Do you have one of those adorably finicky kids (or spouses) whom you have to practically beg to eat vegetables? You do it because you love them, want them to be healthy, get lots of nutrients in their bodies, and fight cancer and heart disease.  However, most of the time, this kind of finicky person will proudly announce that his favorite vegetable is the potato chip.  ~sigh

My boys are pretty good veggie eaters, but sometimes I face a little resistance. They’re not going to munch on raw celery or carrots, usually. Sometimes my youngest leaves is purple hull peas on his plate, untouched. This means I have to work just a bit harder to make vegetables irresistible! 

One way I’ve found to do this is by making a dish I call pizza beans. It’s really a bean casserole, and it’s colorful and tastes like pizza if you season it just right.  They’re so good, in fact that my youngest son, Jared, requested them for dinner this week.  This child would never eat a big serving from a pot of lima beans on the stovetop, but make them like this and call them pizza beans, and he’s all over them. 🙂

Here’s the recipe:

Mama Steph’s Pizza Beans

16 oz bag of baby lima beans, cooked according to package directions.  (be careful not to overcook them. They just turn to mush if you do. )

3 carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

3-4 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup chopped onion

1 TBS olive oil

1 TBS Italian seasoning (or use individual spices like basil and oregano, to total 1 TBS)

1/2 to 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese

Method:

Place cooked and drained beans in a 9×13 casserole dish.

Sprinkle with salt (if not salted from cooking according to pkg directions), pepper, and Italian seasoning.

Spread chopped vegetables over the beans.  Drizzle with the olive oil.

Bake for 45 minutes in 350-degree F onion.  (Check after 30 minutes; if they appear to be drying out, pour 1/2 cup of water over them to keep moist. Also, taste for spices; I needed to add salt to mine; you might want more oregano, etc.)

After 45 minutes, sprinkle shredded cheese over the beans and return to oven for ten minutes.

Remove from oven and serve.  

I like my pizza beans topped with a teaspoon of light sour cream. I love the contrast of the tangy-sweet sour cream with the savory beans.  Jared doesn’t do this, because he doesn’t use sour cream on his pizza, so he doesn’t think he should on his pizza beans, either.  😉  Cute kid.

Let me know if you sneak in more veggies this week with pizza beans or any other way. I’m always looking for more ideas! 

Enjoy!