Eat more veggetables!

One of the first things you will be told when your trying to eat healthy is eat more vegetables. Even the Atkins diet people are eating veggies today.  Sounds good to me I started thinking about it and mainly I was eating bread on the food group pyramid. And then I looked it up and they changed the pyramid to a pie shape. MMM.... pie!  I just looked and they've changed from calling it a pie to a plate. I guess that is healthier. The USDA has all sorts of great charts and eating guides to check out but if your like me. When I read that stuff in my head it translates to bla, bla, bla. So Ok, eat more vegetables sounds good, simple and easy to do.

Eat more veggies!
Now every family has their vegetable haters and vegetables they hate. The key to eat more veggies is variety. Because if your eating green beans every night with dinner it doesn't help at all. Some people smother their vegetables in cream sauces or cheese. Yum cheese! BUT! While it's good to get your kids interested in the veggie di jour it is absolutely a bad to eat all that yummy cheese and cream all the time on top of your veggies but it is good to get in your supply of dairy group. Why is it bad? I don't know. Maybe they are fattening. Why? I don't know. If you get low fat it shouldn't be a problem but it is. So just avoid it. But it is cheese, cream, butter so avoid when you can. Also for some reason there is a cholesterol issue with milk products.

Milk Products
 Getting a little off topic. Is the whole issue of: Dairy Group. I don't know if you ever noticed but some of the cheese in the store is labeled cheese food. This looks like cheese taste like cheese but in fact is not cheese at all. We used to call it the plastic cheese cause it just tasted plasticky. It has no dairy in it. I was told, that the molecular make up of the cheese food product is one molecule away from being plastic and there is absolutely no reason to refrigerate it. It wont spoil. Also margarine is the same thing. I don't know what that stuff is doing to my insides but I quit eating it when I found that bit of info out. I know they say plastic butter(margarine) is better than the real thing but  I choose to eat the real thing when it comes to butter and cheese. I think real food is better than artificially created imitation food any day. I can't tell you why I just know it's true.

You want to eat fresh!
What kind of veggies do you eat? Fresh, frozen or canned. Well, my husband can taste the can in canned vegetables so... we avoid them lately. Also I have heard the can has been know to leek things into the veggies like aluminum and the coating is not good for you either. Also they put a lot of salt in the canned veggies that you can avoid if you buy fresh or frozen. You want to eat fresh! the more you cook veggies the less vitamins they have. I like my veggies the consistency of mush. Cooked to death. Unless I'm eating them raw like a salad. So this is a challenge for me. The thing with buying fresh vegetables is: if you don't have time to run to the store everyday... well, they aren't going to stay fresh long. So.... for on the go people, frozen is your best bet. I like to mix it up a bit and buy some frozen and some fresh what ever is in season.

Summer yellow squash and zucchini is in season!
I found this great recipe for a pasta that has veggies, cheese and noodles in the July issue of Southern Living Magazine. Hey, I know... cheese and that darn bread group, with the pasta. But hear me out. My daughter hates squash! It has a slimy taste. Well, this recipe changes the consistency of the squash and the look. So bingo, it wins! I made it and my husband was "Wow, this is great!" That's right I made it! He usually wont let me near the kitchen.

Of course I can't follow a recipe so my version is a little different than the one in the magazine.

Summer Pasta

3 medium yellow squash

3 medium zucchini

3 medium carrots

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves

1 cup of vegetable broth

3Tbsp olive oil

1tsp salt

1Tbsp of dry basil

4 slices of bacon

package of wide egg noodles

1Tbsp of butter

1 shallot bulb

1/2 (8-oz) container of mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Now it should have been fresh basil and  fresh Parmesan but... there you go. Some times you don't have fresh so you use the next best thing. I had to go to the fancy cheese section of the grocery store to get mascarpone cheese. Only to find out it's just like cream cheese. Well, milder, thinner.

This recipe uses every dish in the house just about so it's a time consuming ordeal of cleaning after.

1. Cut up two of the squash, two zucchini, two carrots into 1/4 inch slices put in Dutch oven(fancy name for the big pot) with onion, garlic and 1/3 cup vegetable broth, 3 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp of salt, and most of the basil. cook until the veggies are very tender. 20 to 30 minutes. The squash release a lot of water during cooking so don't worry that it's not enough. 
2. Meanwhile fry up the bacon in a skillet. Dice up bacon when cooled. Drain most of the oil from the pan. Set pan aside.
3. Process the vegetable mixture in a blender to make a sauce. Use remaining  broth liquid to thin as needed.
4. Meanwhile cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.
5. Cut remaining squash zucchini, and carrot into strips using a mandolin.Or the flat side of the cheese grater. Stack ribbons, and cut in half length wise. Dice shallot or green onion.
6. Add Tbsp of butter to pan that the bacon was cooked in and saute all the vegetable strips and shallots just until tender. Add some basil and 1/2 tsp of salt. Transfer to a plate and cover.
7. Cook blended squash mixture, mascarpone cheese and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese for 3 or 4 minutes to melt cheese and heat up. Add sauce to cooked pasta.
8. Top with vegetable ribbons, bacon, and more Parmesan.

Of course you could always use ham instead of bacon to make it even healthier.