JB's Affordable Cooking Tips

How many times have you heard someone say eat your veggies or, how many times have you told your children to eat their veggies.  I know I have heard it when I was growing up and I know I have  told my two children the same things, now I get to tell their children to eat their veggies.  Have you really sat and thought about how important it is to incorporate some type of  vegetable in our daily meals?

Eating fruits and vegetables everyday, helps reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.  According to the National Cancer Society, they recommend eating 5 1/2 cups of fruits, vegetables and juices every day.

One of the things that I do in the summer, is grow a garden with all our favorite vegetables then, all I have to do clean them up and freeze them for the winter.  Most of the time I have enough vegetables to get me through the whole winter and I know I have saved a lot of money.  So lets see all the different recipe’s we can come up with.

Cucumbers, okra, and potatoes I had a lot of them last year and really gave some away to my neighbors.  The cucumbers I used to make a tomatoes, cucumber and onion salad that really is my favorite and of  course it’s healthy.  Above, you see a  picture of the collard greens I grew and they are very good and you can add all types of spices to please your taste buds.

Collard Green Recipe

 5 bundles of Collard Greens

3  Ham hocks

Salt and Pepper

In a large pot,  add about 5 cups of  water and add the ham hocks.  Cook the ham hocks until they are good and tender about  1 1/2 hrs.  If the water goes down and the ham hocks are not done, add more water and continue cooking.  You really want the ham hocks to be falling apart and really tender.

While the ham hocks are cooking separate the greens from the stems and wash in cold water until they are free from dirt.  Stack four or five leaves on top of each other and roll up like a cigar.  Cut them into thin strips.  Once the greens are all cut up you should now be ready to add them to the pot they will wilt but just keep adding them until the pot is full.

Season with salt and pepper and cook for 30 minutes or until they are tender.  Don’t forget to stir them from the bottom up so that all the seasoning from the ham hocks can get to all the greens.  Once they are done serve with your meat like fried chicken and don’t forget the cornbread.