7 a day challenge; day 5

I'm trying to eat 7 portions of 7 different fruits and vegetables in 7 days to see how easy or hard it is, how it affects me and how it affects my wallet.  If you want to read more, see my first post on my 7 a Day challenge.

Breakfast

I started the day today with toast... ha ha ha... no, I didn't miss out the fruits and vegetables!  I remembered I had a bag of mixed berries in the freezer so I took a portion out of there, defrosted it then topped the piece of thick toast I had with butter, jam, then the defrosted berries.  It rocked and was good for the soul.

There were cherries, blackberries, strawberries, red currants, black currants and raspberries in there but obviously only one portion in terms of quantity.

My son had some reheated banana pancakes for his breakfast from the freezer.  Probably about a third of a banana in the portion he ate (he had 8, yes, he does eat a lot) but a third of a banana is probably about a handful for a 3 year old so I'm taking that as a portion.

Lunch

As I said yesterday, I felt like I was running out of iron due to feeling a bit run down.  With moving imminent I'm also trying to run down my freezer and I found a small frozen pack of beef stew and a frozen pack of beef and chestnut stew so reheated both, mixed together, added mushrooms to the mix and served with Yorkshire puddings, peas and braised red cabbage.

We then followed that up with a crumble made with one very large cooking apple and loads of the frozen berries I had this morning.  Does it count in a crumble?  Well earlier on in the week I thought not but then that was a crumble made from tinned apples in a work canteen, this was a crumble made from a fresh apple and frozen fruit so I'm counting it as one of our five a day.

But hang on... I know you're thinking I've already had the frozen fruit once today!  Yes, I have but this is one of the joys of having mixed fruit, because I'm having another portion of a mix of 6 different fruits, I'm effectively getting closer to having a full portion of each individual fruit, I still only counted the crumble as one though.

So with the mushrooms, peas, cabbage and all the fruit in the crumble, that was 4 of our 7, one from breakfast, so only 2 needed for teatime.

Tea

I have some bacon which needs eating up and I need to pack away my food processor and blender so I went on a mammoth soup cooking session today.  This has the benefit of providing us with something nutritious for tea tonight, work lunches or quick teas during the week but also using up the bacon and bags of vegetables from the freezer.

I made bacon, french bean and broad bean soup loosely based on my 'eat your greens soup' but I had no broccoli so just increased the beans.  It seems a bit of a cheat to use beans twice but when you're trying to eat 7 a day, you can't start excluding similar groups of vegetables or otherwise it would be impossible!

So how did I do?  I ate 7 portions today of a whopping 12 different types of fruits and vegetables cherries, blackberries, strawberries, red currants, black currants, raspberries, mushrooms, peas, red cabbage, apple, broad beans and french beans.

My son managed his 7 portions but of a crazy 13 types because he also had banana!

How do I feel?  Going back to more robust food and filling food has been good for me psychologically and physically I think.  Having some of my 7 a day in the form of pudding has been good for the soul.

One thing I have noticed today though is my fruit and vegetable supplies are getting low.  I already did a top up shop during the week but I am close to needing another one.

I would be absolutely honoured if you would consider nominating me in the Britmums BIB awards, especially the food category.