Veggies

I, personally am not a fan of chicken. I get SO bored with it. But I found a recipe that my family really likes.

4 boneless, skinless breasts
1 egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon of lemon zest (grated peel)
1 cup Frenches fried onions crushed
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

In a big, plastic bag mix together the fried onions and the lemon zest. Pat the chicken dry, dip into egg bath. Drop the chicken into the onions and shake to coat the chicken. Dribble the lemon juice over the chicken - if you use fresh zest, you REALLY don't need the juice!

Put the chicken into a 400 degree oven and bake for 20 minutes.

What I started doing was looking at recipes and making something that sounds good to me. I make it like the recipe says the first time. If I kinda like it but am not wowed by it I start making little changes. That is what cooking is about. I used a few potato soup recipes to "frankenstein" a great potato soup recipe.

Be brave and just jump in - you'll have some hits and you'll have some that are not so great. But I'll make a suggestion - write down what changes you make so if you totally dig it you don't have to try to remember what you've done!

Chicken n dumplings is pretty easy. Put some chicken broth, some chicken, cut up carrots, cut up celery and a chopped onion in a large pan (I also add garlic and bay leaves) cook it. Shred the chicken and make dumplings - I use the Bisquick recipe because they are fast, easy and tasty! Bring the soup to a boil and drop the dumplings in, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and simmer for another 10 minutes.

I use allrecipes.com for everything. They have a setting that yu can look up chicken recipes and find hundreds and if there are 5 stars and it has been rated by a lot of people, it is a winner. We mostly eat chicken. We only eat red meat about 2 times a month or so. There are lots of pasta recipes with chicken mixed in with veggies.
Good luck!

This is super yummy and is great as leftovers. You can leave out the chilis if the kids don't like spice, and you can cut the recipe in half, I doubled it here, because I love the leftovers.

Zucchini Casserole

8 cups chopped zucchini
3 cups grated mild cheddar cheese
2 egg
2 cup crushed soda crackers
½ cup butter, melted
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
salt and pepper
7 oz can of diced chilies

Preheat oven to 350°. In a covered saucepan, cook the zucchini in boiling water until tender. Drain, then mash them in a large bowl. Add 2 cups of cheese and the egg, crackers, chilies and butter; mix well with a wooden spoon. Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer the mixture to an ovenproof dish sprayed with a non-stick spray (Pam). Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and bake until the pudding thickens, 15 to 20 minutes.

If you are going to cook chicken, invest in an instant meat thermometer so you don't undercook it and it's not dry. (We use Thermapen).

If you own a grill, grill your chicken. Buying a whole chicken is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying parts. If you are grilling, dark meat is a lot easier to learn with as it does not dry out as easily.

Spatchcock Chicken:

Place it back side up on a cutting board and use scissors to cut the back out (cut on both sides of back). Open up the chicken. You can put small pats of butter under the skin for moistness, but it's not that healthy. Make a spice rub (Google them), and sprinkle on skin and under skin. Spread the chicken on the grill on medium heat bone side up for 30 minutes, then turn over and grill for 30 to 45 more minutes. Use your thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh to determine doneness.

While your chicken is grilling, slice some zucchini end to end and cover in EVOO. Sprinkle with garlic salt. When your chicken is done, put it on a plate to rest. Put your zucchini on the grill for 8 minutes, turning once. You can also cut a tomato in half and grill at this time.

It makes a "whole food" meal - nothing processed. Serve with a tossed salad and you have dinner!

I'm so glad to see this question today, because I'm visiting my newest grandbaby (three weeks old)! So I asked my daughter-in-law - who was raised vegetarian - and she immediately suggested two books - saying that she's tried these ideas on her husband (my son) who doesn't like veggies either!

So look for THE SNEAKY CHEF by Missy Chase Lapine, and DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS by Jessica Seinfeld. Both books came out in 2007, so you may be able to find them on eBay for a little less money. She says that if you can buy only one, start with THE SNEAKY CHEF.

As far as the chicken is concerned, there are a million ways to prepare chicken. After you go through the ideas everyone else gives you, there are lots of recipes online!

Hi S.,
Congratulations for taking steps towards a healthier diet. Change is hard but it will be well worth it. We know we crave what we eat, eat lots of carbs, crave carbs, eat lots of sugar, crave sugar, eats lots of fruits and veggies, you crave fruits and veggies! In order to help mold my childs (and Husbands) taste buds we added Juice Plus to our diet. It's 26 fruits and veggies that have been juiced and dried and put into a capsule and gummie! Check out the results of children and adults who have added it to their diet!
http://www.childrenshealthstudy.com/main.shtml This program allows the child to receive Juice Plus for free for 3 years! Visit www.denverjuiceplus.com to learn more.

I love to make chicken in the crock pot. A whole roaster, some water and onion, spices and slow cook all day. Or chicken and tomato sauce slow roasting in the crock pot. Sautee chicken with onion garlic salsa pakrika and add to torilla wraps with rice and beans. sautee chicken with onion garlic and sun dried tomatoes, when all cooked add fresh spinach cook until wilted, add parmesan chees and serve over angle hair pasta.

I hope that helps and good luck on your journey.

L.

This one was always a family favorite, and it never even occurred to my meat-loving brothers that it was a vegetarian meal:

Cheesy Cauliflower
1 head fresh cauliflower
1-2 cups frozen mixed veggies (or corn, carrots, broccoli - whatever you have)
1 tbsp olive oil or butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheese (cheddar is best)

Wash and cut the leaves off the cauliflower, but keep the head in one piece. Boil or steam the cauliflower until it is fork-tender; you can cook the frozen veggies in the same pot.

Heat the olive oil or butter in a skillet and whisk in the flour. Add the milk and keep mixing a minute or two until the white sauce bubbles and thickens.

Drain water off veggies and place the cooked cauliflower in a serving dish (keep it whole - it looks nicer that way), pour the white sauce on it, sprinkle with the cheese, and top with the cooked frozen veggies. Dish up with a serving spoon; the pieces should come off easily.

We would usually eat this dish with baked potatoes, and we were never able to decide which was the "main dish" and which was the "side."

Try pork loin too, it can be as lean as chicken breast and gives you some variety too. Here a a couple of favorites.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/porktenderloin/r/bl30414...

http://www.campbellkitchen.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?ab=A&amp...

As far as veggies go I've found if I stick with fresh or frozen and skip any canned veggies my family eats them better. I also try to make some sauses on the side like cheese or hollidase or something for them to "dip" them in, but this is an occasional treat.

I'm not sure how your family likes to eat, casseroles, separated veggies etc.... but I do LOVE www.allrecipes.com Just type in a search for Chicken Carrots, and it'll bring up a whole bunch of recipes with ratings of how much people liked them. I also recommend crock-pot cooking (everything turns out juicy and soft) and the best book I found is "Fix-It and Forget-It Recipes for Entertaining". My kids like anything with tator tots, cream of chicken soup, etc... even one with asparagus!!!

Good luck to you!

easy pasta bake: 1 box compagnale pasta or another twisty pasta, 1 jar spaghetti sauce, 1 bag frozen veggies - I like broccoli, carrot, mushroom mix - you can add 1 lb ground turkey or 1 lb soy crumble meat substitute. Put everything in a baking pan - I use a disposable aluminum lasagna pan - and add one spaghetti jar full of water. Mix carefully and bake covered at 375 for about 1 1/2 hours. Uncover and top with mozzarella cheese and put back in the oven until the cheese melts.

Hi S.,

I know sometimes with Mexican dishes, you can subsitute kidney beans for the ground beef and it still tastes pretty good. Like with taco salad, you make it the same, but use kidney beans (just heat them up a little in the mw), or with burritos or tacos. Also, my husband likes this casserole I make with brown rice, kidney beans, onions, and cheese, all layered together. If you search the website "Taste of Home,"they have good meatless recipes or recipes by main ingredient, like chicken or fish.

Marci

First, some other moms have suggested Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. I have not read it, but I just saw it for $9.98 on Amazon.com, if you are interested in buying it.
As far as suggestions for chicken recipes and vegies ideas, I have a few. I make a lot of grilled chicken breast in the summer. You can eat it as is, or make salads and sandwiches with it. What you need is a good, flavorful marinade to keep the chicken moist and not so bland. This is my favorite:
Combine the zest of one lemon, the juice of 2 lemons, 3 cloves of garlic, (just crush them with the side of your knife, no need to cut them up) 1/2 cup olive oil or plain yogurt, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and a palmfull of your favorite dried herb in a gallon-size zip top bag. I like to use thyme, dill or oregano. Mix it up and add the chicken. I usually cut it into strips to increase the surface area that is exposed to the marinade. Stick it in the fride for at least 4 hours and then grill it.
Another favorite recipe for chicken breast:
Trim chicken and butterfly each breast so that each full breast yields 4 pieces. Mix about 6 oz. sour cream with a splash or two of milk and salt, pepper and 2 tsp. dried thyme in a pie dish. Stir together and coat each piece of chicken in the sour cream, then cover with crushed Ritz crackers. Roll each peice of chicken up and secure with a toothpick. Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray and bake at 350 for about 25- 30 minutes.
As far as veggies, my son and husband love mashed sweet potatoes. Just steam peeled chunks of sweet potato until they are tender then mash them with a bit of butter and milk and a little brown sugar and freshly grated nutmeg. I also roast vegies like bell peppers and zuchini and layer them in lasagne.
I find that when I let my son, who is almost 2 help pick out and prepare the vegies he is more likely to eat them.
Hope that helps!

Veggie Pot pie is way easy
Use the refridgerated pie crust dough
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 package of onion soup mix
1 large potato, cut into cubes
1/2 bag frozen mixed veggies
Put bottom dough in pie pan. Mix mush soup, onion soup mix, potato and veggies in a pot and heat. Add to pie, and put on top crust, bake. My family loves this recipe, you can add chicken too if you want, it tastes better if you brown chicken in a pan then add to veggie-soup mixture.
For cooked carrots, I cook on low, baby carrots, a couple tablespoons butter, and brown sugar. Sooo good!

Eggplant parmesean is way good too! follow a chicken parm recipe but substitute with eggplant.
Good luck!!

I made a yummy baked mac and cheese (using lower fat cheeses, less butter, skim milk), and toss in small pieces of broccoli and/or chopped bell peppers (yummy if you use some pepper jack cheese in the recipe), and/or chopped tomatoes. Chop them up small, and their flavor won't be so overpowering.

A friend makes a yummy steamed carrot recipe. Toss in a tab of butter with some baby carrots and some chopped basil. I don't even like cooked carrots, but I ate this one. Cook the carrots al dente (don't over cook them) for best flavor.

This is my family's favorite mac and cheese recipe -

1 bag Green Giant family size Cauliflower & three cheese sauce (freezer section)
2 cups uncooked healthy harvest whole wheat blend rotini pasta
3 wedges laughing cow original swiss cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the cauli according to directions, at the same time cook pasta. Mix together with the laughing cow ....add milk if you want it a little creamier.

I have deceptively delicious-read it-never used it. It's a lot of work! What I did do was but baby food veggies,because they are already pureed, and add that to whatever I am cooking. My kids eat salad-I put sunflower seeds, and grape tomatoes in it, sometimes sprinkle it with cheese. Or, I cut up cucumber and sprinkle it with sunflower seeds and ranch dressing. I buy the frozen, steam in the bag veggies (my kids like broccoli and cauliflower) and they dip it in ranch. They also like the mini carrots dipped in ranch (I send this in their school lunches. I think if you can find some veggies that you like , eat those and go from there. If you like bell peppers then make fajitas or sweet sausage. I would really try to stay away from adding a lot of cheese, or that is the only way your kids will eat it.
We eat a lot of chicken, sometimes I just marinade it in salad dressing. My kids like raspberry vinagrette, and teriyaki (then I cook it with pineapple).

You could always check out Jessica Seinfeld's 'Deceptively Delicious'. She has come up with a variety of ways to 'hide' veggies in other food. I have heard mostly good things about how the recipes taste, and a handful of negatives. It might be worth trying to borrow a copy if you can find one and trying a few out yourself to see, before purchasing. Good luck with your transition!

I'm a vegetarian but my husband and son are not. I use a lot of fake meat products in traditional dishes. I use the ground soy chunks for beef and the soy grilled "chicken" strips in many of our favorite recipes like tacos, chili mac, pot pies, stir fry. They also have veggie bacon and sausage made by morningstar or boca and available at your most local grocery stores in the frozen food sections. Not everyone likes these but my 4 year old can't taste the difference and my husband knows but with all the other stuff he doesn't think the difference is obvious or tastes bad. It wouldn't work if you were going to make say chicken breasts or pot roast but they do work in any dish that requires ground beef, cut chicken, or sausage/bacon chunks. It helps me sneak veggies in my son's diet who would turn into a chicken nugget if I let him and "don't like vegetables, I'll eat them when I'm a grown up" to quote him. We also eat a lot of pasta dishes in our house and have switched to whole wheat pasta. Pasta is easy to combine with vegetables by doing different variations of sauce.