We Love Fresh

I am incredibly lucky to live in an area that is abundantly rich with fresh produce. I have access to fruit barns and road side stalls where the produce is often straight from the farm. Grocery shopping for me always starts with a box or two of fresh produce. And we top this up regularly along with the milk and bread as the kids have always eaten stacks of fruit and vegetables... ​

When the boys were little we always had a vegie patch and they would graze straight from the garden, eating fresh snow peas, cherry tomatoes, carrots, corn and cucumbers. I never had any trouble getting them to eat their vegetables. They loved salad served on the side of everything or crispy steamed vegetables. Picking food from the garden always helped the grocery budget too! Although they managed to chew through the harvest like locusts most of the time. But who could complain when they were getting so much goodness!

​My eldest son used to take a 1kg bag of carrots to school every day and my other son would take full cucumbers (along with apples, pears, bananas, grapes and whatever else was available)! If there weren't any leftovers (usually pastries or pizza or pasta) they would take ham and salad rolls or wraps for the mainstay.

Tomato plant image: © ComputerHotline for openphoto.net

Healthy school lunch preparation. Being organised is the key!

​Every couple of days I would spend some time chopping, grating and slicing so there was always fresh salads and fruit on hand (so they could make their own lunches in the mornings!) and also to have on hand for piling onto burgers, wraps or tacos at dinnertime.
Many house moves meant fewer gardens over the years but I always tried to at least keep a few things in pots. Herbs especially (I use a lot of parsley and chives) and spring onions (plant the bottoms of the store bought ones after you've used them and they'll continue to grow!). I always tried to keep a cherry tomato plant or two which is why so many of my recipes use cherry tomatoes instead of the larger varieties. Sometimes, when the budget was especially tight I would just make Margarita Pizzas with fresh herbs, garlic and cherry tomatoes (and herb and garlic bread - to add to the massive carb intake required to fill them up!)

Margarita Pizza - tomatoes and herbs fresh from the garden

Herb Image: © Mylene Bressan for openphoto.net

​Even in a tiny unit you can still put a few herbs in pots or a tomato plant or two. ​
Fresh herbs will make any meal taste better.
My sons have continued on the tradition of growing some of their own food since they've left home. If you want your kids to love their vegies, I highly recommend getting them involved in some gardening activity at an early age.

My eldest son and his first garden at their tiny beach shack.

​Possibly the weirdest thing we ever planted when the kids were little was popcorn kernels. They grew and produced cobs that we picked and dried out in the sun each day. We then we popped the new kernels in oil!
The boys thought it was magic.

Very fresh popcorn!