15-1/2 cups of vegetables a week

You've no idea what I've been through, an enlightenment as to our daily requirements of vegetables, you get the picture?  Who was I to ignore the sage advice of my elders, pumping 5 cups a week of red and orange vegetables (sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and carrots being the star) into your bloodstream is barely fathomable, let alone the 5 EXTRA CUPS of starches expected, you know a mere five cups a week of peas, corn and potatoes.

Then 4 cups extra of "other vegetables" later, you've celery to pick through, green peppers, onions, cauliflower, cucumbers, cabbage and mushrooms to regard.  Go ahead and stake your odds on an additional 1-1/2 cups dark green vegetables, trending spinach and kale if I get my ornery way, that broccoli you owe your talent to, even romaine gets a challenge.  A cup and a half of bean opportunities and peas with various pastas or beside mashed potatoes is not really that big of a deal, so confront it.

And if you can guarantee a cup's worth of tomato sauce per week into yours and everyone else's diets, a simple surrender to a crockpot chili (turkey or beef), a knowing glance at cabbage rolls, a fiesta casserole.  Then the six ounces of protein you're expected to eat every day makes chickpea red pepper hummus kind of essential, also a tuna dish, chili bean pockets and homemade bean burritos always there, quenching hunger.

Only a fruitophobe would deny the cup and a half necessary to meet blueberries in oatmeal halfway, to take pineapple, cantaloupe and watermelon out on a limb, the random mandarin orange sideglancing grapefruit before ignoring her altogether.  We all have our favorites, don't let frozen fruit smoothies just get a cups worth over with and accept responsibility for the two cups of kale/spinach that goes into every act of second guessing.

Life's way too short and to let grains like quinoa, or even rice, crackers and bread miss out on acting their age, even when a free spirit and intuitive nature are all that is required of any of them, everlasting.  Saying it up front is not the same as putting it out there, three cups of dairy a day takes things personally, 8 ounces of yogurt, a couple ounces of cheese, that almond milk you rely on.  Become your own best friend, make the refrigerator bran muffins of your dreams, a veggie bow tie salad is at the top of your list, a fresh market slaw that feels amply like family.