The Produce Box

Guest post by TPB Coordinator Wendy S. Heading to the beach or the lake? Why not take some healthy treats along?  Here are some great tips Wendy gave her members on  how to use your Box and not have to skip when you are hitting the road (or even the skies!) for a summer trip! Tip 1: Snacks that don't come in a package!  A lot of summer veggies & fruits lend themselves to being used for easy snacks -- cherry/ grape tomatoes, cucumbers, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, carrots, etc.  These are great for the car ride to your vacation destination and are easy to cut up and have on hand for snacking between meals. Order a FRUIT BOX or create your own MARKET BOX to fill it with all that delicious "easy" stuff your family will eat right up! Tip 2: Dinner, done!  I know when we travel with multiple families, we each have a night to cook. Wow your family members with an amazing, fresh and LOCAL NC meal! Order a MEAL BOX or use our recipes for squash and zucchi

If you find you keep eating the same things over and over, try exploring the rainbow of choices available in our Boxes. Reward your palates and plates with a bounty of vitamins and minerals as well as delicious meals!  Red f ruits and veggies usually bring vitamin A (beta carotene) and C plus provide a good source of manganese and fiber. Think red bell peppers , tomatoes , and beets . Tomatoes and watermelon are loaded with lycopene, a compound that appears to have cancer-fighting properties.  Orange. Just a shade away from red, and with a similar vitamin and mineral profile, you get vitamins C, A, B6, potassium, and fiber in produce like sweet potatoes and orange peppers . Yellow. Delivering potassium, fiber, manganese and vitamin A, are the yellow veggies. Good examples from your BOX are yellow summer squash and yellow bell peppers . Green. Dark leafy greens are packed with nutrients. A favorite dark leafy green is spinach due to its rich lutein content,