In need of help with vegetables...

jenniferlouisewilkinson5971
jenniferlouisewilkinson5971 Posts: 17 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Ok, my son and I have very simple tastes, I make what I was raised with.

Tinned spaghetti, soup, ham sandwiches, meat, potatoes, gravy, carrots and swede (but they must be mashed together).

We don't like any other vegetables, but are wanting to try to incorporate them into our daily lives. I've been thinking of perhaps grating a new vegetable each week or so and adding it to our meals. But I'm unsure what to start with.

Please can anyone suggest where to start, or what to start with. Thank you.
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Replies

  • burntoutphilosopher
    burntoutphilosopher Posts: 74 Member
    Brussels sprouts!

    Cut in half, and saute in very hot butter flat side down until browned but still toothsome.
  • norahkathleen
    norahkathleen Posts: 69 Member
    mmm...brussels sprouts! even just cut in half, drizzled with a little evoo and sprinkled with any random seasonings and in the oven for a bit and i could eat them all day.
  • BeccaLoves2lift
    BeccaLoves2lift Posts: 375 Member
    Brussel sprouts are also good roasted in the oven with Olive oil, salt, and pepper.
    I love to roast bell peppers, onions, zucchini, and sweet potatoes with chicken or fish in the oven.
    Broccoli and cauliflower are really great choices, I just eat these steamed.
    Do you like salads at all? Try adding some chicken or shrimp to salads to bulk them up.
    Smoothies or protein shakes are great options to hide spinach or kale in. I prefer spinach.
    Do you like stir fries? They are an easy dish to load up with veggies.
    Raw veggies with gaucomole or hummus are really tasty.
    Just keep trying new veggies. Check out Pinterest for recipe ideas. You'll learn to love them or at least tolerate them
  • Macy9336
    Macy9336 Posts: 694 Member
    You could sauté some onion and mushrooms and stir into your tinned spaghetti.
    Peas always mix well with tuna. (Blanch frozen peas in boiling water for two mins)
    I like carrots and green beans with ham ( steamed).
    Savoy cabbage is also great with potatos and gravy ( steam it)
    You can always make coleslaw as it's summer now...that's a great way to eat some vegetables.
    Broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce on top is awesome. Steam the veg, use a packet instant cheese sauce.
    Baked or mashed sweet potato is also very good.


  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    Mashed yams or sweet potatoes might agree with you if you like potatoes. Many like peas, in the pod or frozen sweetlets (smaller peas are sweeter). Corn is popular with many.

    Do you like raw veggies at all? Cucumbers, snap peas, bell peppers or celery in a dip or creamy salad dressing is good. Roasted onions, squash and parsnips is tasty.

    I would try a recipe book and see what catches your fancy.
  • lucys1225
    lucys1225 Posts: 597 Member
    Try roasting a variety of different vegetables (brussel sprouts, zucchini, red peppers, yellow squash, cauliflower, broccoli...) and see what you like. I never liked any vegetables until I started roasting them. Now they take up 80-90% of my meals. Or you can try spiralizing some zucchini or making some spaghetti squash and using it in place of pasta.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited May 2017
    If the idea is to unobtrustively add them to foods, one idea is summer squash (yellow squash and zucchini, although you may call them courgettes?). I add them to a meat sauce for pasta all the time. (Green peppers are also good, as well as mushroom, in a meat sauce, and spinach blends in, but I wouldn't try too much at once.)

    Cauliflower mashes well and also can be added to a pasta sauce. If you like the taste of celery at all (flavor, not texture), celeriac (or celery root, same thing) is an easy vegetable to use as you would potatoes. Parsnips blend well with carrots.

    How about soups with the sandwich? Lots of delicious vegetable-based soups.
  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
    Raw red pepper strips are pretty tasty - most people seem to like them. And they're very nutritious.

    I agree with @Macy9336 about adding some sauteed onion and mushroom (or just onion) to your spaghetti sauce. Cooked onions can almost disappear into all kinds of dishes. They add nutrition and while lowering the calorie density.

    Another vegetable you might try is Swiss chard. Just boil the leaves very quickly, or saute them, then add salt and pepper. It's very mild tasting.
  • ScottishRob1
    ScottishRob1 Posts: 49 Member
    Personally, I hate most cooked vegetables except for the basics like corn and potatoes. So to get my good veggies in I have to eat them raw. I am happy with broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, and carrots dipped in some lowfat yogurt ranch dressing (Bolthouse Farms makes some good ones), this way I get in my good veggies and don't have to gag through asparagus, brussel sprouts, etc... My wife and I are also trying a lot of new recipes (she loves cooked veggies), and I am slowly softening up to some of them. Tried some baked spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce, garlic, and Parmesan and didn't mind it one bit.
  • JenSD6
    JenSD6 Posts: 454 Member
    Roasting really is a delicious and easy way to make all sorts of vegetables. A little oil, salt, pepper, seasonings, and toss it into the oven. Line the pan with parchment paper for super easy cleanup. You can try making fun things like asparagus "fries" by coating them in a little panko breading and roasting them.

    I really like cauliflower "rice" roasted in the oven with lots of seasoning as an easy way to get in a good vegetable helping. Plus I find it really soaks up the flavour of any sauces you have on your plate, too.
  • Tried30UserNames
    Tried30UserNames Posts: 561 Member
    I like cross2bear's and lemurcat12's suggestions a lot.

    Mashed cauliflower is great, especially if you make it really creamy in the food processor rather than chunky when mashing it by hand. And it's good with some cheese in it.

    While I love Brussels sprouts, I don't think many people do. It's like suggesting to someone who doesn't like meat that they start with liver.

    A lot of vegetables are tastier with some butter and salt on them rather than just plain steamed. Or if it's something like carrots or sweet potatoes, with butter and brown sugar, even.

    I like broccoli with a generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese. I like to mix zucchini noodles with spaghetti noodles. Salsa is made from vegetables, so eating chips and salsa are one way to try some veg.

    I'm a vegetable lover, but I've known many people who claim not to like any vegetables find they really like them roasted. Here's one recipe that is always very popular at family dinners...it even has Brussels sprouts and is the only way anyone (except me) in my extended family will eat them. If you're not used to more adventurous eating, maybe halve or quarter the amount of herbs in the recipe.

    http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/roasted-potatoes-carrots-parsnips-and-brussels-sprouts-recipe2-1940760
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    I want to commend you for being willing to try new things.

    I eat almost all vegetables raw instead of cooking them. Don't be afraid to try the same vegetable prepared a few different ways. For instance, you might try broccoli straight up raw, raw with a bit of dip (or dressing), steamed, or steamed with a small bit of sauce or small sprinkle of cheese (I'd caution to weigh something like cheese as it can be calorie dense.)
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    I like dark leafy greens with smoked turkey or smoked pork. Tasty.
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  • Moxie42
    Moxie42 Posts: 1,400 Member
    I'd recommend checking out Pinterest- they have tons of recipes that use veggies in unique ways, such as creamy sauces made with cauliflower that you can use on spaghetti or as a tasty sauce for other veggies.

    If you like eggs, adding grated zucchini helps beef up the eggs a bit and adds a little flavor (without it actually tasting like veggies)- I make omeletts and scrambles with eggs, the grated zucchini, ham, cheese (and if you're willing to give it a shot, maybe add some diced bell pepper and onion).

    Sweet potatoes! They can be mashed like regular potatoes (I add a little cinnamon too), diced and sauteed in a little butter with diced apples (this is a great breakfast hash, or dinner side-dish), microwave them for an easy baked potato, or sliced and roasted in the oven.

    Roasted and grilled veggies in general I think are pretty tasty, and easy. Just chop, drizzle with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast or grill.

    Also, I always get fresh or frozen veggies. Personally, the only canned veggie I like is corn. The other seem mushy and weird-tasting to me (plus sometimes they have lots of added sodium). A lot of people I know thought they hated veggies until they tried non-canned ones. To each their own of course but I would definitely try both to see which you might prefer.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Kohlrabi is another good one. It's a bulb with leafy greens attached. Cut off the greens (you can keep them to steam/wilt if you'd like.) Then peel the bulb and slice it thinly. I eat it raw, sometimes with a sprinkle of salt.
  • besaro
    besaro Posts: 1,858 Member
    do you like soups? I make all sorts of bean soups and just shove veggies in. Kale and spinach are great fillers.
  • jenniferlouisewilkinson5971
    jenniferlouisewilkinson5971 Posts: 17 Member
    The only soups I like are chicken and oxtail, the tinned ones. lol I'm very basic.
  • sosteach
    sosteach Posts: 260 Member
    Zucchini really has no flavor on its own so that might be an easy one to start with. Season it to your liking (I like garlic salt and Italian herbs) and just saute it (you can chop it or slice it-leave the peel on) in about a tablespoon of olive oil. It only takes a couple of minutes.
  • _tannyw
    _tannyw Posts: 26 Member
    In your swede and carrot mash, chop up really small and cook some spinach to chuck in - you'll barely taste it, and after a while you'll be able to build up the portions more and more
  • Pupslice
    Pupslice Posts: 213 Member
    Those bags of mixed carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli are very good roasted with some minced garlic, a tablespoon of olive oil, and salt-free seasoning like Mrs. Dash. Sometimes I add a small bag of new potatoes to the mix, just cut them into smaller pieces so they cook at the same rate as the veggies do.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    My lunch today.. 85g Mixed greens rough chopped, 50g green/red bell pepper chopped, 25g red onion chopped, 50g broccoli florets chopped, 50g cucumber with peel chopped/sliced, 50g cherry tomatoes chopped/halved, 1/4 cup 2% shredded fiesta cheese, 1 boiled egg chopped, 4 deli thin slices of land-o-lakes brown sugar ham, chopped, 4 tbsp skinny girl honey mustard dressing. 250cals total, 24 carbs, 7g fiber, 22g protein, 10g fat. Huge salad. Very filling, tasty, and good for you. Embrace salads, they are wonderful.
  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
    edited May 2017
    Moxie42 wrote: »
    ...If you like eggs, adding grated zucchini helps beef up the eggs a bit and adds a little flavor (without it actually tasting like veggies)- I make omeletts and scrambles with eggs, the grated zucchini, ham, cheese (and if you're willing to give it a shot, maybe add some diced bell pepper and onion). ...
    Sauteed onion has a very similar texture to the eggs, so if you leave it in the pan and pour the beaten egg in over it, frittata-style, the onions can be part of the omelet. It adds flavor, nutrition, and volume without adding many calories. You can add a pretty generous amount and the eggs will still hold together.

  • jenniferlouisewilkinson5971
    jenniferlouisewilkinson5971 Posts: 17 Member
    Spliner1969 wrote: »
    My lunch today.. 85g Mixed greens rough chopped, 50g green/red bell pepper chopped, 25g red onion chopped, 50g broccoli florets chopped, 50g cucumber with peel chopped/sliced, 50g cherry tomatoes chopped/halved, 1/4 cup 2% shredded fiesta cheese, 1 boiled egg chopped, 4 deli thin slices of land-o-lakes brown sugar ham, chopped, 4 tbsp skinny girl honey mustard dressing. 250cals total, 24 carbs, 7g fiber, 22g protein, 10g fat. Huge salad. Very filling, tasty, and good for you. Embrace salads, they are wonderful.

    That sounds like an awesome filling meal, I just need to like the food first, and then I'll be having this!
    Maybe not the egg or cheese or mustard.. most of it I will be having
  • hannahland18
    hannahland18 Posts: 10 Member
    Go all out! Make something fancy!!! I literally love every vegetable in the world but I understand that's not true for all people. For example my nephews were always really weary of anything green. But by getting them to help me in the kitchen or pick out their own side dish and cook it they slowly but surely began eating like I do. It's always fun to try new things and experiment with recipes and techniques. Just have fun and remember to go for big bold beautiful colors and see what happens! Hope this helps!
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    jenniferlouisewilkinson5971 wrote: »

    That sounds like an awesome filling meal, I just need to like the food first, and then I'll be having this!
    Maybe not the egg or cheese or mustard.. most of it I will be having

    I like eggs on salad, but you could easily double the ham and skip the egg. I do it for added protein. Cheese I can take or leave, but I usually put it on if I have it. The fat in the cheese helps keep you full longer. You can also add nuts (my wife likes sunflower seeds) but they add calories. For a crouton substitution we use wonton strips when they are handy, they come in several flavors but also add carbs/calories.

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