I'm constantly trying to sneak more veggies in to our meals and found a good tip. Whenever I have a dinner with ground beef (tacos, burgers, meat loaf, sloppy joes, chili etc) I shred a zucchini into the meat. If your kids are really turned off when they see the green peel, just peel it before you shred it. This works especially well in tacos and sloppy joes or anything with a sauce because the zucchini just soaks up the color and flavor of the sauce and you really can't tell that it's there.
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A woman after my own heart! I am a firm believer in "nourishment in disguise". When my 30 year old was little I made his pancakes with 2 scrambled eggs and a little flour thrown in... They came out so fluffy and nice.
You can sneak a lot of stuff into ground beef. I put rice (brown) in my meatloaf. I make "monster burgers" once a week and feed them to my teenage girls who think they are the bomb! They have flaxseed (very good for you) oatmeal and any kind of bean mixed in with a pkg of onion soup mix for flavor and an egg (you want to be careful how much you use or it'll come out like paste) I actually bake these, put a slice of cheddar on and its a meal for 6 or 7 people with no sides because the burgers fill everyone up, for one lb of gr beef.
I used to make zucchini bread, following directions. Boys thought the green peeling was disgusting and wouldn't eat. So, peeled and baked. They loved it.
Jessica Seinfeld, Jerry's wife has just written a book about this. She keeps packets of pureed vegs. in the frig & adds to EVERYTHING from dishes to muffins.
I love and use the shredded zucchini trick but I also use shredded carrots. I toss into my spaghetti sauces and anywhere else I can think of and get away with it! (I like the slight crunch from them but if you don't want any, saute them first.)
I've done this forever, it seems, especially with homemade spaghetti, soups, casseroles, and meatballs/ pizzas/ and even adding fruits in some special cases. Don't get persuaded by ads to add Whey, Soy, Gluten to things, though. Dr. Mercola, of Mercola.com, STRONGLY recommends against all soy consumption, from foods/drinks to vitamins, as additives, because he says it has been discovered that soy prevents nutrients from being absorbed by the body. He is so knowledgable in many things, explaining in detail how the research and findings are discovered that I trust his judgment in a lot of areas. Such things are more like a surplus in the U.S., and are being sold as good for us when they are not!
Here's a trick I read on another site for when you have surplus zucchini from the garden: Peel it and toss it in a blender to make a puree--zucchini milk. Freeze it and use in place of milk or water in recipes.
Only caution here, I would think, is not to use things in ground beef that suck up the fat. My Mom made it with oatmeal when I was growing up, everyone did, but now we know that the oatmeal ensures that you eat lots more of the fat that would have dripped out. I don't know how to tell what would absorb fat and what wouldn't. How about a blendered fruit soup served hot with hidden veggies?
I have 3 veggie lovin' kids. You don't have to sneak them. Don't have junk around, at snack or dinner if they are hungry they'll eat and love vegetables. My 3 yr old son LOVEs Broc.
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