Ok, so I think we all know that we should be eating more vegetables- 7-8 servings of vegetables a day! Many of us we are not meeting that goal and sadly many Americans consider french fries as a vegetable. The most nutritious lunches and dinners are HALF (or more!) vegetables. Go for a variety of vegetables and experiment with some you have never tried to expand your palette, the more variety the happier your gut! Here are a few ideas to taste the veggie rainbow all day long:
- Prep your veggies once you get home from the store. Cut them and store them in glass containers on the top shelf for easy access. When you or your family are rummaging through the pantry and fridge for snacks, they are 87.4% more likely to eat veggies if they are precut and ready. *That is a completely made up stat but you bought into it, didn’t you?
- Experiment with different cooking techniques. My family loves to make fun of me because I HATE cooked broccoli 🥦 . Always have. But, I will inhale a bowl of raw broccoli. Don’t count out veggies until you have tried them prepared in different ways – Saute, roast, eat raw, steam or air fry. The air fry makes everything better!
- Substitute raw veggies for chips and crackers for dips and salsas. Also, it looks so pretty to have the rainbow of veggies on a platter.
- Add sliced or chopped veggies into soups, stews, sauces, eggs, sides…when you are making your dishes think of what veggies are floating in the fridge and can you add them to make it more colorful?
- Smoothies!! Adding veggies to smoothies is not a new concept, I meant search smoothies under Pinterest and you can’t go wrong. The trick is actually making the smoothie taste amazing while not overloading the fruit.
- Join a CSA!! Ok this is really my elevator pitch to encourage you to join a CSA. This is a community sponsored agriculture concept which you purchase a share of vegetables (and sometimes, fruit, eggs, flowers, meats, etc) from a local farm either weekly or bi-weekly.
Advantages for farmers:
- When you commit early in the season (Like now!) you are committing to meaningful income to your local farmer.
- Farmers get to educate their members on how to grow and cook fresh food.
Advantages for consumers:
- Buying from your local farmer means you know the soil, the land, the people who are growing your food. You can’t get that at the grocery store.
- Jules and I did this for years and since you are buying what is in season, you don’t get to choose the veg, the veg chooses you. This has an unexpected benefit of giving you variety you wouldn’t normally pick up at the store.
- Your family gets to know your farmer and the work and dedication it takes to grow food and farm animals.
Ready to support your local farmer? Well, many are still taking share orders. Local Harvest is a great search engine using your location to find your farms:
https://www.localharvest.org/csa/
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