“Get the Fruit Out of the Fridge!”

Sophie:  I love fruit!  My favorites are strawberries, apples, grapes, mangoes, and oranges. We went apple picking.  Now we have tons of apples in our house!  My mom makes apple pie, but I do not like it.  I just like fresh apples.

Lisa:  For as long as I can remember, John and I have been fruit freaks!  Now don’t get me wrong.  We love sweets and other desserts just as much as the next guy.  (Remember Sophie’s blog post about driving 20 minutes one way for a piece of dark chocolate?!)  But we are committed to promoting a healthy lifestyle for ourselves and our three children.  I have a longstanding tradition of keeping a big bowl of fresh fruit on our kitchen table at all times.  When Christian and Nicole were toddlers, I increased our weekly purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables, but John would go ballistic as we often threw out rotten fruit from the fridge.  He preached to us about his teenage years in war-torn Beirut, Lebanon as he witnessed people literally scouring garbage cans for scraps of food to feed their families.  From that moment on, I decided that, since we “eat with our eyes first,” I would make healthy snacks more visible and accessible.  Thus the family tradition of a fresh fruit kitchen table centerpiece.  It worked like a charm and still does.  This tradition has become a culinary security blanket for me.  And honestly, fruits are sweeter and more satisfying at room temperature in my opinion.  In our quest to give Sophie the best shot at reaching her full potential in this life, we strive to help her maintain a healthy mind, body, and spirit.  Fresh fruits provide her with antioxidants and nutrients, fiber to keep constipation at bay, and serve as low calorie snack alternatives to satisfy hunger cravings.  Some families opt for the proverbial bowl of candy to munch on, especially this time of year!  (Trust me, if I placed a bowl of candy on our kitchen table, it WOULD get consumed and the fruit would be ignored.)  We suggest getting rid of all that extra Halloween candy and getting your fruit out of the fridge!

Sophie:  Goodbye folks!