Bountiful Baskets

The basket this last Saturday was full of fruits and veggies. None that were really unusual.

This week we received... Pineapple, Apples, Blackberries, Tangelos, Yellow Squash, Brussels Sprouts, Cucumbers, Kiwi, Broccoli, and Lettuce (Which I donated because I don't ever use my mine)

I think I'll probably just eat the green apples, tangelos, pineapple, and kiwi because I'm making a few other things this week. I'm so into snacking on fruit right now. I'm using the tomatoes and cucumbers in a salad this week.

Here are a few recipes though.....

I found this recipe on "All recipes" last year, and it was rated almost a perfect 5 stars by 700 plus people. I never made it, but am going to try it tonight, because I have all the ingredients.

I have no appetite right now, so I'll let you know what my family thinks about it because I'll probably eat cereal.

Up-date: This was delicious! I bagged my cereal, and ate 2 helpings. My kids ate 3, and Seth ate the rest of the dish. (Which serves 10. Hello pigs!)

Yellow Summer Squash Casserole

Ingredients:

4 cups sliced yellow squash ( I sliced mine really thin with my slicer)

1/2 cup chopped onion

35 Ritz

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Place squash and onion in a large skillet over medium heat. Pour in a small amount of water. Cover, and cook until squash is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well, and place in a large bowl.

In a medium bowl, mix together cracker crumbs and cheese. Stir half of the cracker mixture into the cooked squash and onions. In a small bowl, mix together eggs and milk, then add to squash mixture. Stir in 1/4 cup melted butter, and season with salt and pepper. Spread into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cracker mixture, and dot with 2 tablespoons butter.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.

· I'm making this with my broccoli because I have all the ingredients, and I'm craving it.

Broccoli Salad

Ingredients:

10 Slices of Turkey Bacon

1 Head Fresh Broccoli, Cut Into Pieces and blanched

1/4 Cup Red Onions, Chopped

1/2 Cup Craisins

3 Tbs White Wine Vinegar

2 Tbs White Sugar

1 Cup Light Mayonnaise

1 Cup Sunflower Seeds

Directions:

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside. (Shortcut: Cook in the microwave on a plate with five paper towels underneath and five on top for about 3-4 minutes, or until bacon is cooked through.)

In a medium bowl, combine the broccoli, onion and craisins. In a container with a tight lid, add the vinegar, sugar and mayonnaise, seal, and then shake until the ingredients are blended. Pour over the broccoli mixture, and toss until well mixed. Refrigerate for at least two hours. (This salad only gets better with time!)

Before serving, toss salad with crumbled bacon and sunflower seeds.

Easy Blackberry Cobbler

I obviously didn't have 4 cups of blackberries, so I used frozen blueberries with the blackberries, and ate it with ice cream. :)

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh blackberries

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 large egg

1 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons butter, melted

Whipped cream (optional)

Garnish: fresh mint sprig

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°. Place blackberries in a lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish; sprinkle with lemon juice. Stir together egg, sugar, and flour in a medium bowl until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle over fruit. Drizzle melted butter over topping. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, if desired. Garnish with fresh mint sprig, if desired.

For a neat presentation, bake for the same amount of time in 6 (8-oz.) ramekins on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet.

P.S. I swear I posted a recipe to Brussels sprouts on here once, but I couldn't find it, so I wanted to share what we did with ours, because they were SO good. I cut up 1 onion and I quartered the sprouts, and sautéed them in olive oil with salt and pepper. I also baked turkey bacon for about 12 minutes at 375, and added it towards the end of sautéing the Brussels sprouts. (Which I sautéed for about 7 minutes. )

Bountiful Baskets

Ciabatta bread, grapes, lettuce, potatoes, bananas, persimmons, celery, pears, oranges, corn on the cob, acorn squash, and apples.

My fresh produe book from the market has come in so handy! It has so much info, and it also describes the flavor of ANY and ALL fruits and veggies.

I'm excited to try THIS brussel sprouts recipe tomorrow.

Sweet Acorn Squash

Ingredients:

1 medium acorn squash, halved and seeded
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Cinnamon to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Turn acorn squash upside down onto a cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven until it begins to soften, approximately 30 to 45 minutes.
Remove squash from the oven and turn onto a plate so that the flesh is facing upwards. Place butter and brown sugar and cinnamon into the squash, and place remaining squash over the other piece. Place squash in a baking dish (so the squash wont slide around too much) while baking.

Place squash in the 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven and bake another 30 minutes.

Cheesy acorn squash

Avocado Persimmon salad

Pear Crumble

Bountiful Baskets

*Update from last weeks Bountiful Basket! Everything was SO good, The Red Pepper soup was my favorite! It was so good! It was so flavorful! Defiantly a keeper. It was easy too!

The Caramel dip was so yummy too, and easy.

Like I said, everything was good except the onion rice. The recipe was all wrong, the rice needed to be cooked longer, and I added a lot more seasonings.

I don't plan on cooking too much this week, as it is going to be a very busy week! But, I am making the following!

Apples, Grapes, Lettuce, Cantaloupe, Green onions, Pomegranates, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Oranges, Broccoli, Carrots, and Bananas.
Broccoli with Pasta

Roasted Potatoes with Green onions

( No recipe, I just roast them with green onions, and butter. Its good though!)

I already made Carrot and Fennel Soup again, because I love it. I just froze it into several little dishes, so I can pull out my lunch whenever I need it.

I also made Bakerella's Bananaberry muffins again! It's under my recipes tab.

P.S. I found to fantastic blogs.

Food Gawker

Southern Whimsicality

Which reminds me, I came up with a Spaghetti Squash dish that is SO delicious, and pretty dang healthy. I came up with it after reading over several other dishes, and took a little bit of everything from my favorite recipes. No measurements of course, because I just start adding things, and go for it. But here were the ingredients.

Spaghetti Squash ( I microwaved mine(after puncturing it several times) for 12 minutes. It was actually the first time I used a spaghetti squash, and I'm hooked. )

2 Tomatoes

Basil, to taste, I LOVE basil

1/2 Onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

olives

Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

I'm not kidding, it is really good!

Bountiful Baskets

Bountiful basket was great this week!

Artichokes, red peppers, kiwi, bananas, lettuce,onions, strawberries, grapes celery, carrots, tomatoes, and green apples!

Here's what I'll be preparing this week!

I LOVE THE FALL.

I LOVE SOUP.

I LOVE PUMPKIN. (But not pumpkin pie)

Caramel Dip for Apples (I don't enjoy green apples plain.)

Artichoke Chicken
Artichoke Dip (Secret Recipe. Ok, it's my friend Julie's but I'll have to add it later. It is pretty much amzing)

(Don't know how to eat an artichoke or cook one for that matter? See here!)

Onion Rice

Japanese Zucchini and Onions

Red Pepper Soup

If you like pumpkin, you have to make this Double Layer Pumpkin Pie. It is SO good!

So are these Pumpkin Pancakes. Almost a perfect 5 stars.

Carrot and Fennel Soup

This soup is so good. I have never used fennel before this, not had I seen it at the grocery store. But, it is there. It has kind of a black licorice smell ( I hate black licorice) but it doesn't taste like that in this soup! It is really, really good! I bet some orzo pasta would be really good in it as well. I may do that next time. We just ate it with a baguette!

And I'm going to add this with some chicken ... Bread and Celery Stuffing

Bountiful Baskets Menu

Lettuce, Eggplant, pluots (plum family),corn on the cob (the box is full of 48) pears,carrots, cucumbers,grapes, strawberries, tomatoes and bananas.

Here is what I'll be doing with some of the food I got from my Bountiful Basket on Saturday....

• Strawberry Banana muffins
• Cucumber salad
• Eppplant Parmesan (Recipe Below)
• Corn on the Cob
• Green Salad

(That's all I've got so far. We will be super busy this week, so I don't plan on cooking too much.

I spent this afternoon freezing tons of carrots, peppers, herbs, bananas and corn.)

The corn was a lot of work, but it is so good. Although my friend Mrs. JM says corn has no nutritional value, it sure does taste good, and makes for a colorful dinner plate.

I also have tons of bananas frozen, and a bunch of fresh ones, so I plan on making these.

(I also use frozen bananas for smoothies, or whenever I feel like making banana bread. Don't know how to freeze bananas? Click Here.

Banana Crepes

Banana Waffles

Banana Bread (See recipes)

I'm using my eggplant for this:

Eggplant Parmesan

I ordered 48 heads of Olathe sweet corn, and am freezing it all. I found a good source that explains how to freeze it properly here.

I'm afraid of getting too much food, but am planning on freezing as many of the fruits and veggies that I can for cooking, and for making Swayzee's baby food.

Tonight for dinner, I used up the rest of my red peppers from last week, and made THIS. It was so good! My kids were slipping and slurping their noodles, and wanted more within minutes. Seth really liked it as well, and said it is one of the best pastas I've made. The only thing I did, was add basil, because right now I'm obsessed with that herb.

Thats all.

P.S. I ran my very first EVER! I mean EVER 5 miles this week. At 7:00 in the am, my friend Steph and I celebrated. I also broke a personal record for myself, and last week, I ran 3 miles in 21 minutes. It must have been the banana I ate for breakfast that gave me all the energy. Steph and I have been running together for a few weeks now, and it makes running SO much better. I actually enjoy running with her, and I don't feel tired at all. It actually feels really good. AND, to be honest, I could have kept going. BUT, don't tell Steph that, she might make me run 7 miles this week or something.

Bountiful Baskets

BOUNTIFUL;
Synonyms:
plenty
abundant
liberal
handsome
heavy
substantial
galore

World English Dictionary
bountiful
— adj
1. plentiful; ample (esp in the phrase a bountiful supply )
2. giving freely; generous

I am SO excited about Bountiful Baskets. I got all this produce for $15 Is that a deal or what? I am hooked. I paid $10 for 5 loaves of 9 grain bread, and it is my favorite. ( I forgot to add it to my loves) If you want to find out how you can get all this produce for this great price, go to their website. www.bountifulbaskets.org You have to sign up between Monday and Tuesday night to get it, and the pickups in Utah sell out quick. (Where I live anyway) Check it out!

Saturday's pick up was pretty sweet. Everything was good quality, and the bread is delish!

Here is what I am going to be doing with all this food this week.

Monday: Chicken Salad sandwiches with the celery and grapes.

Tuesday: Rosemary chicken, green salad (made with all the veggies above), and diced peaches

Wednseday: Stuffed Red peppers with sausage and couscous

Thursday: Chicken Divan with the Broccoli

Friday: Carrot and Fennel Soup with home made rolls

Saturday: Enchiladas uhhh...none of the above picture food will be used

Sunday:Roast with LOTS of carrots. lol.

I'll shares some amazing recipes next week, but you have got to check out this Rosemary chicken recipe over at Mynutritiousdish It was so good! I love cooking with rosemary! I have a really good rosemary bread recipe I'll have to share.

P.S. Do any of my friends here know how to can???? I need someone to teach me!