My (veggie) cup runneth over

I, of course, got the prettiest one

   Hole-ly crap, I am drowning in vegetables.  The inside of my refrigerator looks like a tropical jungle with every shade of green possible.  All because I joined a CSA.  And because I just know you'll ask, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  And because I know you'll ask again, here's how it works.  You pay a local farmer upfront for a share of the harvest through out the summer.  Or at least that's how it usually works.  The CSA I joined is a little bit different.  While they do prefer people to pay in advance, they give the option of paying once per month with cash or plastic, OR (and here's why I joined) weekly with foodstamps.  For a mere $21 a week I am provided with a beautiful canvas bag overflowing with goodness.  Local, Spray free, seasonal, fresh, and mutually beneficial.  This particular CSA is run by Global Gardens, part of the Idaho Office for Refugees.  All of the food is grown, in and close around the city, by refugee farmers tending small urban farms.

Week one

    Last week I was graced with: 2 head of lettuce, a bag each of spinach and arugula, bunches of radishes, scallions and cilantro, a small bunch of kale, and a good sized head of bok choi.  This week it's: 2 heads of lettuce, bunches of radishes, carrots and cilantro, a small bunch of turnips, some collard greens, 2 purple kohlrabi, a bag of spinach, a tiny bag of broccoli and some young garlic.
   They also have arraignments with other farms so there are a few optional add ons.   For $60 per month you can get 10 pounds of naturally raised meat (beef, pork, or a mix), for $9 per week you can get 4 pounds of organic fruit, and for $6 per week you can get all natural frozen pizza dough.  I signed up for all of the above.

Week two

                                                     I am really enjoying cooking with all of this fresh goodness.  This is my first year of making a real effort to eat seasonally and I am really enjoying it so far.  I was so excited to find out there was going to be bok choi in the bag last week.  I LOOOOVE bok choi.  Naturally, I made stir fry.  ok ok ok, I can't really call it stir fry, 'cause there was very little frying involved.  Thai style veg and tofu is more like it.  I tossed the scallions, some garlic and ginger, and a wee bit of red curry paste in the pan for a quick fry.  Then I added brown sugar, coconut milk, tofu, broccoli, zucchini, red pepper, bok choi,  and radishes.  At the very end I snipped in the cilantro and served it with rice and sriracha.

this little guy nearly became stir fry

I even have the proper utensils to eat it with

Not-so-extreme couponing

   Extreme couponing is SO not my bag.  I am far too lazy and too busy to spend all that time organizing coupons, searching the sales, and storming the stores at the butt crack of dawn to get 15 boxes of minute rice for $2.  Not to mention the fact that I have no pantry space to speak of.  I don't care how good the price is, if you don't have space for it or can't use it before it expires, it's NOT a good deal.  Not to say that I don't need to save some scratch, I just do it in a different way.
      
   About once a week I stop by one particular grocery store, either before I pick up the kids or on our way home.  Now, this chain isn't known for it's low prices, quite the opposite.  I don't do my regular shopping there, I go there for one reason, the Clearance.  Most grocery stores have things that go on clearance from time to time, products that are out of season, discontinued, dented or near their expiration.  This store seems to have more products than average go on clearance.  Meats, cheeses, fresh pastas, sauces and salsa's, canned and boxed goods.  In the case of the perishable goods they're marked with coupons stuck to the front of the package that has been put on clearance.  All you have to do is find them, kinda like an easter egg hunt.

Look at all that red in my basket!

   I usually start at the back of the store, with the fresh meats.  Bacon, sausages, microwave meat entrees and side dishes, pork, beef, chicken, and sea food.  This trip I got 3 packages of breakfast sausage, one package of bacon, one meat entree and one mashed potato side dish.  A lot of these items can be frozen, so the expiration date becomes a little less important.

   From there I head down the isle with the lunch meats, cheeses, fresh pastas and fresh sauces.  I bagged, 2 packages of lunch meat, 3 packages of fresh pasta, 4 packages of american slices, 2 tubs of cream cheese (that I have a very tasty plan for) and a tub of pesto.  One of the packages of pasta didn't have a coupon on it, but I picked it up because they were buy one, get one free.  That means I got 2 for the price of one, AND still got a dollar off.  These can also be frozen, whoot!

It's a cardiologist's worst nightmare

    After I've picked up what strikes my fancy I head for the back of the store again.  In the back corner there is a shelving unit and a couple carts.  These are where you will find the non perishable clearance.  This time there was quite a bit of asian sauces.  I got 2 jars of duck sauce, 3 jars of satay sauce, 2 jars of chinese BBQ sauce, and one jar of kobe steak grill sauce.

Did someone say "Stir Fry"?

     I did pick up a few things that weren't on clearance, but they were on sale.

Carbs carbs carbs

     Checking out reminds me of another reason I don't bother with the whole couponing craze.  Using all those coupons and dealing with store policies often means multiple transactions.  Ugh, not something I'm eager to deal with when I have 2 wriggling, whining kids climbing all over me and touching everything else.  Certainly can't argue with the results either!

Hells yeah, saved 50%

   And as an awesome bonus, the coupons generated at the register were actually ones I would conceivably use.  That never happens!

Stupid upside down photo :(

 
 Bonus "Making Do" content...  I took some broccoli cheese soup out of the freezer before leaving the house anticipating it to be a soup kind of day.  Now, this soup was a bit disappointing the first time, just not cheesy enough.  While digging through my fridge I found exactly what that soup needed.  Half of a cheese ball!  Yep, as weird as it sounds, I cut up half of a cheese ball I had no other plans for and stirred it into my heating soup.  It thickened it, bumped up the cheesyness and creamyness, and the the almonds were actually a nice compliment.

Cheese Ball Soup!