It’s delivery day.  Perhaps you’re thinking about that packed-to-bursting bag of farm-fresh veggies ready for pick-up — with a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation.  Mid-February, and you’re hanging on strong to the New Year’s promise to pump more fresh food into your body, but at the same time you feel tired and overwhelmed — poised to order a pizza for delivery at any minute.

Making life-style changes, like cooking more fresh food at home, can feel daunting.  Even the veteran cook is seduced by a ready package, now and then.  But we can do this. One dish each day — they all add up. It’s worth the effort for our good health and our family’s. What could be more important?

Ten thoughts on keeping it real fresh…

1. Start with the goal to make one dish from the bag each day.  Toss a crunchy, citrus-sweetened kale salad for lunch.  At dinnertime, sauté a pan loaded with leafy greens to compliment a store-bought main dish.  Take it slowly. One dish each day is a huge step in the right, healthful direction.  When you feel ready, try two dishes.  And so on.

2. Keep a pantry stocked with basics.  There’s nothing more deflating than last minute grocery runs. Check out this list.

3. Tools can help — check that list once more.

4. Plan ahead.  Think about what you want to cook tomorrow — today.  Ease into the mindset.  Prep one or two ingredients ahead (rinse and dry the lettuce — peel and chop the carrots).  Tomorrow you’ll appreciate the jumpstart.

5. Don’t pressure yourself to cook elaborate meals with lots of ingredients.  Save that for a high-energy day. Overly ambitious goals are discouraging and can have the reverse effect than we intend.  Pretty soon we’re drowning our despair in more processed and prepared food than ever.

6. Choose dishes that feel doable.  5 steps with 5 ingredients (or less) is a good rule-of-thumb. Flavorful food doesn’t have to be complicated.  Try this old-reliable:  veggies dressed in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted until soft and caramelized.  4 steps, 4 ingredients, 10 minutes active prep. Easy, easy, easy.  Yet ridiculously complex flavor.

                                Roasted cherry tomatoes fresh from the oven

7. Applaud your successes.  And savor every delicious bite.  Even if all you’ve done is manage one fresh dish a day you may be far ahead of where you’ve been.

8. Perseverance is crucial.  If you meet a rough stretch on the journey, when the bag has scarcely been peeked into by week’s end, don’t worry.  Just keep plugging along.  Tomorrow focus on cooking one dish.  At the weekend build a big pot of soup and toss the lot in.  A flurry of chopping (in the food processor) and stirring, and before long a steamy bowlful of warm heaven stands ready to nourish. Drink it in.

9. Invite a friend to take the fresh-food plunge.  Encourage each other, swap recipes, meet to cook and share meals together.  A good challenge loves company.

10. Surf the blogosphere.  You’ll be surprised how many comrades are out there cooking — with great ideas.  Just like you.

Recipes inspired by this week’s bounty:

For starters, if you still have sunchokes hanging out in a brown bag from last week, I suggest you roast them.  Slice them in half (skins on), put them in a pan with knobs of carrot and yellow onion chunks, toss the lot in olive oil and roast until fork tender and dotted with spots of caramel-colored goodness.  The sunchokes turn out meltingly soft with the spot-on flavor of a Watsonville artichoke.  I just can’t say enough about the merits of roasting.  Never.  Ever.  It’s simply magic.

                         Lentil Soup with Roasted Parsnips, Carrots, and Mint

Rainy days, like yesterday, have me thinking soup.  Actually most days I think about soup, since I’m a soup-centered gal.  With a vegetable line-up like this week’s I will roast (yet again) onion with the parsnips and carrots (perhaps toss in the fennel from last week — if I still had it).  And stir it all into an earthy lentil soup or stew.  Lentils are another love of mine, especially the French green ones (lentilles du Puy) that retain a bit of chew in the cooking.  These mottled, dark-brown legumes are substantial, yet delicate, and full of fat-free protein not to mention iron, folate and more.  Plus they’re economical.  I can make a huge, luscious pot to serve twelve friends for about six bucks.

                                             Raw Broccoli Salad with Oranges and Nuts

We have broccoli growing in our garden, along with lots of leafy greens like arugula, chard and kale.  When our broccoli finally bolted last week, leaving us with shooting stalks covered in tiny, yellow flowers, we lopped them off and added them to our salad.  Broccoli flowers are delicate with a mild broccoli taste — we love them, along with the young leaves that we routinely add to our leafy green sautés. If you look closely at the photo, you’ll notice some bright orange calendula petals too — another treasure from the winter garden.

This week, I’ll toss this salad with spinach instead of lettuce, plus a bit of roughly chopped cilantro and carrot shavings — maybe some chopped kale.

I also like broccoli paired with a whole grain like nutty Italian farro.  Earlier this week I roasted a pint of cherry tomatoes with cubed onion (tossed in oil first).  I sautéed some broccoli (though I could have roasted that, too) in olive oil with minced garlic.  While the veggies were cooking I simmered the farro in water (sometimes I do that step ahead of time — perhaps the night before).  When everything was done cooking I tossed the drained farro and the roasted vegetables into the skillet with the broccoli.  I threw in about half a cup of kalamata olives (roughly chopped) and a handful of chopped fresh parsley from our garden.  Here’s the master recipe — which can be varied almost endlessly.

Parsnips are completely under the radar for many folks — you won’t find them on the regular supermarket circuit.  They look like gnarly, pale-as-a-ghost carrots.  Beautiful they’re not, but they are blessed in the sugar department.  As with any winter root, roast them.  Usually I cover the pan with a bit of foil so they don’t cook too fast and dry out.   Uncover during the last 10 minutes of cooking.  Parsnips can pass for carrots in any cooked dish.  Some folks eat them raw, but I don’t recommend it. Let me know what you do with parsnips (or any of this week’s fruits and vegetables).  I’m always looking for new ideas.

Thanks for reading!