Produce, Produce, Produce!

This Sunday, My daughter and I went to Denio's, which is a local flea market and farmers market!  I made a menu out for the month of September.  During the month we will have 8  to 12 crock pot meals.  I did calculations, after I decided what meals we would do and went off to Denio's with our daughter!  Our first stop was to buy a little cart to hold all of our produce.  We have been to Denio's before and all end up carrying a bunch of bags and then have to figure out what to do with them when we stop someplace else throughout the day there.  The cart will make it so much easier for all of our days to come at denio's, the beach (like we ever go there), the park, or any other farmers market.

Check out this picture of Miss A carting around our produce!  This cart is FULL!  We got so many different items.  We went a little later in the day as well, we have found that the prices start to get cut at this point on a Sunday so the vendors don't have to take as much home.

We got onions, avocados, celery, cucumbers, zucchini, red potatoes, spaghetti squash, grapes, nectarines, bananas, tomatoes, oranges, kale, limes, broccoli, green beans, corn on the cob, ginger,  and more.  We got at least 1 pound of everything, many times more.  We got 5 pounds of the oranges.  All of this for $40 (and 5.50 of that was for local honey).  I thought this was really a great price.  All of the produce is fresh and we have realized how much tastier it is and how much longer it last than the produce we get at the store.

The New and Improved Open Kitchen Pantry

Our Kitchen "pantry" was a disaster.  I just had everything on the shelf in an area but there was no way to keep it there.  (This is where I am kicking myself because I didn't take a before picture),  I went to the Dollar Tree and bought these baskets.  I couldn't decide if I liked it or not (I liked that it was about $10).  The next morning I checked it out again and I really didn't like it at all.  I decided it was time to put a little more money into this project. 

I went to IKEA for several items and found these containers in the office organization area.  These are supposed to be recycle bins, but I have used them as containers to organize the pantry.  There were definetely more than I wanted to pay for them but compared to other options, I didn't mind.  I love the different sizes available.  I used the large one on the bottom for the extra Bulk bags from Winco that I use to refill other containers.  The small containers on top hold spice packets and peanut butter.  I think the small ones were $5.99, the Medium $6.99 and the Large one was $9.99. 

I bought labels this past week that I am going to print and stick onto the front of the containers.