Eating from the garden

With summer on the horizon, delicious veggies are all over the place. Whether you grow them yourself, pick them up at your local farmers market or grocer your body will thank you for eating a wide variety and color of vegetables. Eating a variety of colors is very important, think red, green, purple, orange, yellow, and white.

Fruit and Veggies, More matters campaign has a website dedicated to telling people how to increase their fruit and veggie intake. They are a non-profit group, Produce for better health, that partnered with the CDC to spread the word about healthy eating. We all know fruits and veggies add important nutrition to our diets, but it can often be difficult to know what to eat. There is so much mixed information out there. Here a link to the website offering simple ways to add more fruits and veggies to your day.

Here are some tips for what to do with your summer veggies!

• Zucchini! So easy to grow, and by far one of the most rewarding crops to grow. It is the gift that keeps on giving all summer. 

• Cut it into strips and grill it on the BBQ
• Slice into half moons and stir fry with other veggies
• Cut into medium thickness circles, bread in an egg wash flour batter and pan fry them... so good! 
• Stuffed Zucchini: Cut in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds and some of the inside. It can now be stuffed with sausage, rice, other veggies and so much more! 

• Cabbage. Not as easy to grow in the home garden because the white butterfly moth loves to eat the cabbage leaves, but a very cheap veggie at the store and extremely versatile. 

• Coleslaw: chop it up into thin strips and cover it with a delicious coleslaw dressing. An easy one is mayo, vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and other spices of your choice. 
  
• Stuffed cabbage: Par boil the whole head of cabbage until barely soft to be able to pull of the giant leaves. Stuff each leaf with whatever you choose. I love sausage, rice and veggies. You then wrap them up like a burrito and place them in an ovens afe pan. Cover with sauce of your choice: marinara, gravy, my favorite is a garlic, ginger, soy sauce. Then bake until it smells amazing, probably only 20 minutes or so.  
• Cut into slices and stir fry with your other favorite vegetables. 

• Tomato. Another rewarding crop if you can get them to flower at the right time. This season has been perfect tomato weather with lots of sunshine and heat. 

  • Slice and eat alone or on anything
  • Tomato sauce
  • Salsa
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