My Largest Produce Haul Ever?

First, some housekeeping: I did some much-needed page maintenance to Keep It Up, David yesterday, so click through some of the links at the top of the site when you have a chance. The STAIRS! page is gone, since my two stair climb challenges are over, and it’s been replaced with a new Races & Events page that collects info and links relating to all my fitness challenges. I’ve also revamped my motivational speaking page and changed its name from See Me At Whole Foods to the much more direct Motivational Speaking. On top of that, I added my Brooklyn Bridge “Before” and “Current” photos to the Photo Gallery, my two NYC runs to my Running Chart, and the Burj Khalifa to my Skyscraper Collection. Whew!

So I’ve been back from New York City for four days now, but you would never know it, since all my blogging has been about my trip. After three New York-centric posts in a row, it’s time to move on… to a post about a gargantuan amount of produce!

I came home from New York to a barren, nearly produce-free kitchen. This was mostly by design – I was careful, in the week leading up to my trip, to not buy more produce than I could eat before leaving, so nothing would potentially go bad while I was away. My planning worked perfectly. The day I left, all that remained were 2 heads of garlic and a very ripe honeydew melon, which I chopped up and froze. I don’t even know if melon freezes well – and I haven’t yet cracked open the tupperware to find out – so I’ll either be in for a treat or a disaster (even if it’s a disaster, I figure I can use it in smoothies).

Honeydew aside, I was due for a major produce extravaganza. What resulted might be my largest produce haul ever.

Usually when I get home from the store, all my produce gets arranged on my coffee table before it gets put away, for blog photographing purposes (my coffee table has better light than my kitchen counter or dining room table). This time around, I bought more produce than my coffee table could accommodate. So, for the first time ever, I had to break my produce haul photo into two photos.

First up, the vegetables:

From left to right, in columns: Persian cucumbers, radishes, three sweet potatoes, a container of broccoli and cauliflower, collard greens (which I’ve never bought before, and am looking forward to cooking with), roma tomatoes, celery, mushrooms, a red onion, a red bell pepper, 3 zucchini, 2 pounds of baby carrots, bok choy (a variety of Chinese cabbage), and brussel sprouts.

And now, the fruit!

Bananas, 3 pears, 4 navel oranges, a cantaloupe, cherries, 4 yellow delicious apples, and some apricots.

My fruit bowl and crisper drawer are practically overflowing, and I’ve already eaten some of this stuff! I’m gonna use the collard greens today – and I’ll be sure to share what I do with them in a future post!

Keep it up, David!