This week I learned from my friend Jen that we have a local co-op that distributes produce baskets each week. I knew this was available other places but had never looked into what we had locally. Sure enough, BountifulBaskets.org is available in 20 states, and when I went to look what was near me, I found one pick up location 1 mile from my house!
My pick up time was at 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning and you have to pick up your basket within 20 minutes of that time. My plan was to get up at 5:00 take a short walk and go pick up my basket. Then I woke up at 5:50 a.m. I still made it by 6:03 and was happily surprised to find my basket was really two baskets, one filled with fruit and one filled with vegetables. I checked in and transferred the produce to my own bags and was on my way within a couple of minutes.
This is what I came home with…
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Veggies: Celery, romaine lettuce, 2 green bell peppers, 2 bags of carrots, grape tomatoes, and an onion.
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Fruits: Grapes, cherries, bananas, cantaloupe and 3 mangos
All of that was $16.50 ($15 for the basket and $1.50 to cover processing fees). The first week you also pay $3 to contribute for your basket to hold the produce at pick up. You bring your own basket/bag to bring it home. They ask that you volunteer 1 out of each 6 times you pick up your basket.
We planned our meals out for the next week trying to incorporate everything that we received. Later in the day I went to the grocery store and priced out the same items I received and it would have easily cost about $35 for the same amount of produce.
I dropped off my fruits and veggies and headed out for a walk. I had finally set up a playlist on my iPod. Since I had already done my morning errand I now had more time for a walk. I had been looking at this path that looked like it led to the canal and thought “what the heck”. I had time for a longer walk now.
I have lived in this area for 7 years, but have never walked the canal path, even though the canal borders one side of our neighborhood. North of us there is a farm to one side and a park on the other. The park was built on top of what used to be a landfill. It was warm out but there were lots of other walkers, runners and bikers out on the trail.
I ended up covering 3.24 miles and earning 7 activity points for my efforts. Next time I better put on sunscreen if I am going to be out later in the morning.
I started Weight Watchers on June 21st and started exercising again 2 days later. In that short time I walked 290 minutes and covered almost 14 miles, earning 29 activity points.
I’m very proud of my first month-end activity check-in, because in the days and weeks before June 21st all of those numbers would have been a big fat 0.
Saturday night we started putting our veggies to use. I had picked up red cabbage and a red pepper at the store and wanted to make a slaw with grilled veggies. I was inspired by a recipe in the July/August issue of Weight Watchers Magazine where they had grilled the vegetables for the slaw. I didn’t think I would like the dressing that was used in the magazine recipe, so I came up with my own spin on a grilled slaw and used up some of those veggies we got this week (recipe below).
Grilled Vegetable Chipotle Slaw
Prepare the veggies for grilling by chopping the cabbage in quarters and removing the core, cutting the pepper in quarters and slicing the onion thick slices. Spray all sides with olive oil cooking spray.
Grill vegetables until tender.
Mix the ingredients for dressing in the bottom of a large bowl and shred carrots.
After grilled vegetables have cooled, chop and toss in bowl with dressing and shredded carrots. Serve and enjoy!
[gmc_recipe 246]
More brussels sprouts and cauliflower to get creative with with our Bountiful Basket this week which also included 6 Anaheim peppers and 6 onions. We still have tomatoes left from last weeks 20 lb. box to finish up too.
