bountiful basket train

I tried to think of a cute acronym for what has been consuming my past few weeks, but I couldn't get anything cute from "reading" and "cooking." When I look back at the past few weeks, that's the bulk of what I've been up to.

I'm on the Bountiful Basket train, which makes cooking THAT much more fun. It's a food co-op that costs $15, and you get a ginormous basket of fruit and vegetables once a week. And for the most part it's really good quality (I had one week that wasn't amazing, but the other weeks have been off the charts). When I make my meal plan, I list all the meals for the week, write in if I have meetings/plans, and carry on. I usually make 2 meals a week, eat off of those, and freeze some. Because of Bountiful Baskets I am completely committed to using what I get in my basket and its been requiring some creativity. Most of it is normal veggies I'd buy anyways (salad, broccoli for "Best Broccoli") but then there have been some wild cards like cauliflower. I'm not a cauliflower fan, but I pinterest searched cauliflower the week it was in my basket and came across cauliflower pizza. The "Crust" was riced cauliflower mixed with egg and cheese, baked, and then topped with what you want and baked again.

It was REALLY good! I made my own tomato sauce (with onions from BB) and put cheese on top, and wasn't disappointed.

Also in the kitchen department...

Apricot bran muffins. Nothing from in them came from my basket, but it made for a nice change from cereal every morning. I worked with a Betty Crocker recipe, and cut down the sugar to 1/5 cup on the first batch. On the second batch I thought "apricots are sweet enough" and cut out all the sugar. Turns out they need a wee bit of sugar. I had muffins from that batch with jam.

Beef Stew (with carrots, onions, and potatoes from my basket; hey there co-op pineapple and bananas in the background!) and a brownie pie (for someone's birthday, not just for me for giggles).

And I made a pumpkin soup. OMG. It was a recipe that a friend in town makes and it was really good.

On the reading front, I had a lot of assigned readings to knock out. And then, it happened. I was introduced to The Hunger Games. You could say they're a page turner...I read each book in about 4 hours in one sitting. Pitiful.