Weekly Shopping Trip Report - March 30, 2012

This week I took a late Friday shopping excursion to Whole Foods.  Good news, though: My new reusable produce and bulk bags I bought from Joyce1492 on Etsy arrived. They are fabulous!  I'm trying to incorporate the tips from Bea Johnson and using reusable bags and jars is one of them.

I gathered up my shopping bags, produce bags, glass jars and off I went.  The WF employee at the customer service counter weighed the tare of my containers and I hit the produce section first.  I don't have enough jars yet, but I should in the next few weeks as I have been making a conscious effort to buy items in glass jars where possible (as opposed to plastic).

The produce bags are awesome. I wished I had more, but I've ordered additional bags (including a bread bag!) from ThreadBareStitcher on Etsy and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. I should be good to go once they get here.

The Bulk Aisle Goods

Apples and Citrus

The Shrimp

I filled up mixed produce in two of the bags, which the cashier sorted without complaint.

Next up was the meat counter.  I needed shrimp and handed over the jar.  No problem!



When I got to the check-out counter, the cashier had a little difficulty with a couple of the jars I filled with items from the olive bar (jalapeño cilantro pesto and assorted olives and greek peppers).  When the price popped up I told him I didn't think it was quite right.  He quickly corrected the error and we were good to go.

The Whole She-Bang: Not a Great Picture

Whole Foods Summary

I used all of my own shopping bags, bought dog food and toilet paper.  The total was $152.14. 

There were several "out of the ordinary" purchases this week that increased my total.  First, my favorite pasta was on sale for $1.39 per package instead of $1.99 per package, so I got 4.  Second, I bought chocolate chips ($6.69) from the bulk bin and a box of 100 Stevia packets ($5.99) which are not weekly purchases.  Finally, the Bell & Evans chicken nuggets (a must have for nights when you just don't feel like cooking) were on sale buy one get one free ($7.49 for two).  I wasn't originally planning on buying them, but that's a great price so I got two boxes.  

Otherwise, here's how it broke down:

• Produce, $29.44 (oranges, apples, bananas, strawberries, watermelon, limes, tomatoes, mint, avacado, mixed field greens)
• Meat, $21.07 (shrimp, chicken nuggets, turkey breast, salami)
• Drinks, $18.74 (milk, goat milk, orange juice, apple juice, sparkling water, root beer)
• Dog Food, $14.99
• Toilet Paper, $3.99
• Other, $63.91 (salsa, refried beans, bulk items -- oats, cereal, chocolate chips, chocolate covered pretzels and veggie chips, pasta, ice cream, baguette, pop chips, harissa, olive bar stuff, bag of shredded cheese)

Texas Daily Harvest Summary (All Organic/Grass-Fed/Pastured/Free Range)

I bought a dozen eggs, one pound of roasted coffee, 8 ounces of colby cheese, bacon and a pound of ground beef from Texas Daily Harvest that will be delivered Tuesday.  This cost $41.48.  

Total

My total for the week was $193.62.

This included dog food and toiletries. We have two dogs: Toby is 13 and is a border collie/shepherd mix.  Eddie is a 10 month old miniature dachshund/chihuahua mix.  The dog food I bought is for Toby and should last her about a week.  Eddie still has food from a previous bag we bought for him. I plan on learning how to make dog food myself later this year. It's on the list of things to do, along with learning how to make my own cleaning supplies.

Because this was a late evening trip, my ravenous, whiny children were crawling all over me for dinner, so I had to make it. Stat!  We had sandwiches on part of the baguette, fresh fruit and pop chips. Nothing fancy, but delicious.

A little trivia about this post: I had half of it drafted. One bad move with the delete button and *poof* it disappeared. Gah!

Tomorrow I'll post what I plan on cooking this week.

Osom Chicken Soup

It's been forever since I blogged and I've missed it. I've been cooking, just not writing about it. This week I got a delivery from Texas Daily Harvest that included an organic whole chicken. While at first it may seem a bit pricey ($14.50), I stretched every penny of that by making multiple meals out of one chicken.

Here's what I did. I put the whole frozen chicken in a crockpot. The chicken was bigger than the crockpot, so I had to weigh down the lid to make it stay. Thank you, Joy of Cooking.

I put olive oil on top of the chicken as well as some garlic herb seasoning. I put some water in the bottom, turned it on low, and let it cook while we slept. The next day I pulled the cooked chicken off of the bones and used some of it to make a chicken casserole.

Then, I put what was left in a large pot, along with some carrots, onions, garlic and seasoning and simmered it on low heat for a couple of hours. It made a lot of chicken stock. Like 64 ounces.
My daughter drank some of the fresh stock out of a mug and loved it. The weather is getting cooler and it was perfect for a chilly night.

Once that batch was made, I put the chicken and vegetables back in the crockpot to make another batch of chicken stock.

I used that second batch of stock as the base of a soup. I put in some vegetables from my Urban Acres share: red onion, white potatoes, zucchini, carrots, sweet potato and some white beans. It's cooking now and will make for a great dinner. I'll puree it to make it a thicker, heartier soup.

Organic chicken stock can be expensive. I like making my own and having the fresh chicken for other meals.

We may be able to use the chicken in soup, on salads or on its own with vegetables on the side.

A word from my daughter who wants to type (no editing by me):
I like the supe my mom made it was osom

Organic Chili A La Crockpot

This was a really fast dinner. When I'm making stew or chili or whatever in the crockpot, there is no recipe.

This meal was made by combining organic ground beef from Texas Daily Harvest, a can of organic white beans, organic black beans (I had made them from dried beans and frozen them, so I pulled them from my freezer), bok choy from my Urban Acres share, a carton of 365 organic chicken broth, a can of tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and paprika. Oh, and an onion.

I served it with the homemade cheese bread sticks. I didn't eat any of it, because it's not on my Mellman plan, but Stephen and the kids did. This is definitely an easy, weeknight, make ahead kind of a meal.

Roasted Organic Potatoes, Broiled Buffalo and Homemade Cheddar Cheese Breadsticks

Buffalo. It's what's for dinner.

Along with some roasted potatoes and homemade cheddar cheese bread sticks. I used the bread machine and Texas Daily Harvest cheddar.

I have it on good authority (the husband and kids) that the bread sticks were delish. (They aren't on my Mellman plan, so I didn't eat them.) But, the buffalo and potatoes I did eat. And they were good.

Making Your Meals Work Double Time

This was a quick weeknight dinner this week. I pulled out the trusty crock pot and put 2 pounds of frozen chicken tenders in it, then covered it with several cups of leftover organic soup I made earlier in the week.

I put it on low before I went to bed and it was ready to pop in the refrigerator in the morning. The chicken was super tender and shredded really easily. Later that night I came home and popped the chicken and sauce in the microwave, cooked some brown rice (the quick cooking variety leftover from my days of eating processed foods) and steamed some broccoli from our share. I squeezed some lemon juice on top of the broccoli while it was still in the steamer.

I put everything in bowls, then grated some fresh Texas Daily Harvest parmesan on top and added some hot chili sauce (I left the spicy off of the kids' plates). I also added some soy sauce and ladled some of the soup from the crockpot on top.

It took about 20 minutes to put together and was really very good.

A Simple Organic Soup

At my daughter's request, I made soup over the weekend. Soup is really easy to heat and serve during the week.

I never follow a recipe when I make soup. I just use what I have on hand. In this pot I combined fresh produce from my Urban Acres share, a can of organic stewed tomatoes (28 ounces, I think), a can of great northern beans, and 32 ounces of organic chicken stock.

The produce I used included onions, celery, carrots, the stem of the broccoli, and spinach. I added some chopped garlic, garlic and herb seasoning, salt and pepper. I didn't measure, I just threw it all in.

I sauteed the veggies first, then added the canned ingredients and brought everything to a boil. Then I reduced the heat and let it simmer for a while. Maybe 30 minutes. I added about 8 ounces of organic cream from Texas Daily Harvest at the very end.

Then. I pulled out one of my new kitchen gadgets. (Admittedly, I had to google it when writing this post to see what it was actually called because I'm too lazy to walk into the kitchen to look.) It's a Cuisinart Smart Stick Immersion Hand Blender. It sounds way fancier than $25, but it's not.

So I grabbed that Immersion Hand Blender (I can't bring myself to refer to it as a Smart Stick) and beat those vegetables into submission. So much faster than a blender and way easier to clean.

I had some leftover homemade parmesan bread that I sliced, sprayed with cooking spray and then toasted in the oven until they became giant croutons. I added some organic parmesan (from Texas Daily Harvest) and voila, soup with cheese and croutons.

A slightly less sophisticated plate, this is what I served to the kids. There's a salad made with goodies from the share (dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar), as well as some more fresh fruit.

Another quick and easy weeknight meal.

Sunday's Light Lunch

A little homemade parmesan bread, with sliced tomatoes from the Urban Acres share, a mix of Texas Daily Harvest cheeses (gouda, parmesan and cheddar) and some fresh fruit.

Quick. Easy. Delicious.

The Perfect Snack

Doesn't this look amazing?

It's purely a product of our Urban Acres shares mixed with some Organic Raw Texas Cheddar from Texas Daily Harvest.

And what could be even better? The little girl digging in while watching some Scooby Doo.

Not Pretty, But Pretty Tasty

I made "stoup" in the crockpot the other night and had some for dinner tonight. All I did was put the following in a crockpot, turned it on low, and cooked it for 8 hours:

• Buffalo stew meat from Whole Foods
• Chopped broccoli stems
• Frozen corn (purchased from the store)
• Frozen greens (collard and kale) from my freezer
• Frozen squash from my freezer
• Pearled barley from the Sprouts bulk bin
• A can of Muir Glen diced chipotle tomatoes
• A can of tomato sauce
• A box of Imagine vegetable stock
• A dash of chipotle seasoning powder

I added some spicy chili sauce and a slice of the Texas Daily Harvest Texas Cheddar Cheese. With the exception of the corn, all of the vegetables in the stew came from previous Urban Acres shares. Everything was organic.

I made too much, so I'll have to freeze some of it for later lunches.

First Texas Daily Harvest Delivery

I found out that the group coordinator for Texas Daily Harvest in the pick up point most convenient for me isn't going to be the coordinator after today. I was able to pick up, but I'm not sure where the other locations are. Hopefully, not too far away.


'Cause I'm gonna love this.




The Texas Cheddar Cheese is phenomenal. It's moderately sharp and creamy. I would have taken a big bite out of it in the car, but I couldn't open it while driving.

We've had the milk before, so I know it's fantastic. The verdict on the mozzarella will be forthcoming, as will the verdict on the drinkable yogurt. I got strawberry and blackberry to try.

The total for everything was $21. I'll account for it in this upcoming week's budget review. I do my shopping for the week on the weekend. Tomorrow is also my scheduled Urban Acres pick up.

I can't wait to see what we get!

My First Texas Daily Harvest Order

I just placed my first Texas Daily Harvest order. I can't wait! I'm really looking forward to getting it on Friday.

"Below is a summary of the contents of your order.
1 Delivery (1.0 each)
1 Whole Milk Gallon (1.0 gallon)
1 Drinkable Yogurt Strawberry (1.0 pint)
1 Mozarrella 8 oz. (1.0 each)
1 Texas Cheddar 8 oz. (1.0 each)
1 Drinkable Yogurt Blackberry (1.0 pint)

Amount paid: 21.00
Date of delivery: Dec 17, 2010"

There is a $1 delivery fee to cover the paypal transaction fees. I'm still waiting for directions on specifically where my pick-up location is (I know cross streets), but I'm excited to pick it all up on Friday.

I'll post pictures when I get everything.

Texas Daily Harvest

When I first visited the Urban Acres store, I picked up a gallon of fresh milk from Texas Daily Harvest. It was so fresh and unprocessed, the cream actually rose to the top of the container. My family loved it.

Well, Texas Daily Harvest will start making deliveries and we're signing up for one of their delivery groups. Here is the information for Home Delivery if you want to sign up:

Time to Find Your Delivery Group

Click here to go the the map of the Group Coordinators that have been set up as of today.

On the map, choose the drop location(s) most convenient for you. The green markers are confirmed, the blue are tentative. It would be best to have at least one green site on your list. Reply to this email with your name, phone number, and group choices in order of preference. Just use the group numbers for simplicity, please. I am working over-time getting the online ordering system ready to go. It will allow everyone to order and pay online. Group coordinators will NOT have to handle payments.

If you have friends who might be interested, please forward this information to them. Post to Facebook, Twitter, your neighborhood message board, anything you can think of to help us get the word out, please.

We are delivering in some outlying East Texas areas, too, as you can see from the map, so if you know anyone in the Tyler, Longview, Marshall area, please send this to them, also. We have milk, yogurt, and cheese available now.

We will have beef in the next couple of weeks, then pork around February, then produce, chicken and eggs next Spring/Summer.

We need more group coordinators, so if you think you might have any interest in being one, please call Kent at 903.335.1758 or reply to this email with your questions. We are really excited about getting home delivery up and going. Thank you for your interest and support of our farm.

Ramy Jisha
Texas Daily Harvest
www.TexasDailyHarvest.com