Getting your vitamins

We all know we need to eat vegtables and up until a few days ago I felt that I was doing a good job at eating them and getting them in my family. However, now it seems that getting vegtables down my 2 yr old and hubby seems to be getting harder. I don't know what the change is and instead of bribing them into eating them (Macy not Mark :>) I just hide them!

So I'm not as scared about this swine flu but still doesn't hurt to take some precautions. I'm trying to beef up the amount of healthy things in our diet starting with fruits and veggies- the first is cauliflower- packed with tons of Vitamin C.

I bought some cauliflower the other day- but once I got it home I couldn't come up with something to make that I thought they would eat and would be healthy. Thought about smothering them with cheese but that would just make it harder to fit back into my pre pregnancy pants!!

I remembered a recipe that I had made when I was doing the low carb thing for a wedding I was in a few years ago. Cauliflower mashed potatoes! Talk about a hit! I added a few herbs from my 'herb garden' in my window and a little butter. They were great!

However by the next day I was tired of them as 'mashed potatoes'....they were now leftovers and doomed to stay in the refrigerator until something started growing on them and I had to toss them. Then another brainy idea....Shepard's Pie.

Side note: We would have Shepard's Pie all the time in our college cafeteria but I never tried it. Those of you that know me know that I never like my food to touch (neither did my husband- aren't we a perfect match!) so I never ate it. I don't know if it was the fact that I see my daughter's food all thrown together by the time meal time is over or the fact that I had everything in the refrigerator right there and I knew I could have a homemade meal in 15 minutes??? Who knows?

So here is what I did....

Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Steam a head of cauliflower (cut up in pieces) and then put in blender. Add herbs, salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of milk (or water). I then added a small amount of butter. They will look and taste like the real thing! Promise!

Shepard's Pie
Brown hamburger meat (use lean meat or even turkey), add corn and peas (I actually had both of these as leftovers already in the refrigerator so check there first) either from canned or frozen and place in a baking pan. Season with salt and pepper, garlic salt, or I even used a seasoning salt that I used on chicken or steak. Spread your 'mashed potatoes' on top of the beef/veggie mixture and then put some cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 20 min. Super Yummy, healthy, and great for a nice fall day! The family loved them too!

I strongly believe that every fruit and vegetable has its purpose on this earth and that the more variety you have in your diet the better. Still not sure why I even bought cauliflower but I think sometimes your body just craves certain foods b/c they need something from them! Very glad I bought it b/c it opened my eyes to trying new and creative things.