Food Haul 11.22.13

 

Oops, the week of no pictures!

I went to Aldi this week to pick up a few things.  No luck finding anything organic except baby spinach yet.  I have heard that Aldi is going to have a permanent organic line so I am excited to learn more.  I picked up baby spinach, mini bell peppers, mini cucumbers, some crescent rolls (ugh, I know they are terrible non-food items but they were calling to me!) steel cut oats, and bread.  I believe I spent $15 but local toddler absconded with the receipt.

We went to Costco last week but for the life of me I can’t remember what all we bought or how much we spent.  I know there was Wild Planet tuna, organic tortilla chips, Chobani yogurt, Naked juice and some lunchmeat.  I’m sure there was more I am not remembering.  Probably $100ish.

Starting to think about Thanksgiving!  I am probably in charge of bringing sweet potatoes because that is what I always bring!  I keep chipping away at my recipe and tweaking things every time I make it.  I probably won’t get it made in time to share before Thanksgiving but I will have it up before Christmas!

Because I think all posts need a photo, here is a random collage of food from the conference I attended at The Henry in Dearborn.  Everything they fed us was delicious and the hotel is art gallery beautiful!

What is “your dish?”  That one thing everybody raves about and begs you to bring?

What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?  I really love the turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing all mixed together.  It is the only time my food is allowed to touch!

Food Haul 7.19.13

Happy Friday real foodies!

Buy anything interesting this week?

I know the weather across the country is hot.  Michigan is borderline unbearable right now.  We have actual temps in the 90’s with heat indices in the 100’s.  It’s been a sweaty week!  Local toddler craves the outdoors so we have been out every day.  Putting your feet in a very cold wading pool does make it much more tolerable!

This week in food was another slightly strange week.  I skipped my Door to Door Organics order, only because I had a full fridge and didn’t need anything.  We ended up being invited to family dinners a few nights and found ourselves with a full fridge! 

I did go to the Canton Farmers market on Sunday and picked up a few items.  No pictures because it was hot and I rushed everything to the fridge/freezer.  I bought a whole chicken from Garry at Pure Pastures, 5lbs of blueberries from Kapnicks, some beautiful purple “Dragon” carrots from Hand Sown Farm.  I also bought a tasty savory pastry that had tilapia, potato and red pepper.  I can’t find the business card anywhere but I think the business name was “Classique” or something around those lines.  Prices were $7, $25, $3 and $5 for a total of $40 at the market.  The blueberries are in my freezer waiting to be turned into sauce! 

I hit up Aldi this week in search of chicken and brown rice for my sick doggy.  I’m incapapble of only buying what is on my list.  I picked up some Bolthouse green juice and some red pepper hummus, my two favorite Aldi items.  I nearly fainted in the meat area when I saw that they now carry grass fed beef!  It was under $5 a pound!  I know nothing about the quality or location, but what an exciting find!   As you may know, I have $500 worth of beef in my freezer so I didn’t buy any but I would love to hear an opinion if anybody has tried it or knows more!  I know I spent $40 at Aldi but most of that was a ton of chicken and some brown rice and pumpkin for local German Shepherd.  She’s all better now!  The vet told me she had colitis and asked me about the stress in her life.  Really?  Dogs have stress?  I want her life!

I’m writing this late Thursday night and I just got back from a late night run to Kroger.  I needed almond milk for my morning iced coffee and local hubby requested cookies.  These two items managed to cost me $35.  Every time!  This is why I try not to go to the grocery store, I can never just buy one or two things.

After I took this photo I grabbed another almond milk and two more bags of cookies.  Newman O’s and alphabet cookies were on clearance!  I also grabbed vanilla extract, cinnamon, and diced tomatoes all on clearance in the organic section.  Those Blue Diamond coconut almonds are amazing.  A few too many ingredients to be considered real food, but so delish!

Now keep me away from the grocery store!

I had big plans to visit a few other markets this week but this heat is just too gnarly to be shopping in.  Or I’m a weenie.  Either way, I will get out to visit some more markets soon!

Where did you shop this week?  Try anything new?

Food Haul 6.13.13

I can say with great certainty that when I do math at the end of this post, this will be the highest number ever.

We started off this week with a delivery from Garry at Pure Pastures late Thursday night.  Garry delivered a 1/4 grass-fed local cow.  The hang weight was 166lbs, for a total price of $512.94.  Yes, we spent over $500 on beef.  I feel confident that our beef eating rate, we should be stocked up for a year.  I can do a separate post all about buying a side of beef if there is an interest, and detail the cuts and amounts.

Sunday we went to  the Farmers Market (Canton Farmers Market on Sundays 9-1)

Got some spinach from Hand Sown Farm, some strawberries from Prochaska Farms, and some peach salsa from Pure Pastures.  (Garry gave us the salsa for free along with some eggs when I went in to pay for my side of beef)  We also bought three types of jerky from Captain John’s Smokehouse.

Total from the farmers market was around $23

 

Finally, we have the Door to Door Organics order this week.

Just a bitty box this week.  Lots of yummy fruit

   Garden Fresh artichoke garlic Salsa,  Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory chips,  Calder Dairy milk, Once Again almond butter and Zingerman’s magic brownie.  Yummy!

Total from Door to Door Organics this week was $44.

Grand total, just about $580.  Whew.  My credit card is a little sad.  My freezer is very happy 🙂

Food Haul 6.6.13

So much food!  Local hubby is working approximately 987 hours a week right now so food has been super important.  He works really hard at work so we need to keep him fueled.

We started off on Sunday at the Farmers Market (Canton Farmers Market on Sundays 9-1)

Got some Bok Choy and red leaf lettuce from Hand Sown Farm, some asparagus from Kapnick’s and some chicken from Pure Pastures.  Total was somewhere around $20, I’m not good at keeping track when I use cash.

Oh yea, last market I went to I picked up these fun things:

A new water bottle to try out for local toddler.  We currently use stainless steel which is great, except it heats up fast in the sun.  The amazing find was this all natural finger paint.  It’s made by Love Bubs and it is awesome!  Sure I could hop on Pinterest and make my own, but she saved me the time and mess so we could get right to playing.  It rocks!  I’ve had it for a few weeks and I just tossed it in the fridge this week.  Still fresh!  I think I paid $5 for the finger paint and $5 for the water bottle, but I can’t remember for sure.

Next up this week was a trip to Kroger.

We spent about $90 and got a cart full of a million protein bars.  Some random other goodies for local hubby: Gatorade, bread, chips etc.  Lots of yogurt, almond and coconut milk and some other random goodies.  A good mix of healthy and junk I think.

Finally, we have the Door to Door Organics order this week.

Just a bitty box this week.  Nothing too crazy, really excited to have some stone fruits coming into season.

Lots of delightful goodies here!  Graham’s Organics sausage, Garden Fresh Wild Mild Salsa, The Brinery sauerkraut, Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory lime chips, Creswick Farms eggs, Mitten Munch fudge brownie bars, Mama Mo red pepper hummus, Calder Dairy milk, and some Great Lakes Potato Chip Company BBQ chips.  So much delicious in one box!

Total from Door to Door Organics this week was $60.

Our total for the week was about $170, which is actually better than I thought.

Food Haul 5.16.13

A little bit of a quiet week here at the Real Food House.  Local toddler got sick, really for the first time.  It was sad and pitiful and no sleeping was to be had.  We mostly looked like this:

I am happy to report that he is feeling much better and I almost feel human again after a few good nights sleep.  Things got pushed back, and not much cooking got done.  My fridge is still full, so this week was just a bitty box from Door to Door Organics.

After careful thought and consideration, he selected a banana and grapefruit

From Zingermans  we got a brownie for local hubby and some Challah bread that will be used for the best French toast in the world.    A Mitten Munch berry lemonade bar, lots of yummy fruit, green beans, some greens and a Tiny but Mighty popcorn sample.

Food costs from Door to Door was $32 this week.

I also popped in to my local Westborn Market for the first time this week.  What a cute store!  Full of tons of local goodies!

Picked up some quick items since not a lot of cooking was getting done between a sick kiddo, Mothers Day, and some family events.  Two types of bread, pita, dry beans, avocado, tortilla chips, spinach dip and some hamburger and hotdog buns for the freezer.  I don’t have my receipt handy but I know my total was around $30.

So total food costs for the week was $62.  I am pretty happy with that.

What did you buy this week?  Try anything new?  Discover anything local?

Want to learn more about Door to Door Organics?

Food Haul 5.9.13

So here’s what we bought at Casa de Real Food this week.

Went to Pure Pastures, bought a bunch of stuff and didn’t take a picture!  We bought Calder Dairy black cherry ice cream for the hubby, beef pasties, eggs, like 4 pounds of boneless chicken breast, and three pounds of grass-fed ground beef.  We spent $56, but $30 of that was covered by the Living Social coupon we bought a month or so ago.

Door to Door Organics this week was fairly normal.Except for the fact that I accidentally purchased too much hummus.  If there is such a thing as too much hummus.

Local toddler looked through every single item in the freebie bin at Door to Door Organics.  After great consideration, he selected a watermelon.

My belly is so happy to have strawberries on a regular basis right now.  Some sugar snap peas are buried in that pile too.  I love spring and summer!

Calder Dairy milk for local toddler, and eggs because I seriously can’t get enough eggs.  I’ve been eating them scrambled with some Garden Fresh salsa and some avocado.  Seriously amazing.  Some Mama Mo hummus and a Zingermans brownie for local hubby.  I’m trying the Larabar for the first time.  My friend Jennifer from Wine to Weightlifting is obsessed with Larabars, and this one was on sale so I’m giving it a try.

Food costs from Door to Door was $58 this week, so added to Pure Pastures we spent $114 for the week.

What did you buy this week?  Try anything new?  Discover anything local?  Farmers Market season is quickly approaching, once the Michigan grow season ramps up, we will lower our Door to Door Organics box down to a bitty size (we are currently getting a medium) and be shopping Farmers markets!  I do a lot of canning and preserving, so it should be interesting to watch our food hauls and costs over the summer.

Want to learn more about Door to Door Organics?

Want to learn more about Pure Pastures?

Food Haul 5.2.13

I bet you guys will never guess where my food came from this week!

Wait, did you guess Pure Pastures and Door to Door Organics?  Sly foxes!

First up, Pure Pastures:

Local eggs, a pint of Calder Dairy chocolate milk,and my dark chocolate almonds.

Two funny stories:

1.   Local toddler marched right up to the almonds, grabbed them and took them to the counter.  Young grasshopper loves his momma.
2.   Not so much funny as awesome.  My mom bought my groceries.  I repaid her by getting her sick.  I’m such a nice daughter.

Next up is Door to Door Organics:

If you follow me on Twitter, you saw this pic yesterday.  Local toddler is showing off the things he pilfered from Mike at the Door to Door Organics warehouse.  Door to Door Organics, if by some chance you read this blog, I love the warehouse employees!  Dynelle, Lenny and Mike rock.  Everybody who I meet is awesome, I just see those three the most.

Beets, carrots, celery, lettuce, kale, and the regulars.  Nothing too exciting planned.  I’m still recovering from being so sick so I’m not terribly adventurous right now.

Calder Dairy milk, strawberries, Zingermans brownie for hubby and some new to me items!  I’m excited to try the Garden Fresh salsa, Mitten Munch bars, and Mama Mo red pepper hummus.  So exciting to have new goodies to try!  Door to Door Organics has a ton of new stuff this week, I wanted one of everything!  I will eventually get around to talking about it all and updating my original post.  Total spent at Door to Door was $62.

What did you buy this week?  Any exciting dinner plans?  Let’s get inspired!

Food Haul 4.18.13

Confession: We went to the supermarket.  Kroger to be exact.

We wanted some junk food so we went and picked some up.  I forgot to take a picture, but we spent about $20.

I got a few bags of these for bribing local toddler.  I don’t know what or when I need to bribe him for, but I like to be prepared.  We also bought several bags of chips,(I’m looking at you cool ranch Doritos…) some hot dog buns, crackers and salami.  I feel ok about our “cheat.”  I think we have been doing awesome about eating healthy and local.  Sometimes you just need some junk food.  Keeping it real!

Now that I have confessed, on to the good stuff!  Door to Door Organics!

A few freebies from Door to Door Organics.  Local toddler gets ridiculously excited when we go to the warehouse to pick up our order.  He yells “oranges” when he sees the door.  He manages to sweet talk himself into some freebies 😉  (Sort of, the major perk of the warehouse co-op is there is a basket of extras for everybody to pick from.)  That pineapple was a terrible passenger, rolling all over the place.  Problem solved!

Asparagus and strawberries!  I’m so ridiculously excited!

If the mushrooms don’t get eaten before Monday they will be Mushroom Stroganoff.  The peas will probably be in a stir fry, everything else is pretty usual.

Sorry for the blurry photo, did I mention my only camera is an iPhone?  Smoking Goose applewood bacon was on sale, yes please!  Calder dairy milk for local toddler (I just love the glass bottles, it feels awesome to not have any waste!  I wash and save the bottle caps for local toddler to play with.)  Some shredded mozzarella for the cheese eaters in my house for pizza night.  As Melissa said on my Facebook page, a cheese pizza is a great Meatless Monday!

Now for my exciting purchases!  A Chocolove Cherries and Almonds Dark Chocolate bar.  I snuck a piece, it is as amazing as it sounds.  I am super excited to try this Naturally Nutty chocolate cherry peanut butter.  It was a bit pricey($7.99), but I can’t wait to try it!  It’s a Made in Michigan product!

Door to Door Organics was just under $70 this week, and about $20 at Kroger, so food costs were about $90 this week.

Is there an interest in full blown product reviews?  You can count on my real opinion, I buy all this stuff myself with my own money, these companies have no idea who I am.

Food Haul 4.11.13

Finally a “cheap” week!  My fridge and pantry are stuffed and we are eating all kinds of tasty things.  The only food we bought this week was from Door to Door Organics, and even that was a smaller order than usual for us.  Total food costs this week was $62.

There are two of the biggest bunches of kale I have ever seen stuffed in that picture.  My goal is to finally perfect making kale chips.  I keep under or over cooking them!  I can’t believe I keep buying kale on purpose.  Anybody else think it tastes like grass?  I’m working on a bunch of non-grassy recipes, share your favorite!

I also had to replenish my oats supply because I used them all up trying to make a nut free version of my granola bars.  If my next experiment goes well, those will be up on the blog next week!  I have been toiling away at that recipe forever.  I’m trying a chocolate bar called Chocolove.  It is dark chocolate, almond and sea salt.  Not too much else new and interesting there, the usual Calder milk for local toddler (and his grape tomatoes! addict…)  Also some potatoes because this cool spring weather has me craving some potatoes.  Oh white potatoes, why can’t you be as nutritious as sweet potatoes?

What did you buy this week?

Want to learn more about Door to Door Organics?

Food Haul 3.28.13

I don’t think I really ever realized how much food we use in a week until I started posting these food hauls.  It’s very interesting to take a look and see what we use in a week.  This weeks Door to Door Organics boxes were big again.  As you can see in the picture above, there is the usual suspects as far as produce, along with some dandelion greens and baby beets.  My husband ordered some Easter treats from Zingermans; a brownie and some fudge eggs.

The second box from Door to Door had milk from Calder Dairy, cheese, boneless skinless chicken breasts, some breakfast sausage from Graham’s Organics, and Avalon 313 whole wheat bread.  One loaf is for my mom, she babysits for me so I bake and get things in my boxes for her.

We went to Pure Pastures (Natural Local Food Express) this week too.  Talked to Garry a little bit and found out that he will be at both the Canton Farmers Market and the Dearborn Farmers Markets this season.  He also let me know my quarter cow should be ready in a week or two.

Picked up some necessities from Pure Pastures; free range eggs, garlic powder, chocolate milk from Calder Dairy, free range boneless skinless chicken breasts, and dark chocolate almonds.  The almonds are my treat, they are so delicious.  I only need two or three to satisfy a craving.

A few random items from a local bakery.  They sell bread crumbs for 50 cents a bag and I keep them in my freezer.  I bought the bacon cheese for my husband, and made him a grilled cheese sandwich.  I think I’m wife of the year right now.

This last photo is probably the most random of all our food this week.  My husband is a mechanic, and is always checking out cars for people.  This person needed him to take a quick look at something.  He works in produce and stopped by later that day and handed us a bag with these goodies.  The bananas are already cut and frozen waiting to be made into Green Monsters!

Food prices this week?  I think we are around $115.  It’s a little higher than I would like right now, considering we have a huge beef purchase coming up.  But, we purchased almost five pounds of chicken breasts.  I’m making chicken nuggets for the freezer.  Recipe coming as soon as I finish testing it!

Want to Learn more about Door to Door Organics?