I had an experiment last night! I was happy and sad at the findings! I made waffles for a group of friends... There were two particular people that I was hoping would try them! First let me show you what I did!
Look at this BEAUTIFUL picture below! It is of my food processor with raw carrots, baby spinach, Bok Choy and eggplant! I blended up these veggies, added a 1/2 cup of water to help the consistency, because we don't want chunks, and it only took a minute!
Before I move on, a friend of mine asked about my food processor. I own the Cuisinart 11-cup Pro. It works wonders for how I cook. I do have to say that there are MANY attachments that I rarely use and it is heavy to move around but it's wonderful! I've already gotten 9 years of use out of mine and the blade is as sharp as ever! Here is a website that will give you some info if you re looking for a good food processor!
Ok, moving on, here is a picture of my raw veggies after I blended them all together.... I was NOT shy with these veggies! I think it made over a cup of puree! I got my trusty box pumpkin waffle mix out and prepared the mix as directed on the box. You will not be able to find this particular waffle mix at Trader Joes right now because it's seasonal... =( However, use any waffle mix you have on hand! Let me point out that I added OVER a cup of pureed vegetables to a DOUBLED box recipe.
Here is my beautiful mix with my veggies added AND you can't even tell they are in there! I just wanted to add one thing.... my box calls for water (remember I added 1/2 cup of water to my veggies?) so I subtracted 1/2 cup of water from my box recipe.
Then it's as easy as pouring your mix in your waffle maker and letting it cook! BUT, don't forget the mini chocolate chips! This is my favorite ingredient, it makes you feel like you are eating a warm chocolate chip cookie! *Another tip on what I do with these, double your batch and freeze your leftovers. These are great to pull out of the freezer and pop into the toaster when you are craving something sweet!
YUMMY! The finished product and no one can tell there are veggies in there RIGHT? Well, lets take it to some picky eaters to find out!
Now I will tell you about my little experiment! I know a 15 year old girl who hates veggies....We asked her one time what her favorite veggie was and she thought VERY hard and said..."corn?". Also, I have an adult friend who is picky when it comes to veggies and he actually told me that if I put veggies in my waffles he would be able to taste them. So I brought these "Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Waffles" over to a get together and said nothing about the veggies.... Right away the 15 year old took one, ate it and said "these are good" and walked away! Later the adult that I singled out tried them and had no idea! So I was VERY HAPPY that they liked my waffles.... Now here comes the part where I showed them the picture of my food processor.... I'll show you again!
They both were DISGUSTED and said if they knew this was in the waffles they wouldn't have eaten them!!!!! So my husband and I were talking about this, It's not the taste buds that HATE the veggies, it's something in your brain that tells you "THIS IS DISGUSTING BECAUSE VEGETABLES ARE NASTY!" Why is this? I know I singled out two people in this blog but they are like MOST Americans.... We need to start thinking about what we are teaching our children from a young age. How do WE as parents react to vegetables and fruits? Do we provide a wide variety of them in our home? Do we eat them even if our kids protest? Do we still try to feed them to our kids even if we know they have protested in the past? Do we educate them on what these foods really do for our bodies? I am not asking these questions to make anyone upset....it's just something to think about.... Why would our taste buds like the taste of something and then our brain overrides, tell us it's NASTY, so we won't eat it anymore? PLEASE COMMENT!!!! This is a wonderful discussion!!!!
* I just changed my comment setting to allow anyone to comment... Sorry if you tried and couldn't! I have one more question! If you are a person who cringes at the thought of certain veggies, Why do you think that is? What do you think happened to you growing up that gave you this view?
* I just changed my comment setting to allow anyone to comment... Sorry if you tried and couldn't! I have one more question! If you are a person who cringes at the thought of certain veggies, Why do you think that is? What do you think happened to you growing up that gave you this view?