Wellness Wednesdays

Vegetables 

Sunday night on my way home from an audition we stopped at a chain restaurant that is supposed to symbolize home cooking. I ordered the meat loaf, with steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. The meatloaf was delightful, the macaroni and cheese and the potatoes were fair, but the broccoli was greatly lacking!! I love broccoli! I can not stress to you how much I love it! But this stuff was not very appetizing. Steamed broccoli still has that crunch so you really need to toss it in something and add a dash of something else to really bring out the flavor. Other wise you are left with stuff that in my opinion just tastes dry and flavorless.

In America, vegetable is a bad word that strikes fear into the hearts of many. Parents fear the chore of trying to feed them to their kids, hoping that by magic they end up with a child who like veggies.  Children and young adults alike know that they are supposed to eat them, whether or not they have an appetizing flavor.

We think of vegetables as a healthy side dish that is our duty to eat. When in reality we should be thinking of them as the main attraction. For example how many burger and fry joints can you think of? We celebrate and search for the perfect fries and a juicy burger. What about pizza? Whole cities argue about their version of a perfect slice!* Now what about vegetables? Is it just me or do very few people care about sautéed squash, glazed carrots, or cooked spinach with green onions, nutmeg, and a touch of heavy cream?

I believe the root of the issue is this: would you serve cooked spaghetti plain? Would you cook ground beef with out adding anything to it, not even some olive oil or onion? I hope not. So why would you serve vegetables without adding more flavor to them? There are countless ways to cook and season them!

Here are a few of my favorite ways to add some pizzaz!

Greek - A few dashes of Greek seasoning, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of feta cheese.
Citrus - Lime juice, lemon pepper, fresh cilantro, and a drizzle of olive oil
The Basic - olive oil, garlic, chopped onion (get creative: normal onion, red onion, green onions) and salt and pepper.
Italian - The basic plus: oregano, rosemary, and shredded parmesan.
American Chinese - Sauté your veggies with cooking oil, garlic and soy sauce.

Don't forget you can mix and match your veggies, squash and carrots, zucchini and corn, the list is endless!

-Josie

*New York style all the way!!