Fruits and Veggies

[Janet]

I try to do fresh fruits and veggies whenever possible. I do use canned veggies on occasion, Fruit is almost always fresh here, except for mandarin oranges and applesauce. I tend to stick to grapes, apples and bananas in winter as far as fruit is concerned, but during summer time, GAME ON! My kids are introduced to as many different fruits and veggies as I can get my hands on! They find out that the veggies and fruit that they are convinced they hate are actually pretty good. We do the "no thank you bite" system here. How do they know if they hate starfruit if they've never had it before? I like to hit the farmer's market during summer time.

[professionalmom]

Yes, boil the water. Then drop the food in for the specific period of time for what you want. It begins the cooking process, that stops them from continuing to ripen (read: spoil). Then you throw them immediately into ice cold water, to stop the cooking process. Then you freeze them.

Get a book, or look it up online about how long to blanch each item.

Thanks. I don't think I ever knew that. It just goes to show that you are never too old to learn new things!

[professionalmom]

A couple years back, before I started my daycare, we fell on difficult times and I got really creative with the family budget. Although times are a little better, we still use these grocery tips:
- get a freezer (I prefer the ones that lay down)
- check out the "alternative" stores (Aldi, Sam's Club, GFS, Costco, etc.) in your area. Aldi is one that we have near me. Sure, they don't have every name brand and they store is not fancy by any means (boxes of stuff like 5 lb bags of sugar are on pallets) and you have to bag your own groceries, but you can save a ton of $$. I did a price comparison of Aldi, Mejier, and Kroger and found that at Aldi, I would save up to 50-75% on most stuff. I buy the canned veggies there. I buy fresh fruit (but from Aldi, it tends to ripen faster).
- buy what is in season and buy lots of it and freeze most of it in containers sized for what you will thaw at a time.
- Check farmer's markets for sales, what is in season, etc.
- Check online for coupons for the name brand stuff at the regular grocery stores. If you can find a store that doubles the coupons, great! Or hold onto the coupon until the item goes on sale and get something normally priced at $2.30 on sale for $1.80 and use the $0.50 coupon and get it for $1.30! If the store doubles the coupon, you would get $1 off the $1.80 and pay only $0.80! Cha-Ching!!

I'm on the food program and can get $200-$400 per month (Tier 1). Then I can go to Aldi and get non-perishables for a month + meats for a month + perishables (milk, bread, etc.) for a week and only spend $120 MAX. Then I still have plenty of money for perishables for the rest of the month and I can get those on an "as needed" basis.I also have enough left over to make a trip to the health food store and get some organic or gluten-free foods!

[melskids]

Thank God all my day care kids eat home made food at home.

Having a group of kids that chow anything you put in front of them makes me feel honored to cook for them.

geez, mine eat doritos and m&m's for breakfast, and most of the time they're eating dinner in the car on the way home which is usually mc'ds or lunchables. they look at my homemade food like its from another planet :confused: ....

[Unregistered]

All my kiddos eat canned veggies, corn, peas, green beans, and carrots and for fruit I buy mixed fruit, mandrin orages, peaches , and pears from the can and buy applesauce in the jar the fresh fruits I buy are bananas, strawberries, cantoloupe, honey dew melon, grapes, and watermelon some of those I only buy when in season I shop at ALDIS and BJ's.

[mncare]

Some of our produce some from an organic coop. It is always so good!

I buy what is on sale and we eat that for the week. Even if there are repeats, at least they are getting good food! I don't buy canned veggie, I just don't like them, but have no problem with frozen. Frozen veggies can actually be better than fresh because they are frozen "at the peak of freshness" and don't have time to sit and lose nutrients. Anyway, I will do canned fruits--and actually use them daily--but I will only buy them if they are canned in their own juices. I refuse to buy the ones with extra sugar.