Maybe you've decided for this year, to treat yourself better. Or maybe you've come to the conclusion that your family ought to eat together more regularly, and that fast food several times a week is simply bad for both wallet and waistline.

Sound too lofty? Too hard to implement with your busy schedule? Nahhhh. Let's start with fast food and go from there...

[FUN STUFF! Listen to my audio article, a 3-minute, mp3 file which includes an on-scene interview at Seattle's Pike Place Market, by clicking here or subscribe to my podcast feed so you can open the attachment below]

Otherwise, keep reading. You'll eventually come to a cool recipe at the end...

One of the best ways to avoid fast food is to keep the refrigerator and pantry stocked with good stuff, like fruits and vegetables with good keeping power. Apples, carrots, oranges, celery…That way you'll have a good foundation for snacks and making soups, casseroles and many other dishes that amount to respectable meals.

One of the best ways to avoid fast food is to keep the refrigerator and pantry stocked with good stuff, like fruits and vegetables with good keeping power. Apples, carrots, oranges, celery…That way you'll have a nice foundation for snacks and making soups, stews and other hearty-healthy dishes.

One vegetable with good keeping power, happens to be one of America's favorite comfort foods, the potato. Remember the potato, that simple, earthy "pomme de terre" before it's transformed into chips and French fries? Well, potatoes have come a long way. Actually, we've come a long way by embracing the hundreds, perhaps thousands of shapes, colors and uses of potatoes. The bottom line: Mashed, baked, or souped, potatoes represent warmth, simplicity and our grandparents love.

Angela Taber, of Olsen Farms in Colville, Washington specializes in gourmet potatoes. I met up with Angela at Seattle's Pike Place Market.  With short dark hair, a quick smile and a dressed for the cool weather, she set me straight on a few things, including "spud nuts."

Looking over the colorful display of potatoes, I couldn't help but ask, "What are some of the odd or unique questions people ask you about potatoes?"

"Probably one of the first things is how the colored potatoes get colored. People wonder if we actually inject them with dyes. I have to convince them that the purple and red potatoes naturally come that way."

"And what would be your most popular variety?"

"Well usually people are looking for something different, so all the blues, all the reds--the Viking purples, most of those are pretty popular."

After taking a big hit in popularity during the low-carb/high-protein diet craze, potatoes are now making a strong comeback onto dinner plates. So I wondered how, these days, one would sells potatoes to the public. "What, Angela, is so great about a potato?"

"A potato is one of the vegetables that if you had to choose one that you could actually sustain on, you could live on it. Potatoes provide vitamin C, they are high in potassium, iron, and fiber, and your colored potatoes are very high in antioxidants. And they taste good!

"What's more, a potato is a great food. It stores well, you can use it in all three meals, they're fun to grow, especially for kids.

Passionate about her potatoes, Angela flashed her gloved hands and nodded her head as she talked. "You can cook them in a variety of ways… you're pretty much not limited with the potato, you can take it as far as you want, as cooking processes go, and with all the colors, it's really fun.

"We also sell spud nuts…"

"Spud nuts?"

Angela pointed to a display of clear plastic bags filled with what looked like earth-toned golf balls. "Spud nuts are small round potatoes in all colors. They're great on the barbecue."

I thanked Angela, bought a bag of spud nuts for my Dad, and headed north to Whidbey Island, where he was preparing dinner. I was hoping his past experience on the Atkins diet hadn't permanently ruined his taste buds for potatoes.

To stay away from fast foods means you need to be a savvy shopper. Scrutinize the prepackaged stuff and read the labels. Also worth avoiding, nutrition experts say, is high-fructose corn syrup, which has been implicated in the American obesity epidemic. Consuming the concentrated and inexpensive substitute for regular sugar can be as bad for what you're not eating as for what you are.

Another effective way to ensure that you always have a healthy meal on hand at home is to buy in bulk and cook several meals at once. Freeze the extras. It's just like having money and time in the bank.

Whether you're a potato fan or not, having dinner with your loved ones is a good thing. A study published in 2006 by Columbia University's National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse shows that kids who eat dinner with their families are more likely to do well in school, while kids who seldom do so are more likely to experiment with cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.

And the American Dietetic Association (ADA) recently described the family meal as "a potential pubic health measure for improving dietary quality, reducing overweight and improving education and social outcomes."

Finally, sitting down at the table at night is like family glue. For kids, it's kind of a decompression time. They can talk about their day and sort of unwind.

You can relate to that, can't you?

HERBED SPUD NUTS AND CARROTS

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups spud nuts, or 8 potatoes, diced into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons thyme or rosemary
6 carrots, cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices
2 or 3 garlic cloves, peeled
Salt and pepper

Melt butter with olive oil in small saucepan over medium-low heat. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle with butter mixture and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Empty vegetables out onto baking pan(s) and roast them at 400 degrees F for about 30-45 minutes, or until just tender. The herbed butter that is cooked into the vegetable smells and tastes delicious.

But wait, just two more things:

1) For more recipes and articles about food, organic gardening, and positive ways to look at life, visit my main website at www.plantea.com.

2) Perhaps you'd like to read my FREE monthly newsletter, the UpBeet Gardener. I sent it out to subscribers in 70 countries every month or you can read it online.