Sneaking Vegetables into Your Meals

To tell you the truth, I didn’t think I would be posting recipes on this blog. I’m not the greatest cook and I don’t really enjoy it all that much. I think part of my problem is that a lot of the things that pop into my little head to make are things I grew up eating and we don’t eat a lot of those things anymore. My whole family is off of gluten. I try to avoid processed foods, but that is a challenge for me. In theory, I try to avoid ALL grains as much as possible, but that doesn't really work out all that well either. Throw in the fact that I can’t stomach red meat or pork, and that my kids are all picky, and just deciding WHAT to make becomes an impossible challenge. One of my little angels hates any kind of sauce. Even on pizza. Another one hates cheese. Except on pizza. I need a spreadsheet.

I can definitely think of and find plenty of recipes that my husband and I would enjoy, but to find one that everyone in the family will eat is like asking all nine planets (or eight if you’re under twenty) to line up and do the Macarena.

It’s just not going to happen. 

Somewhere along the way my kids started saying “I don’t like that” if they happened to not be in the mood for a particular food. Imagine how confusing it is to have a kid tell you they don’t like chicken (and never did) and the next day ask you to take them to Chick-fil-A. Sometimes I will try a new recipe, and everyone eats it and I feel like I’ve just won a gold medal.

Two weeks later I make the SAME thing and at least two of my kids swear that they HATED it the last time. I just look at Tim to see if I am losing my mind or if he too is genuinely confused. I’ve considered getting it in writing when they all like a meal, but they’re all minors and I can’t take them to court for gagging at the table, so what would be the point?

About now you’re probably asking what’s the point of this post. Well, I’m about to tell you. This post is about how I outsmarted every stinkin’ one of my kids and tricked them into eating….

wait for it…

SQUASH.

They never even knew what hit them. It was beautiful. We are on our second year of gardening and our first year of growing squash. Little did we realize that one little seed produces six hundred squash. We planted six squash seeds and together they made a mini jungle in our square foot garden box and gave us an abundance of squash.

The kids just laughed at the idea of actually, you know, EATING it, but I was determined to not let it go to waste. So, one day we had ‘breakfast’ at dinner, and as I was scrambling a dozen eggs, I had another one of my brilliant ideas. I shredded the squash and mixed it in with the eggs.

THEY TOTALLY FELL FOR IT! I felt like an evil genius. 

They ate every bite and no one questioned it once. I let my victory go to my head and didn’t use good judgment. I made the rookie mistake of telling them what they had just consumed. They played it cool and tried to make me think it was no big deal, but since then, they have been highly suspect of everything I have prepared and tend to hang out in the kitchen while I’m cooking to make sure such heinous crimes against humanity don’t occur again. I’m pretty sure “Not on my watch” is the new motto among them. They probably have a calendar taped to the inside of a closet door somewhere that shows whose turn it is to annoy help me in the kitchen each day. So, if you decide to put some squash in your eggs you might want to keep it under your hat if your kids are annoying helpful like mine.

CLICK HERE FOR A PRINTABLE VERSION OF THE RECIPE.

Similarly, we also have an abundant supply of zucchini. Tim and I both love zucchini. He loves the zucchini pizza boat recipe that is all over the internet, and we also enjoy it roasted. However, none of the kids will go for those ideas, so I was trying to think of a way to sneak THAT into one of their meals too. I tried shredding up one zucchini and putting it in a red sauce to serve over noodles, but they didn't buy it. I refused to give up, so next time I put a whole zucchini in the blender and pureed it, THEN poured it in with the sauce and they didn't suspect a thing. This whole "mom" gig is tough, and the pay is terrible, but with a little kreative thinking, we can outsmart those rotten kids and trick them into eating healthy food now and then.

Some other simple ideas to sneak vegetables into your meals are:
*Mix healthier cereals with ones that are LESS healthy
*Many vegetables can be pureed and added into soups and sauces. Carrots, zucchini, squash, and greens work well for this. It works best with vegetables that don't have really strong flavors, like peppers and onions, although those could certainly work in some situations.
* Make sure to match colors! You couldn't get away with putting broccoli in your mashed potatoes, but you could certainly sneak in a little steamed cauliflower. Start with a little and if it works, get a little braver next time.
*You can easily mix a little spinach or kale into a blueberry smoothie as the dark color of the berries will hide the green.

If you are interested in the idea of finding ways to sneak vegetables into your meals, I have a book recommendation. This can also work with reluctant spouses.  Deceptively Delicious is a book I bought when my oldest two were young and it has a lot of great recipes.

Kristy