Fresh fruits and veggies

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We only have oranges, grapefruit, blueberries, and blackberries. My husband and I really can’t afford produce this month, but we are going to start buying more. This is my first venture into berries. I’ve never had them before now. My are they expensive.
Can you pick them locally when they’re in season then freeze some? That’s the least expensive way I can think of to keep berries in my diet. Of course, planting your own would be cheapest, if you were able to.
 
Your garden sounds lovely. I’m determined to plant one some year and my husband is on board so it should be fun. For now, I’m really looking forward to summer berries.
Good points! The American diet leads us in the cause for many diseases–notice our Japanese friends overseas–who eat entirely different, and have a fraction of the cancer rates we do. Diet is so very important…

If you make it a priority–your health–you’ll ‘find’ the money.
Great thread–here’s to health!👍
We’re going to do a garden this year too (hopefully I can find time to maintain it!!). Whatevergirl, you point about diet is so true – our food is so overprocessed: today, about 90% of American food is processed, versus the early 1980s, when about 10% was processed. Because of this, as well as soil depletion and pesticide use, our food, even our fruits and veggies, aren’t nearly as nutritious as they used to be – they’re missing what used to be there naturally. To get those nutrients back, we supplement with glyconutrition. Not only is it helping us stay healthy, it’s been an immense help for my Dad, who has a life-threatening illness (PM me if you want to know more, I don’t want to get into it here :o ).

Well, anyway, our list of fresh fruits and veggies…none! :eek: Only because we were out of town for the weekend and I haven’t gone grocery shopping yet! 😛 We do have some canned and frozen stuff though.

Side note: yesterday for lunch our DD ate grapes and peas. Must be something about round foods at this age! :rotfl:
 
DH just went to the grocery store:

Broccoli
Kale
Carrots
Eggplants (for me–i’m making eggplant paprikash and will be the only one, probably, eating it!)
Romaine lettuce
Grapes
Apples
Oranges
Bananas
Cantaloupe
Cucumbers

We always have bananas in the house, they are a great quick snack and one of the cheapest fruits you can buy. Apples, ditto. Grapes are a favorite of the kids, I only like them once in while, and they are expensive this time of year, so i save them for the kids.

I use a lot of frozen veggies, too–peas and carrots are easy to thaw quickly for a side dish. Frozen vegetables are JUST as healthy as fresh, often more so, since they’re frozen at their peak and don’t sit around.

We also keep canned pineapple on hand–in juice. It’s great for smoothies and is cheaper than fresh.

If the kids eat enough fruit, i don’t worry about veggies.

I forgot–our garden has red raspberry canes and a bunch of blueberry bushes. Last year the blueberries did horribly, though, we didn’t have time to put the netting on and the birds got them all, plus we must not have watered enough. We will also plant cantaloupe, tomatoes, pumpkins, corn, green beans and herbs.
 
We always have bananas in the house, they are a great quick snack and one of the cheapest fruits you can buy. Apples, ditto. Grapes are a favorite of the kids, I only like them once in while, and they are expensive this time of year, so i save them for the kids.

I use a lot of frozen veggies, too–peas and carrots are easy to thaw quickly for a side dish. Frozen vegetables are JUST as healthy as fresh, often more so, since they’re frozen at their peak and don’t sit around.

We also keep canned pineapple on hand–in juice. It’s great for smoothies and is cheaper than fresh.

If the kids eat enough fruit, i don’t worry about veggies.
I agree: and it’s great b/c DD loves bananas, apples, and grapes!! 👍

We use frozen veggies often too – I definitely prefer frozen to canned and it’s less expensive than fresh. 🙂
 
I only buy one or two of an item at a time (like apples), because I usually go to the store every day or two, and get fresh produce. My DH is rediculously pick about apples and such. They have to be VERY firm. I think the current list includes:

potatoes
celery
baby carrots
a cucumber
apples
pears
nectarines
spinach
lettuce
parsley

and I have an orange and a banana on my desk at the moment.

the produce out here is awful compared to california, and higher in price. I was spoiled for so long, and I miss it so!
 
slow learner so did not read the part about the list
since going into mobiles we have not had a garden, except some herbs and sometimes cherry tomatoes, also now am severely limited on what raw foods I can digest, no salads for instance, which means my standard lunch meal has changed.

just about every veg you can think of is in the freezer most in the form of bags of mixes, fastest meal for me is to nuke some veggies and wake up frozen cooked chicken or other meat strips in a pan.

in the frig are apples and oranges, grapefruit, melon, olives, carrots, parsley, celery, peppers (I will grate the last 4, plus a sweet onion, later today and freeze for addition to other dishes, soups etc.)
onions, potatoes, bananas on the counter
also frozen stawberries, raspberries and blueberries, canned peaches (cannot digest fresh for some reason).

DH eats fruit for breakfast

also grated red and green cabbage last week which is in freezer bags in portions for pint of slaw or to go in soup

most of my veggies come in homemade soup or stew which I eat almost every day for lunch. my fruit is berries with organic yogurt and hi-fi cereal, or canned or frozen citrus salad. can’t digest most raw fruit.

I try for 7 vegs & 2 fruit/day
 
Ummm… this will be quite an embarrassingly short list (we eat the stuff so fast I can barely keep up with my kids!)

Fresh we have:
Gala Apples
Acorn Squash
Onions
Baby Carrots
Cucumbers

Frozen:
Strawberries
Blueberries
Mixed Tropical Fruit
Corn
Carrots
Peas
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Other random stuff

But I have to say, in my defense, that on Friday (not even a week ago!) I bought a whole bag of apples, 8-9 large bananas, a litre container of fresh strawberries, 3 kiwis, 5 pears, 2 seedless cucumbers, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember. My kids eat fruit like candy. So far today we had a fresh kiwi/frozen strawberry smoothie (made with plain yogurt and milk- no sugar!) for breakfast with our toast and nut butter. They are already begging for more fruit. They also LOVE cucumbers and hummus so I have lots of that around. My DS1 actually askes if he can JUST have veggies and dip for lunch- nothing else. My other son is less veggie-loving, but still eats his share of peas, corn, and tons of fruit.
 
Right now, I have one orange, four potatoes, two onions, a bunch of celery and some tomatoes. And 15 lbs. of frozen green chilies in the freezer (which I bought freshly roasted back in August–30 lbs. of it! It’s a New Mexico thing.)

I ate the last of the apples this morning with peanut butter and my son polished off the grapes last night.

I’m going shopping tomorrow.
You still have half of your green chiles left? Gee, I only have three bags left and I have already supplemented with frozen from the store ;).

Okaaay, now for what we have in the house that is fresh:

Bananas (never get ripe enough to make bread or muffins!)
Apples
1 orange (I think - someone might have eaten it recently)
grapefruit
potatoes
carrots
celery
mushrooms (have to make something with those soon - like tonight!)
romaine lettuce (both whole organic leaves and torn pre-washed for quickie salads)
peppers
cucumbers

and of course frozen:
vegetables of different varieties from the single kind to the mixed kind
green chiles (yes, even this white girl does the NM thing of getting a large bag and having them roasted and bagging them to freeze and use through out the year until the next fall)
I also usually have frozen strawberries and blueberries (big bags purchased at Sam’s Club.

Brenda V.
 
I’m about to go to the store today (I’m stalling, can you tell?😛 ) But we still have some fresh remnants:

Apples
bananas (ok actually i just ate the last one)
romain lettuce
onions
celery
carrots
grapes
pears
green peppers

Frozen I have green beans and corn. That’s it. lol.

Speaking of prices for fresh fruits and veggies and since spring/summer is coming (FINALLY) what is your experience with Farmer’s Markets??? Cheaper? Similar in price? Better quality? Should I bother going this year? I’ve never been 🙂
 
forgot to say DH eats most of his veggies canned, and everyone imaginable is in our cupboard, including at least 10 cans of various beans which we eat almost daily. don’t buy much fresh as it goes bad too quick. 2 people can’t go through a bunch of celery in a week unless some of it is chopped and frozen
 
Speaking of prices for fresh fruits and veggies and since spring/summer is coming (FINALLY) what is your experience with Farmer’s Markets??? Cheaper? Similar in price? Better quality? Should I bother going this year? I’ve never been 🙂
We go to the farmer’s market in the spring and summer. I think the prices are much better, and the quality is wonderful. Always fresh and wonderful tasting. We get cheese and eggs, and fresh flowers there too. Also bread. Oh - and the onions are WONDERFUL!!!

YUM!!! 😃 Looking forward to being able to do that again!!

~Liza
 
they are picking onions this week so you can buy them on the roadside anywhere, these are Texas sweets, 1015s, best in the world. I will chop several bags for the freezer.

broccoli and cabbage are almost done harvesting but still in local fruit stand so inexpensive you would slap me if I told you. $1 or less, about $.25/lb

grapefruit and lemons are long gone, but last of the oranges will hit the market this next 2 weeks. most of what is picked now will go into storage for sale over the summer

for some reason it is impossible to buy good, locally grown tomatoes at any time of year, they will be harvested in April, but evidently shipped out, although it is not a big crop here. carrots and cabbages all over the freeways as they fly out of trucks. onion processing barn next to church runs continually for the next few weeks, making it impossible to hear.
 
Strawberries
Kiwi
Bananas
Carrots
Granny Smith apples
red apples
oranges
broccoli
tomato

hmm, must go look…
 
Hullo from Canada…

regular tomatoes
grape tomatoes
celery
red onions
English cucumber
a winter squash (the long one kinda shaped like a peanut)
baby carrots
a honkin’ big turnip (what you non-Irish call a “rutabaga”)
some apples
green grapes
a few pears
2 bags of mixed greens

There’s normally bananas. I haven’t gone to the store yet today, so there will most likely be some bananas, a mango, and some spuds when I get back.
 
Hullo from Canada…

a honkin’ big turnip (what you non-Irish call a “rutabaga”)
I’m non-Irish but to me they were always turnips until I went to Saskatchewan and discovered that turnips Brassica rapa were white and what I called turnips were rutabagas Brassica napus. Who knew???
 
Well, right now we have

pears
apples
strawberries
clementines
carrots
bell peppers
romaine lettuce
zucchini
yellow squash

I keep frozen veggies - corn, green beans, and broccoli - since they get expensive out of season and I don’t like canned. Sometimes I have frozen fruits for smoothies and such. But I do have lots of canned fruits in water or juice. I prefer fresh, but I buy canned in bulk when we have money so we will have some when things get tight.

MJ
 
Bananas
Apples
Pears
Strawberries
Oranges

We always have bananas (59 cents a pound - not expensive!) and apples (1.49 a pound, not bad). Strawberries have been decent lately (2.99 a pound) and I usually pick up grapes on the day-old table for 65 cents a pound. When they are in season, we usually have plums, peaches, grapes, clementines, and blueberries too. My kids love fruit - canned or fresh - and veggies, so we find creative ways to afford it, primarily by raiding the day-old table.

Oh and we have tomatoes - I know they are a fruit, but I consider them a veggie.
 
the other thing I can’t find here for love or money is fresh sweet corn. it will be harvested in early June but either goes straight to the processors or to feed animals. there are stands that sell elotes, roast ears of corn, but it is tough yellow field corn.

will be in OH end of July, early August, so fresh corn will me on the menu I am sure.

another thing I bought this week is nopal, (cactus paddles) friend is going to show me how to cook it, but I am leery because it is a bit like okra, which I hate, it is boiled and then scrambled with eggs and chilis a traditional lenten dish (and good for diabetics, I am told).
squash is also in the markets year round very cheap, much is local, or from just over the border.

I have tried mashed turnip and rutabaga, but too watery and has aftertase. I only like turnips the Middle Eastern way, sliced raw and put in a jar with beet juice, served as a salad side or garnish

for lo-carb mashed potato alternative I prefer cauliflower, and it does have to be fresh. last of the crop is gone from local markets, but still available, if more expensive.
 
I am phyto girl. 😃

Apples
Asparagus
Avocados
Bananas
Broccoli
Cabbage
Baby Carrots
Celery
Cilantro & some other fresh herbs
Cucumbers
Garlic
Fresh Herb Salad Mix
Mushrooms
Peppers (red, yellow, orange, & green)
Romaine
Red Leaf Lettuce
Roma Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Onions (yellow, white, & red)
Pears
Potatoes
Spinach
Lemons
Limes

We have some frozen & canned veggies & fruits too. What can I say? We enjoy our veggies & fruits. My new superpower is to destroy free radicals 😉 … think I’ll make a t-shirt. 🙂
 
Bananas
Apples
Pears
Strawberries
Oranges

We always have bananas (59 cents a pound - not expensive!) and apples (1.49 a pound, not bad). Strawberries have been decent lately (2.99 a pound) and I usually pick up grapes on the day-old table for 65 cents a pound. When they are in season, we usually have plums, peaches, grapes, clementines, and blueberries too. My kids love fruit - canned or fresh - and veggies, so we find creative ways to afford it, primarily by raiding the day-old table.

Oh and we have tomatoes - I know they are a fruit, but I consider them a veggie.
Botanically, they’re a fruit. For purposes of cooking and import/export laws, they are veggies. For purposes of Bunol, Spain, they are missile weapons.
 
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