I grew up with the Waste Not, Want Not mentality aka the Clean Plate Club. Over-cooked, stringy asparagus and steamed Brussels sprouts - OMG. Those BSs would be rock hard little ice balls, and I’d still have to find a way to choke them down. My mother never made me eat leftover dinner for breakfast (I knew a few kids who had to do that, and OMG no), so I had that going for me. I’m still not a huge fan of either of those veggies, but cooked WELL is a different ballgame!! One of my favorite meals as a kid was calf’s liver, mashed potatoes, and peas. We were a meat and potatoes kind of family. (We also had “smoked neck” - does anyone else that doesn’t live in Baltimore know what that is? You boil the pork with potatoes and string beans. It’s... a thing we ate.) I also LOVED stuffed peppers - green peppers stuffed with ground beef, rice, tomatoes, and I’m sure something else in there. And they would get roasted in the oven. I grew up lower middle class. My parents grew up poor. We almost never ate out, and pizza was reserved for some Friday nights. I was fortunate that my mom was a good cook (except for the aforementioned asparagus and Brussels) and we had good meals every night. We had a garden for a long time, and my mom would make pickles, and can tomatoes, as well as making fruit preserves - in our yard we had a damsen plum tree, cherry tree, and access to a grape vine. All of which is to say, I was VERY fortunate, despite not having a lot of money. Given that I have more money than time now, I love that there are so many options for fresh, healthy meals. So far I’ve tried a few companies. I few years ago I did Sun Basket and was cooking for a while, but... time. So, it’s either order in or have something good waiting for me to heat it up. My goal is to get better about the latter half of that statement.
Growing up, my version of eating veggies was having black olives on my pizza 😂 (are olives even a veggie or just a fat?) We would also have the occasional canned green beans during “nice” dinners. As an adult, and especially once I had a kid, I made it a point to try and up my intake, but it was still hard. I hate raw veggies, even salad, and cooking them in the oven takes forever. Enter: the air fryer! We got one with a rotisserie basket so we just throw everything in there and it spins around for 15 minutes getting the veggies crisp on all sides with no flipping halfway needed 🙏🏻 They come out crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, and delicious with just a little olive oil and some Meat and Potatoes seasoning. Haven’t had a bad air fried carrot, potato, sweet potato, zucchini, squash, or Brussels sprout yet!
A few tips that helped me up my veggie game during Whole30 and beyond.... 1) buying frozen riced cauliflower-broccoli combo and zoodles. I am far more likely to sneak those into a meal if i don’t have to do the chopping and spiralizing. 2) Purées!!! I got really creative using pumpkin and sweet potato purée for breakfast dishes. I still eat them now, post Whole30 because they are quite tasty (if I do say so myself). Also, puréed parsnips and celery root make great dinner sides.
I grew up with the Waste Not, Want Not mentality aka the Clean Plate Club. Over-cooked, stringy asparagus and steamed Brussels sprouts - OMG. Those BSs would be rock hard little ice balls, and I’d still have to find a way to choke them down. My mother never made me eat leftover dinner for breakfast (I knew a few kids who had to do that, and OMG no), so I had that going for me. I’m still not a huge fan of either of those veggies, but cooked WELL is a different ballgame!! One of my favorite meals as a kid was calf’s liver, mashed potatoes, and peas. We were a meat and potatoes kind of family. (We also had “smoked neck” - does anyone else that doesn’t live in Baltimore know what that is? You boil the pork with potatoes and string beans. It’s... a thing we ate.) I also LOVED stuffed peppers - green peppers stuffed with ground beef, rice, tomatoes, and I’m sure something else in there. And they would get roasted in the oven. I grew up lower middle class. My parents grew up poor. We almost never ate out, and pizza was reserved for some Friday nights. I was fortunate that my mom was a good cook (except for the aforementioned asparagus and Brussels) and we had good meals every night. We had a garden for a long time, and my mom would make pickles, and can tomatoes, as well as making fruit preserves - in our yard we had a damsen plum tree, cherry tree, and access to a grape vine. All of which is to say, I was VERY fortunate, despite not having a lot of money. Given that I have more money than time now, I love that there are so many options for fresh, healthy meals. So far I’ve tried a few companies. I few years ago I did Sun Basket and was cooking for a while, but... time. So, it’s either order in or have something good waiting for me to heat it up. My goal is to get better about the latter half of that statement.
Growing up, my version of eating veggies was having black olives on my pizza 😂 (are olives even a veggie or just a fat?) We would also have the occasional canned green beans during “nice” dinners. As an adult, and especially once I had a kid, I made it a point to try and up my intake, but it was still hard. I hate raw veggies, even salad, and cooking them in the oven takes forever. Enter: the air fryer! We got one with a rotisserie basket so we just throw everything in there and it spins around for 15 minutes getting the veggies crisp on all sides with no flipping halfway needed 🙏🏻 They come out crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, and delicious with just a little olive oil and some Meat and Potatoes seasoning. Haven’t had a bad air fried carrot, potato, sweet potato, zucchini, squash, or Brussels sprout yet!
A few tips that helped me up my veggie game during Whole30 and beyond.... 1) buying frozen riced cauliflower-broccoli combo and zoodles. I am far more likely to sneak those into a meal if i don’t have to do the chopping and spiralizing. 2) Purées!!! I got really creative using pumpkin and sweet potato purée for breakfast dishes. I still eat them now, post Whole30 because they are quite tasty (if I do say so myself). Also, puréed parsnips and celery root make great dinner sides.