Help! I need sneaky ways to get my veggies.

OH MAN .. this is me to the tee about a year ago. My mom always steamed our veggies and I HATED THEM! ESPECIALLY BROCCOLI!.

However, I got an electric WOK one year for a gift, while cleaning the kitchen I ran across it and pulled it out of the box and left it on my counter. Then magically if by fate or some sort of boredom (I'm not realy sure), I had extra white rice from having chinese takeout the night before. So I found a recipe for fried rice which is my favorite. The recipe called for carrots and peas which I was okay with, but also Onoins and Broccoli. I was like BLEH! I usually leave those in the bottom when I have fried rice. But I pressed onto the store and picked up frozen peas and carrots. They were small and uniform shaped so I figured they would probably cook evenly together. Then I found Organics brand Broccoli, I though .. wth, Might as well. it probably adds flavor and if I don't like it I can leave it out. So then I went to the produc section to face my other nemisis.. isessses... anyhoo .. Onions, I didn't have the recipe with me but Did you know there are more than 1 type of onions? I KNOW! RIGHT!? I didn't know which one to get so I ran accross an In season sign and it said WALLA WALLA Sweet Onion. "hmmm sweet you say? I like sweet things sure why not? Ihave had them at burgerville and they seemed good, fried and all that." Okay so the recipe actually called for green onions.. I'm an idiot. Anyhoo, soooo I go home pour WAY too much vegitble oil in and put the wok up to 10 and put the onoins in first... they brown really fast. I think I just ruined my recipe, so I said F-in and tossed everything in, including the rice and chicken, broccoli peas and carrots. And then end before serving I sprinkled the entire thing with salt.

Surprisingly it all turned out AMAZING even if it did have too much oil. The onions were carmelized, Nearly burnt, well some of them were but surprisingly sweet, and the broccoli was crisp but had a very nice flavor, like the onoins rubbed off them. I was to say the least FUNKING ASTOUNDED that things I hated sooo much were all of a sudden soooo good. I started making stir fry EVERY night, No rice, just veggies. experimenting by Adding in Low Sodium Soy sauce, Sesame oil, Fish sauce, Oyster sauce, Asian Chile Oil, Sesame oil. Later adding small steak strips and Yakisoba noodles.

Point of the long drawn out story is, I hated this stuff the way It was always presented to me. So I thought I hated the food, turns out I hated the cooking method. If you hate veggies raw or steamed, try a stir fry. Or try adding Onion Salt from Salt works... ITS AMAZING! just ... AMAZING. Also you may want to pick up Alton Brown's book - I ' m just here for the food. 2.0 on amazon kindle (if you have the kindle app on your pc or smart phone.)

in short, I spend a lot of time in the produce section of the store now and not just to look at all the ripe melons.

Try the Sneaky Chef

http://www.amazon.com/Sneaky-Chef-Strategies-Healthy-Favorite/dp/0762430753/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325830053&sr=8-1

I read somewhere that if you eat something 16-18 times, you acquire a taste for it. I don't remember where I read it, otherwise I would give you the link. But try that. It has worked for me.

Seriously try them prepared differently, raw, steamed, blanched...whatever you are able, you may find a cooking method for a particular veggie that you absolutely love!

That said also try different varieties, there's hundreds of different tomatoes, you might not like the ones on the grocery store shelf but heirloom ones at the farmers market raised for taste rather than the shelf stability they go for for the produce shelves (hmm did we lead them to that by refusing to accept bruised apples etc?) shelf stable and highly tasty don't go hand in hand for every veggie OR fruit out there! Try the different varieties, you might not like english cucumbers but ... (blank here... grew some this year...) another variety might be right up your alley.

Try steaming for sure for things like broccoli and maybe asparagus vs endlessly boiling them where the water winds up more tasty than the veggie itself does (though that does make a mean vegetable stock worth keeping for future soup making)

ETA Apazman beat me to it with the different cooking methods AND in a round about way the different varieties of the various items, but I'll leave the post as it may be helpful, in spite of Apazman not liking steamed veggies... besides that I may have to try his stir fry recipe.

shredded veggies is the way to go! i do this all the time and of course don't tell my hubby or son. they actually seem to like it better, as its more flavorful... but i can't bring myself to tell them the secret ingredient for fear that they may be repulsed. i use my food processer or blender all the time.

examples: lasagna - shredded carrots, green pepper, onion, mushrooms; jambalaya - shredded onion, green pepper, celery; meatballs - shredded onion, carrots; rice - onion, shrooms, tomato, red pepper; massaman curry - CAULIFLOUR!!! i shred the cauliflour raw and mix it in with the cooked rice.

Have you tried Naked Juice Green Machine? If you have learned to like fruit, you should like it. I think pineapple is the most prevalent flavor and there's lots of veggie in it.

Also, if you like to cook: http://www.thesneakychef.com/

I totally agree! Green Machine is delicious! and I HATE veggies too!

Have you tried Naked Juice Green Machine? If you have learned to like fruit, you should like it. I think pineapple is the most prevalent flavor and there's lots of veggie in it.

Also, if you like to cook: http://www.thesneakychef.com/

totally just peeped out the website and BOUGHT the BOOK!

found it used on amazon for $4.00 NOT TOO DANG BAD!

THANKS! I love VEGGIES and FRUIT, but could always use a "better" way to get them in to things I wouldn't think they could be IN!

I read somewhere that if you eat something 16-18 times, you acquire a taste for it. I don't remember where I read it, otherwise I would give you the link. But try that. It has worked for me.

I agree. That's why we have the one bite rule for our children. You don't have to eat it but you do have to take one bite. Over time they have learned to like things like avocado, peppers, onions and many more.

Also, try using your blender to blend up all kinds of cooked veggies and add it to chicken broth to make a creamy base for soup and then add things you love like chicken chunks and pasta or rice. You won't even know they are there. If you like spicy, add cooked parsnips as well to the blender. I just recently found that one. They look like white carrots. Just peal, slice, boil in the chicken broth and toss in blender, broth and all. Yummy My kids went nuts over it.

I started juicing with a Jack LaLanne Juicer.
That helped.

why don't you try bubble and squeak, mash cooked potaoes and veg (carrots, broc etc) together fry in a small amount of oil and some extra light mayonaise and then grill until crisps on top.

or try cauliflower cheese just don't to over bored on the cheese sauce