I don’t eat near as many vegetables as I should. But ever since the kids were little, I made sure they did. However, I’ve pretty much stuck to the basics — corn, peas, carrots, peppers, onions, potatoes, lettuce and beans with the occasional spinach, mushrooms or broccoli. Well, last week my daughter was at the grocery store with me and asked why I never buy zucchini. So I did, thinking I could make chocolate chip zucchini bread, which I remembered politely eating once many years ago. So my daughter helped me make the bread from scratch (I even iced it to make it extra-yummy) and we offered it to my other two children when they came home from school as a special “treat”. They each ate a piece, as did my husband later that night, and all declared it “good.” But guess what? No one ever asked for another piece, despite my repeated offerings. By the time I came to terms that no one was going to finish the remaining 80% of the 13×9 pan, I didn’t want to offer it to a neighbor or anyone. So I’m ashamed to say it is on its way to a landfill, where I always like to tell myself “the animals will eat it.” Needless to say, I won’t be making that again … but I did make oatmeal raisin cookies today. Not vegetable-based, but healthy in their own way (and there won’t be any left for the animals to eat!).