Eat your veggies!

Getting my family to eat vegetables is a challenge.  They all seem to have an aversion to anything green.  White is okay, but all other colors vary in their acceptance. 

My mother is famous for her frequent comment:  "I love vegetables!"  The fame comes from the fact that the comment is so ironic.  Take her to the local Cracker Barrel, and she will, yes, order the vegetable plate.  Her choices?  Corn, dumplings, steak fries, and fried apples.

*sigh*

Maria Rodale (Huffington Post) presents "10 Ways To Get Your Kid to Eat More Vegetables."  Here are the suggestions:

1. Serve them [the vegetables] raw
2. Let them [the kids] have dip
3. Plant a garden
4. Just add butter
5. Add them [the vegetables] to soup
6. Make a chopped vegetable salad
7. Roast them [the vegetables] till they are crispy and golden
8. Get them [the kids] to help you prepare them [the vegetables]
9. Covered in cheese
10. Eat them [the vegetables] yourself!

Interestingly enough (to me), I have tried most of these strategies on the adults in my family.  I haven't really tried Numbers 3 and 7, but they are actively on my list.  Number 8 is not viable right now, but I am mentally filing that one away for future reference.

Of all of the suggestions, Number 6 is my favorite, and the family is starting to love it, too.  We are having fewer lettuce-based salads and more concoctions of fresh vegetables with vinaigrette and assorted flourishes of nuts, dried fruit, or cheese.