Picky Eaters? Tips on How to Introduce Vegetables

New on Associated Content:

I didn't always like vegetables. Sure, I ate kid favorites like french fries and corn on the cob, and I even enjoyed green peas and baked beans. But boy, was I picky about the rest.

I'd eat baked potatoes, but only if I could leave behind the skin. I liked tomatoes one year, then decided they were too squishy the next. I loved salad, if by salad you meant cucumbers topped with cheese, bacon bits, and chow mein noodles.

I wouldn't touch mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, cabbage, and shall I go on, or do you get the point? If it wasn't bread, cheese, or meat, odds are I wasn't interested.

When I grew into adulthood and moved out on my own, I decided it was time to let childhood prejudices go. It was embarrassing to ask my mom if she's eat the broccoli off my plate if I ordered the apricot chicken when I was in my 20s.

Still, while I'd shaken off my aversion to veggies like lettuce and celery years before, taking on the broccoli monster still sounded daunting. George H.W. Bush still hated broccoli in his old age, so who said I would be any different?

Go read the rest! It's delicious.

This article moves away from cooking tips and more into general ideas about disguising vegetables or making them more accessible to the skittish. The point about cutting them very small is the best in my opinion. It's way easier to handle a little bite than a big one because you're not stuck chewing it for a long time in case you don't really like it right away.

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Cooking Tips to Help Picky Eaters Learn to Love Vegetables

New over on Associated Content:

When you hear vegetables, do you think "Yuck!"?

Do you have a child (or, heaven forbid, spouse) whose veggies always seem to end up in the dog's dish?

Do you put white potatoes next to your chicken and biscuits and call it dinner?

Then these tips are for you. Welcome to the wonderful world of vegetables.

Food neophobia, or the fear of new foods, shouldn't be dismissed as mere pickiness. Studies suggest the condition may be genetic, an impulse born into children to help them survive by being unwilling to try that pretty but poisonous berry growing on the random bush. Kids who turn up their noses at new foods aren't doing so just to annoy you; they're responding to primal instincts.

Nevertheless, you shouldn't resign yourself to a couple decades of hot dogs and chicken fingers. We need to teach kids (and adults who never outgrew childhood tastes) to enjoy nutritious foods to set them on the healthy path in life. It takes persistence and patience, but you can persuade a person to try new foods. Just remember, it can take many attempts before a hesitant bite turns to a favorite treat. Keep at it!

Go check it out! I'd appreciate it.

I published two articles recently on ways to make vegetables more appealing. It's hard for me to recall now what it was like to recoil at the sight of almost all veggies on my plate, but I do remember perfectly well all the tricks I played on myself to get over my vegetable (and other food) fears.

Some of my suggestions may seem counterintuitive (as in, what's the point of getting someone to eat a healthy veggie if it's prepared so unhealthily?), but the point is to offer the medicine with a spoonful of sugar the first few times to make it less scary. Once you know you can eat deep-fried green beans without gagging, you'll be more likely to give them a chance plain.

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Get Started with Easy Meal Planning to Save Time and Money

New over on Associated Content:

If a tight budget is starting to squeeze your food spending, it may be time to consider a strategy that can save you money and help you maintain a healthy diet: meal planning.

Meal planning is as simple as working out at the beginning of the week what you will serve for dinner each night for the rest of the week. You can then use your plans to formulate a grocery list, helping ensure you buy only what you need when you shop. Plus, if you know what you're planning to cook and have the supplies for the meals on hand, you'll avoid unhealthy takeout.

Please go have a look! It's a basic primer on meal planning, great if you haven't tried it yet or are looking for a simpler approach.

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Strategies for Eating Out at Restaurants Without Wrecking Your Healthy Diet

I've published a new original article for Associated Content. Here's a snippet to whet your appetite:

Every month or so, my high school dismissed students early to allow teachers time for professional development. At 12:30 p.m., students would pour out the doors, pile into the car of whoever could drive, and fill up the dining rooms of every casual chain restaurant in a five mile radius, giddy with anticipation of afternoon of social fun.

I'd peruse the menu of our chosen restaurant, my waistline and the eyes of a half-dozen friends on my mind, and carefully select a "healthy" salad for my lunch. Sure, it came topped with fried chicken and with a quarter cup of dressing on the side, but it was a salad -- how bad could it be? I'd keep with my healthy theme for dessert and generously split the enormous slice of chocolate cake with a friend. Keeping it all for myself would seem piggish, but if I ate only half I was virtuous!

Read more: Strategies for Eating Out at Restaurants Without Wrecking Your Healthy Diet

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Thirst-Quenching Tips for Summer

An original article I wrote for the site Associated Content is now available for perusing. Check it out if you're interested suggestions on how to stay hydrated throughout the summer: Avoid Dehydration This Summer with Thirst-Quenching Tips

Here's a small preview:

After college, I moved from the temperate climes of Chicago, Illinois, where summer is more remarkable for its short duration than its intensity, to the heat sink known as Las Vegas, Nevada. Never before in my life had I stepped outside and suddenly understood how a chicken in a convection oven feels.

Temperatures in Vegas can rise to 110 degrees during the day. Thanks to its location in a desert valley, it can drop a full 30 degrees at night, true, but that's still a roasty-toasty 80. It all comes with a blasting wind that, rather than cooling you, just makes the heat more apparent.

Go read the rest!