We’re in the thick of winter, which means fresh produce isn’t always as easy to come by. I long for a tomato that isn’t pitiful to look at and tasteless on my taco. Alas, I will need to wait a few months for a tasty tomato. In the meantime, there are loads of other great options. (See this week’s shopping cart below to prove it.)
You might get sick of me saying it, but hey, you’ll really get sick if you don’t do it. So I’ll keep encouraging and prodding because I just can’t help it: Buy fruits and vegetables. Eat fruits and vegetables. It’s the easiest and best way to be healthier.
I have become more convicted than ever that:
1. My family needs even more than I had been giving them.
2. In order to eat more fruits and vegetables, I have to be very intentional about purchasing and serving them. And
3. It really is easy to always eat many fruits and vegetables each day.
How is it easy? I now go to the store for the purpose of loading up on fruits and vegetables. I fill my cart. I go through check-out. Then I have a counter-top full and a fridge full and a freezer full of fruits and vegetables. Then we eat them often. See how easy that is?
I have found that taking my boys to the store with me to help me pick out all the fruits and vegetables that look good to them has been very helpful to encourage them to crave and eat them! (It’s also very nice because they can then help me load and unload and unpack it all too. It’s a win-win.)
This week the boys and I filled our cart with: clementines, apples, grapefruit, pears, pineapple, raspberries, blueberries, cucumbers, grapes, avocados, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, mixed greens, carrots, sweet potatoes, kiwi, and one lone banana. (We’re a little tired of bananas right now, but Malachi thought maybe one for a bedtime snack sounded like a good idea.)
This cart full will last us for about one week. (We also have plenty of frozen veggies in the freezer.) When I have a bunch of fruit and veggies on hand, I find that it is so fun to figure out fun ways to serve them. It inspires me to set out a variety with each meal. And just think of all the great nutrients we’re getting!
Okay, now your turn! The next time you go to the store (which may be a few days for those of you who are snowed in!) – go with the intention of buying lots of fruits and vegetables. Buy a variety, buy what looks delicious, and buy more than just a little bit. You and your family need this! Envision me sitting on your shoulder as you look at the kiwi saying, “Yes! Get it! And get that fresh spinach over there too!” (Obviously, if I were sitting on your shoulder, I would also remind you to get butter while you’re there.)
On Friday, I’ll share pictures to show some of the ways we’re eating our cart full of fruits and vegetables. Then next Monday, we’ll check in to see how this challenge went for you. You have six days to get to the store, fill your cart, come home, and fill your belly.
Want to begin making your list? Tell me in the comments section every fruit and vegetable that sounds good to you right now!
We loaded up Sunday in antisipation of our lovely weather!
Grabbed….. AVACODOS , onions, garlic, Roma tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pears, apples…. Already had jalapeños, green onions and baby carrots !
mmm, I want watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, lettuce, broccoli, bananas, apples, grapefruit, oranges, and maybe artichokes!
We just shopped. Spinach, potatoes, pomelo (this is new for us) apples, avocado, carrots, green beans, green onions, and my new favorite, chopped salad blend in a bag.
I’ve got baby bok choy, carrots (complete with stems to give to our guinea pigs), mushrooms, sweet peppers, pea pods, spring mix, avocado, apples, grapes, celery, potatoes, and bananas. We get so bored this time of year with the apple/banana/orange/pear gig, but we buy them anyway along with anything else we can find that looks good. I’ve got frozen berries in my freezer so those have also been a special treat, though not as good as fresh. Can’t wait for strawberry season — how many more months??? (p.s. It’s snowing outside right now…sigh).
mmmm strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, kiwi, mangos, carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, & bananas. Have you ever heard of Bountiful Basket food co-op? Its great and you can get organic and its reasonably priced.
I’ve heard of it but last I checked, it isn’t available in my area. I haven’t checked recently though, so I’ll have to look into it again!
I hope it comes available to you soon. Its been a blessing to our family for sure. I love your blog!!! I read it every day. Your recipes are amazing and you inspired me to order from Azure. Thank you for what you do!!
Can you post about how you store your fruits and veggies so they last longer? I agree that the best way is to eat them before they go bad, but I also like to only go grocery shopping once a week. Also, once my fruits/veggies are past their prime, but possibly still usable, what else can I do with them? The obvious answer for bananas is smoothies, what about others? Or maybe you have already written about this?
I’ll put it on my list to include this info in a post sometime soon!
I buy old discounted pears and apples for a great price, then quarter and core them (no peeling except sometimes if the pears are really gross). I cook them together in the crock pot with cinnamon, possibly other spices, and have delicious pear apple sauce. Blending with my stick blender is so easy, and keeps me from having to peel fruit or transfer hot sauce to a food processor.
I load the cart up with vegetables, chop them up , and keep the container right beside hummus in the fridge. Peppers of many colours, cucumbers, carrots, celery, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli… We love to use them in omelets, too.
We always have apples and bananas on hand, and then we buy whichever other fruits are on sale, berries or kiwi or pineapple.
Mmmm, we love fruits and veggies in our house!
How can you get sick of bananas? Maybe we’ll agree to disagree on this :)! I bought mostly at aldi (I’m on a very tight student budget, we are a family of six) and got lettuce, cucumber, advo, miniature peppers (so yummy roasted!) bananas, oranges. From costco I got the frozen fruit/veggies mostly organic mangos, broccoli, strawberries. I’ve still got plenty of carrots and frozen green beans and wild blueberries! Life is good :)!
I buy a lot of my produce at Aldi, too – They have good produce!! I buy potatoes, onions, head lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, oranges, pineapple, pears, grapes, kiwi, plums, nectarines. Our Aldi has a quick turnover in their produce and it’s always fresh stuff. My kids like the apples and oranges from Aldi better than the ones I can buy at Kroger – unless I happen to get the organic oranges on sale -and only the box straight from Georgia can beat that!
Last week my naturopath confirmed several health issues I suspected, which has meant a diet overhaul for me (I was previously gluten-free, now I’m grain-free and sugar-free). Loading up on veggies in a must now!
Hang in there – hope your health issues are resolved soon!
I would love kiwi & watermelon right now!! I looked for kiwi for the fruit pizza for the Super Bowl party & couldn’t find it – I was sad but we used mandarin oranges instead!
In the fridge right now we have, salad mix, mushrooms, cucumbers, carrots, yellow & red peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, grape tomatoes and hummus. I think there are a few apples, a few bananas on the counter, and one lonely orange that I am eating for breakfast. In the freezer we have peach slices, blueberries, raspberries (shh, don’t tell my daughter), and grapes; broccoli, peas, and corn. We are just not green bean eaters – I feed them to the dog (blush).
Thanks for the encouragement to actually EAT this stuff lol! I’m thinking roasted vegetables with supper tonight.
My daughter don’t like fruit and veggies. but I am trying everyweek we try a new fruit or veggie. Last week was bruessel sprouts. This week was a fruit called shanon I think it was a small orange think it taste like a sweet squash to me. but my daughter loves kale chips. She eat those without any problem.
Last we went we got kale,apples,celery,broccoli and bananas plus we have some blueberries, mango,pineapple,and cranberries in the freezer. Also have some leftover spinach in the frig and some frozen peas,broccoli,and spinach. We have been eating more salads lately with some mandarin oranges,dried cranberries,and almonds which we all really like. I can never seem to keep us supplied with enough fruit,but only so much in the budget-my son loves fruit and eats a lot of it as I do. And hey how did you know I was out of butter-ha!
Just a hunch. :)
You are lucky … when I go to the store with my kids they are craving the crackers, cookies, chips, boxed cereal, etc. that they see (I don’t care if it does say “back to nature”! It’s still processed food!) And WHY do they ask for these items? Because once in a blue moon I cave in and buy them (for things like camping/road trips), so they know they like them. Every so often I find that some little booger has slipped one of these items into the cart. ” Very funny joke. Ha ha. Now go put it back!” So I am the one on the other end of the tug-of-war rope trying to get everyone steered in the right direction. I do fill the cart with produce, though, and there isn’t room for much else by the time we are done. Then when we get home, that’s all there is to eat, and it looks REALLY good to everyone. What will it be for snack today? Fruit salad? Veggies and guacamole? Apples dipped in peanut butter? Frozen grapes? YUM!!! Wish we had an Aldi’s here. The prices of produce in the winter here are shocking, but it just makes it that much more necessary to skip the “junk” so we can buy the good stuff!
My kids gaze at all the other stuff too. Wouldn’t you know the donuts are right by the produce section. :)
so glad, laura, that you are upping the fruits and veggies… When I read your menus- very nice ones- they seemed, to me, to be woefully short i
n the fruit and veg area..I have long gotten comments about how many fruits and veggies I buy ( and raise)… but we love them and eat them daily in large quantities ( I have 4 teens these days- and a husband : )) )
I typically serve more fruits and veggies than I include in my menu plans – mainly as snacks throughout the day. :) But I’m now trying to be more intentional about adding variety and setting out more raw veggies with our meals too!
Pomegranates! Our children really enjoy these. Also, daddy breaks open a coconut every week to have with our oatmeal. Yum!
Oh, yes, pomegranates!! I could eat a whole one everyday by tossing them in my salad and yogurt. My kids love to help peel them and eat them right out of the bowl.
This week, we loaded up on broccoli, green leaf lettuce, mixed greens, onion, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers, avocado, squash, grape tomatoes, black beans, oranges, apples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, red grapes,cantaloupe, frozen peas, frozen spinach and frozen mixed berries. Now that it is nearing the end of the week, I find myself wishing I had some celery, another onion and more bananas.
Great challenge! My kids eat a ton of fruits and veggies. However, I am trying to get my husband and I to eat veggies EVEN when it doesn’t fit with the meal. This means having a handful of raw veggies with pancakes, waffles, french toast, etc.
We visited the farmer’s market this past weekend and got golden delicious apples, cameo apples (this was a new one), vidalia onions, navel oranges, tomatoes, squash and yukon gold potatoes, organic honey, fresh cilantro.
Our visit to Aldi netted us tomatoes, blackberries, colored peppers, mushrooms, carrots, celery and avocados. Over all a nice produce haul. Can’t wait for the CSA to pick back up though!
I live in Florida and strawberry season is coming up soon. I can not wait! There will be gobs of strawberries everywhere and the prices will be so low! I stock up and freeze them, that is, if they even last that long.
So, we buy a lot of veggies and fruit that sit on the counter. How does one store all of this produce and still reserve their counter space? I’ve tried to think of things but come up short, even on pinterest.
So, we buy a lot of veggies and fruit that sit on the counter. How does one store all of this produce and still reserve their counter space? I’ve tried to think of things but come up short, even on pinterest.
I live in Wisconsin where we don’t have any farmer’s market most of the year and the organics in my town are pitiful. It’s a rare moment when I find fresh looking organic produce as it is usually limp, lifeless and expensive. Aldi’s is starting to carry some organic produce here though. Hope they keep adding items.
Right now in the veggie drawer we have fresh broccoli, mushrooms, celery, carrots, red, yellow and green peppers, cilantro, and romaine lettuce. In the pantry: potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, two pumpkins (I MUST cook these soon!) and onions. On the counter: bananas, apples, and tomatoes. In the fruit drawer: oranges, avocados, lemons, and limes. In the freezer, we have strawberries, blueberries, peas, spinach, green beans, mixed veggies, and broccoli.
We go through a lot of fruit for snacks, but I need to be more intentional about serving it at meals. I like the idea of serving more raw veggies with meals, too.
Tonight the cilantro, bell peppers, and onion will be used for steak fajitas, along with some chopped tomatoes, and lettuce… YUM! Perhaps I’ll slice some oranges to go with it.
I’ve been reading all the comments here and have pomegranate and pumpkin envy! I live in a major metropolitan city (Seattle, and yes, we ARE very proud of the Hawks!), but we can only really get pumpkins in Oct/Nov and poms usually just around the holidays unless we hit one of the main upscale (read: overpriced) markets or special order. I love baking whole pumpkins (was inspired by Laura to try it and made lots of yummy things from cooked pumpkin this last autumn), and my 11yo son will eat 1/2 pom in one sitting all by himself. Both such healthy foods that are only treats here once a year!
Hello Laura. We must of been on the same “wave length”. We hit the grocery store yesterday and I filled up on fruit (blackberries, strawberry, blueberry, apple, orange, banana). Our usual fare is apple, orange, banana, grapes (on sale), pineapple (sit upside down in a juice jug for a day), kiwi (New Zealand). Fresh berries are pricey so I freeze lots of wild berries in the summer. Today I filled the bowl to the top with fruit salad and sprinkled a little icing sugar on it and mixed. We gobbled our bowls of fruit salad and cream, mmmmmmmm 8-). We usually eat whole fruit or banana and a splash of cream but who can blame us regarding the icing sugar. Fruit is like wood this time of year and I find that a little icing sugar brings out a little fruit flavor. This winter weather is tough and we needed some summer sunshine 8->. Also on the table most meals is a big bowl of mixed salad. It fills out the meal and you’re not growling for food an hour later.
We try to eat seasonally and organically, especially when it’s on the dirty dozen. Do you compromise in the winter? I’m struggling to find a balance between buying fresh fruits and veggies now and keeping a budget! I recently got non-organic oranges, bananas, pineapple, broccoli, and cabbage, and organic spinach, lettuce, and celery. I have to go somewhere else for avocados and kiwi. I had to pass up on fresh organic berries and grapes bc they were so expensive, and I didn’t think that I should get conventional bc they were on the dirty dozen. What are your thoughts on this?
Yes, I have been compromising this during the winter. I have so little fresh organic produce available where I live, so it’s either eat conventional or go without. I used to worry SO much about this, but God has convicted me that it really is okay and that He is bigger than pesticides and all that could harm us. Since we’ve been eating more produce this winter, I feel better than ever. So thankful to find peace in this!
THANK YOU for answering this question. I am blessed that I live near a grocery store that offers very affordable organic produce — pretty much all year round. But even with the supply of organic produce, the fruit and vegetable section is lacking in February.
I was inspired by your meal plan pictures (before you even posted the fruit/veggie challenge – lol!) and I loaded up on some out-of-season veggies and some non-organic fruit. GASP!
Oh my goodness. My kids were so happy. I sliced up a $1 mango and the three of us enjoyed 30 cents worth of a small tropical vacation. (Come to find out, my Aldis was offering mangoes for 49 cents each!) It has been so wonderful to have raw veggies and fruit in the house. We ate non-organic blueberries — with smiles.
I know that pesticides are bad. But I still feel much better eating these fruits and veggies than munching on a bag of organic tortilla chips (cough).
I loaded up on Monday before I even saw this post. Our new years resolution was try to at least one new fruit or veggie a month for the entire year, 12 new things so that it wasn’t too overwhelming for the kids (or me). In January I made brussel sprouts which I always thought I hated (at least the way my gma made them), they actually weren’t too bad roasted in the oven with onion and mushroom and the kids asked for them again, so I bought more this week so I am one for one on trying new things.
My fresh produce on Monday included; lettuce, spinach, carrots, celery, broccoli, cucumber, mushrooms, tomatoes, bananas, pineapple, grapes, oranges, clementines, brussel sprouts, cabbage and green peppers. Forgot the apples that were on my list but am holding out because I know if I go back to the store before my scheduled shopping day I’ll end up overspending.
Question for you on a totally unrelated note. When you do your freezer cooking and store stuff in glass dishes, do you go straight from freezer to oven or do you let thaw and come to room temperature before putting the dish in the oven? I’m worried that glass will crack, so I usually use disposable tin pans for freezer cooking, but am trying to get away from disposable products.
Obviously, I’m not Laura. :) I’ve read that breaking occurs when placing cold glass into a hot oven. When I’m going to put cold glass bake ware directly into the oven, I start with a cold oven. Do not preheat. Place the dish in the oven, and then turn it on. The glass warms slowly as it gets up to temperature, and I’ve never had anything break yet. Good luck!
Thank you. That’s kind of what I thought but wasn’t sure.
Yep, what Jen said. :)
clementines/mandarin oranges are awesome right now (although they are off sale now)
our food coop has some pretty darn good honey crisp apples
I get bananas & pears on the ‘day old’ rack when they are a little rough looking but taste just fine
I am down to one whole peach & one jar of diced fresh peaches in the freezer-to go in smoothies
Just loaded up on seedless oranges, Gala apples, mangoes and cantaloupe…not to mention some lovely carrots for pizza soup! :)