Words of Wisdom

Not our veggies

One of the things we are trying to do in the new year is eat a little healthier. My biggest problem with that (besides the Twinkies and chocolate bars) is the fact that healthy food just costs more. So we looked around and we discovered this rather amazing service called Bountiful Baskets. (No, I'm not plugging this group, I promise!)

I first heard about them from Grandma. She harassed me for a year to try them and I didn't get around to it until a couple of weeks before she passed away. She was always a bargain hunter and this is definitely a bargain. A basket costs $15 and you have to order it on Mondays. Then you pick it up on Saturday.

When we ordered the basket in the summer we decided that our garden was producing the same kinds of things so we really needed to wait until it was snowy and cold and the garden was dead. To make a long story short, we got our first basket a couple of weeks ago. Half fruits and half veggies, we got things like bananas, clementines, apples, grapes, lettuce, and cucumbers. The kids loved having fresh stuff around to snack on and we didn't waste anything. So this week I signed up for TWO baskets.

Dad's Veggie medley!

When my sweetie got back from the pickup time, he just shook his head. "I don't know what we're going to do with some of this stuff!" he complained. We still got bananas and clementines, but also kiwi, watermelon, and pineapple. (The kids were so excited about the watermelon, they ate both of them for lunch yesterday.) The veggies though, were crazy!

There was the obligatory bunch of lettuce, plus cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. And because we had two baskets, we had TWO bags of them! My sweetie scoured the internet, trying to find some sort of recipe the kids might eat. The first bag was turned into a sauteed bunch with little mushrooms cooked in pork grease. Most of the kids tried one and spit them out.

So tonight he cooked the other bag into a medley of vegetables including parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, onions, and the dreaded sprouts. (Yeah, suddenly the veggies weren't so cheap anymore.) I was folding laundry as the kids were setting the table and my sweetie was finishing things up.  Scout poked her head around the corner.

"Mom?" she asked rather timidly. I kept folding. "Yeah." Her little voice quivered. "Can I say the prayer?" I looked up from the shirt I was turning right side out. "Sure," I responded. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "That food looks so darn yucky!" I guess she was thinking that a prayer might fix everything.

And just so you know...she was totally wrong (or maybe her prayer DID help!). The veggies were delicious! Guess we'll get another basket or two this weekend. Don't know what I'll do with rutabaga though...