Relay Foods Winner and Fitness Magazine Dinner

Just as I was wrapping up a less than stellar week last Thursday, I found out that I had won the Relay Foods prize pack that was raffled off at the Carytown Watermelon Festival a few weeks ago. I don’t know what it is about that festival, but I always tend to win something there. I’m definitely not complaining because I’ve gotten a free haircut and free groceries over the past 2 years!

So, back to Relay Foods. They are an online grocer operating in both Charlottesville and Richmond that deliver groceries from local stores, farms, and restaurants. You place your order online and then pick it up at one of their convenient locations. The coolest part is that there is no delivery fee or subscription fee and the prices are the same as you’d pay in the store!

The raffled prize pack included a basket full of local goodies (which I should be getting this Monday) and a $50.00 gift certificate to try their service out. This totally brightened my day and I went straight to their website to find what I was going to spend my $ on. I was excited to see lots of local vendors: Marshall Farm’s Cheese (which is less than a mile from my childhood home), Twin Oaks Tofu, Montana Gold Bread, annaB’s Gluten Free, Polyface Farm, Gerharts Chocolate, etc. I also loved that there were plenty of organic items (thanks to Good Foods Grocery) and standard prices on everything.

I purchased a few items that I needed for a recipe that I wanted to make this weekend (more on that below) and also stocked up some of my standard items (almond milk, local tofu, beans and veggie broth). I also decided to try some local coffee and an agave based chipotle ketchup that caught my eye. Last but not least I spent a good chunk on the big bottle of Dr. Bronner’s – our favorite body wash.

I picked up my order at a location close to my home on Friday evening after work. It was really nice to have all my groceries in a bag, ready to go without having to step foot in a store. The other thing that is nice about Relay Foods is that you can get a bunch of products, from local vendors, without having to go running around town to several stores, the farmer’s market, and a coffee shop. Everything is conveniently located in one place – on their website.

Overall,  my experience with Relay Foods was great and I would definitely recommend checking them out. The only thing I think they can improve  is the search feature on the site – it often included things that were irrelevant, making it hard to find what I was actually looking for. Other than that, I loved it and can see how this service would be awesome for folks who loathe grocery shopping or simply don’t have a ton of time. I’m quite certain I will use their services again in the near future and if I didn’t love grocery shopping so much I’d be ordering from them all the time.

On Saturday night I took some of my Relay Foods goods and went to work preparing a delicious dinner using a recipe from the August issue of Fitness Magazine – Curried Summer Vegetable Medley With Coconut Rice. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly, but made brown basmati rice instead of white and added a bit of cayenne pepper for some heat.

Here’s a photo recap of the preparation:

The only thing I will say about this recipe is that it definitely took me longer than 20 minutes to prep the ingredients – there were a lot of veggies to chop!

Finished product:

Wow, Fitness does it again! I’ve said it before, but all their recipes turn out to be winners!! I haven’t tried a bad one yet.

The only disappointing thing is that Isaac wasn’t home to bask in the glory of our kitchen smelling like an Indian restaurant or to try this amazing dinner. Oh well, more leftovers for me.

So tell me, have you ever tried an online grocer?

Also, what’s your favorite magazine to find recipes in?

-Brittany

Tagged as: Curried Summer Vegetable Medley With Coconut Rice, Fitness Magazine, Relay Foods