Studies show that, as humans, we are more satisfied with a meal if it has a variety of colors, taste and textures. This is especially important, as parents, trying to encourage our children to eat their fruits and veggies.

Olivia loves to go the market or into our garden and pick out FRESH veggies for the family. As a child, she’s drawn to a rainbow of colors, taste and textures. I encourage her to try as many varieties as she like. I don’t insist that she like it, but if she’s interested, that she try it.

Believe it or not, my husband has been a bigger struggle to eat his veggies than Olivia. He has surprised me over the years. He’s been willing to try anything I put in front of him, and even more so now that we have children. He even ate lentil loaf that I tried to disguise as meatloaf. (It was pretty bad.) He cleared his plate, not making a sound or gesture the entire meal, and then asked, “What did I just eat?…..I know it wasn’t meat.” It still makes me laugh out loud every time I think about the look on his face as he choked each bite down.

I’m happy to say that we all love a variety of roasted veggies and raw veggies. Olivia loves to wash, dry and guide my hand while peeling, slicing and dicing. She also likes to coat the veggies with coconut or Olivia oil, salt, pepper and fresh garlic. She is also obsessed with the Veggetti. If you don’t own one, I highly recommend it.

These are two of our weekly meal preps. We like to do up a tray or two of cooked veggies and have prepared raw veggies on hand as well. If we are using the Veggetti to make zucchini “pasta” we do that on the spot. It literally takes seconds so no prep work is needed.

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