Project Produce

I love Bountiful Baskets!  It really seems to be the best deal for getting fruits and vegetables, and it forces  encourages us to eat more fresh produce.  However, I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed by the task of consuming all that delicious food before it goes bad.  It can also be challenging to incorporate new fruits and vegetables into meals I am good at preparing and that I know my family will eat.  I'm determined to make our families eating-style a healthy one, so each week I'm going to post a list of the items we get in our basket and what I make with all of it during the week.  I'd love input for new ideas and recipes!

Last Saturday we picked up our basket at the Lynnwood, WA food bank.

Veggies:
Romaine lettuce
Collard greens (yikes)
Spinach
Broccoli
3 Tomatoes (I know they're technically fruit)
1 Large avacado

Fruits:
Apples
Bananas
Red Pears
Honey Dew melon
Strawberries

We pretty much just gobbled down the strawberries as is.  They were so yummy!
 
I steamed some of the broccoli as a side to baked potatoes.  I learned the best way to steam broccoli from Alton Brown's "Good Eats" cooking show on Food Network: Wash and cut up your broccoli.  If you're using the stems put them on the bottom of the pan and the florets on top of them.  Put enough water in the pot to cover the stems, cover, and bring to a boil.  Boil on high for three minutes, then turn to low and cook another three minutes.  Add a little butter and salt and pepper and it's delicious.  My kids love them so much I cook a lot of broccoli.

I like making homemade pizza and decided to incorporate some more greens into mine this week.  I spread my crust with a sauce of tomato sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil and oregano, and spinach pureed together.  Pepperoni, canadian bacon, pineapple, and sliced tomatoes topped off the pizza.  I loved it! But the rest of my family picked off the tomatoes :(  Oh well!  They couldn't pick off the spinach.