2 posts tagged “fresh food”

(or, how M never ceases to amaze me)

Tuesday was a gorgeous day and evening, and we'd planned to grill burgers and sweet potato fries.  There was a bit of prep involved, though (I had to make the burger patties and Rae was cutting the sweet potatoes and mixing in the spices) and M, bless her heart, was waiting somewhat patiently in the kitchen for one of us to be finished so we could go outside and play with her (she's been riding her bike and wanting to shoot hoops down at a neighbor's house).  While waiting (and asking, perhaps not quite as often as she could have, when we'd be finished so we could go outside) she got the urge for a snack.  She asked once for a piece of chocolate (we still have chocolate from V-day) and when I said not before dinner she asked for an apple, to which I of course agreed.  When she opened the fridge to get one, she saw a tupperware of sliced red bell peppers that I had left over from something last week (omelets?) and asked if she could have those instead.

Now, I know she likes red bell peppers.  It's one of her favorite things to snack on when we make homemade pizzas.  We know this because we try just about everything with her (like red and yellow onions, garlic, sage sausage and fresh shredded mozzarella when we make pizzas) because she's curious and we want her to know what stuff tastes like before she poo-poos it.  By doing this she's discovered that she really likes raw, fresh cut red bell peppers.

Back to Tuesday.  She changes her mind, asks about the peppers, to which I say, in a rather shocked fashion, Sure, sweetie, if you'd like.  She grabs them, sits right on the floor, opens up the tupperware and begins munching contentedly.  Rae is dumbfounded, and I'm smirking at M as she noms her second slice, and we go back to prepping dinner.  About half way through the tupperware M says, I sure like these red peppers.  By the time Rae and I are finished with our work, M's eaten the entire tupperware full of red bell peppers.  She pops up, actually thanks me for the snack, and she and Rae head out to shoot some hoops.

It just goes to show how much we parents do have a say in the habits our kids form.  Sure, she asked for a piece of chocolate first, when isn't candy the first thing on a kid's mind?  But when told not before dinner, she found another, healthy alternative, and was actually happy for it.

And she got her piece of chocolate as an evening snack - after dinner.

The Clayton Farmer's Market started up a couple of weekends ago.  We didn't make it to opening day, and we were out of town last weekend, so this morning we decided to make our first trek and see what we could see (that's part of our traditional Market March Song - We're going to the market, we're going to the market, we're going to the market, to see what we can see - as we march to the car to go).

The market has moved.  It used to be on the block just out in front of my office, but it's moved to the large parking lot in a swanky grocery store a mile or so from the old spot.  Because of the layout, it seems a bit more clustered, rather than running down a full block, so that was nice.  Many of the same vendors were there (the SLU Nutrition School grad students were cooking omelets and selling fresh muffins, the buffalo butcher had his coolers, and there was one of the farmers that Rae loves to get veggies from), but some of the others weren't (like the goat cheese guys, the fresh cut flowers guys, and the fresh wheat pasta lady).  There were several new folks we don't remember having seen in years past - a couple of organic farmers, a free range/grass fed turkey and chicken farmer, a lamb farmer.  Of course there are an assortment of farmers that aren't too distinguishable, but still have nice produce/flowers/herbs to look at.

We did a little shopping.  Got 4 quarts of very fresh and lovely looking and smelling strawberries.  I've already cut up 2.5 quarts and they're on a cookie sheet in the freezer so I can have them for smoothies for the summer.  I'll cut up the remainder tomorrow.  The place we got these from will have black raspberries next weekend and for the next several weeks, so I'll stock up on those.  They had fresh asparagus, but said they sold out of it in the first 30 minutes this morning.  Needless to say, we didn't get any, as we were lazybones this morning.  Also got a fresh loaf of organic honey wheat bread.  Had that with peanut butter and honey sammiches for lunch, it was yumm!  Got a pack of grass fed pork chops and garlic brats from a pork farmer.  Decided to try some grass fed ground turkey from another farmer, as I'm in the mood to try something different (Rae says we've cooked with ground turkey before, but I suspect she just cooked with it and didn't tell me, 'cause I sure don't remember it).  Let's see, what else?  Oh, a nice bunch of green onions from the produce farmer Rae likes; he'll have lots more stuff we like to get from him, particularly beans and sweet potatoes, later in the season. 

I think that's all we came home with.  We also had a muffin and omelet from the SLU grads, a bottle of fresh squeezed lemonade from some high school kids, and a cup of coffee from one of the coffee shops in the area.  All in all a very successful and fun first trip to the market for the season.  We're hoping the goat cheese guys, the pasta lady, and fresh cut flowers guys are back next weekend.  Some vendors do every weekend, some do every other, so we're just hoping this was their weekend off.  We'll see.  I also can't wait for the other berries to come into season!  I so love smoothie season *grin*.