First Impressions of Misfits Market

I have been buying food from Imperfect Foods off and on for 2 years now. Recently, I found out about Misfits Market and decided to give it a try. 

When I opened up the box, I noticed it was insulated with a padding that is curbside recyclable. Although non-plastic would be better, I very much appreciate that it is easily recyclable!

Under the padding was a cardboard layer with an ice block. Under that, was brown paper filler to fill up the box.

My Favorite Smoothie Recipe

I have an old smoothie recipe on this blog I posted several years ago. I got it from Weelicious and it helped me learn how to make smoothies. But over the years I have come up with our own formula for smoothies. I thought it was about time to post an updated smoothie recipe!

Ingredients

Yogurt

Frozen fruit

Liquid

Spinach (frozen or fresh)

Protein Powder

Agave

Yes, I have no measurements for you. I am not that kind of cook! I usually just throw in a little of this and a little of that until I get the desired result. Try it, it's fun being a creative cook! 

Here's a little more information on each ingredient:

Yogurt: I have used greek yogurt, regular yogurt, even yogurt tubes. Just whatever you can find in your fridge is fine!

Frozen Fruit: We use mostly frozen fruit because we like the texture it creates. If you have some fresh fruit that needs to be used up, you can throw that in too but I would keep 3/4 of the fruit frozen to maintain the slushy consistency. If you only have fresh fruit, you can add ice to make it more slushy but it will still not be the same as a frozen fruit smoothie. I like to take fruit that's very ripe (but not getting eaten) and throw it in the freezer to use in smoothies later on.

Meal Planning Tip #3 - Duel Purpose Meal Planning Sheet

Traditional meal planning sheets didn't work well for me because I have never had any interest in assigning meals to every day of a week. I just needed a list of what I had bought ingredients to make that week. But then I would forget to prep ingredients ahead of time or to start early enough on a harder meal. So, I decided on a compromise. It's not really complicated, but has helped me out SO MUCH! I just took a traditional meal planning list template and changed the shopping list area to a dinner list. Super simple, but changed everything for me. Now I didn't have a list of the meals I bought ingredients for in a separate place from a list of what I'm having what day. I don't like assigning meals a week a head, but I do like assigning them for the next day or two.

Here's an example of the list I'm currently using. It's temporarily drawn out with Frixion pens on a reusable notebook. Once I get a chance, it will be drawn with permanent markers so I can wipe it clean every week as I plan out new meals.

I write all the meals I bought food for on the right side of the page. As they get assigned to days, I mark them off. If for some reason we don't end up eating a meal on the assigned day, I rewrite it on the meal list. This also allows me to easily shop from stores more than once a week and just keep adding meals to the list as we get them. I can easily erase the week and keep using the same meal list until it gets to the end. Then I erase the first items, write whatever meals I have left up there, and erase the rest of the list. It's very easy to use it as a revolving list.

           

Meal Planning Tip #2 - Meal List

One thing that really helped me was creating a list of meals my family likes to eat. It's easy for me to get stuck cooking the same things over and over and forget things we used to eat. It's like we get in a rut for a little while, try some new things, and then get in a rut eating those over and over. I easily forget things we haven't made in a few weeks. Making a list of meals is a big help. 

One clarification, in our house, my kids make breakfast for themselves. I'm not a morning person and this helps me out a lot! I make sure they have plenty of healthy things to eat that they can make for themselves. Yes, this list includes cereal, but I only buy them the healthier ones. They each get a box a week and after that, they have to eat something else. So the breakfast list is just to help me make sure everything is in stock in our house. They know to eat one serving of a main dish, one fruit, one yogurt tube, and one protein (cottage cheese or sausage links) along with a glass of milk. About milk, yes there are a lot of choices listed! My kids that are growing like weeds drink whole milk, my kids who aren't growing much at the moment drink 2%, I drink soy, and one of my kids is lactose intolerant.

Here's a sample:

Breakfast: 

Cereal

Oatmeal

Grits

Cream of Wheat

Leftover French Toast, Pancakes, and Waffles

Yogurt Tubes

Sausage Links

Cottage Cheese

Milk (whole, 2%, Soy, and lactose free)

Meal Planning Tip #1 - Shop From Your Pantry First

Let me start by saying menu planning has been a big learning curve for me over the last 15 years and I by no means have this all figured out. But, I would like to share things I've learned over the years to hopefully help you as well.

I always used to get overwhelmed because the process felt like too many steps and I always got hung up on one. So I decided to just keep trying and every time I felt like I failed, look at where I got stuck, and troubleshoot that step. I have so many tips to share but I will start with this one today.

Look around your kitchen (and house?) to see what food you still have that you may have forgotten about. That random box of pasta, the few remaining potatoes, some meat in your freezer, etc. Then plan meals including those items first. Sometimes I realize I have almost everything I have for a meal and just need to buy a side item. 

Yummy Homemade Vegetable Soup

Did I mention this is so yummy! My husband had a taste (thinking it would be bland) and said, "woah, this is tasty soup!"

I used the recipe on the back of the Kroger 14 oz. can of vegetable broth for a guideline but I tweaked it with what I had on hand and LOVE the outcome! Here you go:

Ingredients:

• 3 bags (12 oz.) frozen "vegetable soup mix" (Kroger brand)
• 3 cans (14 oz.) vegetable broth
• 1 can (29 oz.) tomato sauce
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) crushed or diced tomatoes (if diced, run them through the food processor before adding to recipe)
• 3 tsp. dried parsley flakes
• 2 tsp. dried cilantro
• 3/8 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried oregano

Directions:

• Add everything to a large pot (I used a pasta pot with the strainer removed)
• Turn the soup on high to boil
• Once boiling, reduce to medium heat and cover. Stir occasionally.
• Remove from heat once the vegetables are done (and your preferred softness).
• Remove 1 - 1 1/2 cups of vegetables from the soup along with 1/4 cup liquid and put into the food processor. Pulse until veggies are somewhat pureed. Add back to pot of soup and mix thoroughly.

This makes at LEAST 10 cups. We ate a few portions ourselves before I divided it out to freeze and still ended up with just under 8 cups to freeze. So the amount could even be closer to 12 cups! I'll add the exact amount next time I make it. Until then, just know it's a lot! This is a great soup to make ahead to freeze for nights that you don't have time to cook or to bring to someone who is needing friends to bring food to them.

Price:

This is a fairly cheap soup as well. The bags of vegetables are $0.88 a piece at Kroger. I forget how much the broth is but I don't think it's more then $2.00/can. In fact I'm thinking it's closer to $1.50/can. The tomato sauce is definitely under $2.00. And the diced tomatoes always seem to be hanging around my house even though I have nothing to use them for! Well, until now!!! Everything else is just seasonings we always have on hand.

Enjoy!

           

Healthy Energy Snacks

I have a big day of shopping ahead for me tomorrow. My back was acting up today so my planned grocery shopping (with the boys) didn't get done AND I already have plans to go shopping with a girlfriend that afternoon to get supplies for a group we're in. So, I'm definitely going to need some serious snacks packed! Here's some good lists for cheap & easy snacks that are high in energy. I thought I'd share them with you in case I'm not the only one needing some serious energy this week. All the articles I chose either had great selection of food items or had a great description of why these items work.

Fitness Magazine

Essortment

Care 2

CBS Money Watch

Make Yourself - Popsicles

Instead of buying Popsicles in the store, make your own! Obviously, it will save you money, but it also gives you the ability to control what and how much goes in them (Organic, sugar, etc.). Not to mention, it is a good way to keep from wasting food. In our house, wasting fruit is a big problem, since the fruit sits in drawers in the fridge, so it's "out of site, out of mind". This way, if I realize something is going to go bad before we can eat all of it, I can just make up some pops! Go read this great post with some tips and also some interesting ideas to help you get started and think out of the box in terms of ingredients. Green Factor:

• Can be made with organic produce.
• Making them yourself cuts out all the unnecessary fillers.
• You can control how much sugar (if any) goes in them resulting in a healthier treat.

Saving Green:

• Cheaper to make yourself then buy pre-made.

Eating at home

Leanne from Savingdinner.com just sent out one of her weekly e-mails. This one caught my eye because it was talking about saving money by eating at home. Yes, it is a GREAT way to save money! It is also a wonderful way to eat healthier and an easy way to "go green."

When you eat out, you have little control over where your food is grown, how it is grown, & what extra additives are in it. When you cook at home though (and I'm not talking about frozen dinners!), you have a LOT of control over these things. You can chose to buy at a farmer's market to get locally grown fruits & vegetables. Not only does that save emissions of the food being trucked all over the country, it cuts out all that shipping time so you get fresher produce. At the grocery store, you can chose organic instead of traditionally grown. When you make it all from scratch you can control what "additives" (additional flavorings, salt, sugar, etc.) and how much of them are included. And you can completely skip all the extras that are added in commercially processed foods.

Even if you don't make it from scratch, you still have the power of information at the grocery store. You can read the labels and chose brands which are more wholesome.

You have to start somewhere right? So why not start with what not only affects the environment, but also, more importantly, YOU!