This post is sponsored by Sprouts Farmers Market. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting brands that make Zen & Spice possible! 

Back in August, I had the pleasure of visiting the Sprouts Farmers Market corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. I have the full recap here. It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a press trip! The marketing team did a wonderful job of planning out our four days of adventure and the other bloggers in our group were awesome as well. 

One of my favorite activities we took part in was the gift basket challenge. They gave us a $100 gift card, a theme, and told us to go wild in a Sprouts store in Phoenix to create the perfect gift basket. Dixya and I teamed up and created the basket below for our “Rise and Shine” theme. We actually WON! Our basket was donated to a local charity. We were pretty proud of it!

Since creating that gift basket was so much fun, I wanted to recreate that experience at my local store here in Fort Worth. I gave myself a budget of $25 and a theme, Fall Care.  One thing I love about Sprouts is that it’s more than just produce– they have entire sections devoted to self-care items (lotions, soaps, and candles) a large wall full of various teas, a large bulk section full of yummy snacks etc. It’s a fun place to shop. 

My first stop took me to the tea aisle. I’ve been really into tea lately and wanted to find something spicy and warming. 

I found this roobios chai tea ($4) with “warming spices”, which totally matched the fall theme! This Numi tea is caffeine free and spiced with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, ginger and cardamom. It’s like fall in a cup. 

Next up, a trip to the bulk aisle. Sprouts has some delicious fall-themed snacks on display, including candy corn (my FAVE), cinnamon apple yogurt pretzels, and pumpkin spice yogurt pretzels. 

Both kinds of pretzels sounded tasty, so I bought some of both. Each of those tubs of pretzels were only about $2 a piece! 

Ultimately, I chose the pumpkin spice pretzels for my gift basket (~$1) and added them to a mason jar outfitted with a colorful fall ribbon. 

A self care basket isn’t complete without lotion and a candle, so I hit the body care aisle next. Sprouts was having their Vitamin and Body Care Extravaganza sale, so everything was 25% off! 

This pumpkin spice hand cream caught my eye ($9). It smells heavenly. I tested some out in the store and my hands felt very smooth! 

I totally didn’t know this, but Sprouts has candles. This maple cream scented candle ($10) smelled AMAZING, so into the basket it went! 

Here’s everything put together in a cute fall-themed basket I got from a craft store along with hay stuffing. 

Grand total brings us to $24! A fall-care themed gift basket would be perfect for a mother or sister, or maybe a friend who just had a baby. There are four main components to a good gift basket, IMHO: drink, snack, lotion and candle. 

I may plan to give this basket away at my next Sprouts cooking demo! It’ll be Wednesday, November 15th at 6:00PM at the Frisco, TX store on Lebanon and Preston. If you’re from the DFW area, I hope to see you there! 

What are you favorite items to receive in a gift basket?