Puttin' on The Mitts: Eat your veggies!

While June 17 is National Eat Your Vegetables Day, I encourage everyone to eat vegetables other days, too, and summertime is a great time to do just that.

I chose to do some of my favorite vegetables on the grill in an aluminum foil packet. Yes, I know mushrooms are technically a fungus but they go nicely with peppers and onions and steak, which was part of our meal Sunday night.

I had only ever heard of using olive oil or butter while cooking in foil packets on the grill but after some research on the internet, I thought I'd give Italian dressing a try, topping off the grilled veggies with some parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of Italian seasoning. There is nothing difficult about this "recipe." It's just another way to enhance the flavor of these fresh and tasty vegetables.

ITALIAN TUSCAN VEGETABLES

Vegetables of your choice (I used fresh sliced mushrooms, red, yellow and orange peppers and a white onion)

Italian dressing (I used light zesty)

Italian seasoning

Salt to taste

Parmesan cheese

Heavy duty aluminum foil

Slice the peppers and onion into strips.

Rinse the sliced mushrooms.

Tear off a generous piece of aluminum foil.

Toss your veggies and spread them across the foil. Drizzle the Italian dressing across them so they're lightly coated.

Sprinkle some Italian seasoning, salt and parmesan cheese on top of the veggies.

Fold the foil around the vegetables, making a square pocket. Make sure it's sealed well around the edges.

Place on the grill at a medium heat, seam side up. Cook for about 15-20 minutes. Veggies should be crisp and tender.

Remove from heat.

Sprinkle with a little more parmesan cheese before serving.

-- DeLynn

Soup might not be your first thought for dinner as we enter the warmer months, but the wet weather we've experienced lately has me in a mood for comfort food. One of my favorite ways to eat vegetables is in curries of all kinds and from a variety of cultures, so a creamy curried soup sounded just about perfect for satisfying all of those desires.

While the soup recipe I'm offering today certainly fits the bill for showcasing vegetables, its decadence sort of betrays the idea of National Eat Your Vegetables Day-most certainly intended to encourage people to eat healthily. One way to lighten this up would be to ditch the milk and cream entirely, instead blending a few cups of the soup before adding it back to the soup. This will thicken it and give it a creamy texture without the added fat. You could also use olive oil or coconut oil in place of the butter.

I love to make soup, and I've become quite good at it (in my opinion). I beg of you, don't skip the lemon juice-you will not regret it. It won't make the soup taste like lemons; instead, it brightens and enhances the flavors, elevating the soup to another plane of flavor. Add some more the next day, too, after reheating the leftovers.

This recipe makes quite a large batch of soup for plenty of leftovers. Freeze it in 1- to 2-cup portions in quart-sized freezer bags, lying them flat on their sides in the freezer.

CURRIED POTATO VEGETABLE SOUP

4 tablespoons butter

1 medium yellow onion, diced

4 small carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

3 baking potatoes, diced

2 tablespoons curry powder

4 stems of thyme

32-ounce carton vegetable stock

2 cups water

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons flour

5 ounces baby spinach, roughly chopped

1 1/2 cups green peas (fresh or frozen preferred)

1 cup heavy cream

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice or more to taste

Salt and black pepper to taste

In a heavy-bottomed pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

Add the onion, carrots, celery, potatoes and plenty of salt and pepper, sauteing for 6-8 minutes until onions are becoming translucent.

Add the vegetable stock and water, bringing to a boil.

Turn down the heat to medium-low, allowing it to simmer gently for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are just barely tender.

Meanwhile, mix the milk with the flour.

Add the milk mixture to the pot, along with the chopped spinach and peas.

Cook for about 5 minutes more, until the soup begins to thicken and the peas are warmed through.

Remove from heat and stir in heavy cream.

Add lemon juice and adjust seasoning with more salt or pepper.

-- Chelsey