Trying to incorporate more vegetables into daily meals has been a challenge. Enter… the “veg tray.” It’s been a hit on our dinner table. Even before dinner, in those moments when the appetite must be satisfied in light of wafting aromas that stimulate the both the olfactory senses and the salivary glands. It is better to reach for a carrot, a beet, a turnip or a pepper than a cracker, a bite of what’s cooking on the stove, or a handful of whatever carb-snack lurks in the pantry beckoning with its synthetic taste and calorie laden substance, no? Then, as we sit at the table after our meal, talking with the kids and reflecting on the day, we nibble the vegetables.
It’s also been a good source for “trying something new.” This is how we discovered kale chips.
We try to buy organic when it’s available, and affordable, especially those vegetables that grow directly in the soil. In my opinion, they taste better; carrots taste more like carrots (and not dirt), beets taste earthy, but not like dirt; turnips taste like… turnips. And because the organics taste better, two things happen. First, the kids actually try them and like them because they taste good, and secondly, because we are all eating the veg there is little if any waste. Invariably, when we buy non-organic carrots there will be a few left in the dish or even still in the refrigerator drawer, untouched. On the other hand, this family can eat through 5lbs of organic carrots in the course of two weeks.
Now truly, I’m no zealot when it comes to organics, but I like food that tastes good, and knowing that fewer chemicals are put into our bodies and into the soil, it makes the choice even easier. Again, I won’t pay 3.98 for an organic red pepper, especially when the regular ones are .78, but when there’s but a difference of 20 or 30 cents, it’s an easy choice.
Need to work a few more vegetables into your daily menu? Try an appetizing veg tray.
sugar snap peas, carrots, turnips, blank space, pablano pepper, red bell pepper
In the photo above, there is an empty space. What “new” veg should be placed in there?
Did you ever stop to taste a carrot? Not just eat it, but taste it? You can't taste the beauty and energy of the earth in a Twinkie. ~Astrid Alauda
