Tips on 'sneaking in' vegetables?

[Vault-Tec Toaster]

I freakin' hate vegetables. With a passion. My parents always said I'd grow out of it, but I keep trying and trying to love vegetables to no avail. The texture makes me want to gag, and that wet crunch makes it nearly impossible to swallow.

But I WANT to love vegetables. They're so good for you that I just wish I could stomach a salad or a veggie with hummus. I'm okay with onion, cooked carrot, and a minimal amount of baby spinach, and that's about it.

I'm trying to get my juicer back up and running (an ex didn't clean it and it went unused for a while... so it's full of mold. I've got to get in it and sterilize EVERYTHING), then I can juice veggies! But until then, how can I sneak more veggies into what I eat without killing the nutrients in them?

[Dreamway Express]

If you're not worried about calories or fat in particular, try putting some frozen peas or broccoli in macaroni and cheese. Macaroni and cheese makes everything better.

[a s t e r_0001]

These aren't as good as the real thing, but it's a good way to sneak veggies in order to get used to them.
So many options for you! Try making a variety of veggie muffins, such a carrot muffins, zucchini muffins, sweet potato* muffins, etc. Your possibilities could be endless! And don't forget, it doesn't just have to be the veggie, it could be carrot and apple if you don't just like carrots.

*Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, so you could even make a sweet potato pie, or multiple other sweet, sweet potato sweets! <3

And smoothies are your best friends here. If you don't mind fruit then this is perfect. You can easily incorporate carrots, spinach, broccoli, kale, beets, etc in fruit smoothies, to a point where you won't even taste them but still get the goodness of the veggies!

Edit: I forgot avocado as well. Try avocado and nut muffins!

[hachi_ ateyou]

Mix your veges in your spaghetti sauce with your spaghetti. Puree veges and add the puree to your meatballs, turkey burgers. I made stuffed pepper with bok choy. I cut the bok choy up very small and mixed it in with the rice and other stuff my family usually would eat.

Try sweeter vegetables like sweet potatoes, squash, corn.

Try celery with peanut butter.

[Fatalistic_Warning]

well; having a child is difficult especially at meal times.. my daughter is 4 and she like you hates her veggies...she is i think similar to you in that she wants to like them she honestly does.. you can see her curiosity peak when i cut them up and prepare them. so for her what i've started to do is steam her veggies for her.. steaming is actually the BEST way to do up any kind of veggie without losing all it's nutritional value.
plus many veggies once steamed are softer so they are easy to mash up...for instance my daughter hates brocolli and cauliflower so when i know i am making her something and the veggie i am using is cauliflower and brocolli then i simply steam them and mash them up and hide them in whatever else i am making.. which trust me is harder than it sounds =/
she loves her meat and potatoes so when we do up potatoes for her she loves them mashed.. so i have started to mash her cauliflower up and hide it within her potatoes and as for her broccoli since she loves her gravy i have started to do the same with am emulsion blender in her gravy
her broccoli goes in and is completely untraceable even to her :3 as far as the other suggestions go they are fantastic biggrin i have a juicer and i find that it is great to get veggies into her sometimes.. but again.. if you are keen like my daughter is.. you may find it still hard to swallow.. there are certain veggies that will sustain their flavor and texture even when emulsified through a juicer.. she is only 4 and can pick out a green pepper taste in her juice anytime i try =/ i have tried everything even beets.. but nope.. shes too smart for me =P anyway i hope this was helpful smile

(sorry for my long winded-ness) razz

[Mundanity]

Try juicing. Buy an epic juicer and use any vegetable you want, and fruit. Find your perfect balance of fruit to veggie so that you can get just enough sugar to override the vegetable flavor without getting sugar overload. Maybe try half, half first. Vegetable lasagna is also good in my opinion lol.

[RiverDreams]

I used to have to sneak veggies into my ex's food. rofl
You can grate zucchini or carrot into spaghetti sauce. You'll never know they're there.
Pop some lettuce in your ham (or whatever) sandwich, and over time gradually add more things, like tomato.
Cook up a tasty casserole, and add in small pieces of veggies like carrot, pumpkin, broccoli.
If you really can't stand the texture of veggies, try making a soup by cooking some veggies in a nice tomato sauce, then blending them! Veggie soup is easy to eat, especially if you have some crusty buttered bread to dip. And it'll get you used to the taste.

[hachi_ ateyou]

Make a fratatta add some salt pepper and favorite seasonings in it.. ( I like garlic in mine).

[11 Cardinal 11]

Brownies. Gooey chocolately brownies. With black beans. They are effing delicious and sinfully fudgy. emotion_drool Black bean brownies are the bomb.

[Aveio]

Here's a recipe that you might like. :)

5 - 6 large pieces of Potatoes.
3 heads of Cauliflowers.
40 cloves of Garlic (or 4 bulbs.)

1. In a big pot, fill it with water and boil.
2. Clean all the ingredients. (Remove the green plant parts of the cauliflowers. Wash the potatoes, but leave the skin. Remove the dry skin part of the garlic that's easy to remove, and leave the rest.)
3. Cut the potatoes into 4. (Just so it cooks faster.) And separate the cauliflowers.
4. Add the cut potatoes into the pot, then cauliflowers, then garlic.
5. Boil for about 15 - 20 minutes.
6. Fish out the cauliflowers and garlic, and put them in separate bowls.
7. Kill the fire. Strain the potatoes, and put them back in the pot, and add one bar of unsalted butter. (Note: Not the margarine butter.)
8. Mash the potatoes and butter together, then add the garlic, and mash some more.
9. Use a food processor to mash the cauliflowers, til it's like baby food-ish, or like mashed potato consistency.
10. Mix in the cauliflowers with the potatoes and garlic.
11. Add pepper for more flavour.

Serves about 5-6 people.

Sorry, I'm not really good with making recipe instructions. But that covers all of it. You won't taste the cauliflowers, or the garlic. It's super yummy. :)

Plus, leave the skin of the potatoes and garlic, just so it has texture. But if you don't want that, feel free to remove them.

[merry go-round sex]

Kraft recently came out with new mac and cheese with 'veggie' pasta.. each serving gives you a 1/4 cup serving of veggies.. it's made out of cauliflower, and tastes like normal kraft mac and cheese..

it's a start! smile

[forgetremembering]

Anything you eat with cheese can splash in some vegetable
I'd recommend fresh baby spinach as its the easiest to 'hide'

Try putting some spinach in your grilled cheese

Or put the spinach in the food processor and stir that into mac and cheese.

Spinach in an egg and cheese omelet. Just throw a few leaves in.
Start small. Eventually you might get to like it. And if you don't then just stay small and you are at least getting something in.

[misleading space shibe]

I'm really surprised no one's mentioned roasting.
...unless roasting veggies is super bad for you & I had no idea.

Here's a little guide on it.
I do this with broccolini & it's so goodddd. With broccolini, it ends up a little crispy and it tastes kinda sweet. :O People also roast kale into chips. I've never tried it since I never bought kale.

Aside from that...
Baby spinach in omelettes (chop it up), grilled cheese, etc. eggy or cheesy things is pretty good and you really don't notice it at all. Spinach is also a pretty bland veggie imo. It would do well as a replacement for lettuce in a taco dip.
And I usually made "carrot pasta" to eat along with pasta, usually the longer ones like, fettucine and spaghetti. While the pasta is boiling, I'd use the veggie peeler to make thin strips of (peeled) carrot and added it to the water.

You might benefit from this book?
My local library had a bunch of sneaky chef books like this. Yours may be the same?

[Commander Sigma]

merry go-round sex

Kraft recently came out with new mac and cheese with 'veggie' pasta.. each serving gives you a 1/4 cup serving of veggies.. it's made out of cauliflower, and tastes like normal kraft mac and cheese..

it's a start! smile

Ehhh... I personally don't trust those kinds of things because they're so heavily processed you're not really getting any of the nutrients from the vegetables. It just gives a false sense of "Hey I'm finally eating vegetables" just like eating sugary cereal that advertises having 18 grams of whole grains makes some people think they're doing something good for themselves while ignoring the fact that they're still eating Fruit Loops and not whole grain toast.

Marketing is a tricky one and companies will often do everything they can to paint their products in a positive light regardless of how healthy their product actually is.

[Annaky]

I like to make fruit smoothies in the morning. I dice/cube and freeze the fruit I want to use the night before and blend it up the next day.
I put a lot of spinach in my smoothies. The fruit I put in depends on what I have in the house: strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, bananas, mangoes.. Along with fruit, I either put in yogurt or some sort of milk. You honestly don't even taste the spinach.