Fresh Ingredients

Michigan is starting to get in good fresh fruit and veggies. Meijer’s has had plums and nectarines (still from California, not Michigan yet) on sale the last couple of weeks that are amazing. The farmers markets that I go to have had strawberries for weeks and are now selling plump juicy blueberries. You can also get plenty of lettuce, peas, radishes and broccoli already.

A coworker and I ate an entire pint of blueberries last week at lunch. Right now, blueberries are $3 per pint and Strawberries are $3.50 per quart. I justify it by reminding myself that I wouldn’t have thought twice about spending $3.50 for a bag of Pepperidge Farms cookies. Now that I value real food over junk food, I shouldn’t balk at paying it for fruits and vegetables.

I just love that I enjoy fruit as much if not more than junk food now. Sure, I eat the vita muffin tops occasionally or a skinny cow ice cream bar (I’m happy to say I have both those binging addictions under control), but I look forward to packing my bag for work with good stuff. I have a plum and a nectarine for morning snack and then bring an apple to eat on the commute home. A year ago, I’d have smacked you if you would have said I would voluntarily eat three pieces of fruit per day.

This weekend at the farmers market I picked up a head of fresh cabbage along with freshly dug red potatoes and onions. I used the cabbage to make another batch of cabbage roll casserole and we had the potatoes and onions on the grill last night. I just cut up them up and put them in an aluminum foil pouch with a touch of olive oil and throw them on the grill for about 12 minutes. Fresh food just tastes so much better than something that was shipped from goodness knows where and then sits in a cardboard box for a week or more. My local farmers market has even been giving away reusable grocery bags. Even though it is supposed to be only one per customer, I have asked for one each week so I have managed to accumulate three of them.