What is a good and cost effective way to cook vegetables for my husband? He doesn't like vegetables and of course I love them, but I would like to be able to cook for two without wasting the vegetables. I know this is a lot to ask but if anyone has been through this I would like to know how you learned to handle it.
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Buy frozen veggies and we bag them in individual servings. They sell single serving steamer veggies in the frozen section.
You can "sneak" vegetables into a lot of foods, although I don't really mean you to sneak and be deceptive. I never deny adding veggies, I just don't broadcast their addition. (Although my girls are happy to eat them now; and my husband is pretty good, too.)
You can finely dice many vegetables and sautee them lightly and add to meat loafs, sauces, and so on. I have been known to put carrots in most anything! Grated, they disappear into spaghetti sauces, add color and flavor (without making things taste carrot-y) to meatloaf or other things made with ground meats. I have added them to tuna salad, chicken salad, and others.
If he likes soup, you can fit in veggies that way; pureeing them if needed to thicken the soup a bit.
Will he eat them raw? I used to be able to get my husband to eat anything, so long as I added cheese sauce!
As for yourself, I agree with buying the bags of frozen veggies and steaming them. Also, treat yourself to fresh now and then. When you are only buying for one, fresh are not an extravagance.
There is a cookbook written by Jerry Seinfield's wife about just this problem...but she was dealing with picky kids. She purees them and adds the veggies to almost everything, even cakes. Sometimes you can come up with a recipe that has a vegetable in it that will appeal to a person.
I don't adore every single thing I eat, but I know I've got to eat it if I want to remain healthy. Every single night, I make at least one green vegetable, and a little more than half the time, I don't even like it, but I make it because it's the healthiest thing I can afford to buy.
You've chosen to take on the responsibility of cooking for your husband. You can lead a husband to great food, but you can't make him think. But maybe you should try.
If he doesn't eat his vegetables, he's not just ignoring his own health, he's also potentially depriving you of a husband -- what does he THINK would happen to you and/or your kids if he died young because of poor nutrition? Tell him you love him enough to make him the healthiest things possible, and you also try to make them tasty, but you also love him enough to tell him to eat it even if he doesn't like it all the time.
He needs to think about how hard you work to make healthy meals; how much you're trying to get the kids (if you have them) to eat healthily, and how much they need his example; and how much pain you would be in if he died of something that could have been prevented with proper nutrition.
My father wasn't much of a vegetable eater. He liked green peas and just a few others. And he just refused eating vegetables and didn't get the proper nutrition.
I know exactly what you mean. My husband is a veggie hater, too.
But I've conquered this problem in two ways. First of all, he loves casseroles. It's easy to put lots of veggies in casseroles. In fact, I made a slow cooker casserole tonight (I do that a lot). When we were done, he said,"I can't believe how good that was with all the vegetables in it."
The other thing I do is send him off to work every single day with a smoothy. I wrote a post about this in my own blog ideasforfrugallivng.com (Smoothy Groovy). I use my VitaMix mixer to make this smoothy (or variations of): about 8 oz. water, a little juice, a whole peeled orange, a whole apple, maybe a bannana, 2 carrots, 4 cups spinach, and a handful of frozen fruit such as blackberries or raspberries. The fruit disguises the spinach greeness.
This is a full day's serving of fruits and veggies in one smoothy. This is his "breakfast"; he has a long commute, so it's done by the time he gets to work. Really, you can use whatever you have on hand. The possibilities are endless. Good luck!
I did daycare for many years as well as having vegie haters in my family. RULES state, no picking apart the food served. If they did not like it on their plate, they did not get larger food serving to pick apart the hot dish I would use. Be surprised of how many moms told me their kids would say they ate this and that at my house DUE TO RULES. Not too many ever did not eat what they were given. Just a choice to make after it was on their plate.
It may sound weird but I put babyfood in some of my dishes because my kids don't like green things. Spaghetti sauce with baby food is really quite good. So is meat loaf.
I struggle with disinterest in vegetables myself--especially when they're prepared in a simple way. Over the years I've concluded part of the problem is that I don't know enough appealing ways to prepare them, and that I don't have a mindset that they deserve as much if not more time and thought devoted to preparation as main dishes do. So my suggestion, if you have the time and energy, is to start researching and trying recipes. And unless your husband has a severe weight problem, there's nothing wrong with adding sauces, cheese, pasta or rice, etc. to make a more complex, tasty dish.
Men like sauces. I put sauces on all my veggies. It's easy to melt some low fat cheese in the microwave and pour it on the veggies, or a low fat white (cream) sauce, and gets dairy products in to them also!
Try this recipe book. It is the best
"The sneaky Chef--How to cheat on your man" by:Missy Chase- Lapine It's a funny title but very good at teaching you how to get your husband to eat his veggies.
I personally think husbands should just eat what is served. They are adults and should eat like one, not like a spoiled child. Husbands also should set a good example for children by eating a variety of healthy foods.
However, I didn't used to like spinach, and my husband loved it. What I did was find recipes that had things in them I liked, and prepare the spinach like that. For example, I made a creamed spinach in tomato cups and spinach shredded into a cheese omelet. After eating it in several different ways like this, I got used to the actual spinach flavor and made it the way he liked it -- steamed served with butter and vinegar. And now I like it that way. You could try the same sort of thing with your husband.
I went through this with my Meat n' Potatoes guy, too. Then, I discovered that he didn't like veggies, because of how his mother cooked them! Early on in our relationship, I bought a big mess of fresh Brussels sprouts, prepped 'em, and stuck 'em in the fridge, and he was horrified, until he tasted them.
I cooked them crisp-tender, as nature intended, and lo and behold! He announced that he LOVED them! We repeated this experiment with broccoli, carrots....you get the idea. He came to the realization that vegetables are great, if they're not cooked to death- and we eat quite well now. Maybe try a few different preparation techniques- you might just get lucky.
Also, you can use a strong-arm tactic- have your kids (if you have 'em) help you peel and prepare your vegetables, cook them up nicely, and dress 'em up pretty- and then drop the "gosh, the kids REALLY worked hard on this, you should try at least a bit, to show your appreciation!" bomb- works well! Good luck! ;)
Possibly you could share something with him that I learned in a Biology class.
The antioxidants in fruits and vegetables are formed when the plants go through their photosynthesis. Some of the plant energy that is being created is detoured toward fighting off invaders. So when we eat our veggies, we are actually consuming plant soldiers (or plant weapons). These protect us against all sorts of maladies.
This might help him to look at veggies in a different light. After all, wouldn't he like to be backed up by a well fortified army?
I am shocked that in this day and age there are still women cooking for their husbands and treating them like children. Cook dinner, put it on the table, and let him eat what he wants or go hungry. Better still, how about he cooks for change. My husband cooks at least half our meals, now there is a real man!
Nobody here said that their husbands don't also cook. Also , a lot of women want to cook for their husbands because they love him, not out of obligation. I am shocked that in this day and age there are still people who assume something from one post or comment. You do not know if there is an agreement that she cooks, and he cleans or what not...or if they take turns cooking. Wow....assume= making an ASS-U+ME.
Marfette, there are many reasons for cooking for a husband rather than treating him like a baby. Some wives don't work outside the home. Some husbands have so much outside work to do that they don't have time. Some wives LIKE to cook for their husbands.
To the original poster: At our house it was me who didn't like vegetables. My husband will eat anything as long as it's fresh and clean. When we married he asked for lots of veggies. He explained to me that he learned to like those things that liked him. He wanted to live a long and healthy life. Our sons were born and I wanted to teach them to like everything, so I ate everything, even parsnips and brussel sprouts which almost made me gag. My children are adults now and will eat everything put before them. My husband is 77 years old and can work circles around many younger men. Could it be the food he eats? Most likely. Approach your husband from a health angle. It'll pay off for him later.
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