Here's how washing, slicing, and divvying up my fruits and veggies is working out in my house

Earlier this week, I shared Kathy Kaehler's secret for encouraging your family to eat healthy snacks. Her simple tip is to spend Sundays buying veggies, fruit, beans, lean lunch meat, and other whole grain, high fiber, and low-cal things from the grocery or farmers market, and immediately wash, cut, and divvy them up into containers to easily set out after school.

She said committing to her "Sunday Set Up" program has really changed the way she and her sons eat in between meals. She also told me it makes her feel organized and like she is modeling important life skills for her boys to take with them when they are eating, cooking, and dining out on their own.

Like many other parents, my question for her was, "How in the world do parents have the time to commit to this, even if it is only one day a week?"

She was blunt, saying that it is our own responsibility. Period. Truly, I agree with her. But I am also a single mom who barely has time some days to turn on the stove, let along wash and pick 78 grapes off the vine.

I decided to put that aside and give Kathy Kaehler's tip a go. I didn't do it on Sunday, but I did decide that once my groceries were delivered (I was serious when I said I have very little time), that I would wash, slice, chop, divide, and seal up all my fruits and veggies before stashing them away in a drawer. I admit, I actually looked forward to getting all my produce organized and making it easily accessible.

I cranked up some music, sharpened my favorite knife, pulled out my bamboo cutting board and got to work. Ten minutes later, I was completely done. Two large stalks of celery, two bags of baby carrots, two bags of sugar snap peas, and a giant bunch of grapes were sorted into about 30 zipper bags -- there they all are, in the very unprofessional shot pictured above.

I placed them all at eye level rather than hiding them in the crisper, where they would have likely gone untouched until they were inedible. Over the course of this week, my son and I have eaten many more servings of veggies and are very happy to have the grapes at the ready when we need a little something sweet.

We don't snack together most days, but this strategy has given our meal times a healthy boost.

It's so simple to grab a bag of celery as I head out for preschool pick-up, to add to my son's lunch box, or to throw on our plates for dinner. It also made stir fry prep a lot faster to have the veggies ready and waiting.

We're only a week in, but I can already see that the time invested is worth it. And despite my hesitation, it didn't take a whole day nor was it really work. It's paying off, serving after healthy serving.


Share! Share! What's your favorite healthy eating strategy?