Vegetables, or Why I Will Get Scurvy and Die

My mother is probably smirking and shaking her head as she reads this title. Why? Because she has always told me that I need to eat more vegetables; that I'll be undernourished, deficient in key vitamins, and generally not as healthy as I ought to be. 

The Husband took a day off work yesterday to continue our pursuits of Sunday: namely, sitting in bed, watching TV, and nursing his vicious cold. He also tidied the kitchen and living room, but that's because he's virtuous and lovely...and can't sit in bed all day - even when he's ill - without being riddled with guilt. (To keep things even, I vacuumed last night, and have spent today disinfecting numerous surfaces throughout the house and cleaning the windows of baby handprints.) It was a great two days, in spite of us not feeling at our best. I managed a short run to stretch my legs and recuperate after our half-marathon test run on Saturday, we hung out with friends and made chili for dinner, and we've blitzed our way through the first season of The Booth At The End (which, in case it wasn't obvious from the name drop, I highly recommend).

Anyway, during the course of our Sunday, we came to the realization that we are all pretty deficient when it comes to fruit & veg consumption in this house. I'm the worst of us; E does the best; the Husband is somewhere in the middle. E has had all sorts of mainly veggie-based baby jars, I've bought bananas for the sole purpose of sneaking them into his porridge, he loves my butternut squash soup, has recently found a fondness for apples, and is frequently spoiled with treats of 100% fruit baby snack packs on our mid-week Sainsbury's trips. Hey: Mummy may be eating a 3-pack of Reece's peanut butter cups, but the little monster has to have a healthy snack.

In the first of my efforts to be a better person and make us eat healthier foods, I snagged 2 sweet potatoes from the store this weekend. Sweet potato chips, here we come! Does making them into fries defeat the purpose? No...I'll oven bake them with only a tiny bit of butter or oil and a pinch of brown sugar and salt. After all, healthy foods are like exercise: if it's not fun, you won't do it.

So, I've been trolling my Pinterest boards to see what sorts of ideas I could scrounge up for fun and tasty veggies to feed my boys. (And me, because let's don't lie: I'm the one of us most likely to die of scurvy because I eat so poorly.) Here's my roundup of scrummy suggestions from the many blogs I've scoured:

Sweet Potato & Rosemary Biscuits, via Spoon Fork Bacon

Asian Style Green Beans, via Spoon Fork Bacon

Maple Glazed Acorn Squash, via Spoon Fork Bacon

Layered Salad, via the Pioneer Woman

Silky Cauliflower Soup, via Smitten Kitchen

Summer Pea and Roasted Pepper Pasta Salad, via Smitten Kitchen

As you can see, I have a huge love of recipes from the blogs Spoon Fork Bacon and Smitten Kitchen. I'm super late to the party, but Smitten Kitchen is a new favourite of mine. Just more proof that it pays to follow the links sometimes. As I find and invent more fun recipes to get us closer to our daily requirement of fruits and veg, I'll be sure to share the results here. Fun new foods are no fun, unless they're shared with everyone. Am I right? Plus, this will give me great incentive to get back into the habit of using the ideas I pin. (And in a way that won't break the bank now that those shelves are up!) Oh! And if anyone has any suggestions for more fun veggie and fruit recipes, please feel badgered and pestered encouraged to share in the comments. Share the love, people.

Happy cooking!