Bargain Produce!!!

Hey all!! So about a month ago I found out about this awesome food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. It freakin' rocks, so I thought I would share! These awesome ladies in Arizona started it and it has just recently come to Utah. How it works is everybody that wants to participate pays into a pool so to speak and then they take that and buy produce wholesale and distribute it amongst everybody so we all get a deal! It is so awesome! Such a bargain! You go to their website and pay $15 for a "basket". There are also options to buy other things such as cases of fruit (this week was peaches and cherries), ingredient packs for different kind of ethnic cooking (Italian pack, Mexican pack, Asian pack...I love these! See below for details), and also breads of all kinds! I hear they also have other things occasionally, but these are all that I have seen so far. :) Anyways, here's all the loot I got today:

Basket:
2 big heads of green lettuce
4 lb. container of red grapes
6 big bananas
1 lb. big PERFECT! strawberries
1/2 brown bag of cherries (approx 1-1 1/2 lbs?)
7 pluots (never had these before, but they look and smell SO tasty)
4 roma tomatoes
7 braeburn apples
1 head cauliflower
1 bunch of celery
2 zucchini
1 brown bag full of fresh green beans
This filled about 3/4 of the big laundry basket that I took with. And this was even smaller than last week! Last week the basket was full! We are still eating stuff and a lot of it I don't think we are going to get to so I'm making it into baby food :) Go me bein' thrifty!

Ok, and then here is what was in the Mexican Pack this week:
1 pkg. 12 ct. corn tortillas
dried anaheim and chipotle chiles
1 bunch of cilantro
6 limes
1 yellow onion
2 bunches of green onions
4 pablano peppers
3 jalapenos
2 avocados
1 head garlic
Awesome right? I'm making homemade enchilada sauce tonight with the dried chiles. And then tomorrow we are having homemade cafe rio salads using a bunch of the other stuff! :) And I totally intend on making chile relanos with the pablanos! :) Yum! Last week was an Italian pack... And it was stinkin' awesome as well! It had an eggplant, TONS of herbs, 3 heads of garlic, 3 onions, and a bunch of other stuff. SOOO awesome! I am loving this!

I love looking into our fridge and seeing all the colorful fresh fruits and vegetables!!! It has been so awesome! It has been so helpful in getting us to eat better. And like I said above, I'm taking whatever we have leftover after the 2 weeks (oh yeah, they do it every other week) and making and freezing baby food with it for Noah to eat in a month or so! :) It's been so awesome! Such a great deal on stuff that's so good for you. And also it's all store quality stuff. Not like leftovers or anything. The only reason we get such a good deal is because the ladies that run the co-op go and work out awesome prices with the growers because they buy in bulk! :) So dang cool!

I highly recommend you all check it out! The website is http://www.bountifulbaskets.org. And chances are anybody that lives in Utah reading this has one close to them. There are 2 pick-up places in Brigham City alone! And they just started one this week in Bountiful that has made things much easier for us! :) Check it out! It rocks!

p.s. I realized while I was typing this that I should have taken a picture of all the yummy stuff...but unfortunately I have already got it all washed and chopped and what not a put in the fridge...so I will try and remember next time I promise!