Should you cut coupons? How do you make a grocery budget? What is high fructose corn syrup? Is an organic cantaloupe better for you than a regular can
4:22 AM
Two weeks ago, CHG posted a piece called Learning to Love Foods You Hate: a How-to Guide for Frugal Eaters. Essentially, it claimed that reconsidering loathed fruits and veggies will make you healthier and cost less money. Then, it gave several ideas on how to go about that mission.
Last week, Rachel and I decided to conduct an experiment to put our theories to the test. You met our testees, Linda (my sister) and Dustin (a friend / Comedy Nerd extraordinaire). They explained which foods they like (pasta), which they hate (almost all veggies), and then you guys gave tons of fantastic suggestions about how to feed them. They included:
* Juice: “Roasted cauliflower with parm cheese. … Or puree a veggie into some pasta sauce, or zucchini bread.”
* Kitchen Bitsch: ‘I do think that a lasagne or quiche could be a way to start. If all else fails, deep fry.”
* TC Byrd: “I'm definitely thinking a red sauce could be useful here.”
* Katie: “You can pretty much throw zucchini in no matter what you make. … The flavor is so mild and the texture so innocuous, it blends really well and is easy to hide!”
* Jen: “I have found soup is always good, especially if you serve it with some bread… Pureed foods (soup, dips, sauces, etc) might also avoid texture issues. (That's how I convinced my husband mushrooms weren't Satan's vegetable.)”
Thanks to your ideas, we decided on zucchini bread, zucchini soup, mashed potatoes with cauliflower, a red sauce with a pureed red bell pepper, and eggplant lasagna.
And last night, we conducted our experiment.
Here's how it went down: we served Dustin and Linda five separate courses. They didn’t know what was in them beforehand, and recorded their ratings (from 1 to 10) and impressions after each one. We also had two Control Group members (The Boyfriend and Dustin’s wife J) to ensure that the recipes were, in fact, palatable.
So ... was the food any good? Do Dustin and Linda now like vegetables? Did either of them throw anything at me? Read on to find out the results, along with the recipes, the principles we followed from LtLFYHaHGfFE, and everyone’s reaction to each dish...
DISH 1
Mom’s Zucchini Bread from All Recipes
Principle: Cook the best-reviewed recipe you can find featuring that food.
DUSTIN: 5 - Didn’t really taste like anything to me. It was sort of like not eating anything.
LINDA: 9 – It’s desserty! It tastes like Mom’s banana bread but less sweet. Yum! And, bread is good!
CONTROL GROUP: 9.5 & 8 – “sweet, cinnamony, light,” “yummy.”
DISH 2
Zucchini-Rosemary Soup from Epicurious
(changes: halved the olive oil)
Principle: Understand you don’t have to eat it the way your Ma (or Pa) prepared it.
DUSTIN: 3 – Aftertaste is kind of gross. Mostly garlic or oniony taste up top. Worse over time.
LINDA: 5 – Looks like snot. I can see the onions – no good. (I think she though that the bits of zucchini were scallions. - Kris) I like the croutons, though, and that makes me want to eat it.
CONTROL GROUP: 7 & 6 - “nice rosemary flavor,” “texture is not pleasant, leaves me wanting a substance I can taste and either slurp or chew.”
