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Dec. 1st, 2025
A minor but big change
Dec. 1st, 2025 10:40 amI've had carrots, celery, cherry or grape tomatoes, and a pickle with almost every breakfast and lunch for years. Not sure exactly when I started, but shortly after we moved here in 2014 I started keeping crudite around a lot. There used to be more variety, with a single batch having things like carrots, zucchini, three colors of peppers, and cucumber. As is often the case, it got simpler as time went on. Even the carrots themselves got simpler. I used to buy multicolor ones and peel them myself and cut them up, then I switched to baby carrots, and finally petite cut whenever I could find them.
But today's the first Monday shopping trip in ages that I didn't buy any carrots or celery because they just haven't been good lately. No way I'm giving up the tomatoes and pickles, they're just so consistently good. My favorites are red grape tomatoes and Grillo's fresh dill pickles, by the way. I looked around at both stores I went to this morning and no other vegetables were jumping out at me. A big part of why carrots and celery became the default is they can last a week packed in water, but I wouldn't do that with other vegetables and would probably have to do a smaller batch twice a week.
I might do fruit instead. An apple tastes fantastic with a pickle and a banana is always satisfying, and neither needs any prep so they're good to always have around. In fact, we usually do! And there's really no fighting over bananas because I prefer mine much less ripe than Garrett does.
A side effect of all this is that I'm really craving other vegetable dishes. I'd love to make our old favorite fennel salad or cook up a side of onions, zucchini, and squash. I guess spending too much time eating the most boring vegetables possible was a bad idea!
But today's the first Monday shopping trip in ages that I didn't buy any carrots or celery because they just haven't been good lately. No way I'm giving up the tomatoes and pickles, they're just so consistently good. My favorites are red grape tomatoes and Grillo's fresh dill pickles, by the way. I looked around at both stores I went to this morning and no other vegetables were jumping out at me. A big part of why carrots and celery became the default is they can last a week packed in water, but I wouldn't do that with other vegetables and would probably have to do a smaller batch twice a week.
I might do fruit instead. An apple tastes fantastic with a pickle and a banana is always satisfying, and neither needs any prep so they're good to always have around. In fact, we usually do! And there's really no fighting over bananas because I prefer mine much less ripe than Garrett does.
A side effect of all this is that I'm really craving other vegetable dishes. I'd love to make our old favorite fennel salad or cook up a side of onions, zucchini, and squash. I guess spending too much time eating the most boring vegetables possible was a bad idea!