Of mesclun and memories

By: Cindy Hatcher, Cooking Light Associate Editor

"Veggie Up!" sounds a lot like something my grandmother would say before forcing a heaping serving of something stinky like boiled cabbage or collard greens on my plate. This is the same (wonderful!) veg-pushing granny whom I somehow manipulated into an odd system of veggie management: We agreed that I had to eat exactly as many as the number of my age. This worked brilliantly to my advantage when I was 6 (6 teensy green beans?…ok!).

Now that I'm 32, I've found an easier system of meeting my daily vegetable intake (and it’s actually pretty simple): Find ones I actually enjoy eating, roast them (or find a local organic option to eat raw), and add a sprinkle of some sort of cheese. Nothing against dear ol' gran, but I've swapped her pale iceberg wedge for a more interesting salad of fresh, vibrant spinach, arugula, and mesclun greens. Roasted butternut squash has thankfully replaced slimy canned green beans, and a leafy carrot recently plucked from the soil is miles above a dry “baby” carrot nub.

Lest you think I'm knocking Grandma’s wisdom, it was her insistence that I at least try everything on my plate—even if it was 6 Brussels sprouts at a time—that got me where I am today. Now I just need to work on expanding my veggie recipe repertoire. I’ve included some of my favorites below.

Have a recipe you think I might like? Send it my way, and I promise to try at least one…

Cindy's favorites:

Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta  (shown at right)

Grilled Chicken Breasts on Mesclun

Polenta with Roasted Vegetables