Vegetables Are Not Our Enemies

I may be a cookbook fanatic, but I admit that I rarely follow the recipe exactly. Well, unless I'm baking. Baking requires more exact instructions. Maybe that's why I prefer to cook a meal than bake a dessert. My many cookbooks are used more for ideas and/or suggestions for a meal. Besides, how many times have you found a recipe you wanted to make for dinner only to find out that you don't have a couple of the ingredients. I say go ahead a make it with what you do have and be creative.

I urge people to be creative and use ingredients that their families will enjoy. If your family won't eat what you make for them, why are you wasting you time with the preparation of the meal and arguing at the dinner table to eat what you put in front of them. If a recipe calls for an ingredient that you know your family won't eat, such as green beans, then switch it up and use a vegetable they will like. Maybe they prefer a yellow bean, or maybe a green pepper, or broccoli. Or maybe you only have green beans and you know they won't eat them; my suggestions is to chop them very tiny and even put them in a blender and just add to a sauce of a casserole.

There are many creative ways to change up a simple recipe. Here are a few options:
Substitutions

• sweet potatoes for carrots
• yellow beans for green beans
• peas for corn
• cabbage for Brussels sprouts
• spinach for kale
• navy beans for garbanzo beans
• noodles for rice
• white potatoes for turnips
• chicken for turkey
• beef for pork
• hamburger for sausage

These are just a few suggestions and, like I said above, mashing beans for a sauce is another way to make sure your family gets the nutrients you intended. Sometimes just seeing something green in a casserole makes it undesirable to some people. Now if your sauce then turns green because you've blended the green beans, try adding "Kitchen Bouquet" browning and seasoning sauce. It's a very dark brown sauce made from caramel and vegetables and is used for seasoning meats, gravies, and stews. It will turn your mashed green beans into a color that resembles a gravy.

If a recipe calls for tomatoes and you don't like tomatoes, use tomato sauce or omit the tomatoes from the recipe. Some families don't like rice, but you can still make a stir fry full of vegetable and serve it over pasta.
There are many options to turn to when it comes to making sure your family gets the nutrition they need. You just have to be a little creative... and learn not to be shy when it comes to trying new things.

I urge you to be creative when it comes to cooking for your families. Look for simple recipes that are easy on the budget. We all want our families to get the nutrition they need and sometimes we have to "adjust" a recipe to get our families to enjoy their meals. When you find a recipe that might appeal to your family, but 1 or 2 ingredients are something your family won't eat, just substitute it for something they will eat.
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source : Vegetables Are Not Our Enemies