Winter is upon us and for the purpose of this post I am refering to the colder months in the Northern Hemisphere from October-March rather than as per the three Winter calendar months. It’s important to change our eating habits with the seasons to help our body to addapt and stay healthy through cold and flu season. It’s also very important to eat locally produced food (organic if possible) rather than food imported from other climates. Visiting and supporting local farmers markets is not only fun but a way of contributing to you community and supporting local farmers.
Here are some of my favourite nourishing foods that I recommend adding to your diet for the colder months.
Fruit: It’s apple season! You can do many things with apples and cooked apples are so comforting in the Winter. Great as a snack with a nut butter or stewed for adding to yoghurt or oats.
Nuts: It’s the time for harvesting nuts, check out what grows locally to you and see where you can buy them, nuts are great roasted or in a nut butter. Also great to add to cooking as flaked, ground or flour.
Root Vegetables: If you can grow your own then amazing, if not check out your local farmers market. Some farms even do seasonal boxes that you can get delivered to your door. Ask around and Google, or taking your children to a farm to pick their own is sometimes possible Root vegetables include, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beetroot, turnip, parsnips, squash, pumpkin. Soups and stews are a great way to cook these vegetables and they can be frozen easily for storage.
Cruciferous vegetables: kale, cauliflower, broccolli, sprouts, cabbage. Also great for soups and stews or just steamed.
Winter foods can be so warming and fulfilling and can be easily prepared. Using a slow cooker is a great low energy way to make delicious soups and stews that can be frozen and used as required.