#VegOut2018, the July Edition!

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In many parts of the country, July is when farms are ramping up production, and farmer’s markets are full of all the beautiful produce winter dreams are made of. What better month than to take the Veg Out! 30 ways in 30 days challenge? Our focus this month is on small farms – so register online & download our app, visit your local farm, and start tracking! We’ll be vegging out as well, and you can follow us on Instagram & Facebook to see what we’re eating, cooking, and where we’re going. We’re lucky enough to have Hope Farms as part of our foundation, where we can get produce every Saturday morning (and you can too, if you’re in Houston!). For those of you not in our city, we’ve got a list of helpful informational sites to visit, more information on Hope Farms, and a feature on one of our favorite Houstonians.

Hope Farms
In the Sunnyside neighborhood of Houston, we’re growing a 7 acre farm, with the goal of delivering fresh produce to the neighborhood, which is a food desert, at an affordable price. We do this at our Saturday morning Farm Stand, which is open from 9-noon every week, and is located on the farm, at 10401 Scott Street. We also have a weekly Farm Share, where freshly picked produce is delivered to those who live inside the loop. To find out more about it, and our veteran training program, visit http://hopefarmshtx.org.

#VegOut Spotlight: Marcia Smart
Marcia has been a long supporter of Recipe For Success and our work in the schools, often coming out to talk & demo in our classrooms. We were delighted when she decided to run a fundraiser during this #vegout2018 month! She’s hoping to raise enough money to provide Reynolds Elementary, which is just a few blocks away from Hope Farms with our  Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ program. You can contribute to her fundraiser here.

Finding Farms in Your Area
Check out these helpful sites for farm & market listings in your area!
Local Harvest
National Farmers Market Directory
ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture
USDA Local Food Directory

Share your July #vegout2018 journey!
Tag @r4sfoundation in your posts & use the #vegout2018 & #vegoutwithrfs for a chance to be featured!

Taking the #VegOut2018 challenge in HTX? Here are a few great spots to get your veggies locally

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Recipe for Success Foundation has a national presence, but with our roots in Houston, we have to give a special shout out to some of the local spots that make it so easy for our #VegOut2018 challengers to get the variety of veggies they need to successfully eat 30 different vegetables in 30 days. If you’re local, check out some of our favorite stores and restaurants:

Peppertree Vegetarian Cuisine

Head to Peppertree at lunchtime and you can treat yourself to their heaping buffet of fresh vegetables and other vegetarian options. I headed there for lunch the other day and had eaten 13 different veggies by the time I left!

Sprouts

Sprouts, located in the Heights, not only has an unbelievable variety of veggies, but has excellent pricing to keep your #VegOut2018 challenge fun and affordable. Purple cauliflower, multicolored carrots and veggies you’ve never even heard of are all around you at Sprouts.

Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s has two locations in Houston and, like Sprouts, keeps the #VegOut2018 accessible and affordable by providing a great variety of veggies at great price points.

Juice Land

Some of the most delicious smoothies in Houston are at Juice Land, and most of them have at least two veggies like spinach, kale, carrots and beets in them. Slurp one up at any of their Houston locations.

Revolucion Coffee + Juice HTX

We love this local Heights smoothie, juice and Acai bowl spot. They have everything from ginger shots to fresh pressed juice to smoothie bowls that taste like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

 

The unexpected side effects of the #VegOut2018 Challenge (don’t say we didn’t warn you)

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If you’re taking or plan on taking the #VegOut2018 challenge, you already know that veggies are “good” for you. But do you know just how good they are, and how our challenge can help you build healthier habits for life? Here’s what we’re talking about:

Veggies fill you up.

It’s no wonder so many of us feel hungry all the time. We’re eating so many processed foods and never seem to have that “full” feeling afterward because all of the sugar in the foods we’re eating leaves us wanting more. Vegetables have the opposite effect, and if you keep in mind that each plate should be half filled with veggies, you’ll walk away from your meals feeling fuller and more satisfied.

Eating veggies in childhood leads to eating veggies in adulthood. Start building good habits now.

When kids are introduced to vegetables and their varieties and benefits, they carry these lessons with them into adulthood and remain mindful of eating vegetables as often as possible. Start building healthy habits with children by teaching them about the foods they’re eating and making the journey fun (taking the #VegOut2018 challenge, for example!)

Vegetables are full of vitamins and might seriously make you happier.

In fact, happiness is a short-term side effect of eating veggies, which means that while increased health occurs over a longer period of time, happiness can increase much more quickly once one makes a habit of eating veggies. Don’t believe us? Check out this article!

Vegetables are complex carbs (the good kind)

Our society has falsely labeled carbs as the route of all evil, but not all carbs are bad. The complex carbs, like the ones found in vegetables, are actually really, really good for you. Eat ’em up!

Folic Acid in vegetables helps form healthy red blood cells which may support healthy pregnancy.

Most prenatal vitamins contain folic acid for this reason. Get an extra boost by eating your veggies with every meal.

A diet rich in vegetables may help prevent heart disease, stroke, cancer and type-2 diabetes.

Vegetables have been linked to a reduction in risk for so many harmful diseases. Good healthcare begins with prevention, and eating your vegetables is a great way to start.

Something BIG is happening in April.

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Celebrate Earth Day with the #VegOut Challenge

Earth day is right around the corner, and in celebration of our favorite holiday, we’ll be encouraging you, your friends and colleagues to take the #VegOut2018 challenge all April long. Get started now by heading to the farmer’s market and preparing some of your favorite recipes from our website. If you’re not already registered to take the challenge, there’s no time like the present! Just click “sign up” in the upper right hand corner.

Why #VegOut? Did you know that most Americans only eat half of the veggies they need each day, and that the ones they do eat are loaded up with salts and sugars? When we pay attention to consuming a variety of different vegetables, we find that we are able to increase our health just make making one tiny mindful change in the way we look at each meal we consume. We are creating a healthier world, one vegetable at a time!

By vegging out with us, you’re committing to eating 30 different vegetables in 30 days. We hope you’ll use our veggie tracker to track your veg and keep your friends posted on what you’ve got going on by sharing your veggie adventures on social media using the hashtag #VegOut2018. Each time you post, you’re bringing awareness to the challenge, to our foundation, and to our crucial mission to build a healthier world for our children and for all of us.

Stay inspired all month long (and all the months after) by keeping up with us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can also c heck out our fun recipes, veggie lists and more to get you fired up for April.

We’ll see you on social media, challengers!

Green smoothies aren’t just for grown-ups

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Hi everyone! I’m Laura Max Rose, and you probably know me as the VegOut! Brand Ambassador with Recipe for Success. You also might know that I have an 18-month-old toddler who, like most toddlers, is all about the chicken fingers and tater tots and has a sixth sense for vegetables. If they’re in something, she knows it, and you can’t trick her into eating anything. 

We have our “good” veggie days when Selma devours her green beans with abandon, and the less good days when I stand in awe that life can somehow be sustained on fried potatoes and milk alone. Besides having a toddler with pretty toddler-like food affinities, I’m also allergic to most raw vegetables (more on that later), so I’m coming at this whole thing from a bit of a disadvantage. I have to regularly remind myself that it’s okay to feed Selma the foods I’m allergic to (for now) and give her access to all the veggies that the farmer’s market has to offer.

When we stood in line at Juice Land in the Houston Heights yesterday, I decided to order Selma her very first green smoothie, thinking it would be a total waste and we would definitely have to order a chocolate peanut butter one to replace it once she inevitably dropped in on the floor. I was literally floored when she not only drank the whole thing, but cried hysterically when she realized it was finished (something she also does when she finishes her ice cream from Cloud 10.) The smoothie was made with spinach, kale, peaches, bananas and apple juice and I can’t tell you how good I felt knowing that she was sipping on something so nutritious. We’ll be visiting Juice Land again soon and, in the meantime, I’ll be trying some more green smoothie recipes at home with our Nutribullet.

What are some of the ways your children like to enjoy their veggies? Tell me all of your ideas in the comments section!

(Want to follow along on our veggie eating adventures? Be sure to follow @RFSFoundation on Instagram to watch Selma and I take the #VegOut2018 challenge in April! We’ll be giving you all the ideas for how to incorporate veggies into your kids’ days.)