I grew up in the 1970’s and 1980’s when processed food, T.V. dinners and fast food were the norm.
Nobody told Mother Fran though! She was ahead of her time when it came to ensuring her family ate healthy meals.
Our meals were not fancy but typically consisted of meat, potatoes and at least 2 vegetables. She would send me out to the garden to pick whatever vegetable I wanted for dinner. We had fresh veggies, frozen veggies and even the occasional canned veggies. We ate them raw, we ate them steamed, we ate them boiled and ate them roasted. We ate them whether or not we liked them.
Mother Fran was known for sneaking vegetables in to all sorts of food. Spaghetti sauce in my house might contain the typical garlic and onions; but it could also contain carrots, corn and zucchini. Tuna salad was chock full of onion and celery. Basically, we ate vegetables even when we didn’t know we were eating them.
Mother Fran is 90 years old and still finds ways to get extra veggies into her diet. She will buy a pizza and top it off with vegetables from her fridge. She will open a can of soup and slice in some extra onions and peppers. Any vegetables that have passed their prime will be turned into soup.
I recently asked her WHY she has always been such a vegetable fan. She hesitated for a moment so I asked if Nana had cooked healthy meals. She shrugged her shoulders and said “I don’t think people thought about it much back then.”
After discussing the topic a bit more she decided to give my Dad the credit for her interest in healthy cooking. She said his Uncle had a corner lot (in the city) and had room for a vegetable garden. My Dad was always interested in it and liked to read about growing your own vegetables. When we moved from Long Island to the Finger Lakes Region of NY, my parents planted several huge gardens.
Dad liked reading about growing the veggies and Mother Fran liked reading about their health benefits. A match made in heaven!
I made Mother Fran eggs for breakfast the other day. I scrambled up an egg and added in a piece of ham. I cut up some zucchini and yellow pepper and stir fried that into the egg. I asked her how she liked her breakfast. Do you know what she said to me? She said “it was good except for all of those vegetables”. She seriously said that to me!
Then again she just asked me to make her a shake for breakfast. I asked her what she liked in it. She said a lot of fruit and “sneak in a veggie or two”! Now that is a match made in heaven too!
Lake Girl
