As a child I was a picky eater. If pressed, I would eat an apple, but I wouldn’t be thrilled about it. Ditto vegetables – I’d eat carrots, potatoes, peas, and green beans. Period. The other day Chris showed me a little meme-quiz which listed about 50 different foods and said, “Give yourself one point for each food you would not eat.” I was pleased that my score was 2 (liver, oysters). I have gotten to the point where I love most vegetables and no meal feels complete without some sort of vegetable accompaniment, even if it’s the glass of low-sodium V8 juice that I have with my breakfasts.
Still, I am always looking for ways to increase my consumption of fruits. Although I went through my smoothie phase (6 years of daily fruit/veg smoothies, before losing interest – but I’m sure I’ll be back some day), I generally have never had a tendency to just pick up a piece of fruit because it looks yummy. Instead it has always been more of a “this is good for me and I should eat it” situation.
My food dehydrator has changed all that. Each week we buy and eat an amount of fruit that would have amazed the childhood me. I spend an hour or so on Saturday and Sunday washing and cutting oranges, apples, and pears for drying. My dehydrator has 6 trays (this is the model I have, if you are interested) and I need two batches to get through each week’s supply of fruit.
I used to mindlessly snack on the fruit through the day, but as I have banished snacking (which will be another post entirely), I have a small bowl of mixed dried fruit with my breakfast and lunch. I am mindful of the fact that dried fruit is more concentrated in natural sugars than fresh, and am careful of my portions. But what a treat! I’m no longer eating fruit only because it’s good for me – I’m eating it because it is truly delicious.
And that makes me happy.
Have a good week, friends!
Love,
Michelle xoxo