This is a guest post from one of our passionate readers and mom of two young girls, Ramona Underwood. She wrote me suggesting I write a piece on gardening. Since it was obvious she was the real expert, I asked her to write it. Below are her how-to’s on getting started with your own vegetable garden.

I’ve enjoyed gardening ever since I was a child. I like watching things grow and develop too, whether it is a plant, animal, or my children. I LOVE watching my children discover their environment and the wonders around us.

It is important to me for my children, two girls aged 5 and 2, to learn where food comes from and to at least teach them, hopefully, the joy of tending a garden. My family has a small garden; one large enough to feed a family of four that still produces enough to share and preserve some.

If you have thought about growing a garden, what’s stopping you? Here are some easy steps for making it happen.

1. Start with container gardening: Container gardening is a good start for those of you who might be intimidated or have little space. It can also be a good way to try out one plant that may be a little ‘odd’ for your family, or to plant one of your child’s choices that you may not be sure of.

When it comes to containers you have to make sure you have the correct sized container for the plant(s). You also need to purchase the best potting mix you can find; go ahead and buy the best soil at the nursery/lawn & garden center. You will save a lot of disappointment and frustration as your plants will have a solid foundation to start from.

An excellent resource for container gardening can be found here.

2. Choose the right veggies: Many of your traditional ’space hog’ veggies may have a container appropriate variety, i.e. bush green beans, patio tomatoes, patio/container cucumbers and many others. These can be found as seeds or plants at most gardening centers.

Many vegetables can be grown in containers, and some make better companions than others. This site, is another resource for putting together containers, but also provides information on which vegetables to choose.

The Best Vegetables for Containers:Potatoes, chard, lettuce, cherry and bush tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, summer squash, Asian greens, pole beans. And don’t forget herbs!

Planting Depth
Here are the minimum soil depths for healthy growth. Keep in mind that you can get by with less depth if you use a self-watering planter.

• 4-5 inches: chives, lettuce, radishes, other salad greens, basil, coriander
• 6-7 inches: bush beans, garlic, kohlrabi, onions, Asian greens, peas, mint, thyme
• 8-9 inches: pole beans, carrots, chard, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, leeks, peppers, spinach, parsley, rosemary
• 10-12 inches: beets, broccoli, okra, potatoes, sweet corn, summer squash, dill, lemongrass

Good Companions:
• Beans, carrots, squash
• Eggplant, beans
• Tomatoes, basil, onions
• Lettuce, herbs
• Spinach, chard, onions

Combinations to Avoid:
• Beans with onions and garlic
• Carrots with dill or fennel
• Tomatoes or squash with potatoes
• Onions with beans and peas

4. Graduate to raised bed gardening: If you have the space and are ready for more than I suggest raised bed gardening. I have found that container grown plants do not last as long as those planted in the ground.

I have two garden ‘beds’; one is 3′ x 6′ and the other is 3′ x 9′ and are contained by frames. In these two relatively small spaces I am growing tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, dill, basil, green beans, basil, dill, and marigolds thrown in for color. There aren’t many plants, sometimes there is only one, but this produces enough for us to eat fresh home grown vegetables during the summer.

Since the soil should be more fertile, and easier to amend, the plants are planted closer together. With the plants closer together and with a heavy layer of straw or old hay as mulch, there are much fewer weeds and watering requirements. This means that you spend more time enjoying your garden. You can step back and watch it grow, focus on your harvest and not become frustrated trying to wrestle the weeds. If you see some trying to grow, they are easily plucked out as you harvest or water.

5. Involve the Kids:
My girls help with plant choices and planting, they watch the blooms come, and the vegetables grow. They enjoy seeing the different shapes, colors, and varieties that emerge.

They will try different things while exploring the garden that they wouldn’t even touch at the dinner table. Both my girls will pick bell peppers off the plant and eat them like apples. If I were to take the same peppers, even if they picked them, and try to incorporate them into the meal, they won’t eat them. But, I am sure they will someday.

While picking green beans this summer, my youngest sat in my lap and ate every single one as soon as I put it in the bucket. She is learning there is a difference in taste and texture between raw and cooked. Both girls enjoy watching the process of turning a cucumber into a pickle.

You can choose to either continue to garden into a fall season, or go ahead and ‘put the garden to bed’. I usually find our fall activities limit us, so I close up the garden once the summer plants are done.

The biggest thing to remember is to enjoy yourself. It’s fun! Let your kids learn where food comes from and that it doesn’t miraculously appear in the produce section of the grocery store. Let them learn and you learn, how good home grown produce tastes.

Are you growing your own vegetables? And for those of you who aren’t, what’s been holding you back?

Most children prefer to eat with their fingers by the time they reach their first birthday.  While the mess is not easy to watch (or clean up), it’s good for toddlers’ development — and it frees up mom and dad to eat right along with their little ones. 

While I’m still in the messy-eating toddler stage, I wanted to compile a list of my all time favorite finger foods.  This list takes into account nutritional needs at this stage, appropriate textures and ease of preparation.   

1. Sweet potatoes: High in both vitamins A and C, sweet potatoes pack a nutritional punch and sweet taste.  To prepare, poke both sides of a washed potato several times with a fork.  Cook in the microwave for 2-5 minutes on each side.  Smaller potatoes take less time while bigger ones take more time.

When done cut the potato in half and let cool.  Spoon out the soft insides and top with butter if desired.  Cut into small pieces and serve.

2. Frozen peas:  A good source of fiber and several vitamins and minerals including iron, green peas make a great food for growing toddlers.  To prepare either cook according to the package directions or let the peas thaw on their own.  It doesn’t get easier than this.

3. Soft meat:  The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a report saying 15% of kids under 3 don’t get enough ironwhich is essential during the first few years of life.  It’s important to remember that the type of iron in meat is highly absorb-able making it an ideal food for little ones.

Tough meats are not only a choking hazard but are not appealing to small children.  Try cooking meat in the slow cooker to keep it moist.  Good choices include drumsticks, pork and ground meat.

4. Fish: A child’s developing brain needs essential fatssuch as omega-3s DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid).  Since these fats mainly come from marine sources such as fish, it’s an important part of a toddler’s diet. 

Try low mercury sources of fish like salmon, light canned tuna and tilapia, which are also soft and easy to break up into little pieces.  You can also look for fish sticks made with salmon such as these from Happy Baby. For more on feeding kids fish safely, see Kids Safe Seafood.

5. Eggs:With high quality protein, iron, choline, B12, riboflavin and other key nutrients, eggs are the perfect food for toddlers.  You can scramble them with added veggies like sautéed spinach and mushrooms or boil them ahead of time.  Either way, eggs make a quick and nutritious protein source for growing children.

6. Soft fruit/veggies: Fruits and veggies make great additions to any meal.  Cut soft and ripe fruit into small pieces.  Make sure to include at least one vitamin C-rich fruit and veggie daily such as cantaloupe, papaya, mango, kiwi, broccoli, cauliflower and strawberries. 

Steam veggies until they are soft and cut up into small pieces, season and serve.  Make sure to include at least one vitamin A-rich veggie or fruit daily such as winter squash, carrots, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes and spinach. 

7. Grated apple: Apples are usually left out of toddlers’ diet because of their hard texture.  But by peeling the skin and grating apples, you get a nice finger food that, thanks to its soluble fiber content, helps boost kids’ immune systems.

8. Grated cheese: Add grated natural cheese to veggies, beans, eggs and fruit to round out a meal or snack.  Cheese is a good source of protein and calcium and it contains fat which is especially needed the first 2 years of life. 

9. Beans: Rich in protein, B vitamins, iron and fiber and easily picked up by little fingers, beans make an excellent substitute for meat at meals.  Make sure they are soft and cut larger beans in half.  Serve with avocado and a vitamin C-rich fruit or veggie to help increase the absorption of iron.

You can cook straight from the can or soak dried beans overnight and cook them in the crock pot.  Either way, beans are so nutritious and filling, you’ll want them to be part of your child’s diet for years to come.

10. Whole grains: From pastas to iron-rich cereals (like Cheerios) and pieces of bread, there are many whole grain choices to include at mealtime.  Remember that whole grains contain all parts of the grain including the germ and bran, which contain fiber and plenty of nutrition.  Look for “whole grain” as the first ingredient and the Whole Grains Council stamp to let you know you have a winner. 

And please don’t forget about choking hazards.

So tell me, what are your favorite healthy and easy finger foods you feed your toddler?

Most moms are on a mission to get their kids to eat more vegetables. While my daughter used to throw back broccoli and cauliflower as a baby, she’s much more cautious with veggies these days.

I have a confession to make: I have a veggie complex. My cooked vegetables never seem to taste as good as they do in restaurants or from other cooks. So I’ve been on a quest to enhance the flavor of vegetables during cooking.

About a week ago, I got a present in the mail to help solve this problem.

Good Books, the publishers of the Fix-It and Forget-It series, sent me another book to review (last week I reviewed the Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook). This book, Fix-It and Enjoy-It Healthy Cookbook, is different from the others in the series because it’s not for slow cookers. Instead, the book contains plant-based main and side dish recipes that are prepared in the oven or stove-top. And like the other Fix It books, all the recipes are submitted by home cooks.

Even though I’m a dietitian, I don’t necessarily search for “healthy” cookbooks, which is why I didn’t request this book in the first place. Instead, I seek recipes that appeal to me, and based on my taste preferences and nutritional knowledge, will sometimes make substitutions or additions. I personally think this tendency to categorize foods into “healthy” and “unhealthy” is counterproductive. But I’ll save that rant for another post.

Now back to the book…

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many creative ways to prepare vegetables and fresh fruit. Remember, these are home cooks experimenting and coming up with their own recipes. After seeing vegetable idea after vegetable idea, I had to calm myself down. For broccoli alone there’s Broccoli Dijon, Sesame Broccoli, Broccoli with Cranberries, Corn and Broccoli Bake, Roasted Broccoli and Italian-style Broccoli. That’s a lot of broccoli.

Overall, I’m impressed with the number of appealing fruit and vegetable recipes in this book. So if you’re struggling to come up with fruit and vegetable ideas, you might want to give it a try.

This week I tried Holiday Green Beans and they turned out tasty. Did my daughter eat them? No. But I’ll keep offering – and in the meantime my husband and I get more variety.

Got a tasty vegetable recipe? Please share!

Holiday Green Beans (I cut the recipe in half)

Makes: 10 servings
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients
2 lbs (about 8 cups) fresh green beans
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tsp, olive oil
½ cup slivered almonds
Pepper to taste

1. Steam beans in saucepan until just slightly crisp.
2. Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil in large skillet for 3 minutes
3. Add beans to skillet. Sauté 1 minute
Add slivered almonds and pepper to beans. Toss together and then serve
 
“Reprinted from Fix-It and Enjoy-It Healthy Cookbook. Copyright by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

In these tough economic times, many of us are looking for ways to cut spending. My family has already made sacrifices for me to stay at home but there was one aspect of our budget we hadn’t touched: our grocery bill. I admit to being oblivious to the price of food – and because I was buying mostly organic produce and dairy products – our monthly food bills kept gaining momentum.

I originally decided to buy organic fruits and vegetables because there are questions about the effects of pesticides on babies’ and children’s growing immune and nervous systems. And compared to other food products, fresh fruits and vegetables contain much of the pesticides people consume.

But as I did more research, I found smarter, more cost effective ways to shop for organic produce.

Not all produce is created equal. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), some conventional produce contains higher levels of pesticides and chemical residues than others. This list shows you when produce is worth the price of organic and when you might want to consider going conventional. 

In general, produce with thick skins that are only eaten after peeling, like avocados, tends to be lower in chemicals than produce with thinner skins. The top 5 offenders are peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery and nectarines while the “cleanest” produce includes onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapples and mangos.

According to the EWG, people who eat 12 of the most contaminated fruits and vegetables end up consuming 10 different pesticides daily, on average, compared to just under 2 in the 15 least-contaminated produce items.

Try out Your Local Farmers’ Market. Finding the right Farmers’ Market is like winning the food lottery. You save money as well as getting to know your local farmers. And even though not all the farmers have certified organic produce, most farm without the use pesticides. All you have to do is ask.

Another perk is the Farmers’ Market is an ideal outing for kids. It gets them outside and involved in choosing—and tasting—produce. Here are lists of Farmers’ Markets in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Get Organic Deals. If you look for deals, you will find them. Stores like Whole Foods are offering coupons on their organic produce. Take advantage of companies helping you save money!

And stores like Trader Joes always offer lower prices. Try some of their frozen organic fruits and veggies at reduced prices.

We’ll talk much more about buying organic in the coming weeks. The next blog post on buying organic will discuss the pros and cons of buying organic dairy and meat products. And if you haven’t already, Subscribe to Raise Healthy Eaters by email or our RSS feed on the homepage.