I really do love veggies!
Jan 9, 2009 Contest, Love Your Veggies
I’m a bad vegetarian. I’ve been a vegetarian most of my life, but I really only embraced vegetables somewhat recently. So what does a vegetarian eat if she doesn’t like veggies? Well, this one ate mostly fried mozzarella sticks, pasta, french fries, egg salad, potato chips, and pizza. It’s no wonder that I was 196 pounds after giving birth to my daughter four years ago.
I don’t know why I didn’t eat my veggies for so long. My parents were always very healthy and cooked plenty of vegetables for us, but I think I was just born hating anything that my parents told me I should do. It took me until my twenties to really get over that. But even then, I only wanted veggies prepared for me, in restaurants and salad bars. I didn’t want to do the work.
In the last five years, though, I’ve been having a love affair with vegetables. I love salads, and make really great giant ones with feta and carrots and tomatoes and onions and balsamic vinaigrette. I use a rather expensive pre-washed baby romaine, but it’s totally worth it, because I still don’t like doing the work.
I love cooking broccoli or zucchini with some garlic and dill, or roasting a big squash. I drool over good veggies and look forward to eating them. I eat frozen as often as I eat fresh, and there are some really great frozen veggies out there, with low-calorie sauces. I make the world’s best spinach pizza, with tomatoes and pesto and feta cheese. Baby carrots and ranch are a frequent snack. I eat several different kinds of veggies a day and love finding new recipes.
I have had zero success in transferring this love to my kids.
Each of them went through a phase, around two years of age, where they would eat any vegetable I put in front of them. There was a time when my son lived almost exclusively on broccoli. But as each got older, they decided that vegetables were yucky. They still have their favorites – my son will eat tons of carrots if I saute them with dill, and my daughter will eat bowl after bowl of tomato soup – but they have absolutely no interest in trying anything new at this point and I’m not sure how to handle it. My parents seemed to have done things right. They kept the house stocked with lots of healthy foods, and ate them. But I rebelled by hating healthy food. So I’m not sure what to do with my kids when it comes to veggies. I let them choose which ones they want to eat and prepare them how they like. I eat veggies around them but try not to proselytize. I don’t demonize veggies. You’ll never hear me say that they have to eat their green beans before they can have their dessert (we actually eat dessert before dinner, but that’s a whole other post).
Still, they each only like a couple of veggies, and it’s getting harder to get my daughter to even eat those. So what to do? I’m hoping to get some help from Love Your Veggies. Hidden Valley Ranch started this site, so naturally ranch dressing comes into play. But since I love ranch dressing I won’t hold that against them. The site has some kid friendly recipes and activities centered around veggies. Plus, they’re running a contest right now to send ten moms to Chicago for two days of learning about planting, harvesting, cooking, and eating veggies with kids. The winners get to work with chef Art Smith, and each get $5,000 to donate towards improving or starting a community garden!
To enter, you have to fill out an application and write a bit about why you want to attend the retreat and how you would use the community garden grant. I just entered! I would really love to do this. I love cooking, but often get into a rut when making food, and I know I would get lots of great ideas from going to this event. So good luck to me! But also good luck any of you who enters.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Hey Amy! Have you tried the vegetable pie method that mommy used to make? I can’t remember if you liked it…you probably didn’t but it is worth a try. If they like pies at all it might work.
I did, a while ago. Fiona used to like it a lot, back when she was liking veggies. But then she stopped liking it, and Jake would never even try a tiny bite. But I should try it again, because that’s an awesome way to eat veggies!
[...] morning videos, but haven’t written about it: I won a big contest from Hidden Valley Ranch! I entered the Love Your Veggies contest a few months ago, and I won! Me and nine other people, and I’ll get to meet them all in [...]