March is a good month to “go green” by adding lots of greens to your diet. With the first hints of spring in the air and St. Patrick’s Day coming up, green foods are on many menus. I usually associate green foods with healthy foods but that’s not always the case for St. Patty’s day, so a few years ago I made this healthy version of a Minty Green Shamrock Smoothie.
We all know we should eat more greens, but sometimes actually eating well takes some effort. For me to eat more fruits and vegetables, it takes a lot of pre-planning. I have to pick out a few recipes I know my family and I like and then actually buy the produce and take the time to prepare it.
For the past week I’ve prepared a really tasty salad for every lunch and dinner and I thought of some clever ways to get my kids to eat more vegetables: I puréed sautéed zucchini into white chili and I enlisted their help to make zucchini banana bread and carrot cornbread. Normally my kids complain about the texture of zucchini, so hiding it in food is a great way to pack in the extra nutrition without them knowing it!
Here at Wolff’s, we stock local vegetables whenever we have the opportunity. Right now the items we can find locally-grown while supplies last include kale, Swiss Chard, Brussels sprouts, spinach, celery, fennel, scallions, butter lettuce and basil right now as well as many delicious green vegetables from other growers.
A trick I’ve learned recently when making salads is to take kitchen scissors and finely chop all the lettuce greens right into the salad bowl. Kale and spinach are a lot easier to eat when finely chopped and mixed with crisp, crunchy romaine or iceberg lettuce. So in an effort to encourage eating more greens, below is a roundup of some of our favorite vegetable recipes:
Victory Salad from a Victory Garden
Apple Kale Salad
Roasted Apples, Sausage & Brussels Sprouts
Get Roasted Apple & Brussels Sprout Recipe
Tomato Spinach Pasta
