Eat More Fruits and Veggies Archives

For the Moms of Kids Who Don’t Like Veggies

January 4, 2017 by Laura 6 Comments

Here’s what you need to know about my family:

Just because I promote the veggies, encourage the veggies, and always provide the veggies doesn’t mean my kids always love or want to eat the veggies.

Can you relate?

It drives me a little bit crazy until I remember that when I was a kid about the only veggie I ate was canned green beans. I finally learned to like iceburg lettuce when I was in college. Somehow I survived until I learned to love many different kinds of veggies. I want better for my kids, and thankfully, they are getting way more veggies than I ever did, even if it isn’t always what I would consider “enough.”

Some tips I’ve learned through 19 years of trying to get enough veggies into my kids:

1. Provide them for every meal.

They can’t learn to eat them and love them if you don’t buy them and serve them.

2. Offer a variety.

I don’t love every single veggie in the world, so why would I expect my kids to? Not all of my boys like the same veggies, but they all like some. I try to serve more than one at each meal. That means that sometimes they’ll get more than one if they like everything I serve. But even if they don’t, they can at least choose the ones they like.

3. Sneak the spinach into (almost) everything.

You can’t even taste it. Check out this list of foods I tear spinach into while cooking.

4. Be a good example.

If the parents are whining about the veggies, so will the kids. Again, you don’t have to like them all, but you can be a great example to your kids when you take a nice portion of those you do love. I encourage you to try new ones every once in a while too. Our palates really do change through the years!

5. Relax.

I know we all want what’s best for our kids, so it can feel pretty awful if our kids hate vegetables and only want to eat gold fish crackers. Keep trying. Don’t nag. Don’t force. My kids have gone from eating very few veggies to loving many as they’ve gotten older.

By the way, after we had been on the road for so many days during our Christmas trip, ALL of my kids were begging for veggies and were even asking if we had spinach for salads when we got home. Their bodies have learned to crave the good stuff. Hallelujah!

Calling in for back up

I think our nourishment comes best from food. But supplements can help make sure we’re all getting what we need each day since most certainly, our diets are going to have gaps.

Our family was recently sent Juice Plus+ Orchard and Garden Blend Chewables for our kids to try. From their website:

Juice Plus+ is whole food based nutrition, including juice powder concentrates from 30 different fruits, vegetables and grains. Juice Plus+ helps bridge the gap between what you should eat and what you do eat every day. Not a multivitamin, medicine, treatment or cure for any disease, Juice Plus+ is made from quality ingredients carefully monitored from farm to capsule to provide natural nutrients your body needs to be at its best.

I personally found that the chewables are too sweet for me (it doesn’t take much!). I’m glad they are not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, and wish they weren’t sweetened at all. But, just like I don’t mind my kids dipping veggies in ranch dressing as a way to get the veggies down, I have to land on the fact that even though these have added sweetener, at least it’s getting the nutrients in. My kids really like the taste and don’t mind at all helping themselves get some extra nutrients in the form of a gummy! (Also, Juice Plus+ offers capsules in addition to their gummies – no sugar!)

If you are concerned that your kids aren’t getting enough nutrients from veggies and fruits, Juice Plus+ is a great option to consider. In fact, it’s not just for kids! Adults are also often short on getting enough veggies. Juice Plus+ has capsules for the grown ups, for the kids, for everyone who wants to get more necessary nutrients from fruits and veggies.

Want to try some for free?

Jennifer, a Juice Plus+ representative working with me here, is offering to give one of you a month’s supply of Juice Plus+ Kid Chewables. Warning: If your kids are like mine, they’ll need to be held back from eating the entire package at once. My kids thought it was cool I had gotten them some “healthy fruit snacks.” That’s how good these taste to them! I had to holler in, “Hey, whoa! One per day, guys!”

Juice Plus+ is definitely worth checking into as an option for supplemental nourishment for your family. Check out Jennifer’s Juice Plus+ site here. Enter to win the giveaway for a 2-month supply of chewables below! I’ll draw a random winner on Monday, January 9.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Simple Way to Make Veggies Actually Taste Good

October 18, 2016 by Laura 11 Comments

Some of us don’t need to be convinced that veggies actually taste good. We already know. We love and crave many delicious veggies and can’t figure out what’s wrong with all the people who turn up their noses at green, orange, and red food that grows out of the ground.

For many of us, liking vegetables has come with age as our tastes change. It also helps when we actually try a new vegetable every once in a while. (I’m talking to all of you who say, “I don’t like that” before you’ve even actually tried it. You know who you are.)

Even with changing taste buds and willingness to try new veggies once in a while, I don’t know one person who likes every single vegetable on the planet. I love many different kinds, but I still really struggle with artichokes and beets. You?

But here’s what I’ve found to make a big difference in the world of vegetables. It’s the trick that can make a person turn around and actually like a vegetable he or she may not have liked before. It’s this:

Add a delicious, healthy fat to your veggie.

Not only does fat add flavor to the veggie and bring out its natural goodness, it adds necessary nutrients to fuel our bodies for energy and to feed our brains. I find it to be so very lovely when my brain actually works. You?

My favorite ways to add fat to veggies to create amazing flavor:

1. Butter

When I steam peas, broccoli, or carrots, I love to stir in some butter and sea salt. Oh my happy, happy veggies.

2. Bacon Grease

You guys. Cook your bacon, eat your bacon, then keep the grease it created and put it in a jar in your fridge. Stir a couple teaspoons into your steamed green beans along with some sea salt and see if your family doesn’t go back for seconds. Get over thinking that “bacon grease will give you a heart attack.” It’s good, natural fat. Don’t want a heart attack? Stop eating cookies and drinking pop. Love ya.

3. Stir Fry them in Olive Oil

Last week we had a few college students over for a meal. I stir fried yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, and broccoli to go with our Hawaiian Chicken and Rice. Upon cleaning her plate, one of the college girls stood up and said, “I’m getting more veggies. Those were really good. Hmm. I’ve never said that before.”

It made my day and it proves my point. Add good fat to the veggies. Enjoy them with non-processed sea salt (full of needed minerals).

And what about raw veggies?

Well, eat them plain if you enjoy them that way. But if dipping them in something delicious helps you get them down, go for it with healthy dips like Homemade Ranch Dip or this Easy Veggie Dip.

Tell me how you cook your veggies! What are your favorite fats to add? Have you found that healthy fats make veggies taste awesome?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be on the look-out! Our Simple Meals program is about to launch and you’re going to love it! In the meantime, here are our latest new Simple Recipes that go with the Simple Veggies talked about above:

Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing Ideas

July 19, 2016 by Laura 171 Comments

I’m at church camp this week, loving life, swatting bugs, and trying to stay hydrated. While I’m gone, you can enjoy a re-posting of some of our most popular time-saving, money-saving, healthier eating mix recipes…

Originally posted March, 2009

Lookie what’s growing in my garden! Those cute little lettuce leaves will soon be cute big lettuce leaves. I can’t wait! I’ll be needing my homemade salad dressing before we know it.

I don’t actually have an exciting salad recipe for you. I’m not terribly creative like that. My salad recipes almost always look something like:

Wash and tear up a bunch of lettuce or spinach and put it in a bowl.
Add whatever other raw veggies you have.
If you’re feeling especially crazy, throw in some dried cranberries or raisins.
If you want your salad to be your main dish, add some chicken, cheese and hard boiled egg.
Grab a fork.

Homemade Salad Dressing Ideas

This is why I’m so excited about the above carnivals. However, I do have a fun idea for a salad dressing that I discovered one day when I was dinking around in the kitchen. Are you ready? It’s a novel idea.

Orange juice. The juice from an orange. Fresh squeezed orange juicy goodness.

It’s refreshingly simple. And yummy. And it contains no high fructose corn syrup or MSG.

Now that I’ve shared that enlightening salad tid-bit, I’m very excited to share another healthy homemade salad dressing idea!

Rhonda sent me a wonderful Ranch Dressing Mix recipe!! I used to use Simply Organic brand because I trust it more than other brands. But now, thanks to Rhonda, I can make a super healthy (and much, much less expensive) Ranch Dressing any time I need to!

Ranch Dressing MixYum

Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing Ideas

Save Print

Author: Laura

Ingredients

5 Tablespoons dried minced onions
7 teaspoon parsley flakes
4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

Mix together and store in an air tight container.
For dressing: Mix 2 Tablespoons dry mix with 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 cup buttermilk or sour cream.
For dip: Mix 2 Tablespoons dry mix with 2 cups sour cream or kreme fresh.
Mix up a few hours before serving, so the flavors all blend nicely.

I use Hain Safflower mayo and Homemade Buttermilk.

The jar on the right is the mix, which costs pennies compared to a packaged mix! The jar on the left is the ranch dressing all made up and ready to go on our salad.

You HAVE to try this dressing! It tastes so…so real. And fresh. And pure. It’s delicious, simple and healthy! Obviously, you eat it on lettuce and other veggies – so that gives you wonderful, healthy…healthiness. (And of course, great servings of more fruits and veggies!)

Rhonda even suggested using this ranch dressing mix in my Ranch Potato Wedges recipe. It works GREAT!

I shall never buy another ranch dressing packet again. Rhonda – you rock!

And try squeezing an orange onto your salad sometime! See what you think! (Ever tried it before?)

I Add Spinach to Salsa Chicken (and Nobody Cares)

June 7, 2016 by Laura 4 Comments

I’ve talked in the past about how I add fresh spinach to several different foods for added nourishment. Read more details about this here, but below is a list of foods I’ve added spinach to successfully:

Scrambled Eggs
Salads (obviously)
Smoothies
Alfredo Sauce with Pasta
Beefy Vegetable Soup
Cheeseburger Soup
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Patty Sandwiches
Chicken Salad (I didn’t stir it in, just ate it with the chicken salad)
Easy Noodle Stir Fry
Lasagna
Pizza Boats
Pizza Soup
Potato Soup
Salmon Patties
On top of Homemade Pizza
Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes
Runza/Bierock Filling

Most recently, I tore up a bunch of spinach leaves and added them to our Salsa Chicken for our Build a Burrito Bar. Here’s the thing about adding spinach to Salsa Chicken: No one can even tell.

spinach in salsa chicken

I mean, I tear and I tear and I tear. (I make it sound like it’s hard work. Tearing spinach is a two-second job, and mostly I just tear spinach leaves in half by the handful.) I probably put four ounces of fresh spinach into a big pot of Salsa Chicken. (Four ounces of spinach is a lot of spinach.)

Then I let the spinach cook in with the meat and salsa before I shredded it all together. The spinach adds nourishment, but doesn’t change the flavor or even the look of the chicken. I think the spinach just looks like part of the salsa once it’s all cooked down. See how pretty?

I really don’t try to hide nutritious ingredients in my recipes, but neither do I always announce what all I’ve put into the food while I cooked it. I’ve done this “add spinach to Salsa Chicken” twice now, and when it was all said and done – my kids are none the wiser. To them, it just looks like I’ve made Salsa Chicken. Therefore, they proceeded to put more fresh spinach on their burrito as they build it. Nutrients on top of nutrients. How great is this?

As an aside, I’ve taken to snacking on fresh spinach while I’m cooking with it. It barely tastes like anything and it’s refreshing. Plus if I’m super hungry while I’m cooking it helps me feel like I can wait until meal time to eat with the family.

Do you ever add spinach to recipes? What have you found success with in adding spinach?

Veggie-n-Egg Scramble ~ A Great Last Minute Meal Idea

May 18, 2016 by Laura 2 Comments

I think this Veggie-n-Egg Scramble might become one of my favorite and most relied upon go-to meals.

Yum

I used to make something like this years ago, but kind of forgot about it. Weird how that happens.

A few weeks ago, I needed a quick meal before we headed out to a soccer game. I didn’t have time to cook meat, but I did have a fridge full of veggies and a few dozen eggs. I called the boys into the kitchen and started throwing vegetables and knives at them. Hold on. That didn’t come out right. I didn’t throw knives at them. (Peppers maybe, but not knives.) I’m just saying I started handing out jobs and we all worked together to make this quick and nourishing meal.

Everyone started chopping until my big electric skillet looked like this:

All the veggies are good in this Veggie-n-Egg Scramble, but I will suggest that onions are a key player. Onions give this dish such amazing flavor! Sweet peppers are a close second. Broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, and spinach come next. The beauty is that you can use whatever veggies you like and whatever you have on hand.

Saute the veggies in olive oil or butter until tender. Scramble in some eggs with salt. Toss in a little cheese for extra amazingness. So much deliciousness. Very little work. Extra wonderful nourishment.

Veggie-n-Egg Scramble ~ A Great Last Minute Meal Idea

Save Print

Author: Laura

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

4 cups chopped veggies (onions, sweet peppers, zucchini, asparagus, spinach, broccoli, or any others you like in any combination)
3 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
6 eggs
2 Tablespoons milk
sea salt to taste
shredded cheese to taste

Instructions

Saute vegetables in oil or butter until tender.
Meanwhile, crack eggs into a bowl and whip with milk.
Pour egg mixture over cooked veggies and salt as you like.
Scramble the eggs with the veggies until they are cooked through.
Sprinkle cheese on top to melt.
Serve

I at least double this for my family of 6 big eaters. Plus we serve it with fresh fruit. Buttered toast also helps fill them up. Seriously. We really do eat and keep eating at our house.

TIP: If you happen to have leftover ham or bacon – even chicken or beef – hanging out in your fridge, those would be a wonderful addition to this dish.

This meal has become one of the easiest ways to get my family to eat a big variety of veggies in one meal. It ranks right up there with Easy Noodle Stir-Fry.

Do you ever make a meal like this at your house? What veggies would you or do you include?

It’s meals like this that make “teaching our kids about nutrition” quite natural.

P.S. It is worth noting that this dish makes it possible to feed my family very well for about $1.00 per plate. (We won’t talk about how many plates we go through during a meal…)

Low Sugar Dairy Free Chocolate Sauce (3 Ingredients!)

April 5, 2016 by Laura 6 Comments

Dairy free chocolate sauce….the new way to top a waffle.

Dairy Free Chocolate Sauce We sure do eat a lot of cream cheese around our house.

This has nothing to do with the recipe I’m about to share with you – except that it is my way of saying, “We definitely aren’t a dairy-free family.”

Why a Dairy Free Chocolate Sauce then?

Because coconut milk is nourishing and I like to use it in addition to cow milk as a way to give my family a variety of nutrients.
Because I love having recipes on hand that I can use to bless our friends who can’t eat dairy.
Because this Chocolate Sauce is rockin’ and I can actually eat it because it is low in sugar.

You pretty much can’t mess up this recipe. Go ahead. Try. Not that you would. (I mean, I can sometimes mess up a recipe without even trying, say…when I’m trying to talk and cook at the same time??)

But this recipe is really fool-proof and adaptable. You can make it a little sweeter if you like. You can keep the sugar low and enjoy this as a “dark chocolate” sauce. You can add a splash of vanilla extract or mint extract.

Oh my goodness, you could stir in some peanut butter! I just thought of that, will try it, and get back to you. You’ve gotta love it when a delicious brainstorm comes in the middle of writing a sentence.

How to use your Low Sugar Dairy Free Chocolate Sauce

We love it on fresh strawberries, bananas, blueberries, or raspberries.
Often we use it as an apple dip.
Try stirring it into a cup of hot coffee. Yup.
Instead of maple syrup, spread this sauce over your pancakes or waffles.
Hello. Just eat it on a spoon.
You can drizzle this on ice cream, but if you do have to eat dairy free, you’d also have to make or find dairy free ice cream (this was obvious but still worth mentioning)

Low Sugar Dairy Free Chocolate SauceYum

Low Sugar Dairy Free Chocolate Sauce

Save Print

Author: Laura

Ingredients

13.5 ounce can of full fat, unsweetened coconut milk
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ - ½ cup sweetener (honey, sucanat, or brown sugar)

Instructions

Mix ingredients in a small saucepan, cooking and stirring on medium heat until well combined.
Serve warm or cold.
Store this sauce in a covered container in the refrigerator, rewarming on the stove-top as needed. It will keep for up to a month in the fridge.

This sauce just takes a few minutes to whip up and it seriously tastes like a gourmet treat.

Need Coconut Milk?

I typically purchase cans of coconut milk in bulk online. Some of my favorite resources are:

Want the Dairy-Full version? You’ll find one here. Be warned: it’s super full of sugar. I should play with that and see how we can reduce it!

Can you think of other great ways to eat this sauce?

Low Sugar Chocolate Cheesecake Parfaits

March 9, 2016 by Laura 11 Comments

There is a really weird thing about my dad.

No, no – hear me out. I don’t mean weird like weird. Actually though, if you think about it we all have our own variety of weirdness, do we not? Oh, we do. We are who we are and we think that anyone who isn’t like us is weird. News flash: We are all weird. Weirdo.

So about my dad. He’s super picky about all things fruits and vegetables. He only likes canned green beans, canned peaches in corn syrup, and iceberg lettuce. When he comes to visit and I offer beautiful trays of fresh fruit and steaming bowls of vegetables and he’s like, “What is this broccoli stuff? Hmm, peaches with fuzz. You mean people actually eat asparagus?”

And when it comes to strawberries? I can’t even believe I’m related to him because he will not touch a strawberry. He says it’s the seeds. Oh but he is missing out on one of the finest pleasures of this life on earth.

None of this in and of itself is weird. The weird part is that somehow in a conversation about what we do and not not like, when the subject of beets came up, my dad said, “Beets? Oh, I like beets.”

What?!? He won’t eat a fresh strawberry, a peach off a tree, or about fifty other fruit and vegetable options – but he’ll eat a beet? So weird.

I don’t even like beets. I think they taste like dirt. (Not that I’ve actually eaten dirt.) I’ve tried but I just can’t like them. See, and this makes me weird to those of you who do like beets. I told you we are all weird.

Since my dad won’t eat strawberries, I will continue to eat his share and my share plus all the other strawberries I can get my hands on. They are my favorite.

Our family recently combined two of our favorite recipe ideas: Low Sugar Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits with Chocolate Whipped Cream. The result is a delicious Chocolate Cheesecake Parfait. Of course, I used strawberries with the chocolate cheesecake to make these. But you could use blueberries, bananas, and whatever other fruit you might like.

Low Sugar Chocolate Cheesecake Strawberry ParfaitsYum

5.0 from 2 reviews

Low Sugar Chocolate Cheesecake Strawberry Parfaits

Save Print

Author: Laura

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

2½ cups heavy whipping cream
8 ounces softened cream cheese
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon real maple syrup
Liquid stevia to taste (I use about 20 drops) (Use a few Tablespoons of sugar if you prefer.)
1 -2 pounds fresh, sliced strawberries

Instructions

Place all ingredients (minus the strawberries) into a blender.
Whip until smooth and creamy.
Spoon mixture into bowls or cups – layering them with sliced strawberries.

If you have a tried and true you will like beets if you eat them this way recipe, please do let me know. Otherwise, I’ll stick with the other dozens of fruit and vegetable options I do like and I’ll eat strawberries like there’s no tomorrow. Never forget that you’re weird and I’m weird and everyone is weird.

Twelve More Pounds of Strawberries and a Whole Lotta Green Food

March 8, 2016 by Laura 18 Comments

It wasn’t very long ago that our family didn’t go through many fruits and veggies in a week. Even during the first few years of our real food journey when I was learning more about nutrition, I never made fruits and veggies a big part of our meals.

Slowly but surely, we’ve added more variety of produce to our diet. Gradually, we’ve noticed our bodies crave more and more fresh food. It’s pretty fun actually! (Don’t be thinking we’re all that though because we also still like chips. Meh.)

I love strawberries

I’ve probably already been pretty clear about how excited our family is that it’s strawberry season again! We recently went through 16 pounds of them in less than a week because they were in our house for the first time in months and we could not stop. As we ate the last few berries from that stash, we all started freaking out about being back down to zero strawberries again. (I exaggerate. No one was actually freaking out. Not even me. I was perfectly calm. Who even cares about strawberries?)

The next day, I went to the store with a plan to price-match a good deal on strawberries. While there, I found that the store had two-pound containers at a better deal than the one-pound price-match. I only put 6 containers in my cart because I’m nice and wanted to leave some berries for the other customers. Twelve pounds of strawberries ought to hold us for a few days, I think.

I’ve officially decided this is my favorite time of year to buy food. Oodles of goodness is starting to become available again at good prices. Not only did I get a cart full of strawberries, I also got pears, avocados, asparagus, mixed greens, cantaloupe, and spinach. You’ll see in the picture that I also got cream and cottage cheese. The cream is for the berries and the cottage cheese is going to taste marvelous with the fresh pineapple I got last week.

The post without a point

I would appear that I’m just rambling here, showing you all my berries and other fresh produce. What am I actually trying to say?

Buy fresh produce!
Eat fresh produce!
Have fun trying new fresh produce items.
Challenge yourself to enjoy more fresh produce than you might typically eat each day.
I love strawberries.

If you aren’t eating many fruits and vegetables, you aren’t fueling your body with enough nourishment. Period. I care about this so much that if you came to my house, I would actually share my strawberries with you. Now that is a true friend.

Don’t just nod and smile and walk away. It’s time to commit. Leave a comment here telling us about some of your favorite fruits and vegetables, and let us know what you’re going to buy at the store next time you go. Increase the fruits and veggies, friends! Let’s do this!

“We eat a lot of veggies because they’re cheap” – A Young Bride’s Perspective

February 22, 2016 by Laura 4 Comments

Veggies are cheap? How’s that for a young bride’s perspective?

She said it as she sat in our living room beside her fiance. Matt and I have been meeting with them once a week since November, offering mentor-ship and guidance before they tie the knot in March.

This particular visit, we were discussing finances. Were they on the same page about spending and saving? Did they have any questions about necessary line items in a budget? Did they plan to have joint accounts? How did they plan to communicate about spending? How might they handle potentially lean times? What challenges had they already encountered? What might offer the most financial peace in their marriage?

Somewhere in there, one of them brought up grocery shopping. They already cook many of their evening meals together, either at her apartment or his – so beyond paying for all the aspects of an upcoming wedding (oy!) they had definitely experienced times of figuring out money and spending and budgeting together in the area of food. Imagine our shock, then, when this young couple offhandedly said, “Whenever we find we’re spending too much money on food, we also recognize we’re eating less healthy, too. So we cut back by buying more vegetables since they’re so cheap. Then we’re saving money and eating better too!”

I guess she hadn’t heard (the myth) that it costs too much to eat healthy. That they needed to skimp on the grocery budget by avoiding the fresh produce. Instead, she’d already figured out the truth:

Vegetables are a great way to stretch the grocery budget and stay healthy too.

This young bride-to-be went on to share that she’s found it easy to buy several different kinds of veggies to make soups and stews and stir-fries for very little money. Certainly this is much cheaper than eating out! But they found that it was also cheaper than shopping most of the aisles in the grocery stores. When they stayed on the outskirts of the grocery store – mostly getting veggies, fruits, meat, and dairy – the savings really showed.

As far as I could tell, this couple hadn’t read this information in any article or book. They’d simply learned by experience. Eat out – spend more, feel worse. Walk the aisles and throw tempting boxes and packages into the cart – spend more, feel worse. Fill the cart with vegetables and a little meat then make homemade meals – spend less, feel better.

I’d say “out of the mouths of babes” but I believe this really is more of a case of “wise beyond their years.”

Great Ways to Save on Fresh Veggies and Fruit at the Store

Gardens, farmer’s markets, and orchards aside – here are the best ways I’ve found to save oodles of money at the store on produce.

1. Comparison shop or price-match.

Last week, a pint of blueberries was marked at $3.54 at Walmart. A store within my price-matching range had them priced at $1.69/pint. Yes, please. I bought four. Twice.

2. Buy “in season.”

When it’s strawberry season, I can get them for $1.50 or less per pound. When it isn’t strawberry season, they look terrible and cost almost $6.00!

3. Consider the staples.

Carrots, onions, cucumbers, and lettuce (different varieties) are almost always low in cost – on sale or not. We keep those on hand at all times and we go through them like crazy. While not fresh – I’ve found that it’s also financially savvy to always have a supply of frozen peas and green beans on hand. I supplement these staples with produce in season and on sale – but I know that if all else fails we have carrots and green beans.

What ways have you found to be most effective to save money on vegetables and fruit? Do you find that buying fruits and vegetables actually helps you save money?

Stickers on Produce. I Cannot Handle It.

June 21, 2015 by Laura 66 Comments

Stickers on produce. Why? Oh why??

Those of you who know me well are very aware that I have plenty of weirdness lurking in my brain. Hey, we all have a variety or three of weirdness going on, do we not? We all think our personal weirdness makes sense (and is, therefore, not weird) and we do not understand why other people’s weirdness is different from ours. Then when we see someone else being weird we’re all dude, that’s so weird. When in truth, the weirdness we see in others is simply a different variety from our own weirdness because we are all weird.

The Bible backs me up on this although I think it uses more terms like “different gifts” and “knit together uniquely” and stuff like that.

So here’s one of the ways I’m weird that you likely did not know as of yet.

First, I love staring at my groceries. Yes, you knew that one already. That’s not my weird thing even though it kind of is. What you didn’t know is what I’m about to show you. I cannot handle it. I mean, it looks like a lovely table full of grocery and Bountiful Basket purchases. But as it is at this point, I can not admire it. There’s too much distraction.

Stickers on Produce!!!!

There are stickers everywhere. It’s highly alarming. I want to see the pretty produce in all its natural beauty. But the bar codes and the item numbers and the sticky residue – oh it is all too much.

stickers produce1
Say it isn’t so.

So weird thing #672 about Laura: I have to take all the stickers off my produce the minute I set it down in my kitchen. The admiring of the produce cannot happen until all stickers are removed.

You think I’m kidding.

Ahhhhhhhh, there now. Now we can all stare at the pretty produce, without stickers, in all its God given glory.

Before you say, wow Laura that’s weird – let me just remind you that you also have weird things that you cannot handle. They are perhaps different from my weird things because God knit us each together uniquely amen and amen. But you, my friend, are also weird. And I mean that in the kindest, most supportive way. I do.

Today, let us embrace our weirdness. Leave a comment confessing one way you’re weird.

Just so you know, if you make fun of my weirdness, I will pretend to give you a big bear hug but what I will actually be doing is placing all 28 of my produce stickers onto your back then watching to see how long it takes you to notice. Then people will see your back full of stickers and think you’re weird and it would be for real.