June 17: National Eat All Your Veggies Day and National Apple Strudel Day

Eat All Your Veggies Day

It makes perfect sense to have this day right after National Fresh Veggies Day during National Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Day.  When it comes to portion sizing, I have one major rule: I can eat as much of something as I want, as long as it's a fruit or vegetable.  Everything else, I check portion sizes and do my best to limit myself to one.  Fruits and vegetables are wonderful because you tend to become full long before you eat enough to equal the amount of calories you might get from a non-fruit or veggie food (a cheeseburger, for example.)

Small bowl of whole wheat pasta with vegetables in
tomato sauce, small bowl of watermelon, and
 a plate full of veggies:
lightly cooked green beans with no seasoning,
 zucchini with lemon pepper,
and bok choy with soy sauce and red pepper.

So eating all my veggies today wasn't really hard...except I chose today to do some batch cooking/prep for the week.  (I cooked three bunches of bok choy, one onion, two zucchini, eggplant leftovers, green beans, and an Asian white sweet potato.  And that doesn't count the canning and fruit prep that went on today.)  I knew there was no way I could eat everything and I was cooking for the next couple of days, so I opted to honor today by filling my plate with veggies and vowing to eat everything on the plate. 

I did manage to eat everything on the plate and chowed down on the watermelon, but ended up saving the bowl of whole wheat pasta with vegetables in tomato sauce for later.  The plate full of veggies was filling enough that I felt as though I would burst, so the pasta and veggies had to be put aside. 

Try filling your plate with nothing but vegetables today and eating them all.  If you're still hungry after that, then go back and eat whatever else you were planning on.  For example, if you were planning on eating a chicken with beans and corn, try eating a plate full of beans and corn first, then go back for the chicken if you're still hungry.


National Apple Strudel Day

Another day that seems out of place.  I'm just so used to apples being a fall and winter fruit that it seems weird to have an apple dish in early summer.  Still, if someone were to wave an apple strudel in front of me right now, I wouldn't turn it down.  Apple strudels are seriously tasty.

Until today, I didn't know that traditional apple strudel dough is time consuming and rather hard to make.  This video shows how to use modern tools to make it a lot easier.  You can just use phyllo dough if you're really pressed for time.

Food Network has 12 recipes to choose from, ranging in difficulty levels and time needed.  German Food Guide has the history of the apple strudel.

And when apples are abundant at the farmer's market in a few months, I'll have to try making traditional apple strudel.  Hrm... I wonder how many calories you burn if you make it the traditional way?  Seems like it's definitely an arm workout.