I Am Overrun!!!

The race is on!  Between being out of the house a lot this week AND having no extra kids to help us eat fruits and veggies…the fridge is way too full!

 

It looks like a garden in there!   And a lot of my fruit is out on the counter in a fruit bowl as well!

I already had a lot of produce left over from my delivery last week and this week’s delivery came late…on Wednesday instead of Monday…but it came in full force!

This week was a particularly gorgeous box too…..

It had:

• 1 broccoli (I still have some from last week!)
• 1 box grape tomatoes (I still have from last week too!)
• 1 bunch leeks
• 2 gorgeous Delicata squash (I have never tried these!)
• 2 yams
• 1 fennel (another thing I have never tried fresh)
• 1 bunch collards
• 1 red cabbage
• 1 bunch parsley (I still have one bunch of parsley and cilantro from last week!)
• 1 bunch turnips with greens
• 1 head red leafy lettuce (again, lettuce left from  last week)
• 1 box blackberries
• 1 hand bananas
• 1 crenshaw melon (I have my honeydew from last week…and I have never tried crenshaw)
• 2 boxes strawberries
• 4 apples
• 1 pound of mandarins
• 4 pears
• 1 box cranberries
• 1 box raspberries

And as a coordinator thank you, Annie threw in these for me!

Organic dark chocolate covered almonds!

Huge!

Delicious!

Forget produce, the rest of the day I am snacking on these! 

Dark chocolate, almonds, organic…all of the things that make them completely healthy right?

    

Here are those beautiful Delicata squash….they are so pretty!

And the fennel!  Pretty too…I have to figure out what I am going to do with it.

By the time I sorted the boxes and everybody picked them up, I had not even eaten breakfast!  (I had managed to fit in an espresso though)

And it was lunchtime.  Since I had a ridiculous amount of lettuce…I decided we need to be eating a lot of salad around here over the next few days. 

While shopping yesterday I had treated myself to these:

     

A Julienne peeler and a veggie scrubber!  I was pretty excited about the peeler…I love the texture of Julienne’d carrots and beets.  I am not a beet lover…but lately I love it fresh in my salads, only Julienne’d though…or a little in my juice…I don’t think I can handle them cooked or in wedges.  (I may try one balsamic roasted though…that makes everything taste good).

Unfortunately the peeler didn’t work!  It was such a struggle to use it that I ended up pulling out my big ole chef’s knife and did it by hand.  Back to TJ Maxx this is going!

Also in the mix:

• Leftover rice from last night’s dinner
• grape tomatoes
• carrots
• beets
• red bell pepper
• green leaf lettuce

 

I topped it with my favorite…Thai Peanut dressing!  It  hit  the spot…and the rice was filling enough to keep me satisfied when I left to finish up shopping for the day! 

I also threw into my purse two little mandarins to snack on during the day.

By 8 o’clock I was hungry and almost done!  I kept wishing I had brought a snack…I completely forgot about my mandarins!!! (and I have soooo many of those…they are on the must eat now list too!)

This time for dinner though I was somewhat prepared!  I had made that big pot of brown rice earlier in the week to try to be ahead of the game…and for once I was!

I had also stocked up on a variety of Gardein products last week when they are on sale for $1.99 in my Publix.   I got at least 6 of each variety…they are processed, but they satiate the meatlovers in my family somewhat so I pull them out occasionally to treat them.

Tonight we had the beefless tips!   And for  a change I didn’t get “The Look” from FabHubs…so he is starting to accept them.

I also had two bunches of fresh spinach left from last week that needed to be used.  I pulled one bunch out and washed it, weeded out some mushy pieces, and chopped off the bottoms of the stems.  I  left the leaves intact with most of the stems on for cooking.

I rough chopped about five cloves of garlic and tossed them into a pan of heated olive oil.  I browned the garlic, then put in the washed bunch of spinach, sprinkled some Adobo seasoning, and stir-fried them up until  they were still pretty green, but wilted.  I topped this with some freshly grated parmesan (I put FabHubs to work grating the giant wedge I got from Costco this weekend!)

He did compliment the spinach! (I have to say myself it came out really good).

I also heated up some of the brown rice in the microwave (I am torn between using it or not at this stage of the game…but it sure comes in handy sometimes) and sprinkled crumbled  feta cheese over the top.

And since we had no kids to set an example for, we dragged our plates, along with a glass of wine (merlot for me….sangria for FabHubs) into the family room and sat in front of the TV watching Criminal Minds!

The best supper we have had all week!