Vegging Out & an Organics Challenge!

I love to cook (and eat!) and I don't classify what I eat or my eating style into a "group" or "type"~I eat a variety of foods and try to just keep it as clean as I can (meaning not processed). I will try just about anything from Paleo to Vegan that sounds good and is good for me.

The last several weeks I have been participating in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge and one part of the challenge is to get in a minimum of 7 servings of fruits and veggies per day. I love veggies so this is certainly not a problem in this household BUT it has been a (fun) challenge to come up with some new dishes since I can easily find myself eating the same things over and over.



I have been reading lots of cooking website, my collection of cookbooks and magazine, vegan blogs, paleo blogs, and clean eating blogs looking for ideas. To my surprise, I have even found many delish dishes on Twitter! (Yeah, I'm on Twitter now too~you can find me here).

I discovered this Slow Cooker Smoky Pumpkin Chili recipe on Twitter.
I found this Kale Salad recipe on Sonja's blog (a side for din-din tonight!)
I stumbled upon this recipe for Bedtime Blueberries at Everyday Paleo.
Can't wait to make Eggplant & Portabello Lasagna from Jason's blog (scroll down to find this dish).
Veggie & fruit love at Marni's blog with Pineapple Spinach salad.

I even went meatless last night and just enjoyed the veggies-baby red potatoes, parsnips, carrots & fresh string beans from the pot roast I made and left the roast to hubby and Lola. Paired with a big salad it was plenty satisfying.

in my search for new veggie recipes, I read about a very interesting challenge-

Sonja has home delivery of organic veggies right to her door from-you guessed it-Door to Door Organics! Well Megan thought it might be a little cheaper to just do it yourself and went on over to her local Whole Foods to meet that challenge.

Sonja's Door To Door Organics box cost: $38.66
Megan's Whole (Paycheck) Foods trip cost: $51.18and this started the fun little challenge The Great Organic Basket Challenge or The Real World Food Challenge trying to compare prices of organic produce all over:



 
Here is the challenge-
Buy these things and total your bill.

I thought it would be fun to try and play along. But the challenge would be getting it all in ONE STOP. I usually make several stops at several different places to get what I want and save money. I shop at Trader Joe's, Hannaford, Shaw's and my local health food store-New Morning and my local Asian Market. Yes, this is lots of stops!!

I opted to try this challenge at my local Asian market, Tran's. They always have the best produce prices and some days I can get organic pears and apples for as little at $1/lb. I knew that Hannaford would have everything on the list but it would be close to $80.00 there and even more at Shaw's.




Produce List (ALL ORGANIC):
 -Roma Tomatoes – 5
- Avocados – 2
- Collard Greens – 1 bunch (don’t worry we’ll post recipes)
- Fennel – 1 LARGE root
- Golden Sweet Potatoes – 3 small
- Zucchini – 4
- Cucumber – 1
- Pomegranate – 2
- Anjou Pear – 2
- Kiwi – 2
- Pinova Apple – 2
- Pink Lady Apple – 2
- Navel Orange – 4
- Pea Sprouts – 1 box (also called Young Pea Greens, near the sprouts)
- Lemon – 5
- Lime – 2

How did I do??

My Bounty

-Roma tomatos- Fail. They only had vine, cherry & grape tomatos. I got a box of grape tomatos for $2.99
-Collard Greens- Another fail. But I got Kale instead. $2.99 for this as well.
-Fennel- Fail. Nothing!
-Golden sweet potatoes? ummm, not golden. Only regular-$1.49/lb= $2.56
-Zucchini-done-kind of...I only got 2. Ooops! $3.99 for the 2
-Cucumber-done! (although today it looks kind of sad) $1.89
-Pomegranate-fail. None.
-Anjou pear-I had to get 4 at $3.99 so 1/2 of that is $1.995
-Kiwi-again, had to get 4 at $2.50 so 1/2 of that is $1.25
-Apples-no Pinova or Pink Lady. I had the choice of Granny Smith, Red Delish or another variety I can't recall. I went with a bag of Red Delish at $4.99 for a 3lb bag.
-Navel Oranges-fail. Nothing organic citrus. Even the regular citrus looked kind of sad but I did get a crate of clementines and they are awesome. $5.99 for the box
-Pea Sprouts-fail. Nothing even close.
-Lemons-I got 5 but I used 2 last night for dressing! *lol* $0.79 each = $3.95
-Limes-came in bags of 4 at $2.99 per bag so 1/2 of that = $1.995

My total for the challenge was $34.60 (not including tax)
BUT
I did not get 5 of the items on the list.
AND
the most expensive thing (the crate of Clementines) were not organic.
It's looks like Sonja's Door to Door Organics won this hand-big time!

If time allows, I am going to try this challenge again at Hannaford where I know I will be able to get all the produce listed!

If you are interested in participating in this little challenge yourself it is running until 12/20-and to sweeten the deal, Sonja is throwing in some awesomely delish Justin's Almond Butter for the blog post she likes best.

I would like to know, what great fruit and veggie dishes are you lovin'?
Share the links and the veggie love :)

Happy Thursday!