More About Vegetables

In my continuing quest to add more vegetables to my diet, I've come across some interesting things recently.

First, while "half watching" Dr. Oz the other day while I was sewing the fractal quilt (and more about that soon!) I heard him talking with A.J. Jacobs.  This man decided to try a variety of diets to try to lose weight and improve his health.  You can read about him here.  He had some interesting comments about making vegetables more appealing.  In fact he voiced something that I've thought for a long time.  He advocates adding a small amount of sugar to a dish of vegetables.  He feels that it is a small "price" to pay to get more healthy vegetables into your diet and the disadvantages of the sugar are far outweighed by the advantages of the vegetables.  On that same note, he shared that we tend to like crunchy foods and even has a recipe for adding Cheetos to a vegetable dish (you read that right.....Cheetos!) to make it taste better.  I haven't tried either of these ideas, but they are both worth considering.  Back in my children days I remember trying to get the boys to eat raw carrots.  My strategy was to put peanut butter (something they all loved) on them.  They fell for it hard and now carrots with peanut butter is one of their favorite "dishes" from the old days.

Second, I came across this recipe for a salad made of corn and asparagus.  It's really good and low calorie.  You serve it cold so it is great to take to a picnic or covered dish meal.  I DOES have some sugar in it but like we said above - not a big nutritional price to pay for that amount of nutritional goodness.  It also stays nicely in the refrigerator providing a quick vegetable option for a few days.

Third, I stumbled upon a great combination at home.  I cooks a few slices of bacon, then cooked some sliced mushrooms in the same pan.  I cut up the bacon and threw it back into the pan and put some fresh spinach on top and let it all cook together.  Then I put some cheese on top and placed it in a hot oven to melt the cheese.  The flavors all blended nicely, although I think if I do it again I would add some onion.  But as an added bonus, the leftovers went great with eggs for a second meal.

And lastly....a none vegetable food comment....an old lunch choice has become my new breakfast favorite.  Toast with a thin layer of peanut butter, sliced banana and honey sprinkled on top.  One slice is a perfect breakfast size for me.  I get fruit, whole grain and a bit of protien.  It's been a nice chance from my usual oatmeal with fruit or toast.

Ok...back to sewing.