Changing Tastes

As children, vegetables seem to be the least favorite thing to eat. I always tried to have a veggie, usually canned or frozen, on the table for my daughters to eat with their meals. More often than not, I had to remind them to put a veggie on their plate. Most times they listened & put a teaspoonful on their plate. Other times, it became a battle.
Happily, as my girls grew, so did their taste for veggies, including fresh veggies! T will eat artichokes while C has recently begun to enjoy asparagus! Corn, carrots, salads, green beans, broccoli & summer squashes have become pretty common now!

Tonight we are celebrating C's 24th birthday with her requested meal of ribs, real mashed potatoes, ginger glazed carrots & spinach! Yay for veggies & changing tastes!

Ginger Glazed Carrots  serves 6

What you need:

• 3 cups fresh carrots, peeled & sliced
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 2T real butter
• 1tsp grated fresh ginger or 1/2 tsp ground ginger (I use fresh, smells so good!)

What you do:

• Bring 1" of water in a saucepan to a boil
• Add in the sliced carrots
• Bring back to a boil, reduce heat, cover & simmer for 5 minutes
• Drain carrots & set them aside
• Using the same, warm pan over MED heat stir together sugar, butter & ginger
• Keep stirring until bubbly
• Add in the carrots & cook over LOW, stirring occasionally 1-2 minutes to heat carrots through
• Serve

Summertime Soup

I like V-8 juice. Not too many others seem to enjoy the blended vegetable beverage. 

It makes a quick, easy base to this next recipe, Gazpacho! 

There are sooo many recipes & flavor for gazpacho but it's basically, RAW, COLD SOUP! 

I've been told the Latin community looks at gazpacho as a side salad. Makes sense to me!

Easy Gazpacho  serves 4-6

What you need:

• 32 ounces of V-8 juice
• 1 1/2 cups diced European cucumber (I remove seeds from regular cukes)
• 1 cup chopped celery (tiny dices make the celery easier to chew, no stringiness)
• 1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions (or scallions or chives or a bit of purple onion)
• 1 medium plum tomato, seeded & diced
• 1T minced garlic (fresh is best but I use jarred garlic)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• optional: your favorite hot sauce, to taste. (Or just put hot sauce in your own serving)

What you do:

• Mix it all together in a bowl
• Cover & put in fridge for at least 2 hours (Overnight is best for flavor)
• Serve with your meal or a thick slice of crusty bread.