All Things Beautiful

Tis the season for citrus and I am loving it let me tell you. I sadly realized while in conversation with my sister (it's amazing how many revelations I have in conversation with those blessed sisters of mine) that I fall drastically short when it comes to recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. As a child, vegetables were my mortal enemy and I learned to swallow down the bites that were part of supper like pills with my glass or water. Fruit was hardly better. It always seemed mushy, bruised and overripe and because the rules were that a piece had to be picked and eaten from the fruit basket everyday, I'm afraid more often than not, the spotty bananas and brown apples met creative demises far from my mouth and digestive tract. (my stepmother still doesn't know to this day that they were often chucked over the back fence and their peels laid carefully in the garbage can to hide our deception).

So, fast forward 20 some years and here I am still wincing at the thought of munching down on the fruit bowl or the veggie crisper...

Alas my health is much better when I am consistently chowing down on carbs of the more complex variety and a change needed to occur.

"Just pick the few fruits or veggies that you do like and make sure to eat those every day" was my sister's advice and it was good advice. Besides I am actually allergic to a large selection of tree borne fruits and therefore what is available to me is slim pickins.

First on my list was grapefruit, I actually do enjoy it and because I eat it with a spoon there isn't any sticky fingers to deal with like there always is with oranges (which is also an issue with me left over from my childhood disdain of having messy hands...sigh)

Every morning these days, a grapefruit is sliced and sprinkled with just a touch of sugar, scored and then spooned up. It'd delightful. and just the fact that I'm starting the day off with fruit makes me feel good about myself. (and that's before I get into how much more water I now drink or the 1.4 miles I run every morning...yussss!)

And the kidlets have noticed too....unfortunately.  My kids like many manners of fruit but they have also decided they like grapefruit and it's become a fight to get it all into my own body before they start pleading at my elbows with those giant eyes for a "red orange" of their own.

I have begun to hover protectively over my grapefruit because because let's face it, I am a sucker for those eyes and well what mother doesn't want to give her children more fruit...

I certainly don't want history to repeat itself, I want my children to want their fruits and veggies so I guess it's a good thing...although veggies is still a different story for the kids. Just last night their was battle to get my daughter to eat her zucchini and I was tempted to teach her the trick of swallowing it like a pill with her water...but I didn't. I shoveled it into her mouth while she screwed her eyes closed...and then gagged until it was finally chewed and swallowed, but it was chewed and swallowed so I guess that's what matters..