Put a Little Veggie in Your Life

There are so many reasons right now to fill your diet with veggies. . . for starters, most all of the fresh vegetables found in the stores are 'in season' OR go well with those you can find in your own garden or at your local farmer's markets.  Let's face, is there anything tastier than a vine riped tomato grown in your own (or your neighbor's) dirt?

It's so flipping hot -

who wants to cook?  Veggies are tasty and refreshing in their fresh, room temperature to chilly state.  I love cucumber spears on a hot day. . .

And, probably, the most important reason of all to add more fresh vegetables to your diet. . . they're good for you.

I recently had a heart-scare.  We're still not sure what happened or what caused it, or even if it'll happen again - but it most definitely was a wake up call.  Now, I don't wake up easily and it took me a few months, but, with the help of friends, I'm getting on the right track.

On my walk (aren't you proud of me???) this morning with my neighbor-friend, Miss A., and Zayda, the Wonder-Vizsla,

the subject of dieting came up.  Miss A. and I talked about eating healthy, not only at meals, but even snacks, and she brought up an excellent point. 

She would buy broccoli or cauliflower, or whatever, and even when she did get around to chopping it up and getting into baggies or containers - who wants to grab out a whole bunch of stuff for a variety when you're trying to be quick?

On the other hand, who wants to be stuck with just one thing when you know there are options?
And I suppose you could do a fresh veggie mix and just pick out whatever calls to your tastebuds. No digging for the carrots!!

 She said she found when she bought the already made up relish trays at the store that she tended to be more inclined to pull it out, pluck out what she wanted.  It wasn't a big deal to pull out the single tray and then put the whole thing back into the refrigerator.

Light bulb moment!

Taking that idea to heart, I went to the store today.  It was about time as the refrigerator was full of science-project left-overs (hard to believe, I know.) and not much to create any real meals.  So, essentially, I had double motivation to get out into this hot-hot weather. 

Instead of buying the ready-made trays they had there - I chose a cauliflower head, a couple broccoli bunches, baby carrots, cucumbers, snap peas, and two varieties of little cherry tomatoes.

The tomatoes will live on the counter in a bowl ready to be eaten. 

The rest, however, I chopped up with my favorite knife and cutting board

and put into a covered relish tray another friend, Ms. K had given me and I hadn't used nearly enough.  It's gonna get some veggie love now:-)

Ta-Da!
 

Now all anyone has to do in my house is pull the tray out of the refrigerator,

set it on the kitchen counter by the tomatoes and they're ready for a snack.  Needing a little dip?  Grab some salad dressing out of the refrigerator door and they're set.

If I'm looking for veggies to steam - they're all cut and ready.  I just select what I want (nearly all vegetables such as cauliflower, yellow squash, broccoli, beans, snap peas, carrots, etc work wonderfully.  Approximately one handful equals a serving.), toss it into a plastic zipper storage bag,

partially close it, pop it into the microwave for a couple minutes and I have steamed veggies in less than five minutes.  Simple.  No need to add water.  Just be careful of removing the bag of vegetable from the microwave - it will be hot.  I like to set the bag on a plate, then I can just pull the plate out instead of handling the bag.

No matter how you like your vegetables, anything we can do to add a few more to our diet is a very-very good thing:-)  Thanks Miss A. for a Great Idea!!

Have a Veggie-Full kind of day ~

Robin Z