Frank-Vegetable Medley (BH&G Eat and Stay Slim, 1968)

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The other day, I sat down with some of my retro recipe books - I have so, so many, and a lot of them focus on either older versions of Weight Watchers, or weight loss in general. I have always been very enamored and intrigued by the lengths folks went to for slimming down. Not all of the recipes are horrible, per se - there's a lot of good bones to some of the recipes. And some of them look like things the current WW app suggests sometimes, too - the more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose.

For my first recipe test, I stuck to something simple - something I already had all the ingredients for in the fridge. What I found was in the Better Homes and Gardens "Eat and Stay Slim" collection from 1968 - a recipe for "Frank-Vegetable Medley." It used what we already had in stock, and it seemed at least a little family-friendly, which is always a plus - not having to make separate meals for everyone based on tastes or preferences.


The recipe was simple enough too, which was good since we have been so busy lately on weekends, between Cub Scouts and my son's Hebrew lessons and general life errands and everything else.



I don't know how many folks in 1968 were using veggie hot dogs, but again - it's what we had on hand. Same for the wild rice - I've been trying to diversify our grains as much as possible, and wild rice is a nice baby step from white rice for the rest of my family. Every little bit helps, I hope.


It was the easiest recipe - literally just mix and bake - and it came out predictably edible. The veggies weren't completely mush like I worried they might be - but they were soft enough that none of the usual vegetable complainers around here had anything to say. It was a nice, quick enough lunch that I'd likely make again if we had the ingredients on hand and no one was sure what they were in the mood to eat that day. I'm looking forward to more recipe tests, things that are a little more complicated or at least more appealing to an adult palate. But overall, a successful first test!





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