknesses.  I don’t eat sugar all the time just occasionally and that is how it should be not just for me but for everyone.  I see immediate results when I eat sugar which makes it a little easier to avoid it.  However,  most won’t see the results in consuming sugar until much later when their body turns it into fat.  Our bodies do naturally need sugar to function but sugar in excess amounts can cause our bodies to store it.

So how should we avoid those constant sugar cravings?  My suggestion is to seek out those things that are naturally sweet.  Many of the fruits that I’ve been discussing in my recent posts are an excellent replacement for those sugar cravings.  I’m not saying we need to give up sugar altogether, it’s still okay to consume it occasionally, but there is always a healthier option that we should consider first. When the occasion does arise that you can consume some sugar, I say enjoy it while it last.

Mar 17 2011

Turnips

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Potato turnip mash

Unfortunately sometimes experimenting with food doesn’t turn out so good.  I had read that cooking a turnip is a lot like a potato.  I also read a recipe for scalloped turnips.  So I thought I would make my scalloped potato and ham recipe but instead of using potatoes I would use turnips.  Never having cooked turnips I was surprised with the results.  Turnips cook quicker than potatoes.  They also absorb more water.  The end result was a little mushy and watery.  My family still ate it but we won’t be doing that again.  Something I did discover was that cooked turnips have a cauliflowery, cabbagey taste.  I had one more turnip that I needed to do something with.  A friend of mine gave me a recipe for a potato turnip mash.  It wasn’t bad it actually had a lot of flavor.  My mistake was serving it with some fried chicken.  The chicken over powered everything that was on the plate.  It had so much flavor that when you went to take a bite out of anything else they seemed to have no flavor.  My first bite was great but after eating the chicken the potato turnip mash just seemed like a watery mashed potato.  The good thing about experimenting is now I know a lot more about turnips than I did and maybe next time I’ll get it right.  I think the next time I end up with a turnip I will try it in a stew or soup like Aubrey suggested.  Turnips are  an excellent source of vitamin C.

 

Mar 15 2011

Spinach Manicotti

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I used up the rest of my spinach by putting it in manicotti.  I like to put spinach in manicotti.  Usually we use frozen spinach.  Since I had the fresh spinach from the basket I just chopped the rest up (about 2 cups chopped) and put it in the stuffing mixture.  I wish I had taken a picture of the stuffing before I cooked the manicotti because these pictures don’t do it justice.  Everyone loved it.  This is a good way to disguise spinach if you don’t particularly care for it.  I’m a little sad because now all my spinach is all gone.  Spinach is one of those super veggies that is packed with all sorts of nutrients.  I can’t help but think that Popeye had it right.

Levi taking a big bite


The kids really did enjoy the Manicotti

 

Mar 14 2011

Steak, Pineapple, and Green beans

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Steak, pineapple, and green beans

A few weeks ago my husband had to get new tires on his truck.  So obviously that means we get some free steak.  I know not really what you think you would get for getting tires.  Well I took the steaks out of the freezer and thawed them.  I was a little disappointed with the freshness of the steaks.  So I decided that I would have to do something to them to make them taste good.  It was about 50 degrees out (warm for this area).  I got the grill prepped and ready.  Corey normally does the grilling but he wasn’t feeling good so I got to take a shot at it.  I had sliced the pineapple a few days earlier for easy use and access.  So after putting the steaks onto grill I also put pineapple slices on the grill.  We love grilled pineapple.  It really brings out its natural sweetness.  After flipping the steaks and pineapple I basted them with our favorite teriyaki sauce.  I put some beans on to steam and while I was grilling they got a little too done.  They still tasted great but I like them to be a little brighter in color and more crisp tender.  Over all dinner was a success.  No complaints this time.  The pineapple turned out just right and we had to fight over who was going to get the last piece.  Pineapple is high in vitamin C.  The green beans, which also came from the basket, are a good source of fiber and vitamin C.