mama earth organics review

i meant to post this review ages ago, but of course, life got busy, kiddo got sick, and i neglected to do this. okay so after the fab find certificate went up for mama earth organics, i quickly put in my first order for the following week. the way their ordering system works is that the latest you can put in an order is before 10 a.m. the day before delivery. the day they deliver depends on where you live in the GTA.

so with my $55 fab find certificate in hand, i had to decide what i would get for my first basket. since you have to use the full amount at one time, i had to sort of mix and match between the fresh produce and their other grocery staples. i didn't think that the three of us could eat that many fruits and veggies before they'd go bad. i ended up deciding on the regular/couple basket, which was $35. the produce each week changes depending on what is in season and what they are able to get. here is what we got in our basket:

• 3 fuji apples
• 3 anjou pears
• 4 cara cara oranges
• 1.5 lb fair-trade bananas
• 1 avocado
• 2 lbs. yellow potatoes
• 1 pt. grape tomatoes
• 1 boston lettuce hydro (came with roots and soil! neat-o!)
• 1 broccoli
• 1 lb. baby bok choy

quite a lot of stuff for the money and comparably priced with organic produce at loblaws. in order to make up the extra $20, we also got:

• nigari tofu
• fair-trade dark hot chocolate mix
• 2 minneola tangerines
• 2 lbs. red potatoes
• 2 lbs. yams
• 1 pt. white button mushrooms

everything was either organic or fair-trade. the order arrived in a sturdy rubbermaid container and was placed inside my garage as i had requested. everything was packed nicely and they even wrapped up the tofu with a bottle of frozen water so that it would be kept cool. nice touch! one of the things i liked best was that they include some recipes using the ingredients in your basket. we didn't get a chance to try any that week, but i definitely will in the future.

i was really impressed with their selection of stuff and also with the quality of the produce. this is the first time that i've ordered groceries online and my concern was always that i might end up with produce that is not so fresh or that it would get damaged in transit. the produce we got from mama earth was all good with the exception of the avocado. after just a few days, the skin got all spotty and it was *very* soft. they emailed a few days after delivery to ask how i liked my first order. i mentioned what had happened with the avocado and they emailed back immediately saying that they had gotten a mediocre batch, but hadn't realized it when they were filling orders. as a result, they credited my account in the amount of $3. i am a very satisfied customer and will definitely be ordering from them again.  

the vegan challenge

last night i finally sat down to watch an oprah show that i pvr'd last week about "the vegan challenge". i forced the hubby to watch it with me and it was informative. since last year i'd been thinking about adding more vegetarian/vegan meals to our menu in an effort to be healthier and environmentally-friendly. there was one particular segment in the show that really affected me. lisa ling went to visit a cattle slaughterhouse and you essentially see the whole process of how a cow goes from farm to grocery store. call me a softie, but i really couldn't help but cry through the whole part. if i had to hunt my own food, i would most definitely be a vegetarian. food expert michael pollen was on the show as well and made a comment along the lines of "if you're not willing to know how your food gets to your plate, maybe you shouldn't be eating it." i don't know that i agree with it entirely, but i guess it holds a kernel of truth to it. with the exception of when we eat out, we now buy only antibiotic-free/hormone-free meat. i'd say the drive to make this change was for our son. i would love to be able to find a local farm to buy meat from, but being that we're in toronto, it might be a trek to get to one. if anyone knows of any, please let me know.

i'd really like to try this 7-day vegan challenge (or even possibly the 21-day challenge), but i think it would be really hard if the hubby wasn't on board with it. i tend to throw myself into things full-throttle and then quickly burn out. i guess the trick will be to slowly introduce things and see what works for our family. if eating more vegan meals would give me a ton more energy, i'd be all for that! but it's also been a particularly rough week with the kiddo being sick.  :o) 

here's a link to a list of vegan substitutes as recommended by "The Veganist" Kathy Freston:
http://www.oprah.com/health/Kathy-Frestons-Vegan-Alternatives

fabfind: $25 for $55 worth of organic produce

today's fabfind is a deal for $55 worth of organic produce, pantry items, etc from mama earth organics and they deliver straight to your door (if you're within the GTA...see their website for details). i blogged about mama earth organics a while back, but still haven't had a chance to try them out for myself. today's fabfind is perfect for our family since we were going to try them anyway. i bought two of the certificates and will hopefully order our first basket this week.

here's a link for those interested in getting on today's fabfind:
https://www.fabfind.com///invite/Kathy8