Secret veggies

Eating green things has never been a happy occasion around our house. When our daughter was younger, I actually put green food coloring in pancakes, thinking that I could convince her that green didn't taste horrible. I can't say that that was a success, but she will (as an adult) occasionally allow a green bean to pass her lips if it's solidly encased in all the glop that goes into a green bean casserole.

My Prince has had his own unhappy relationship with green foods, but he will, at least, eat it if I put it on his plate. Having seconds is a little more iffy; there are always more green leftovers than other colors. As I've tried to cook and eat a healthier diet, some of this effort has spilled over to his plate. Thus we had the comment a few days ago, in a distinctly amazed tone of voice: "We sure are eating a lot of green vegetables these days." Ya think?

Mama has always been a vegetable eater. She's losing words these days, so it took us a while to figure out what she was referring to when she talked about having "that veggie dish" the other day. She meant the chicken pot pies that she consumes almost daily. What she likes about them, aside from all that crust and cream sauce, is the vegetables. She enjoys being taken to Cracker Barrel and having a vegetable plate. It's just that the veggies should not be too green, please, and if they have to be green they should be English peas or green beans (preferably cooked with bacon).

How can I feed these people??????

At one point, the solution for My Prince was to cover the green with bacon bits or cheese or both. I think he'd eat anything if I put cheese or bacon on it.

My new strategy is to hide the vegetables. A fun place to hide spinach, for example, is in marinara sauce. Let them think we are having spaghetti and meatballs, yes, but get a good serving of spinach in there as well. This works very well for My Prince, although he did give me the Evil Eye when I put a little broccoli in his omelet. Tricking Mama is a little harder, but I did manage to sneak in some spinach when I served spaghetti and meatballs on Friday night. She only ate a little bit, but she may have been full. It's hard to tell sometimes whether she's had enough or she's just not telling you that she is really sorry that she put that on her plate.

Anyone else have good hiding places for vegetables?