King County Eat Smart Program

Local Eat Smart Events for September

September 10: Vegetable gardening in small spaces - Free class from WSU King County Extension; 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Burien Community Center.
September 20: Canning - Free class from Seattle Free School, covers food safety, water bath canning, pressure canning and when to use each method; 10 am to 11 am at the University District Farmers Market.
September 27: Harvest Farm Tour - Free event provides King County residents an opportunity to visit local farms and learn how food is grown. Participants will be able to purchase freshly picked fruits and vegetables, watch cooking demonstrations, take farm walking tours, navigate corn mazes, enjoy hay rides, and see farm animals up close.

Get Smart with Fruits and Veggies

September is Fruits & Veggies—More Matters Month. Learn cost-saving ideas for incorporating more fruits and veggies into your life with these 5 tip sheets.

Try the fruit and vegetable of the month

Vegetable: Chili peppers contain phytochemicals known as capsaicinoids, which may help to protect the heart by reducing cholesterol and triglycerides. These phytochemicals may also help relieve sinus-related allergy symptoms.

When selecting chilies, look for firm, glossy chilies with taut, unwrinkled skin and fresh green stems. Dried hot peppers should be glossy yet unbroken.

To decrease the heat intensity of chilies, wash them, cut them open and remove the seeds and veins. Also, soaking cut up chilies in salt water for at least an hour will help cool them off.

Fruit: Figs are a good source of Vitamins A and C. Fresh figs are available July through September. Dried figs are never out of season, and are available all year.

Look for figs that are soft and smell sweet. Handle carefully because their fragile skins bruise easily.

Dried fig puree is an excellent replacement for fat in baked goods. Try using only half of the normal amount of shortening, margarine, butter or oil, and substituting the other half with fig puree.

Fig Puree (Makes about 1½ cups)

2 cups dried figs
¾ cup water
2 tsp vanilla

Puree figs, water and vanilla in blender or food processor.

Source: www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov

Sign up for the Recipe of the Week
Recipe of the week is provided by Public Health Seattle & King County. Print recipes complete with nutrition information and sign up to receive weekly alerts

What's Fresh Now
It's Farmer's Market Season
Weight Watchers at Work
Dietary Guidelines
Organic Foods
Healthy Food Choices for Meetings
Move More Program
Contact us

Eat Smart is a King County program designed to educate, encourage and empower you and your family to make smart food choices. Here you'll find information, resources, quizzes, tools, recipes and tips to help your incorporate more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and decrease the fat content in your diet.

Check out our printable quick fact sheet.

Education

You may be like many other people; you want to improve your diet and want to make smarter food choices but just don ’t have the right information to get started. You are unsure of what to believe from all of the information that is available. Read more.

Resources, Tools and Recipes

Track your daily fruit and vegetable intake, test your food label knowledge, or assess the quality of your diet. Take the guesswork out of cooking a healthy meal. If you want recipes that incorporate fruits and vegetables and are low in fat, visit the sites on this page. Read more.

Success Stories

We want to hear from you! Have you made dietary changes? Has the Colorful Choices program helped you increase your fruit and vegetable consumption? Send us your stories and we'll publish them on this web site. Read more.

My Community

You are one click away from information on local area farmer’s markets and healthy dining options. Find locally grown produce in your area and information on home delivery of organic produce. Read more.

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	Updated: Sept. 10, 2008