Vegetables

Since apparently not all of you are as interested in planning my wedding as I am, I guess I shall have to post about something else from time to time. And what more exciting thing could I find to talk about than vegetables?

Okay, so honestly, table salt is more interesting to me. But apparently one is supposed to consume more vegetables than salt, so I'm giving them a shot.

Anyway, apparently US government guidelines recommend eating 5 fruits and vegetables a day!(or they did until a recent update to give you personalized recommendations...that still end up about the same). But thank goodness I'm not Australian...Australians apparently need 5 veggies and 2 fruits per day. I guess it takes more fruit & veg to fight off the extra rays coming through the hole in the ozone? :P

So, as part of a general effort to be healthier, I'm trying to kick up the fruit and veg eating...I'm now up to several days in a row where I've eaten at least one or the other. Yes, laugh all you want, but it is an improvement. Sad, huh?

Since I am not a particular fan of either category of foods, I'm in search of creative, tasty ways to fit them in. Tonight we had fried rice for dinner and loaded it up with carrots, peas, broccoli, and cauliflower, in addition to chicken. It was delicious (and made 6 servings, so now I have lunch for the next two days!) But by far the best vegetable disguise I've found so far is my grandma's zucchini pancakes (recipe below). My grandma and my mom used to make these, and when I looked at the recipe last week, I figured there must be a typo because there's no way that my grandma's had that much zucchini in them! But I decided to just follow the recipe and see how it went, and sure enough, they tasted exactly like I remembered from childhood. Carrie and I split a batch, which meant that we each ended up eating an entire zucchini--quite a feat for me! And I enjoyed it!

Zucchini Pancakes

• 2/3 cup Bisquick
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

In mixing bowl, stir together Bisquick, cheese and pepper. Stir in beaten egg until mixture is just moistened. Fold in zucchini. Melt butter on griddle/frying pan. Cook small pancakes 2-3 minutes for each side or until brown. Recipe makes about 12-15 small pancakes.

I started by melting 1 Tbsp of butter and cooked half the pancakes, then threw in the rest of the butter rather than having it all in the pan at the start. I also particularly like that this recipe gave me a good excuse to use my little food processor--grating zucchini is a breeze with that! And finally, I'm a stovetop girl, but my mom reports that if you are inclined to use an electric frying pan, 360° works well for these. Since they're cooked in butter, they don't really need anything on them, but I suspect either butter or sour cream would be delicious with these. Enjoy!