My Mom can rock the park out of spaghetti and tacos and chicken soup and no one can touch her biscuits, but my childhood memory of my least favorite meal involves a vegetable that I use fairly regularly as an adult...and actually the meal itself is served at my own table weekly.
I'm talking stir-fry, heavy on the zucchini. As a kid, when this was served, it was a torturous ordeal, involving me (and my sisters) sitting at the table long after dinner was 'over', trying to finish our meal. We became adept at chewing fast, quickly, without really tasting, just to masticate it enough to swallow it down and be freed from our table shackles.
We grew up with a football field sized vegetable garden and zucchini was at least 3/4 of it. My step dad was going to school and we were a bit tight on the budget, so we ate what we grew. Any zucchini we couldn't eat, we'd take over to the campus mail room and leave in a free box. That still left a lot of zucchini for us.
I know as a Mom cooking, stir-fry is my friend. I throw a bunch of veggies in the pan, add some meat to the meat eaters plates, sauce it up with whatever Asian inspired flavors I am inspired by, and voila, a quick meal.
And I add zucchini to anything I feel like. I just tossed it into lasagna last night (chopped super fine to hide it from everyone) which actually could be the secret to my success.
I hid it. I cut it, slice it, grate it, dice it, then discretely add it to our meal.
The worst secret is: if I leave it big, I pick it out. Must be remnant of childhood directive that I can not escape!
This post is inspired by prompt #1 at Mama's Losin' It!
I second, the fact that as I child I ate a ton of yucky veggies, and now use them myself. I can not pick the zucchini fast enough, to bake with! My kids love zucchini bread, but if I put it on their plate...they wont touch it! Thanks for reminding my of my childhood!
ReplyDeleteStopping by via Mama Kats, have a great day!
Too funny. I have a garden myself and there is no such thing as a little zucchini. Though I need to get better at sneaking it into other dishes like you.
ReplyDeleteI think zucchini must be one of those easy vegetables to grow! It's fun thinking about this post, though! My mom used to make the best . . . and I mean THE best . . . tacos!! I can't even touch 'em!
ReplyDeleteIt still makes me gag. But I did chop up one and add it to my chicken cacciatore last night. I just have 3 huge zucchinis from my garden and that seems like way too much to eat!
ReplyDeleteI also hated zucchini as a kid, but then I found out that you really aren't supposed" to eat submarine-sized squashes to start with, and they really don't have to be boiled down to a congealed mass of greenery. I love zucchini in every way, shape and form, now that I grow and cook my own. Loved the post!
ReplyDeleteI love zucchini! I scrape out the seeds w/ a spoon and it makes it less watery, which is helpful.
ReplyDeleteAlso, slicing in it thick strips instead of circles helps it hold together a bit and not be so mushy. It's great in stir-fry! BTW, happy b=day to your sweet young man. You are blessed!
Oh, I love zucchini too! Really though, not much I don't like, which could be my problem!
ReplyDeletewe never had zucchini as a kid because my dad, though he won't admit it, is extremely picky about what veggies he will eat. I snuck some eggplant & zucchini into a lasagna I made when they were visiting just to get back at him for years & years of canned green beans & frozen cauliflower in a cheese sauce.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the middle of a passionate love affair with the zucchini we're growing right in our front yard. Tonight it went into baked mac & cheese (along with tomatoes). Fortunately, everyone in my house likes it in any size, shape, consistency so I don't have to hide it. We only have two plants though so it's not as hard to keep up with the output as it would be if half the garden were zucchini.
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