The ALL NEW Farm Fresh To You: A Fruit and Vegetable Subscription Box Service #FarmFreshToYou #Review and #Recipe

Farm Fresh To You, is not my usual subscription box that is filled with beauty related products but in some ways this one is too. Think of this Organic box as a Veggie and Fruit delight filled with food that will definitely aid in not only wellness, health, but beautifying you from the inside out. Let’s not even overlook that I absolutely love vegetables and fruit. I get excited and I’m one of those people that says, “look at that ___________, it’s gorgeous and I then start filling a produce bag like it’s going to sell out that second.  I try to purchase Organic when possible, as long as the produce looks good, is not overly priced and easy accessible. I hunt everywhere and most times lose track of how big the fridge is when I’m stuffing Lacinato Kale bundles in the dairy case. I’m not a juicer and truly just love how vegetables and fruit taste like. I will purchase the unknown produce item, google it in the car, and then have plans for what I’m going to make by the time I get home. I’m a believer of not, “knocking it until you try it”, and this is when I was so fortunate in being able to try Organic produce delivered to my home by Farm Fresh To You.

This is how the Service Works:

You have boxes that fit your cooking, eating to family size to choose from. Don’t like a vegetable or fruit offering? You simply can exchange the product for another by using the allotment (amount you are spending on the box of your choice) to replace that selection. Simple! Some items are harvested in limited numbers, so I did find a few items I could not add more of but sharing is something I do well and I like that customization is available and user friendly when ordering.

You can order from the Boxes below and this is with delivery included pricing:

• Mixed Fruit & Veggie Boxes– that range from $26 for the Small (1-2 people) to the Monster Box (6+ people) for $58.00
• Traditional CSA Boxes– is for produce that only comes from their own farm and neighboring partner farms. You can pick a Regular Box (2-4 people) for $33 or the More Box (4-6 people) for $46.00
• No Cooking Boxes– Options that fit the busy person and have items that are easily made or quick to grab and eat while on the go. A Small Box (1-2 people) is $26 and you have Regular Box (2-4 people) for $33 and the More Box for (4-6 people) for $46.00
• Fruit Only– 100% fruit and you have a Small for $26, Regular for $33 and More for $46.00
• Veggie Only Boxes– If you are Pro-Veggies 100%, you can opt for this selection. This one has two choices, the Regular Box (2-4 people) and the More (4-6 people) for $46.00
• Organic Snack Pack– Like I said, no excuses and this service gives you the option for healthier and better tasting packs that range from $35 for the Mini and serves 5 office people, to the Large for $110 and serves 30 people.

Each area has a delivery day, so it depends which zone you fall in on what day of the week they deliver. Mine was Friday but the best part, they deliver between the hours of 8PM on Thursday and 8AM on Friday. Yup, you wake up to surprises and what a great way to end a week. You can even prep meals on the weekend to eat better and tastier next week. You can also add other items like fresh eggs, local honeys to nuts and other treats.

What did I Order:
Okay, I have to start by saying that it’s just my Husband and I (and a dog) and we eat fresh as much as possible. I rarely open a can in this house and it’s usually to do a shortcut meal when using beans or roasted tomatoes. I love to cook and I love to change my weekly meals, so eating fresh fits us nicely and it’s just hard to get off it once you eat everything with texture and flavors intact. With that said, I went for the Monster Box from the Mixed and Veggie selection. I then again have one of those moments where the pictures get the best of me and I added more to my box. I ended up with a total of $59.35 and the box retails for $58, but I got what I wanted. I did change my selection like lowering the count of Gala apples from 10 to zero and adding Honeycrisp, plus changing items so I could add Purple Bell Peppers and so on.

When it Arrived:
I am not ashamed but I pretended I was catching up on my DVR when I was really just stalking my door. Farm Fresh To You delivered at 1:16 AM and not even a dog barked. The delivery person kindly placed two brown colored boxes by our gate and they were cold to the touch. The employees wear a bright colored vest and even the white truck’s engine was in “shhhhh mode”. If it was not for my “ninja at midnight” ways, I would have heard zilch.

My box was outside for 3 minutes. Hey, I had to first announce, “it’s here….it’s here, I’m not waiting for you (to my half asleep Husband) and I’m getting them”. It took energy and one minute longer to find my sandals because I was not stepping outside in my slipper socks 🙂

• Box #1- Bartlett Pears, Ruby Crescent Potatoes, Honeycrisp Apples, Nantes Carrots, Broccoli, Assorted Lettuce, Red Pomegranate, Gypsy Peppers, Black Grapes, and Hass Avocado

• Box #2- Valencia Oranges, D’ Anjou Pears, Baby Bok Choy,  Celery, Lacinato Kale, Asian Pear, Mixed Medley of Cherry Tomatoes, Purple Bell Peppers, and Zucchini

The four items I was eager to use from the boxes were the Medley of Cherry  tomatoes, the Purple Bell Peppers, the Gypsy Peppers and those adorable Ruby Crescent potatoes.

Cherry Tomatoes

Purple Bell Peppers

Gypsy Peppers

Red Crescent Potatoes

• Rustic Sausage, Potatoes and Vegetables

Rustic cooking for us is cooking with what we have at hand and what comes to mind.  Simplicity at its best and you measure ingredients by your mood and cravings, no rules and let the flavors shine! It’s about enjoying each ingredient and not drowning it out.

I decided to make a nice rustic dish of peppers, onions, tomatoes and sausages.  I used an Organic Chicken based sausage that was made with Sweet Basil and Roasted Garlic.  The sausage is pre-cooked but frozen.  I cut the larger potatoes in half and left the smaller ones as-is.  Added roughly chopped Green and Red Bell peppers, white onion, Italian Cubanelle Pepper and few garlic cloves.  I tossed everything with Olive Oil, salted, added dry tarragon, blacked cracked pepper, and dry lavender.  I cooked covered on the roasting setting (425 degrees) for 20 minutes.  This is to allow the potatoes to get a head start cooking and my frozen sausage to defrost.

After 20 minutes have lapsed, simply add the softer and more delicate peppers, like the Gypsy and Purple ones, plus the tomatoes and toss with melted butter and parsley.  Remove the defrosted sausages.  The butter and veggie mix gets added and mixed to the previous semi-cooked contents.  You toss and cook uncovered for 5 minutes.  Then add the sausages back.  I left the 2 chicken based ones whole and then sliced a (pre-cooked) pork Italian one to give the dish that added flavor.  Cook another 25 to 30 minutes uncovered, or until potatoes are tender. Two minutes before taking the dish out, I tossed the fresh Rosemary t0 give the dish a slight hint of flavor and aroma from the herb.

I then served the dish with a little cheese on top and a nice crusty loaf of bread.

This code gives you $15 off your first box!

• Go to- FarmFreshToYou
• Enter the unique Refer-A-Friend Code- LINE8541 or click here: http://tinyurl.com/mtc6a5b
• Save $15 on your first order.  That simple!

I received the above product(s) free of charge from Farm Fresh To You.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

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100% Natural Just Fruit Bars are all right with me!

 

I can vividly remember walking with my parents through many a supermarket’s produce sections, and seeing the fruit rolls cleverly merchandised there along side the fruit from whence it came. And while those rolled, pressed fruit pancakes were yummy, they were quickly replaced by processed, preservative laden junk they scarcely resembled the natural fruity goodness of roll-ups gone past.

Enter Gorge Delights, Inc.’s 100% Natural Just Fruit bars. The first thing you notice is the ingredient list. Fruit and fruit juice concentrate. That’s it. No binders, fillers, caking agents, or science experiments that make my google spit out complex molecular formulas describing what should resemble and taste like food. Even if it really doesn’t anymore.

 

Gorge Delight changed the landscape here going back to nature with these tasty treats. So many flavors, flavor combinations and treats, it’s hard to pick only one as my favorite, let alone just review one bar at a time. See, I was kinda a bad girl, and nibbled each bar. Hubby took great big hubby-sized chunks out that he called “bites’. They are good, good for you, natural, look yummy, and be baked with 😉 So I’ll do one big Über-review.

It’s also nice that the fruit claimed in the front is the fruit listed on the reverse. Far too often I had fallen prey to labels shouting out “Berries!” “Pomegranate!” “Tropical fruits!” and the turn it around to see apple juice, pear juice and white grape juice making up the bulk of the product, with a token spritz of whatever they claimed on the front. Not so with Gorge Delight. You see Apple-Blueberry on the front, you see apple and blueberry listed on the back. No more bait-n-switch, and I love that. Cranberries, cherries, blueberries, strawberries raspberries, pears and apples. That’s it. How nice is that? And each one tastes better than the last. No oily fingers, no cellophane, just fruity goodness free of added sugars, wheat, dairy, nuts, gluten or added salts. No preservatives, gmo-free, fat free, soy free and made the USA. There’s nothing to not like. Each 40 gram bar is only 140 calories to boot. Almost to good to be true, but thankfully very true. I don’t even crave the old fruit rolls any more. How ’bout them apples (and pears, and blueberries, and raspberries, and cranberries, and cherries…)?

 

Connect with Gorge Delights

• On their website!
• On Facebook!
• On Twitter!
• On Google+!

 

I received the above product(s) free of charge from Gorge Delights, Inc..  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

 

 

 

 

TeeChia: Organic Sustained Energy Cereal #Review in Blueberry Date and Cranberry Apple

TeeChia is a company that takes making a healthy and super nutritious cereal to another level. You have a powerhouse of super seeds like:

• Chia
• Quinoa
• Flax
• Ramon
• Amaranth
• and Pumpkin

I was able to test out both flavors and see for myself how they are.  So far I like that the product uses Organic ingredients and is Non-GMO verified.  Sweetened with only fruit and is rich in fiber.

Blueberry Date– Gluten-Free and just one packet provides you with 28 grams of Whole Grains, 6 grams of Fiber and 6 grams of Protein. You get a healthy dose of 1200 mg of Omega-3 fats and the cereal contains zero grams of refined sugar. The Blueberry Date also has currants and real dried blueberries, in addition to apple juice. The base of the cereal is rolled oats, dates and rice flour. The directions suggest to simply add water and you can also punch up the protein by adding milk or yogurt after. I went with a simple Lemon flavored Australian yogurt that complimented the Blueberry flavor perfectly. The reason I mention the yogurt being Australian, is that it’s a thicker base and I found the cereal even though I followed the directions and added the hot water first, it remained in a gritty/sandy state. I let everything soak up but it did not seem to want to play well so I resorted to a 20 second zap in the microwave and that helped it blend or at least hydrate to the point I felt this is as mixed as it’s going to get. Tasting it alone was a bit on the flavorless side and I felt the yogurt helped add flavor and reduce what I felt was not a pleasant texture. This is not an oatmeal, as the directions say you can use cold water if you do not feel like eating it warm/hot. My yogurt saved it and I appreciate the healthy aspect and the nutritional value TeeChia products provide. I remained unsure on wanting to have more and knowing this is not a product I can enjoy as-is, due to the odd texture and consistency it delivered.

Cranberry Apple– Pretty much the same nutritional facts and contents but this cereal has 7 grams of Protein, versus the 6. Smelled better than the Blueberry variety and you pick-up the Cranberry scent immediately, even though this bag looked different (the base) from the Blueberry Date variety. This one had less fruit but looked more powder like. I decided due to the great Cranberry aroma, I would just eat this one with milk and heated up the milk. I added it to the cereal and again the apple squares did not re-hydrate correctly and this cereal was just sandy and goopy. Still smelled great but when I took the first bite, it was so bitter and you had what can be described as to what you find at the bottom of a cracker bag….dusty and powdery with a taste that was so off. I just could not continue. This cereal did not taste like it smelled! I most times make the best of a situation and especially when it comes to eating healthy. I can get past textures but not when the texture plus the flavor was just so….well, bad unfortunately. I wasted milk in my eyes and I even contemplated adding more cranberries because you can see from the picture that there was just not a lot of dried fruit. I then realized there was no saving this bowl and just discarded it because why add more when in the end the bitter and off taste can’t be fixed.

I wanted to really like TeeChia cereals and mostly by what they contain. I have eaten these seeds and actually add them too many of my meals from salads to yogurts. I don’t know why TeeChia’s same mix of seeds tasted so different from mine. I thought maybe the milling process caused some quick oxidation to occur but there was definitely something off in the Cranberry variety. The cereals need some reworking because if you go by the contents, they are really great. You have the texture issue and the bitterness that is just not a way you want to routinely start your morning with. Eating well can taste so good but this just did not do the trick for me.  I also noticed that both cereals do not re-hydrate or look like the product’s picture on the packaging.  I am hoping I got a bad batch because I really wanted to like this super cereal 😦 and mostly because I love their Teeccino line so much.

If you would like to try TeeChia’s Sustained Cereals, please visit them at:

• On-line– http://www.teechia.com/
• Facebook– https://www.facebook.com/teechiacereal
• Twitter– https://twitter.com/Teeccino

 

I received the above product free of charge from TeeChia.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

 

 

 

 

Bolthouse Farms: ALMOST Too Much Good Stuff

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Almost. But as it stands, this one is just right. I love it. Hubby loves it. You’ll love it too! For those following along at home, this is the last in the Bolthouse Farms Juice reviews. We previously covered their 100% Carrot Juice, 100% Pomegranate Juice, Daily Greens, and now, without further adieu, I happily present Bolthouse Farm’s MultiV Goodness!

The last treat in my batch of Bolthouse yum is a newer product for them, the Multi-V Goodness Smoothie. Packed with the juice of pomegranate, cherries, strawberries, apples, peaches, blackberries, cranberries and bananas, but not packed with calories (only 140 per serving) there is nothing not to love about this drink.

Did I mention the 8 grams of fiber? That’s nearly a third of the recommended daily intake already. You’re set! High in vitamins A, B, C, and D, and none of the yuck that comes in most highly processed smoothies, this one is good for breakfast, lunch or even dessert! I liked how the flavors all blended in harmony, making for a great experience. Hubby loved it too, and he’s not big on peaches or bananas. There’s no seeds or pulps like a home Smoothie would have. I love it. Hubby loves it. If we hadn’t been so quick to enjoy it, I’m sure the pooch would have loved it too. This one also comes in 2 sizes, 15.2 oz and 32, which makes it big enough to share, if you’re so inclined.

Visit Bolthouse and their Countless Juice Selections, Juices from Blends to the Plain; to Cafe drinks and even Protein ones:

• Say hello to the MultiV Goodness online!
• Veggies and Fruits on Twitter
• Visit Fun Bolthouse Crew on Facebook
• Catch the pics on Instagram
• Save $1.50 off any bottle here!

I received the above product free of charge from Bolthouse Farms. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

Peeled Snacks: Apple Clusters in Cinnamon Crunch

Apple Clusters in Cinnamon Crunch

Peeled Snacks came up with their own version of delicious clusters because we all have had that craving that can only be satisfied by something crunchy. This snack is 0% in fat and preservatives. I love the simplicity of the ingredients, as you have Organic Apples, Organic Apple Juice concentrate, Organic Potato starch and Organic Cinnamon. That is all! No fillers or fats to interrupt that apple munching. Each bag comes with 4 servings, which comes to 1/4 cup for each serving and only 60 calories. That is snacking without the penalty!

Taste and Texture:

Each ball is made up of these little squares that are made from the potato starch (as a binder) and just absorbed the apples and juice, with just a hint of cinnamon. The apple clusters come in Cinnamon and I like from the start when you open the bag, you are not overwhelmed by the spice and the cinnamon is used as it should be, to compliment the apple not drown it. The clusters are shaped into these bite size balls that are just fun to pop in your mouth. The apple flavor is intensely real and there is no “faux” anything in your mouth when you eat these clusters. I could not believe the amount of apple flavor that came from them and it was delicious and balanced well, not super sweet. You get tartness and the crunch imitates well the idea of biting into apple pieces. I liked that the balls were not hard and broke apart with one bite. No oats or grit left behind because again no fillers that get in the way of your snacking.

I would definitely buy these because I found myself popping and indulging in them as I typed this review. Most times I behave and try a product and then type but because these left my hands clean and I craved more, I sort of caught myself going back to the bag several times. The snack is very low in calories for what I now refer to as my simple apple pie bites! As with all Peeled Snacks, the product is USDA Organic, Gluten free and zero grams of fat. You get only 10 grams per serving of sugar and 0% sodium. I can already imagine this being my movie night go to snack and on Saturday these clusters will be saying, “Hello” to my yogurt and I call that having my apple pie a la mode!

Please check out Peeled Snacks and their other Clusters at:

• Available at you favorite retailer, from Amazon.com to Starbuck’s, so you can get your Peeled fix at anytime
• Save 10% on your first order if you sign-up for their Newsletter, so you can keep up with Peeled Snacks adventures (also savings); http://peeledsnacks.com/
• The Fruits at Peeled Snacks also tweet, so check them out on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeeledSnacks
• Very social fruit and even have a Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/Peeled
• Maybe you are into pictures and Peeled Snacks are not shy, so check them out on Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/peeledsnacks/

 

I received the above product free of charge from Peeled Snacks.  I am not obligated in providing a favorable/positive review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the products, which may differ from yours.