Organics to You Weekly Organic Produce Bins

organics to you

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST IS NOT SPONSORED. I PURCHASE THIS BOX WEEKLY WITH MY OWN MONEY. 

In my meal planning post this week I talked about our Organics to You box. For those of you who aren’t from the Portland area you may not have any idea what I am talking about so before I get into the contents of this weeks box let me first tell you about the box. The box is filled with 100% Organic produce with much of this produce coming from local farmers.

The box is delivered right to your door so as a busy mom of two this is FANTASTIC. You can customize your box based on the size you’d like and you can do add on’s for additional produce such as ingredients for salads or Asian dishes or maybe you have little one’s in the house. Not only can you add on extra produce you can also add on lots of grocery items such as pantry items, milk (dairy and non-dairy), coffee, tea and even chocolate among other things. 

This week we went with the small bin with a baby add-on (see here for details on bin sizes). The cost was $51 for the box plus add-on.

Organics To You - Week 1:19 - fruit

Fruits:
8 Anjou Pears
3 Fuji Apples
4 Gala Apples
4 Kiwi
10 Bananas
4 Navel Oranges
2 Mangos

Organics To You - Week 1:19 - Veg

Veggies:
1 Butterkin Squash
4 Russet Potatoes
4 Sweet Potatoes
1 Celery
1 Bunch Lacinato Kale
2 Bunches of Carrots
1 bag Shitaki Mushrooms
1 Celeriac
2 Onions

I have to say everything looks fantastic and based on what I would normally spend on the same produce at the grocery store it ends up being less expensive. Bonus I don’t have to leave the house! We will continue our order and I might bump our box up to large bin and no baby bin.

Have you ever used a produce or grocery delivery service? 

Meal Plan // Beans, Greens, Grains & Vegan Pressure Cooking

This week isn’t over yet and honestly the meal plan I had for this week kind of went of track due to a few off days but that’s okay. Today we get our first Organics To You box of goodies – comment below if you’d like to see a video and/or blog post with the contents of our box – and I’m excited to see what we actually get in our box. That all being said I just worked on our latest meal plan for 1/23-2/5 and the best part I am trying a few new recipes from Vegan Pressure Cooking by JL Fields and I’m also working on some super nutritious, simple and tasty recipes for the blog. 

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Friday:  PIZZA PARTY FRIDAY NIGHT

Saturday: Beans, Greens and Grains (recipe in progress)

Sunday: SoyCurl Mac & Cheese (from Vegan Pressure Cooking) and veg side from Organics to You Box

Monday: Roasted Squash, Quinoa, Greens and Tahini Sauce

Tuesday: Rice & Veggie Bowl (recipe in progress)

Wednesday: Potato & Chickpea Curry with Brown Rice

Thursday: Quinoa & Veggie Bowl (recipe in progress)

Friday: PIZZA PARTY FRIDAY NIGHT

Saturday: Navy Beans, Rice & Greens (from Vegan Pressure Cooking)

Sunday: New World Szekely Golash over pasta (from Vegan Pressure Cooking)

Monday: Mexican Bowl (recipe in progress)

Tuesday: Mushroom & Chickpea Strew

Wednesday: Sundried Tomato & Cannellini Beans with greens 

Thursday: Fridge Clean Out

So there you have it our meal plan for the next two weeks. Tonight we are most likely going to be doing a clean out the fridge night since our box arrived and Thursday is going to be a use what’s in the box (that doesn’t go with a recipe) night. 

What is on your menu or are there any recipes you are dying to try right now? 

To see what I am eating along with natural skincare/beauty, fitness and a few extras mixed in follow me on Instagram @runwithtongs

Blog 365 // Day 10 // Two Week Menu Plan

Saturday Meal Plan

The past year has been a big experiment when it comes to menu planning. I have tried weekly menu planning, monthly menu planning, bi-weekly menu planning and not planning at all. In the end I found weekly planning to be too much work, monthly menu planning to be to ambitious, not planning at all to be a poor choice and bi-weekly menu planning to be just right (I think I have been reading too many children’s books). 

While I have found bi-weekly menu planning to work best for us it hasn’t been without it’s flaws. One new thing I am trying this month is daily themed meals to help streamline the process. Here it what’s on the menu for us:

  • Saturday: L- Sandwiches; D – Vegan Shawarma Fries
  • Sunday: L – Vegan Shawarma Salads; D – Vegan Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese + Roasted Cauliflower
  • Monday: L- Leftovers; D – Deliciously Ella’s Cannellini Bean Stew, Millet, Garlic Kale & Avocado
  • Tuesday: L – Leftovers; D – Veggie Burgers, Baked Fries & Roasted Veg
  • Wednesday: L -Salad/Snack Plates; D – What’s Cooking Good Looking’s za’atar roasted butternut squash + chickpeas with rice and miso tahini 
  • Thursday: L- Leftovers; D – Collard Green Sukiyaki
  • Friday: L – Leftovers; D – PIZZA PARTY FRIDAY NIGHT!
  • Saturday:  L- Sandwiches; D – Gonzo Bowls (Falafel Bowls inspired by Gonzo Food Truck)
  • Sunday: L – Falafel Salads; D – Pesto Pasta with green beans and potatoes
  • Monday: L – Leftovers; D – BBQ Tempeh Bowls with greens, brown rice and vegan cashew ranch
  • Tuesday: L – Leftovers; D – Taco Bowls
  • Wednesday: L – Leftovers; D – Curried Red Lentils, spinach and quinoa
  • Thursday: L- Leftovers; D – Tahini Stir-fried Soba Noodles with Cabbage, carrots and onions
  • Friday: L – Leftovers; D – PIZZA PARTY FRIDAY NIGHT!

What’s on your menu this week?

Busy Week = Meal Prep & Meal Plan

While I have become pretty good at creating a meal plan and sticking to it 90% of the time I still have not mastered the art of meal prep. Maybe it’s having a toddler, maybe it’s the time it takes, maybe it’s how simply that cooking at the end of the day can be super therapeutic for me, anyway you look at it I just don’t usually do meal prep. This week however was different.

As I have eluded over the past month or so we are taking a secret trip and well this week is all about packing and getting our house in order because there is nothing I hate more than coming home from vacation to a messy house. I attempted to have Edith help prepare a few things with me in the kitchen while Neil went for a run however it just ended up in E having a melt down when I wouldn’t let her eat the entire batch of walnut-miso cheese (side note E is teething bad right now and also seems to be having a developmental leap so that = cranky toddler). Anyways instead of throwing my hands up and saying screw it and relaxing on the couch like I really wanted to do I continued to do prep.

MealPrepApril

Next I made sun-dried tomato and white bean dip, vegan ranch dip and I prepped a bunch of veggies for dipping. I made marinara sauce for our pizza and polenta dishes. I also started my cashews soaking to make cashew cream. I made trail mix for snacking throughout the week and for our flight. Lastly, I prepped potatoes and tofu scramble to make breakfast wraps this week. I also made dinner for us as well.  I think overall it took about 90 minutes to do everything and while I still have to make a few things and Neil needs to make bread I feel like the meal prep is really going to help especially when it comes to breakfast.

Meal Plan:

Sunday: Brunch: out at The Waypost/Dinner: Pasta with tomato, olive, fava bean, garlic, olive oil, nutritional yeast).

Monday: Breakfast: Tofu Scramble Wraps (wraps, potatoes, tofu, baby spinach, mushrooms, nooch, dayia) /Lunch: Leftover/Dinner: Bowls (brown rice, tempeh, onion, baby spinach, mushrooms)

Tuesday: Breakfast: Tofu Scramble Wraps leftovers/Lunch: leftovers /Dinner: Chipotle Bowls (black beans, sour supreme, brown rice, corn, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, avocado, hot sauce)

Wednesday: Breakfast: oatmeal /Lunch: leftovers /Dinner: Cashew Cream Pizza (marinara (crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic, spices), cashew cream (cashews, nooch, veg bouillon cube, water) garlic & fresh basil), greens with Brianna’s French Dressing

Thursday: Breakfast: oatmeal /Lunch: Polenta with leftover marinara and cashew cream and green salad/Dinner: Stir Fry Rice with Edamame and leftover veggies

Friday: Breakfast: oatmeal /Lunch: leftovers /Dinner: Veggie Burgers with homemade buns

Saturday: Breakfast: Chickpea Pancakes-OSG (green onion, red bell pepper, avocado, mushrooms, onions) /Lunch out with Neil/ Dinner: Pasta and whatever else we have (pick up jar of sauce)

Sunday aka travel day: fig bars, super cookies, hummus with carrots, red bell pepper, cucumber and pita, bananas, trail mix

Snacks: raisins, veggies (carrots, red bell pepper, cucumber) with ranch dip or white bean dip, smoothies, fruit, trail mix (chocolate chips, almonds, raisins, cranberries, sour cherries, brazil nuts, coconut)

Do you meal prep? Tips?

What’s on your menu this week?

Any guesses as to where we are traveling to?

Budget // Groceries + Meal Plan // Week Two

I am really excited to share our most recent grocery trip! I seriously can’t believe that we came UNDER budget! Despite last week being an off week due to sickness and well just being bad at our “one grocery day” rule we still managed to make out well.

After checking out the sales flyers for our local grocery stores we decided that this week we were going to try Fred Meyer. This would be our first grocery trip ever to Fred Meyers and well we were a little nervous. Fred Meyer is a more conventional grocery store and I would compare it to Loblaws/Superstore for my Canadian friends or Shaws or Price Chopper for my East Coast friends (unfortunately I’m not familiar with any other regional grocery stores). Anyways as things go with a conventional grocery store you have to be a little more picky, keep yourself focused on your list and sometimes you just have to search a little harder until you become familiar with the store.

Upon first walking into the store I was immediately impressed with how clearly laid out and marked the organic produce was. The best part? The organic produce looked good and it was in some cases significantly cheaper than Whole Foods. Now I know the true test will be in the taste but for now I’m just loving that it’s less expensive. Also because I did check the flyers before going I knew that there were a number of organic items on sale. Also another thing I love about bigger grocery chains is that they mark down their produce when they are a day or two from the best buy date and they mark down spotty bananas aka the best bananas for freezing!

Once we left the produce area that’s when the panic started to set in; I mean where to next?? I headed straight to the ‘natural’ food section to check out what they had and while they have their own organic brand that was reasonably prices most everything else was around the same or often more than Whole Foods. I didn’t really need a ton of pantry items but I did pick up some of their organic tofu.

The only things left on my list to find were organic canned beans that weren’t $3.00 per can and I had to do some searching but finally I found them! I also located an extra large bottle of Frank’s hot sauce for Neil.

Overall it was a good experience and assuming everything taste good and holds up well for the week I think we will be making a Fred Meyer trip more often! Continue on to see what we bought and our meal plan…

Groceries Week 2 Random
Bulk Pecans $3.20
Bulk Nutritional Yeast $4.27
Bulk Lundberg Short Grain Brown Rice $1.36
Mushrooms (14oz) $3.69
Yellow Onions (3lbs) $1.58
Organic Tofu $1.79

Groceries Week 2 Beans
Frank’s $4.53
Organic Chickpeas x4 $4.00
Organic Great Northern Beans x2 $2.00

Groceries Week 2 Greens
Organic Red Leaf Lettuce $2.29
Organic Zucchini $1.31
Organic Romaine $1.79
Asparagus $1.78

Banana Almond Baked Oatmeal Cups
Groceries Week 2 Fruits & Veg
Organic Avocado x2 $2.50
Organic Green Onions $0.89
Organic Cauliflower $3.72
Organic Red Pepper $2.03
Fresno Chili Pepper $0.25
Organic Garlic (not pictured) $0.77
Organic Red Cabbage $2.55
Organic Cherry Tomatoes $2.50

Groceries Week 2 Fruit
Organic Bananas $1.75
Organic Extra Ripe Bananas $1.82
Organic Kiwi x4 $2.00
Medjool Dates $6.49
Tangelos $2.55

Target:
Granola $2.99
Applesauce Packets $2.99
Organic Raisin Boxes $1.99

Total: $71.38

Week 1: $90.92
Random Purchases: $40.84
Grand Total for Weeks 1&2 (February 27-March 14): $203.14

Menu Plan:
Thursday: Homemade Lentil Soup
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Lentil Pasta
Sunday: Lunch: Vegan Caesar Salad; Dinner: Cashew Tofu
Monday: Quinoa Bowls with Creamy White Beans & Zucchini
Tuesday: Brown Rice Bowls with Veggies and Caesar Sauce
Wednesday: Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpea Bowls (inspired by this recipe)
Thursday: Brown Rice Bowls with Veggies with Tofu

Breakfasts:
Smoothies
Vegan Banana Almond Baked Oatmeal Cups

Lunches: Leftovers

Snacks:
Oatmeal Raisin Bites
Nutty Date Balls
Veggies w/Hummus
Popcorn
Tangelos
Bananas
Kiwi
Smoothies

Budget // Groceries + Meal Plan Realities

So last weeks meal plan didn’t go quite as I had planned. We ended up with some extra leftovers and we were all hit by a round of sickness so things changed slightly. I would love to share that things went just as planned but that isn’t the reality and sometimes that is just what happens. We have for the most part stuck to the groceries we purchased and haven’t made any crazy changes to the meals just minor ones or shifted our days.

Pen-and-Paper

Last Week’s Meal Plan (see here)

What we really ate last week:

Friday: Planned Meal
Saturday: Planned Meals
Sunday: Breakfast: As Planned Lunch: Hoisin Stir Fried Noodles with Veggies & Edamame; Dinner: As Planned
Monday: Lunch: Neil- Leftover Curry & E & I -Cauliflower & Quinoa Bites with Marinara; Dinner: Pizza (we had leftover dough and toppings) and Green Salad
Tuesday: Lunch: Neil- Leftover Quinoa Bites & Green Salad; E & I – Soup; Dinner: Homemade Lentil Soup, Homemade Bread & Green Salad
Wednesday: Lunch: Smoothies; Dinner: Tofurky Sandwiches

So we ended up doing a little extras shopping this week that we hadn’t planned to and it doesn’t fit into our “rules” but we also didn’t plan on all of us getting sick, especially Edith. So we ended up picking up a few things to help with hopefully healing us all and I picked up a few extras <– this is why one shopping day per week is important.

I had also planned to go to our co-op to use our monthly 10% off but I think I will wait until the following weeks order when we have our budget replenished. Side note: Our budget is based on paydays so $230 1st-15th and $230 for 15th-Last Day of Month; this helps us to stay on track better so that we don’t go ahead and blow all of our grocery budget in the first half of the month. 

New Season’s $40.84 (unplanned purchases)

Frozen Wild Blueberries $4.99
Organic PB $6.99
Frozen Organic Corn $1.00
Frozen Organic Broccoli $1.00
Frozen Organic Peas $1.00
Frozen Organic Cauliflower $1.00
Organic Red Bell Pepper $2.39
Bulk Mushrooms $4.49
Tofurky $2.50
Bubbies Pickles $6.99
Sourdough Bread $4.99
Tomatoes $3.50

As you can see stopping in to get a few cold and flu items adds up because we end up picking up a few other things while we are there. I would like to note we also picked up white vinegar to clean our humidifier, natural vapor rub, raw honey, lemons, popsicles, squeeze packets for Edith and chamomile tea but that came out of our “medication” and cleaning budget.

So we are down to about $98 for our groceries for the next week which means I’ll have to get creative in the kitchen. I had initially planned our menu through Wednesday but because we went a little off schedule and we have been sick I am not planning on doing any major shopping until Saturday at the earliest.

Extended Meal Plan

Thursday: Soup
Friday: TBD
Saturday: TBD

Breakfast will be oatmeal or smoothies for the remainder of the week and lunches will be leftovers.