110 Pounds and Counting

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we tried the “Imperfect Produce” weekly box subscription. We tried it for a little over a month and I ended up cancelling it. I didn’t like that I felt so much pressure to use up the produce quickly because it was often on the verge of going bad.

A few years ago, Michael and I tried Blue Apron a few times and we really liked it. We liked the recipes we tried but in the end, the cost was a factor for me so we didn’t continue it. Since then, I’ve been seeing the “meal services” options get a lot better. Now there are ones that are diet-specific, which is cool. I decided to give Sun Basket a try because I liked that we had the option of doing gluten-free or Paleo diets.

I signed up with a discount code for the first week. I downloaded the app, which is nice and very easy to use. A bonus with the app: you can choose your three meals for a month out. I already have the next month of weekly deliveries all planned out.

When I tried to decide which meals to pick, I chose this way:

An ingredient that is something we haven’t tried or something that isn’t “Common” on my grocery list.
A recipe that is simple but is a little more interesting than a dish we could come up with ourselves (for example, I saw a few “bean and rice bowl” meal options and I skipped those because that’s not very creative and that’s something we can do on our own.)
Gluten-free/Paleo/Low Carb option.

Week One

The first meal we made from the box was a Moroccan dish: Moroccan lamb merguez patties with warm carrot salad

630 calories, Paleo, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free

I’m not sure how long it actually took to make because I did a bunch of prep and then a little while later Michael made the lamb patties and started cooking. But it felt like a fairly easy recipe to make.

The verdict: delicious! We were both really happy with it. The arugula salad with raisins, chopped almonds and tahini dressing felt light and healthy. I loved the roasted carrots, so did Michael and he’s not a fan of roasted veggies. The lamb patties were good, too.

It was a great dinner for a first time out.

Next up:

The second meal was salmon with broccoli: Roasted salmon and broccoli with almond-date tapenade

470 calories, Paleo, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Lean & Clean, Mediterranean, Diabetes-Friendly

This was a good dinner for a busy weeknight meal. It was pretty quick and easy to make. It wasn’t all that different than our typical dinner (we do salmon and broccoli all the time) but it was nice trying it with toppings!

The date-almond-dill-mint tapanade was really good! It was not something I would have thought to put with salmon but it had a nice flavor and a different texture that went well with the dinner.

The harissa sauce was interesting. It wasn’t spicy–it was kinda smoky? Overall it was a good meal but not super impressive, basically because we do salmon and broccoli once a week. 😉

The glass of rose went nicely with dinner, though!

Lastly: Superfast Southeast Asian chicken salad with sesame-lime dressing

490 calories, Paleo, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Lean & Clean, Diabetes-Friendly

This was another easy and quick recipe. I prepped the salad and everything and then Michael cooked the chicken while I put Logan to bed and read him stories. The meal was good and low in calories. My opinion was that it wasn’t anything special. It’s not that far off from meals we make on our own (we do a lot of salads like this) but I did like the unique flavors (the toasted sesame oil dressing with apricots and cashews).

Michael liked the meal but thought it would be better with seared ahi tuna. We could easily make it on our own and try that.

The first week of meals was overall pretty good. The lamb dish was my favorite. We are going to keep trying Sun Basket to see how it goes but I am also on the fence about doing it long term because it IS rather spendy. Stayed tuned!

What’s cool is that in the box they send a recipe book of all that week’s meal options so you can make some of the other recipes on your own if you want. I marked a few of them to try.

I have a discount code, if you want to use it!

On Saturday Michael went for a run, I went to the gym and then we headed south to Dundee. We had to pick up our last case of Sokol Blossor wine (I cancelled the membership) and decided to make a day of it.

The hope was that Logan would split his naps into two: it’s 45 minutes from our house so it would be perfect if he could take part of his nap there and back. We recently turned Logan’s carseat around and I had worries that he’d be able to sleep in the car but…

He was so stimulated by pointing out all the cars we saw on the road, he didn’t fall asleep until we were 15 minutes away. Of course!

First stop: lunch!

We went to Red Hills Market for lunch. It had great reviews online. And they were right! The food was excellent. The service? Mixed. You ordered at the counter and then found a table and the line was insane. It was a bit stressful standing in line with a toddler to order a meal but the food actually came out really quickly, so that was good.

Now the food: it was really good! I highly recommend this place. Michael got the steak salad and said it was excellent (I had a bite and agree. The chimichurri dressing was to die for.) I got the soup of the day and a side of egg salad on toast topped with arugula.

It was a small cup but the perfect amount. The butternut squash soup was really good, slightly sweet, and topped with toasted pumpkin seeds. I really liked my lunch. I would definitely go back here.

The next stop was picking up our order at Sokol Blosser and then heading to Heiser Farms for the pumpkin patch! Last year we went to the pumpkin patch in Hood River and it was great fun, so I was expecting Logan to love it even more this year. I love this tradition!

Heiser Farms was about 15 minutes from downtown Dundee in Dayton and it wasn’t crazy busy or crowded. Bonus for us! We went early. 🙂 For $15 we got into the farms and could do a bunch of the activities. There were a few things that were extra money but we didn’t feel like we missed out not doing them.

The first thing was the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Logan wasn’t quite sure about it but once the tractor started moving he was all about it!

It was a short ride to the pumpkin patch, the right amount of time for a toddler. 😉

The pumpkin patch was pretty big and well maintained. There were pathways and trails covered in hay, which was nice, and there was also a corn maze (we didn’t use it but next year I think Logan will love it).

We didn’t get any pumpkins because they were super huge, but there were a lot of good-looking pumpkins.

We went back to the main farm and checked it out. There was a band playing and they were really good! When we got there, they were playing Johnny Cash. They sounded great! I wish I’d gotten the name.

Next Logan and Michael climbed the hay mountain and went down the slide (I posted some cute videos on my Instagram if you want to see them) and I went down once with Logan. 🙂 And then Logan got to see A REAL fire engine! The expression on his face was absolutely priceless and adorable: