Local Errand Girl's Green Blog

At breakfast the other morning, my almost six year old daughter asked my husband and I what vegetables she and her brother had yet to try.  My husband and I looked at each other, and there were several minutes of silence as we both ticked off in our heads what vegetables we had exposed our children to on a regular basis:  Broccoli, yes.  Brussels Sprouts, yes.  Carrots, yes.  Spinach, yes.  Asparagus, yes.  Beets, yes.  Artichokes, yes.  And on it went.  I finally came up with cauliflower, to which both our son and daughter replied “What’s that?”, so I knew I had hit on something.  I had to think, though: Why cauliflower?  I realized then that cauliflower is a veggie you eat raw instead of cooked.   I wish I could say that I keep a selection of raw veggies on hand, but alas, I don’t.   My raw veggie collection consists of carrots, and sometimes celery and radish.  Something to work on, I guess.

However, how did my children become so versed in vegetables?   More importantly, though: when we sit down for dinner, they eat their vegetables without complaint.  Vegetables that have not been covered in cheese, or are accompanied by dipping sauce, or made into scenery, or slathered in butter, or smashed into Macaroni and Cheese, or cooked into Brownies.  And they have done so for years.  How did my son and daughter get like this?  Two words: Feeling Successful.

As we introduced veggies into my son’s diet at five months of age, Eric eagerly accepted them.  However, when we started to create our own baby food out of veggies we bought, times got a little rough.  I’ll admit it:  we bribed him with natural apple sauce by hiding a green bean under it on a spoon.  Yes, we switched back and forth from natural apple sauce to a veggie with each bite.  As he got closer to two years old, though, he turned into the typical boy, and just ate everything put in front of him, without the natural apple sauce bribe.  He was easy.  Our daughter, not so much.  Emma caught onto the apple sauce trick fairly quickly, and although she would take the spoon with the hidden veggie underneath the apple sauce, that veggie rode it’s way out of her mouth soon afterward.  We fought her for two years before my mom suggested an idea she read in her Pilates book:  Children respond to the numbers of their age.   So, one night at dinner, I served Emma two green beans, and told her she needed to eat them because “She was two years old”, and left it at that.   She ate them!  Wholeheartedly!   We slowly built from there:  two green beans at first, followed by two piles of two green beans a couple of months later, etc.  When she turned three, her portions automatically when up, without her having a problem with it.   It was magic!  And this works with ANYTHING!  “You may have three pretzels because you are three years old”, says parent.  “Okay!”, says kid.  You may have four jelly beans for dessert because you are four years old”, says parent.  “Okay!”, says kid.   “You need to have five bites of dinner because you’re five years old”, says parent.  “Okay…”, says kid.   It’s amazing!  And through it, Emma felt successful: she finished her veggies like a big girl, and earned dessert (we’re old school in our house: dessert is earned by eating all of your dinner.  If it wasn’t dessert, it would be served with dinner, wouldn’t it?).   By feeling successful with vegetables, children eat more of them, and become healthier for it.

Four Christmases ago, my grandma bought me an “all the rage” cookbook about how to hide vegetables in everyday meals so that one’s children would get their needed daily intake of vegetables.  It’s a great idea in theory; I mean, hidden vegetables are better than no vegetables at all, right?  Not necessarily.  When you hide vegetables, they become something to be feared and disliked.  Children, just as adults, need to grow into their relationship with veggies, and a mutual respect needs to be earned.  How does that happen when veggies are hidden where they can’t be smelled, tasted, and seen?   How does a child learn that they need vegetables if none ever appear on their plate?   The simple answer is that they don’t.    Liberate the hidden veggies out of meals and put them on the plate where they can be seen!  Whole and beautiful! (even if it is two pieces at at time if your child is two years old).  The best relationships start slowly and build over time.  If you start slowly now with your children, you will more than likely have Veggie Lovin’ and Respectin’ adults on your hands when they are grown.   Is there any better gift to give your future grandchildren?

How is it possible to become friends with a vegetable?   I mean, some are prickly, others are crunchy or wrinkly, and none of them smell good.  Well, it’s best to get to know them slowly, bringing out their best, and then they are rather enjoyable to be around.    This was rather an awakening for me; me, whose vegetable experience growing up consisted of a variety of salad, the occasional cooked-through carrot or broccoli, and the even more occasional asparagus.   My mother freely admits that she was “vegetable inept” while my sister and I were growing up, and my eyes were opened to the vegetable world almost ten years ago, when, newly married, my husband looked at the dinner as we prepared it and asked: Where is the vegetable?

Where was the vegetable?  The vegetable was back at the grocery store where it belonged.  Over the years, however, vegetables slowly changed from being of the frozen variety to the fresh, and when I discovered our local Farmers Market, my attitude changed from one of resentfulness (”A vegetable, a vegetable…carrots will have to do again”) to one of curiosity (”Oh…beets!  What can we do with those?!?”)

Below is a list of some vegetables and how I have found to look past their undesirable exteriors to find the beauty beneath.  I challenge you to try a new vegetable a month, and if it’s a success, for it to become a part of your dining repertoire.

Asparagus: Rinse, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and either bake, broil or barbecue until fork tender.

Beets: After peeling the beets, cut into quarters and steam until fork tender.  In a pan, add the fork tender beets to three minced cloves are garlic, olive oil, the chopped beet greens (their tops), and then sprinkle with a pinch of salt.  Stir until the greens are limp and garlic is slightly brown, then serve and enjoy.  One exciting side effect of beets: they add a nice red tinge to your pee.

Broccoli: Rinse, cut the tops into pieces, and either steam or blanch (throwing the florets –aka tops–into boiling water) until just fork tender.

Brussels Sprouts: The poor brussels sprout…after being boiled for so many years, it has developed a really bad rap.  Especially since it’s one of the vegetables that offer quite a high level of protection against cancer.   So here’s what you do: Rinse, peel away any loose leaves, and cut in half lengthwise.   Saute two minced cloves of garlic in olive oil for 30 seconds, add the brussels sprouts (same side down), and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.  Saute on the first side for no more than five minutes, then flip the sprouts, and saute on the second side for no more than three minutes.   Remove from heat and serve.

Carrots: Rinse, peel, cut into desired pieces, and steam until fork tender.  Or, peel long shavings into a salad.  Or, eat raw with your lunch.  So many possibilities.

Lettuces: The dark greener, the better-er.  Red Leaf and Romaine are staples during the winter months at our Farmers Market, and they are gorgeous!  Lettuce never looked so good!  Throw a piece onto a sandwich, or get creative with a salad.  Add radish, orange pieces, strawberry pieces, apple pieces, nuts, carrot, tomato, onion, cucumber, cheese, beans…a salad is the laundry basket of meals!  (and, of course, the less dressing used, the better.)

Spinach: It’s the cancer fighting vegetable that provides entertainment:  watch it shrink before your eyes!  Spinach can make a wonderfully tasty salad, but to see the magic, steam it in a pan with a little bit of water and lemon juice.  Constantly stir the spinach, which will be difficult at first because there will be tons of leaves in your pan.   However, after a couple of minutes, it’ll become easier, and voila, your tons of leaves will have shrunk down to barely two servings.    Make sure to remove from the pan while the spinach is still green and before it turns a dark color.

Summer squashes and zucchini: Rinse, cut into desired pieces, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and either saute, bake, broil or barbecue until fork tender.

It is very important to understand that, because of their porous and thin skinned nature, bell peppers, potatoes, spinach and celery are very likely to be hurt by your rejection and dismissal…oh, and they MUST be bought certified organic.  If they are not, their delicate skin soaks up the pesticides and herbicides used by farmers, which then…no matter how many times they are washed…are transferred to you.  Don’t say you weren’t warned!

All in all, once peace is made with and a mutual respect has occurred between vegetable and human, a long lasting and fulfilling friendship develops.  I’m proof of that.  Ever so often, we’ll sit down at the dinner table to enjoy our meal, and I’ll look down at my plate and wonder: Where is the vegetable?

Local Errand Girl is the “green” errand service in the Temecula Valley, using cloth bags for deliveries, donating to plant trees in Southern California, and bringing locally grown, pesticide free produce to those who choose to eat healthier.  It is the hope that this will provide some insight as to how to eat healthier while helping our economy at the same time in an entertaining manner.

It’s almost 2010, and I thought, why not start the new year with accounts of my clients and vendors that I interact with on a weekly basis (names will be changed to protect the innocent ).  So please check back every Wednesday to see what was new and exciting, and for healthy recipes that use the ingredients at the Farmers Market.   I’m nervous and excited about this…it should be fun!