Veggie Pickles

Here at Peas of Mind, we pride ourselves on getting kids to eat their veggies. Whether

we’re loading up pizza with hidden veggies or turning a broccoli floret into a tasty French fry, we’ve made it our mission to make it easy for you to get your kiddos to eat their daily dose of veggies. This month we’re taking a kid classic and reinventing it into a healthy, satisfy and crunchy afterschool snack.  This month’s recipea is the VEGGIE PICKLE and the perfect activity for you and your kiddos on a rainy spring day and  delicious side dish at a sunny picnic. 

The great thing about our reinvented pickles is that they’re easy to prepare and can last up to a month in your refrigerator (the longer they’re in your fridge, the better they’ll taste).

On your mark, get set, Pickle!

 Ingredients:

About 4 cups of your favorite vegetables, raw and chopped into large bite size pieces (carrots, cauliflower, green beans, onions and turnips are all delicious).

1 Tbsp dill seeds

1 Tbsp coriander

2 Tbsp mustard seeds

2 Tbsp black peppercorns

1 bayleaf

3 Tbsp kosher salt

2 Tbsp sugar

5 cloves of garlic

2 cups white vinegar

2 cups water

Method

Put garlic and bite size vegetables into a quart size jar (make sure to leave about 1 inch at the top of the jar) and set aside. In a medium saucepan combine vinegar and water and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium heat and add dill seeds, mustard seeds, peppercorns, bay leaf, salt and sugar. Stir until dissolved.  Turn off heat and let cool until the brine is at room temperature.  Pour room temperature brine into the quart jar making sure that all of the vegetables are covered with the mixture and tightly twist on the lid. Shake everything together (this is a fun thing for your little ones to do) and leave in the refrigerator to “pickle” for at least 24 hours. Pickles will be PERFECT after about 5 days. 

Spring into SPRING!

It's official: Spring has sprung!  We're so excited about the warmer weather, longer days and blossoms on the trees…but the thing that makes us want to jump for joy is SPRING PRODUCE!

The bounties of this season are not only tasty, they're full of nutrients and many seasonal fruits and veggies are detoxifying too.  So if you're like us and feeling the need to cleanse and detoxify but want to continue on life as usual, just incorporate some of the below spring produce into your diets.

Without any further adieu, the following is our Spring into Spring produce recommendations:

Cruciferous veggies (aka broccoli, kale, cauliflower, collards, etc)

These delicious veggies are not only jam packed with cancer-fighting nutrients they help clear up the liver’s detoxification pathways and can even support the body in eliminating fat.

Garlic

Green garlic (looks a lot like large green onions) is not only a gourmet treat; it’s an antibiotic that can reduce toxins in the body.  Similarly to cruciferous veggies, it’s a powerhouse at detoxifying the liver.

Artichokes

These beautiful flowers are not only fun to eat-they’re incredibly healthy.  Artichokes support the body in digesting fats and purifying the liver.  If you’re feeling extra daring you can drink the left over artichoke water (the water that you used to cook the artichokes in) as this water is incredibly high in antioxidants and very cleansing for the digestive tract.

Beets

These sweet and earthy roots are loaded with B vitamins, beta carotene, calcium and iron, all of which help with detoxification of the digestive tract and gallbladder.

Strawberries

Representing dessert in our top five is the perfectly delicious STRAWBERRY! We all know that they’re loaded with anti-oxidants but did you know that they’re an incredible source of vitamin C? Vitamin C is an important part of detoxifying the body as it removes fat deposits from the arteries.

So next time you’re at the market, don’t forget to load up your cart with these seasonal gems, your taste buds and your health will thank you!