Saving money by supporting a local company that provides YOU amazing produce, to your doorstep, at a fraction of the price of a grocery store – while supporting an amazing cause to help end food waste and hunger in the US? That’s the name of the game today with my friends from Hungry Harvest.

I’ve been telling you guys for years that joining a CSA (or community supported agriculture) is a great way both to save money on high quality produce and support local. Most commonly, a produce box shows up on your doorstep each week (convenience for the win!)…but you would never know what was coming, and then you’d end up with 8 lbs of dandelion greens that you had no idea what to do with (*scooby doo voice* “ruh roh!”). And as much as we have the best of intentions of cooking up all the produce we get in our csa boxes, sometimes it goes to waste when you have too much of the same thing.

The past couple of years I did a local CSA that was down the street but have since moved (sad face emoji). It was amazing – instead of just showing up at the stand and being forced to get the same veggies + fruits as everyone else each week, you could go table by table and pick the ones you wanted based on the share size you bought at the beginning of the season. Moral of the story is you’d never get left with 8 lbs of kale, though this one was pick-up, not delivery.

Now that I’ve moved and am busier than ever, I was looking around for a CSA – not only to support local farms and snag myself some amazing fruits + veggies, but again, because I’m an entrepreneur and trying to save as much $$ as I can to put back into my business! So you can imagine how pumped I was to find that Hungry Harvest, which was started by a University of Maryland grad (only 20 mins from where I grew up!) was the best of both worlds – a CSA delivered to your doorstep, where you actually got to choose which fruits and veggies come to your doorstep each week, all while saving the big bucks! For the WIN. It’s also perfect for a Whole30 (Hungry Harvest is now a Whole30-Approved partner!), since you can customize your box to send you only Whole30-friendly goodies every week.

But honestly, that isn’t even the best part. Hungry Harvest has “ugly produce with a purpose” and the company is on a mission to end food waste and hunger.

Here’s how it works. You know how when you go to the grocery store, all the produce seems to be perfectly shaped, shiny, and screaming “eat me!” Well, that’s because the criteria for what produce can be sold is sometimes unusually strict – which means a lot of totally delicious and nutrient dense, fruits and veggies get left behind. This “imperfect produce” can be too big, too small, slightly misshapen – not bruised or dying, but they’re still left off the shelves because they don’t fit the strict standards to be allowed on store shelves. Basically, this is the grocery store version of “you can’t sit with us!” from Mean Girls.

According to the USDA, the biggest source of waste in landfills today is unused produce; estimates say that up to 40% of food goes to waste in the US – and yet we have a huge demographic of people in the US who go hungry every day.

Hungry Harvest is working to make sure *everyone* has access to healthy, affordable food. PLUS, with every box that’s ordered, we’re reducing about 10 lbs of food waste. So even if you only got a month of boxes, you’re already reducing 40 lbs of food waste! And while you’re doing that, you’re saving money too – because not only is HH 20-40% less expensive than typical grocery store prices, but it’s even cheaper than most local CSA’s as well.

So far, Hungry harvest has rescued over 5 million pounds of food from going to waste and has contributed 700,000+ pounds of produce to hunger-solving organizations.

You get to pick and choose everything that goes in your box each week, it gets delivered to your door, and it’s super cheap – boxes start out at $15 a week. You can choose organic, an all fruits box, all veggies, you can even add specialty items each week like local eggs, milk, and granola. While not all the harvests are 100% organic (unless you choose the organic box!) they are consciously sourced – like from small farms that don’t use chemical crap on their produce, but can’t afford to go through the USDA certification (like a lot of local farms and CSA’s!).

Right now, they deliver to Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, the Greater Philadelphia area, Southern New Jersey, Northern Delaware, South Florida & The Triangle Area in North Carolina – and they’re always expanding!

And now, I’m going to show you guys my latest and greatest way to use up a bunch of my Hungry Harvest box: because you guys know I love sheet pan meals and I know how much you guys LOVE my slow cooker moroccan chicken and sweet potatoes dish – so the two had beautiful food (recipe) baby, with lots more veggies and even more flavor. Don’t know what to do with a couple leftover veggies you have at the end of the week? Sheet pan meals are the way to go. Chop everything up so it’s about the same size, toss it with some sauce or spices, and let it all roast together in the oven until you’ve achieved crispy, yet tender, mouth-watering deliciousness.

Let’s get on with this Sheet Pan Moroccan Chicken & Veggies!

Want to try out Hungry Harvest for yourself? Use the code “foodwithdana” at checkout and you’ll get $5 off your first order!

Sheet Pan Moroccan Chicken & Veggies | Ugly Produce with a Purpose: Hungry Harvest Review

 

Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

55 mins

 

Dana: Real Food with Dana

Serves: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs chicken thighs or breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 - 1.5 lbs potatoes (I used a mix of sweet + baby potatoes)
• ½ large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 head broccoli

for the marinade:

• 1 bunch cilantro
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp cardamom
• ¼ cup chopped, pitted dates (or raisins)

For topping

• Cashews, chopped parsley

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. First, chop up the onion and sweet potato into large bite-sized pieces.
3. Dry the chicken with a paper towel, then poke each piece a few times with a fork. This will allow the marinade flavors to seep into all the crevices!
4. Next, make the marinade: combine all the ingredients for the spice blend, the olive oil, minced garlic, ginger, and cilantro in a food processor or blender until smooth.
5. In a large mixing bowl, coat all the chicken and veggies with the marinade - use a spatula to make sure all the pieces get some of the good stuff.
6. Transfer the ingredients to the baking sheet. Pop it in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.
7. Garnish with additional chopped cilantro and chopped almonds.

3.5.3208

a Rafflecopter giveaway

this post is part of a sponsored collaboration with my friends from the AMAZING company Hungry Harvest! All thoughts and opinions are my own *snape voice* ooobviously. 

Why would you love to win the Hungry Harvest giveaway? Save money? Support local? Support the cause? Try new produce? All of the above??