2.27.17 Going Green

From Elder Uctdorf April 2010 "Continue in Patience"

   Brigham Young taught that when something came up which he could not comprehend fully, he would pray to the Lord, “Give me patience to wait until I can understand it for myself.”5 And then Brigham would continue to pray until he could comprehend it.

We must learn that in the Lord’s plan, our understanding comes “line upon line, precept upon precept.”6 In short, knowledge and understanding come at the price of patience.

Often the deep valleys of our present will be understood only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience. Often we can’t see the Lord’s hand in our lives until long after trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are essential building blocks that form the foundation of our character and pave the way to future opportunity, understanding, and happiness.

I've been concerned about the general health of my family for a while. My health, their health, our appetites, or lack thereof, and the rapidity in which we plow through those 25 lb bags of sugar. Oh and the escalating cost of taking these wonderful rotten teeth kiddos of mine to the dentist. In conversation with a dear sister I realized the problem was mine. I was too lax in my nutritional offerings and I needed to return to my roots so to speak. 

I grew up in a home that was almost sugarless and definitely processed food obsolete. Toast was a back up option but there were no granola bars or oreo packages lurking somewhere to be found. The closest we came to sweet was homemade maple syrup heavy on the water light on the sugar comparatively speaking.  That same evening I watched 4 of my children literally attack the left over veggie tray from mutual. They were the kids who wouldn't stop dipping till the roughage was gone. Lightbulb moment! They need more veggies. So I texted my mom and we got food service size bags- yes bags- of spinach, kale, and frozen veggies.!

Note the carrot cake also waiting to be consumed. It was heavy on veggies too and protein in the frosting and whole wheat so it was uber healthy!

I discovered they really liked green smoothies. 

The Kale was good and tasteless in the chicken noodle soup. Or so I thought....

Some disagreed and tossed it on the ground. The biggest dissent came when Greg opened his home packed lunch to find his normal green peas replaced with Kale ready to steam. I had added butter! I was thinking of his tender bland palate.... He may have tossed his green stuff too. No word or report on that.

We are striving for 5 servings of vegetables a day. Using the definition of vegetable as anything you could eat raw and needs to be refrigerated or frozen to keep. Add in the 2-4 servings of fruits and  I think we will see a difference or feel a difference. Already the placebo effect is in place. I like thinking of ways I can cram more veggies into unsuspecting dishes. 

After a battle of wills and persuasively feeding the younger set I realize I was way too comfortable in my cooking as  it's been years since I have fed any children over 2....Yes too much just get along and not enough teaching and stretching. I think I'm going to need more naps and walks to deal with all the stubborn mules here but I know in the long run it's the best for all of us. And when asked if they would like to return to the wheat grass shots of 6 years ago they all yelled no! So I guess it's Kale, spinach, broccoli, onions, peppers, lettuce etc etc...Not taking away from them just adding more for them. If they eat their vegs then they get the treats.

Oh and just a real moment. So they hauled in the 10+ pounds of leafy greens and then because we had to clean out the freezer to fit the vegetables in, they ate 3 cartons of ice cream -half full or less- to make room. So much for big health steps. Oh well we are trying! Again and again and again.

It's so hard to be Green!