Eat more fruits and vegetables

Thanksgiving is coming up (for those of us in the United States) and we are hosting. I’m trying to come up with a menu that includes more fruits and vegetables, because I realized that I only eat starch at Thanksgiving. Mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy (ok, there’s some fat in there too,) and pie. I want to have delicious vegetables at the table as well. Does anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking maybe some sort of spinach dish, green beans (not casserole, I hate green bean casserole, but simple steamed green beans with maybe a light dressing to perk them up?) and brussel sprouts… I wonder, what is everyone else planning for Thanksgiving? Hmm… I might make coming up with a Thanksgiving menu a goal, since I’d really like to do it this year with a little bit less stress…

I’ve really gotten into cooking Japanese food, and it’s fantastic-delicious, nutritious, and full of vegetables. Did I mention it´s delicious? I´ve been working my way through a cookbook called Washoku, by Elizabeth Andoh, and I can´t recommend it enough. Tonight I’m making soy-simmered kabocha squash, and I can’t wait to try it. I’ve always liked fruits and vegetables, but part of putting this goal up was to remember to cook and eat more of them!

You know what? I eat lots of fruits and vegetables. I’m going to mark this goal as ‘done.’

I just love anything sweet. Okay, apples are sweet, too, but it is just not the same. It is just hard to eat healthier.

This goal has been easy to fill lately for three reasons:

1) Apples. All my life I thought I hated apples. Red Delicious only fulfill half their promise, after all. About a 18 months ago, I started to try to eat more healthfully by buying little packages of precut apple slices for lunch. My friend thought this was ridiculous, so she introduced me to the Gala Apple. She also showed me how to core and wedge apples easily with a knife. Now I feel silly. I’ve missed out on decades of apples just because I didn’t know how to wedge them properly. My recent favorite breakfast has been a microwaved Gala Apple, cored and dressed with a little sugar and ginger. So satisfying.

2) Apple pears, also known as Asian pears. I recently moved to a house with a very mature Asian pear tree. I also figured out that this tree has at least two, perhaps three, varieties of Asian pears on its branches (gotta love the miracle of horticulture). One is a large baseball-sized Asian pear with a juicy sweet taste reminiscent of wine or bubble gum. The other is a tennis-ball sized Asian pear that is very green, with a crisp, light taste, which is perfect for side dishes. I could just live in that tree. We’re down to our last bag which is sad. But I can’t stretch out the Asian pears because the owner of the house doesn’t believe that fruit stays good in the fridge for months, even though apples and apple pears do. It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to eat through all those pears….

3) An app for an Apple product. I recently got an iPhone, and a very popular app is the weight loss app Lose It! It’s much simpler than using pad and paper, and just seeing the real-time calorie count of the day makes it that much easier to choose the apple over the donut.

Eating fruit is now actually second nature now, to the point where I dread going to someplace like Starbucks or Denny’s. Most days a baked apple or sliced up banana in milk for breakfast would really be more satisfying than any of the pastries in the case or pancakes on the menu. (And please don’t suggest oatmeal as an alternative, because I think that oatmeal is gross!)

So yesterday, I went for this York Trip and then for a party at my friend’s place… and that was that!

I had hardly 1 fruit and 2 portions of veggie. So time to re-start the pyramid again today.

Since, I find it difficult to tackle with non-specific/non-quantifiable goals and because am obsessed with the numbers 8 and 28, the goal is to 8 portions of fruits/vegetables for 28 consecutive days.

I know I can eat more fruits and veggies if they are in my house but lately my parents havin been buying ANY fruits and veggies because nothing good is in season. I can’t wait til September (apple season!!) this is going to be a major goal for me after I get more water into my diet :0) Wish me luck!