I opened a can of sweet peas the other day and was surprised to see that the ‘best by’ date had long past.

We try to eat more veggies - I swear we do. The problem with the sweet peas is that Chili-man doesn’t eat them, so I tend to save them for a night when I’m making a veggie ‘he’ likes and I don’t. (Like brussel sprouts!)

I don’t really take stock in the new food ‘pyramid’ put out by the gov as I feel there are too much grains on there for the average person. They do however, have a nice big green bar for vegetables so they’re doing something right.

How can you squeeze more veggies into your meals?

You can always grind up veggies and incorporate them into a meat dish. Many a mom has hidden carrots, onions and peppers in a meat loaf! When I had kiddos at home, they wouldn’t eat anything with onions in it, unless I ran them through a grinder so where they were basically mush, then put them in the recipe. We got the needed flavor and they didn’t have anything to pick out!

These days, I try to be more open with my veggies. I don’t force veggies on anyone but I do tend to cook a little more closer to nature. Gone out of the pantry are the shortenings, gone are the corn oils, the canolas and the mixes. These days it’s just real butter, and organic EVOO (organic extra virgin olive oil) for this cook. I buy it in big jugs and keep it handy in the kitchen so that it’s easy to grab and use for just about any recipe.

So what is extra virgin olive oil? Simply stated, it’s the oil from the first pressing. This first oil from the olives is the freshest, delicate and filled with antioxidants. Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fat a staple of the Mediterranean diet and well worth incorporating into your healthy lifestyle.

EVOO