24 Aug 2013

enough fruit and veg

This week the local newspaper knocked the election off the front page with the headline that 86% of Tasmanians didn’t eat enough fruit and vegetables. Then a magazine proclaimed that only 6% of Australians ate enough F&V. By ‘enough’ I assume it’s the recommended daily two serves of fruit and five serves of veg. Once I got over these horror numbers, I then thought: if there’s a box for eating ‘too much’ F&V – well, I’ll tick that one.

Not eating any fruit, and especially veg, every day is unfathomable to me. I know I have my parents to thank for that. It might have been simple ‘meat and three veg’ most days, but when I was growing up, we ate healthy, balanced meals every day. And I’m sure you heard this one too: if you’re hungry, have an apple; if you didn’t want an apple, you weren’t hungry enough. Apart from a temporary face-pulling phase at cauliflowers, I ate my veg; and for this I’m very thankful because now it’s just normal for me. The thought that only 6% of the population agrees with me is too freaky and sad for words.

Let’s fast forward to me putting dinner on the table. Choosing the veg is where the pleasure begins – if I’m buying my veg, I’m often wildly seduced by the shiny colours and textures of a beautiful display, be it at a farmers market or a good F&V shop. Sometimes I have a specific recipe I want to try, but usually I buy bags full of the stuff then work out what to do with it (and where to put it) when I get it home.

Lately I’ve had the baked risotto on repeat for my work-day lunches, varying what vegies I top it with. I’m also having a bit of a crush on pumpkins, of any variety. This love has manifested itself in gratins or bakes, topped with crunchy panko crumbs, walnut pieces, and lots of parsley and lemon zest, oh and black pepper, too. Sometimes I add ricotta or sour cream, but if you get a good pumpkin they have built-in creaminess. Just look at it : perfection.


After abandoning them for years, I’ve returned to stir fries: usually with lots of broccoli, cauliflower and red capsicum (another current crush). I’m not the best stir fryer (probably why I gave up on them) and sometimes things stay a bit crunchy (it gives my jaw a work out, I suppose) or sometimes they go a tad too soft. But it’s all good.

Sometimes I haven't got the time of energy to be creative, so I'm happy to steam the veg and plonk it on a bed of rice, or quinoa, or some pasta. A generous spoonful of rich home-made pasta sauce (more veg) or simply a zippy squeeze of lemon and some parsley and I'm done  - because when the veg are this gorgeous, simplicity is all you need, don't you agree?


That’s why I can’t understand those scary stats. Fresh produce, especially when it’s in season, is not expensive. Frozen peas aren’t expensive. But even if they are, a bag of broccoli and hand of bananas is cheaper than a visit to the doctors, as mum says. And honestly, I am flummoxed when I read people say vegies are hard to prepare. A bombe Alaska is hard to make. Stir fried broccoli is not.

So if you were surveyed, how would you respond? Do you get ‘enough’ F&V?

 

14 comments:

  1. I love your mum! Her comment about fruit and veg being cheaper than the doctor. And the one about the apple. Just said that to my 8yo. Not well received, but she hears it often enough!
    My kids eat more fruit and veg than most kids I know, which is not to say they always get their 5, but close enough. I would mostly...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's so funny, Jo! I love it that 'have an apple' is repeated throughout the generations. Your 8yo (say hi to her for me!) will probably say that to her kids - and then go 'wow, i'm turning into my mother...' :-)

      Delete
  2. Interesting isn't it e? I agree with you...fruit and vegetables make up a major part of our diet and I couldn't consider planning a meal without them. Really, it is not difficult or necessarily expensive. I laughed at your bombe Alaska comment!

    All of your vegetable meals look delicious.

    This week I made a simple 'greens' pie which made me think of you. I am going to post a link to the recipe on my blog soon. Happy cooking :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jane.
      I can't wait to see your green pie recipe - and what you do with that gorgeous nubbly pumpkin your husband was given. Happy cooking to you too.

      Delete
  3. Yes...I agree E, fresh fruit and veg is very important. I am quite shocked by the diets of a lot of families around me, most children that visit my home will not drink fresh water or eat vegetables. It is an increasing problem in today's society.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. crazy, isn't it SB! i was only chatting to a workmate today about water vs cordial. we both said that when we were kids, cordial and fizzy drinks were birthday party treats.
      then we realised that made us sound like old fogeys :-)

      Delete
  4. Hi there... an interesting post! Thank you for sharing. Sadly, I have had to cut fruit out of my diet for health reasons... it seems to be causing issues for my stomach... that, and capsicum! Sigh! Otherwise, yes, I definitely eat plenty of F&V. And I always eat my vegies first : )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good girl :-) i actually prefer vegies to fruit, and prefer my fruit cooked - as in cakes or pies :-) but oh, capsicum! i am really having a red capsicum crush right now, eating slices of it for an after-work snack.

      Delete
  5. My mother would give us a whole raw carrot to stave off hunger while we were waiting for dinner to be ready - We would sit in front of the TV crunching away. But when dinner was served it usually featured a canned or frozen hot vegetable - and the big salad of leafy greens. EVERY night. My grandmother, though, would prepare fresh peas, fresh green beans...anyway, it all added up to me loving vegetables more than anything. I do prefer them cooked, and like it if I can have some 3x a day. So I make plenty to provide leftovers that can be heated with a fried egg on top. One hard thing about traveling is the almost certain lack of veggies in the quantity I'm used to.
    Thank you for a post that makes me happy, reading about someone who has the same feelings. :-) Oh, and being in the U.S. I didn't know at first what you meant by red capsicum, but Wikipedia enlightened me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello GJ - oh, you have reminded me that travelling definitely presents a problem for vegie lovers like us! getting the quantity and variety.
      thank YOU for your kind words. and thank goodness for wiki ;-)

      Delete
  6. I can't believe only 6% percent of people in AUS eat enough F&V. Like you we eat mostly veg in our house, I eat apples on the occasion for morning tea while at work. I have slowly been juicing more and more fruit in the mornings, so I am starting to even out our veg overload. My hubby has been home for just over two weeks and we had our first meal with beef in it last night. I think we may of had chicken once as well while he was home. Otherwise its been veg, veg and more veg for dinner.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it's an unbelievable number, isn't it? hopefully it was a typo.

      i love the phrase 'veg overload'; i know that feeling. i happily have vegies in every single meal. well, except if i'm having ice cream for dinner, as in my previous post!

      Delete
  7. We're pretty heavy of the veg here too - low iron levels was the result of my obsession for a while, now we've got the equilibrium back. And I'm like you with stir fries, I went off them, then when I realised the extent of my daughters love of Asian noodles I did some reading and some practicing and now I've got a couple of standard crowd pleasers. And my kids are fruit mad, especially the older one, the fruit bowl is emptied every couple of days and needs restocking. I might add though it hasn't always been this way with my eldest, she was incredibly difficult to feed for a good two years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i think we all go thru phases like that, barbara. i tend to love fruit mroe in the summer - now, when there are cherries and loganberrries and apricots fresh from dad's garden. wintertime and the monotony of apples and bananas, too little variety to entice!

      Delete

Word-verification is on, as the robot-spammers are loving my tuna past bake too much at the moment! I hope you understand - and I hope you'll still leave a comment at Dig In. I love hearing your thoughts, knowing someone is reading, and will always reply. Unless you're a robot-spammer.