February 28 2019

Review: Imperfect Produce

We are subscribed to get a Mixed Fruit & Veggie Small Box every other week from Imperfect Produce. It came highly recommended by my friend Jayme. I decided to at least give it a try because the first week would be really cheap because I would get $10 off my first order. I knew it would also give my friend a $10 credit for referring me, so it was a no-brainer.

Here is what the website looks like when I log in. It is so cute! The site is easy to use and navigate, so keep reading to see the awesome photos of my first three orders.

Our first delivery 1/18/2019 Total Cost: $8.09 (included the $10 off 1st order deal)

Second Delivery 2/1/2019 Total Cost: $15.99

Third Delivery 2/15/2019 Total Cost: $19.37

Note this is the blurb and my referral link:

“Hey, check out Imperfect! They have amazing produce, delivered to your door. Here’s $10 to shop and create your imperfect box. You can thank me later 🙂”  

If you think getting produce delivered might be right for your household, please consider using my link to start your subscription. You can customize, pause to stop your subscription at any time.

We decided to save on shipping costs by getting it delivered only every other week for now. So far we have used everything from our deliveries. The only imperfections we have noticed have been either very small or very large sized produce as compared to what we are used to seeing in the stores. The 2nd order had 6 mandarins and they were a good size, but the 3rd order when we got them again came with 6 mandarins that were smaller than the tiniest cuties we have ever seen. The apples are very tiny also, but really good. This is a great way to try new produce. They also have many recipes on the website to help you find ways to use the produce you order. In case you don’t want to be surprised by what is in your box, you can customize the order for a window of time the week before delivery. We tinkered a bit with ours and I let Hubby help me decide what to opt out of and what to add in. The 3rd order, we opted for 3 pounds of sweet potatoes, and we got three huge individual sweet potatoes in our box. Some items are offered in both organic and regular versions for just a slight price increase.

I was poking around on the website after customizing my 3rd order and found several good looking recipes. Hubby was excited to try Butternut Squash Brownies so I printed it out and even though we didn’t get the butternut squash from Imperfect Produce, we did try this recipe and the brownies are truly amazing! I got my super picky sister to try them (she still doesn’t know what was in them) and she thought they were too chocolatey (like that is even possible!), hubby said the same thing. I loved them but wouldn’t have wanted to take the time and make the effort to make them myself. The squash we bought had enough to make three plus batches of this recipe. Think of the veggies you could sneak into your family while reinstating dessert in their lives!

I feel like the box is worth getting because the produce is fresher than what we find in the grocery stores. I have included screenshots of the order summaries in this post in an effort to show you what it is really like to use this service. I would imagine prices would be different depending on where you live, we are in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Have you tried a subscription food delivery service? Which one and what did you think? Are there others you would like to have us test for you?

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February 22 2019

Just (Five Minute Friday)

This week the prompt word is just. I know it is just Friday, but I can do this. I don’t have to put it off and think about it and wait for a better idea to pop into my head, I can just do it now. Just this once I won’t wait until the last minute to write my Five Minute Friday post. I really enjoy the challenge of not knowing what the word will be and seeing what my writer-brain pulls out of me when I sit down and put fingers to keys.

To be honest, I didn’t intend to write this tonight. I really sat down to grab some photos out of my Google archive and copy them into a blank sheet so I could print the recipe I found this week while flipping through a magazine just killing time in the waiting room before my appointment. It wasn’t a magazine I would usually grab, it was just the least objectionable of the stack on the table next to me and I didn’t really have much time to read anything anyway, so I grabbed a magazine and began flipping the pages. Hold on. Those look like brownies. Just turn the page, oh look! There are more goodies pictured on the next page. Oh, it is a feature on sweet treats in bar form. Oh, here is a recipe for Spiced Pecan Pie Bars, Hubby would love those and I wouldn’t be tempted by them in the least. Should I ask the ladies behind the desk if they can make me a copy? No, I don’t want to bother them. I could just tear the pages out there is nobody here to notice if I did it really quiet, but that wouldn’t be right either. I could just take the magazine back with me then ask when I check out. No, too much fuss. Hey, I know! I will just take a quick picture of the recipe with my phone and text it to Hubby. So that’s what I did. Then tonight he wanted me to print the recipe for him, so I told him I would dig it out of the archive and print it for him.

I know, get to the point already. Well anyway, I was looking through all the photos and saw the one pictured below and it kept tugging at me. I just couldn’t pass it up, something about it made me want to use it in a post then I remembered I needed to write this post and I could just use it for that.

This is just a sample of a couple of the crazy pics you’d find if you scrolled through the gallery on my phone. It was taken at an MCL restaurant near me and it struck my fancy so I had to stop and capture it to use later. The thing is, I remember that the tiles that look like quilt blocks didn’t use to be there. I think it was like a raised wooden threshold where the two sections of tile going different directions meet. I imagine maybe they had people tripping over it or something and needed a way to fix it. Now I can also imagine them saying anything we do it going to stand out like a sore thumb, so just put anything down, doesn’t matter what it looks like because it will never match. So they sent a lady to find something and she decided to make it pretty. She saw this at the hardware store and it reminded her of her sweet little granny who used to make the prettiest quilts out of the still good parts of old cast-off clothing that “wasn’t fit to wear to a dog fight”. Now, can’t you just imagine it? So that is my made-up story about how that odd looking tile ended up in that MCL on the floor near the cash register. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

What do you think the story behind the mismatched tile is? Let me known in the comments below.

This is what it looks like up close.

This is what it looks like a little further away, so whatcha think? I like it! It made me smile and now it is forever remembered here.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Just
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Five Minute Friday, Writing | 1 Comment on Just (Five Minute Friday)
February 21 2019

Organizing 50 Years of Clutter

I recently helped someone declutter and organize a basement full of stuff. Well, okay, only part of a basement full of stuff. There were over fifty years of family “memories” stored there. These pics are from the second day of working on it. There was an entire car full of donations carried out and dropped at the local thrift store before we started on the second day.

Day two we focused on going through everything on the shelves and the getting some of the stuff they were planning to keep stored away in the empty spaces on the shelf so there would be more room to work and less stuff to trip over.

We sorted all the things into keep, donate, and trash piles. I am the voice of reason in these sessions because I can be objective about the stuff we are sorting and convince them to get rid of many things that might otherwise have been kept.

These are the after shots, and yes, there is plenty more room for improvement.

Look! Clear floor space!

When we started this entire area was full of piles of stuff that we managed to declutter.

More cleared floor space.

The pile closest to the bottom of the photo is a pile to be donated. The chairs toward the back are the sorting area.

We filled the shelf and then pulled this smaller shelf over to clear another area.

Progress on such a major project is best taken in small sessions so as not to be overwhelmed and overworked. If you need to, just rush into your dungeon of clutter and grab a box and take it somewhere less chaotic to sort through it. Perhaps setting a time limit would help you get more done. Set the time for 15 minutes and work as fast as you can until that timer goes off then take a break for five minutes and repeat the process as often as you can. Take before and after pics, they can be very motivating. Years ago I cleaned an attic by studying the before pics and planning my attack (what I could get rid of) ahead of time, which was easier for some reason. Try several different methods and tricks to keep from getting bored. Even just one short decluttering session a week can make a huge difference. In a year the project will likely be completely finished and you will look back in amazement at what you have accomplished.

Just jump in a do something. Future you will be so glad you started today.

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February 19 2019

Confident (Five Minute Friday)

Confidence was my 2018 word of the year. I’m not quite as confident with the amount of confidence I mustered up last year, but feel like I did it justice anyway. I get to practice being confident in many ways. When I got for a job interview and assure them that I am a fast learner and pick up new things fairly quickly. I truly feel this is true and believe it to be true mostly because my mother always told me I was a quick study and could learn anything I set my mind to learning. I must admit she was probably right. I have acclimated to not one but two different temp jobs for the same company and am confidently finding new ways to make the job easier for me and more efficient. I confidently let my new supervisors know that I intend to do such a great job while working for them that they won’t want to let me leave when my contract is up and will have no choice but to find a way to keep me. It worked once already and I was chosen to go to a different department and learn a completely different job so my contract could be extended.

I am finding joy in my new job and learning new things. There are opportunities all around us to learn new skills, time-saving tricks and find new people to potentially add to my resume as a reference. Each new task I am asked to do is a chance to prove my worth and increase my skill set. It is also a new chance to be helpful and set a good example of working joyfully. I could see myself working at this company another fifteen to twenty years until we can afford for me to retire. I feel needed but not trapped in my job. I feel like the work I do can help to make the lives of others better in some small way. I have already been told my work is thorough. After completing a task that was thought to require overtime in less than three hours from the time it was assigned, my supervisor commented “Slick!”, which I am interpreting as a positive comment. I am a problem solver. I like being challenged. Each new challenge helps build my confidence a little more. It feels good to know I am doing good, honest work and earning a fair wage for it. I am confident that if there is a way to ensure my contract will be extended, it is by going above and beyond and having a positive attitude. I would like to end with this quote I found recently because I think it fits, “Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do.” Brian Tracy in Chapter 19 of “Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible”

Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do. Click To Tweet

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Confident
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

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February 14 2019

Recipe: Creole Steak

I really must apologize for the bad photo below, but this was the only photo I could find of this delicious family favorite.

I’m not responsible for the name of this recipe, this is what it has always been called for as long as I can remember, just try it, you’ll like it.

I record these recipes here because I know many people who don’t cook or don’t think they can cook or don’t know what to cook, but want to make delicious meals for themselves and those they love. I have been sharing some of the family favorites here because in my opinion, if you can read a recipe you can follow it and cook a decent meal. These recipes are tried and true. This one has been through a few alterations. When my mom married the first time, this was one of her mother-in-law’s recipes. That marriage only last about three years, but the recipe has been handed down in our family anyway for many years. I have never met anyone else who makes this or had anything like it, so I think it needs to be shared. It isn’t difficult to make.

Creole Steak
1½ – 2 lb. Beef Round Steak cut into bite-sized pieces (can also use stew beef)
¼  Cup Flour
1 cup each green pepper and onion (fresh diced or dried flakes)
4 (15  oz.) cans Tomato Sauce
5 (15  oz.) cans Peas

Trim fat from meat.  Tenderize with meat hammer if you like before cutting it up.  Brown meat pieces in a large stockpot.  Add flour and stir until all meat is coated.  Pour in tomato sauce, and use the liquid from the peas to rinse tomato sauce cans, then pour into the pot as well.  Set peas aside to add just before serving.  Stir.  Add green pepper and onion if desired.  Stir.  Cover and cook over low to medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes.  While this is cooking, I make my rice in a separate pot.  When the rice is ready, add the peas to the big pot and stir.  Serve over the rice or just dump the cooked rice in and give it a stir.

(Eva Lauerman’s adaptation of her former Mother-in-Law, Mrs. Parrish’s recipe)

Note, if I can ever find the original recipe I will add it in here, but I had no luck when I searched for it.

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