To Fry or Not to Fry

In my pursuit of trying to cook meals that are tasty and nutritious I conducted an experiment at supper tonight. I cooked squash, eggplant, green beans, and mashed potatoes. A meal of veggies is not uncommon for us at all but tonight I pan fried some squash, eggplant and green beans. I also oven baked some sqash and eggplant and boiled some green beans lightly. There was toast, fresh tomatoes, and cucumbers. The potatoes were divided in half and mashed some with mayonaise and some with butter ( which we've been doing with potatoes since the girls were tall enough to hold the beaters themselves.) I made everyone try everything and got every kind of response that could have been given. The 14 year old young lady visiting was very gracious and tried stuff too. After supper I decided that I would go back to the way I usually cook. No more experiments of cooking the same thing different ways. The giant mess that was left over wasn't a help either. I've always let the girls help with the potatoes because they have such strong opinions about which is better and they can do the work themselves. But they will have to learn to like green beans the way I cook them for that night and continue trying squash and eggplant whenever it's provided. There has never been allowed complaints about the food that is put on the table but when I ask everyone in my family likes to tell me how they really feel about what they eat. For the most part everyone likes a good variety of healthy food and can swallow a few bites of some slimy green thing. Yes, I force everyone to taste of everything and have something green and a fresh fruit every day. You'd be surprised how many times I've been asked if pickles can count as a green. (No, too much salt.)