Adventure in Parsnips

The parsnip is not a vegetable that made a common appearance in my household growing up. In fact, I can't remember a time when we ate parsnips at home. Maybe I had parsnips when we went to grandma's for dinner, inside a stew perhaps. During a visit with cousins in England nearly two years ago, I found myself eating--and thoroughly enjoying--parsnip "fries".

Sometime during the chewing of tasty parsnip fries, I think I told myself that this was a vegetable I needed to eat more. Back in the States, however, I did not encounter parsnips in my regular grocery store haunts. Whether they were truly non-existent or I simply did not look well enough could be a point of discussion. However, it may be a moot point, since I did pick up some parsnips on my latest trip to the grocery store.

There were some potatoes on hand that I needed to use up, so I decided that they could share the spotlight and mash together with parsnips. I cooked the parsnips and potatoes together, and mashed them into a good consistency. Surprisingly, the flavor of the parsnips took over the dish. I only used a couple parsnips and six medium sized potatoes. Luckily, the mash was to accompany another strong flavor, Buffalo Tofu Triangles. If it had been anything else, the parsnips would have definitely stolen all of the attention.

While I do like to try new foods and am an advocate of getting variety in one's diet, I am a stubborn lover of mashed potatoes who will be not be tainting my mash with parsnip again. Perhaps next time I should try homemade parsnip fries next time, because I'll at least have a better idea of what I'm getting myself into!

More on Parsnips:

• Parsnip Nutritional Data
  
• Parsnip Wiki
  
• What the hell is a parsnip anyway?
  

Will the Obamas grow a Whitehouse Victory Garden?

I love the idea of a Victory Garden at the Whitehouse. Therefore, I find it exciting to see that growing an organic Victory Garden at the Whitehouse was the winning entry for ideas at On Day One! (On Day One is a project to collect ideas on how to improve America's image in the world.) We will see if the Obamas will follow in the footsteps of the Roosevelts.

In addition to simply promoting edible home gardening to the American public, the Victory Garden would put focus on both nutrition and food security. These are definitely topics that America could benefit from focusing.

Rather than make this a rant, I'll simply suggest that you read some of the links below for more information!

Related links:

• On Day One
  
• Eat the View
  
• Michael Pollan's letter to President
  
• Revive the Victory Garden
  
• History of WWII Victory Gardens

{image from Eat the View}

Ants on a Log

I feel sorry for those adults who didn't learn to eat their veggies as children. This does not mean that I think we all can't dislike some vegetables or must blindly eat whatever is in front of us. Rather, I believe that children who are exposed to a wider variety of foods, especially vegetables, are more likely to build healthy eating habits that last a lifetime.

One healthy snack that I discovered working as a summer camp counselor is Ants on a Log. Though many children [think they] don't like celery, I hardly encountered a child who wouldn't try it served with peanut butter and ants err, raisins. The sweetness from the dried fruit complements the savory peanut butter well, and they work as a great team to help children and adults to better enjoy celery.

I had leftover celery from making soup, so I thought I would reminisce on my summer camp days (and all that sunshine, which we haven't seen much of lately).

Yummy Propaganda!

This is my favorite (newly discovered) propaganda. It appears to have a goal of getting kids to eat their veggies. And I can't stop listening to it. Seriously. So yummy, so yummy!

Watch this video to be inspired (or perhaps threatened by mild guilt) into eating those veggies that you don't love. Or just to have a laugh and get into the groove.