Monday, February 24, 2014

Places to Hide Healthy Sh*t


For the first year or so that Arizona and I were together, he worked in Brooklyn, NY. So we would spend the weekends together at my place in southeastern CT, a couple of days together in Brooklyn, and a few days apart each week. In Brooklyn, he rented a room from a friend and didn’t have much kitchen access, which meant we ate most of our meals out. One of our favorite places was this little hole-in-the-wall taco place that sold fat burritos, rice and beans for five bucks a plate. Sounds great, right? Well, it was, except for one thing.

The succotash.

I believe I have mentioned before that our marriage is the home to very few and select vegetables—mainly salad in a bag, tomatoes, cilantro, and the occasional pepper. So it was a mystery to us why these burritos contained peas and carrots in addition to their normal burrito-like components, and we would root through and evict the intruders whilst eating our meals.

More recently, though, as I get on a kick of finding some healthier alternatives for our usual pizza-and-burgers fare, I’ve been trying to sneak some good stuff onto the menu. Chili is always a winner, made with pork and no beans, and since I stick the peppers in a blender, I can usually sneak in some extra veggies that way. Chicken soup, though, is broth and noodles, and pizza is cheese or pepperoni.

Just this past weekend, with family visiting (which means a lot of meals out), I overheard him bemoaning the way a certain other family member insists on trying to sneak healthy stuff into the family salsa (*gasp* corn! yegad!) and other foodstuff. Whereupon I decided not to tell him that the brownies he was in the process of scarfing down had been made with applesauce rather than oil. (Heh, heh, heh.)

So how about you? Where do you hide healthy stuff when you cook? It’s all fair game as far as I'm concerned!

3 comments:

  1. Oh.. I've given up on hiding veggies. I remember when there was a book about healthy eating and how to include more veggies into ones diet. I've never done it but adding cauliflower to mashed potatoes was interesting idea.

    I thought you were going in a different direction as to those veggies that have a big I DO NOT LIKE them. Which is eggplant for my dh. So said because I love baba ghanoush but eat it at home. When we go out to eat at our favorite Indian restaurant - I immediately cross off any dishes with eggplant since we tend to share dishes.

    My little one dislike veggies. He will shy away from food when he hears there is a veggie that is from his I don't like in it. One of the reasons I don't tell him all the ingredients in what he is eating. What he doesn't know .. :) He will pick out onions and put them on the side of his plate if there are too many in what he eating. He has gotten much better since eating college food.

    I know not much help.

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  2. You make me feel like a weirdo, because I actually like veggies!!! LOL

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  3. My Achilles heel is the gloating or confessing, depending on your point-of-view:
    "Honey? That beef stroganoff was deelish, huh?"
    "Yeah. That was great!"
    "You know how sour cream usually goes into that? Well, I used plain Greek yogurt. It still tasted great, right?"
    "Never. Do That. Again."

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