Food.

I obviously love food. I love to shop for it, cook it, and even more than that, eat it. But my husband and I both have issues with food and eating and do not want to teach our bad habits to our daughter.
We both have blood pressure issues stemming from weight and our formerly high salt intake so we try very hard to eat low sodium foods.
Because we have a toddler, we try to sneak vegetables into everything we eat. Her favorite food is spaghetti so we have "Hidden Veggie Skettie" at least once a week. I think we are having it tonight!
"Hidden Veggie Skettie" is easy to make. We're poor so it is a combination of what we have and what we can afford to go purchase that ends up in the pot.
Tonight is the night before payday so its all stuff I can find in my cabinets.
We start by browning a pound of ground meat. I've used turkey, chicken, beef, pork...whatever I've had on hand. Wesselman's had ground beef for $1.49 a pound 2 weeks ago so our deep freezer is full of beef already browned and bagged up. I add in chopped onion, an unhealthy amount of garlic that is more than a tablespoon but slightly less than a half cup and let it simmer with some tomato juice. Once its bubbly and the house has so much garlic in the air that you can taste Italians, I put a can of rinsed diced canned beets into the blender. I puree them along with a pound of chopped frozen spinach and add that to the tomato juice. Sometimes I'll blend up carrots or cauliflower too but I'm out of both right now.
Next comes basil, oregano, rosemary, and "secret spices". Once it bubbles and simmers at least 20 minutes, I add in 2 cans of tomatos and when it bubbles well, serve it with wheat pasta...Tonight will be organic whole wheat capanelli. The kind I bought is thinner than spaghetti but not as thin as angel hair. Yum!
Sometimes we have salad and garlic bread with it but again, close to payday so not tonight.
My 3 year old will eat at least two plates and whatever is left after packing hubby's lunch for tomorrow will got in a ziplock bag for the freezer.