Loving Veggie/Fruit Co-op!

A few post back I told you about the local veggie/fruit co-op I started. It’s been a labor of love but I’m enjoying it immensely. I’ll be honest with ya, getting up at 5am when it’s my turn to shop is not always the best but once my shopping bud and I make it to our destination it we have a blast selecting our goodies and seeing how far we can make our dough stretch!
Our basket was awesome last cycle! I’m still amazed each time how much we get for $15.00. I get tickled every time I cook a meal with our co-op goodies! I know it’s stilly to get this excited about produce but it feels good to know I’m cooking healthy meals and saving money……..y’all know I go a little nuts over a good deal!

Now that we have a co-op basket coming in every two weeks my meal planning is a bit different. I use to sit down look through my cookbooks and decide what I wanted to make for the week. I would write down everything I needed to buy and made sure that I followed the recipe exactly. Now I fly by the seat of my pants. I still plan (can’t help it’s in my blood) but I plan my meals around what we have on hand and supplement with the few things that I need to round out my meals. I hardly ever stop in the produce section at the grocery store now that we’re doing co-op.

I think I’ve grown as a cook thanks to co-op. You’re never sure what your basket will have in store for you so I’ve been creating my own recipes lately centered around goodies from our basket. Last night I came up my version of stuffed peppers. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, well actually I do…………they were delish and got the seal of approval from Kent (the real cook chef in the house). The best thing is that I used things we already had on hand. No extra money spent! I still reference recipes but no longer follow them to a T and often tweak them a bit. I guess I’m just going through the stages of become a better cook!
Above is a picture of our dinner last night:cauliflower popcorn (so good click HERE for the recipe) and stuffed poblano peppers. Wish I had the recipe for ya but I just threw a few things together. It’s basically lean ground turkey meat, brown rice, chopped red bell pepper, cabbage, green onions, a can of tomatoes and green chilies, seasoned with to taste with smoked paprika, salt, pepper, garlic, cooked and stuffed in a seeded poblano pepper baked at 350 for about 25min and topped with a little sheared cheese.

Another recipe I’m really loving right now is Santa Fe Coleslaw (click HERE for the recipe). I’m not really a big coleslaw person but this I LOVED! I made a low-fat low calorie version and of course had most of the goodies to throw this thing together thanks to our co-op basket!


I'm linking up with:
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Saving Money Living Life