Making veggies feel more like treats

Veggies that feel like treats

If eating veggies feels like a chore to you or your family, here are some ways to make them feel more like treats.  Here are some favorites:

Zucchini (or yellow squash) spiralized into pasta.

You can eat them raw or cooked, and they have a different taste and texture depending on how long you heat them. Mix them heated with marinara, parmesan, turkey meatballs, or your own creation. Or try them in a cold pasta salad, mixed with your favorite confettied veggies, olive oil, queso fresco crumbles, black beans, or whatever you like on noodles. Toasted sesame seeds and a little sesame oil works on either hot or cold noodles.

A grilled or roasted portobello mushroom turned into pizza.

Just fill with spinach, onion, garlic, pesto, cheese or whatever you like.

Grilled eggplant slices as taco shells or "bread" for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Just slice them thin, grill each side with a spritz of oil and voila.

Cabbage roasted into steaks.

Slice purple or green cabbage into 1/2" disks, spray with a little oil, then top with herbs, garlic, spices or whatever you like.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Cauliflower diced into rice (or risotto).

You can either put cauliflower in your food processor and chop it to bits before cooking, or just buy it ready-to-go or frozen. As an extra perk, it cooks very quickly.

Riced cauliflower pizza crust.

There are loads of recipes online, and you can also make cauliflower flat bread.

Cauliflower as mashed faux-tatoes.

Boil cauliflower and blend it 'til it looks like your favorite Thanksgiving treat. Optionally, add some salt, garlic, spices, bit of cheese, cream, or other delights, if that will make it a true treat.

Zucchini French fries.

Roast or grill thin slices of zucchini, with salt and pepper sprinkled on, and perhaps a spritz of oil. Sliced portobello mushroom strips also work well.

Kale chips

Just rinse, pat dry, remove stems, break into bite-size pieces, put on a baking pan, optionally spray with oil and/or sprinkle salt or herbs on top, and bake at 350 until crunchy, which only takes about 5-7 minutes.  

We know you have more great ideas...will you share them with us?  Happy veggie eating!