My boyfriend HATES eating veggies, and I don't know how to cook with them
Yep. Pretty much exactly what the title says. I grew up on salads and canned vegetables, but now I can't stand the taste of the canned stuff. Except for corn, canned corn is all right. So I want to learn how to cook with fresh vegetables and have them be healthy and yummy, because if they're not yummy, my boyfriend won't touch them. And I figured I might as well put this in here too: my boyfriend haaates eating his vegetables. He's gotten better about it since I first met him, but it's still pretty difficult. So how can I sneak vegetables in to make him eat healthier?
I have a steamer that I use for frozen veggies. I LOVE IT!! To me, they taste alot better and fresher then veggies in a can. I bought my steamer at Wal-Mart for about $15.00. I use it on veggies like green beans, carrots, asparagus, artichoke, corn on the cob, etc...
I don't know what the weather is like this time of year for you, but vegetables cooked on a charcoal or gas grill are heavenly, and something the guys can relate to Cut slabs or big chunks of zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, red peppers, and onions. Toss with a small amount of olive oil and season with salt and pepper, and cook them over the grill. They take on the flavor and are heavenly! Grilled veggies make fantastic sandwiches or pizza topping, too
Oooh, that sounds fantastic! I probably won't be able to try it for a while though, according to the five day forecast we're going to be having quite a bit of rain, heh.
ssgtswife, I loove steamed vegetables, but it's difficult to get my boyfriend to eat them because they still LOOK like vegetables, lol. I got him to eat steamed asparagus once, actually, and he liked it, maybe I'll be able to use the asparagus argument to get him to try some others
Hi Elenwen and welcome!
I am not a fan of plain steamed vegetables just sitting there by their lonesome selves, but I love vegetables in other things. One thing I like to do is to finely chop them (it can be almost any vegetable: carrots, celery, zucchini, kale, cauliflour, fennel, garlic, onion, mushrooms, peppers) and add them to chili or spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce. There are also a lot of very good fresh vegetable soups, and juices. If you make any casseroles or pasta dishes, those are great places to hide vegetables. Put some carrots and zucchini - or that lovely asparagus - in the stroganoff, the tuna casserole, the lasagna, or whatever! The 3fc recipe page lists some good ideas, and there are lots of other good vegetable recipes on other sites too (my favorite is www.molliekatzen.com)
Good luck!
We will roast some of ours. We love roasted beets and fingerling potatoes. They come out sooo good! There is a mushroom spinach recipe somewhere on here. If I can find it, I'll post it here for you. Also, if you like beets, there is a deviled beets recipe on here as well. It has become a staple in our kitchen.
I've never tried beets, but am always up for trying something new. Neither one of us can stand mushrooms, though. Thank you for going through the bother of finding the recipes!
I have an interesting way to veggies into meals. My fiance loves veggies but our teenaged daughter hates most of them.
I have Parrots and sometimes I just don't have time to chop up fresh veggies in the morning so every few weeks I got to the Organic farmer's market and pick up a bunch of veggies. I steam them to quite a soft consistency and then puree them (adding back in a little of the steaming water to get the right consistency) and then I scoop it into ice cube trays and freeze them down. Once they're frozen I pop them out of the cube trays and put them in freezer bags.
On a morning that I"m short for time I just thaw a couple cubes and add to some rice/pasta or birdie bread and viola! How does that have anything to do with my daughter eating veggies you ask! Well! Whenever I make pasta sauce/shephard's pic/chilli/casseroles I take out about 8 of those cubes and hide them in the sauce. She has no idea (neither does my SO, who ends up eating a much larger portion of veggies than he ever realizes. I don't have to argue with the girl and I know she's getting some of her daily requirements met. I've also been known to add these to her milkshakes (I can really only get away with golden beets or light coloured squash, although once I got away with sweet potatoe in her strawberry shake). I know it's sneaky but it works.
I also love cauliflower, brocolli, carrots, green beans, peppers and a bit of sweet corn done in a foil pouch (fold it like a pyramid so there is room for steam) with one ice cube (you can make cubes with 1/2 low-sodium chicken stock & 1/2 water) a dab of transfat free margarine and then whatever spices tickle your fancy. I love the Mrs. Dash garlic & herb. I throw these on the BBQ and in a few minutes I have lovely steamed (careful not to oversteam) crisp tender veggies with a kick!
I have some tricks for you, that may or may not help.
First of all, my fiancee is like this too. He was raised on boxed foods, and canned vegetables. He REFUSED to eat certain things like peas, green beans asparagus, tuna, salmon, etc.
But, he and I made a deal (with a lot of arguing cause he's stubborn and so am I), that he would TRY everything at least once. If it's a vegetable and doesn't meake him wanna vomit, he'll eat it. If he doesn't like it I'll eat them myself. If he likes them, I make it again for him.
With that being said, he tried peas for me one day. I insisted that the foods he recognized as food .... was nothing like the original. But to this day, his mom cooks out of boxes so that's what he knew.
Anyway, the first victory was peas. *I* hate canned peas for heaven's sake, so I didn't expect him to like them! Frozen with just a TOUCH of butter, he now loves. He's added those to the list of veggies he will ask for when I'm making the traditional meat/potato/veggie dinner.
The next victory was tuna, but that's not a veggie... so I'll pass this one. (he won't eat from a can but he loves tuna steak)
Green beans was next. He refused to eat canned green beans (which I happen to like, but oh well). So off to the produce stand I went, I got fresh green beans, 2 shallots, then went back home and fried 1 piece of lower fat bacon, then sauteed the green beans (take the ends off!) with the smallest amount of light tasting (not extra virgin) olive oil, the tiniest bit of butter (like half a teaspoon), some kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and a little bit of garlic. (If I have it on hand, I use a little chicken broth too) Chopped up the bacon piece tossed it in. He LOVED these, even had seconds.
Next was Broccoli. This one is still hard for me to get around. I cannot make them plain for him, but he will eat the broccoli and cheese frozen packages.
With that being said, I put Broccoli and Cauliflower in mashed potatoes. I know this sounds weird, but here's what I do: I boil mashed potatoes (or steam if I'm only making a small amount, I only have a little itty bitty steamer basket at my disposal), then about halfway through throw in raw cauliflower. I mash the potatoes as usual (I use a little bit of butter, light sour cream, some garlic powder), beat them up, then I mix in a little bit of half reduced fat, half fat free cheddar cheese. ** The whole family loves this. It ends up being about half cauliflower/broccoli, half potatoes. Yes, I add calories to it by adding a tiny bit of cheese and all that stuff but it gets him veggies and it about evens out since you take out about half the potatoes.
I sneak veggies in everywhere as well, cause his father is really stubborn. I put shredded carrots in soooooo many things. Like meatballs (food processed carrots), lasagna, spaghetti, mexican lasagna, taco meat.... just to name a few.
Most of the things I make are about half vegetable. For example, I make meatballs with onion, green peppers and carrots. I make spaghetti with carrots, onions, green peppers and zuchinni. There's a book at Borders... I can't remember the name of it, but it's about sneaking veggies into kids food. Maybe use that as a start if he's as stubborn as my guy. After he eats it and love it, tell him what's in it. Might make him a little more likely to try it another way.
Most importantly, try different recipes. If he doesn't like something one way, wait a long time before trying it again, but try it a different way. He'll probably forgot he didn't like it the first time. TRY different foods. Go to a produce place, look around.
Oh, he also now likes brussel sprouts (made the same way I make green beans), roasted veggies (olive oil, garlic, herbs, kosher salt, baked) and all sorts of other things.
Oh, one more thing that I've found helps in my situation... is getting him involved. Give him a list of veggies that he gets to choose from, and hae him find a recipe that he thinks sounds good. Remind him that it cant be bathing in butter and oil or cream. Encourage him to cook it. (My fiancee can't cook, so not being able to cook isn't an excuse, he still does it... now. Took me a while. It was more intimidation than anything. Now he cooks a few times a week, but he will only cook stuff that we've cooked together so he knows he's doing it right.
There's lots of ways to cook and serve veggies that anyone can enjoy. I now look forward to him finding salad recipes and the like, and he's always looking for more veggies to put in the salad now!
DH won't even try veggis. (in his defense I got him to eat grilled corn on the cob) I have to hide them in his food. he's been eating snails in his pasta for years and doesn't know it. I puree carrots and put them in the macaroni and cheese. things like that.
My boyfriend HATES eating veggies, and I don't know how to cook with them
Cut slabs or big chunks of zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, red peppers, and onions. Toss with a small amount of olive oil and season with salt and pepper, and cook them over the grill. They take on the flavor and are heavenly! Grilled veggies make fantastic sandwiches or pizza topping, too 
Thank you for going through the bother of finding the recipes!
I puree carrots and put them in the macaroni and cheese. things like that.
