Do you like green "eggs" no ham?

"You do not like them, so you say.
Try them. Try them. And you may.
Try them and you may, I say," says Sam in the Dr. Seuss classic "Green Eggs and Ham."

I am so happy that my husband has been willing to experiment with raw one night a week. Now, if I can just get my son to expand his taste-buds.

Yesterday, while reading various Dr. Seuss and P.D. Eastman (frequently mistaken for Dr. Seuss) books, it came to me. I would reinforce the importance of trying new foods with this childhood read. Whenever Jacob refuses to sample something new, I'll refer to this familiar lesson.

First, I won't be so forceful, pressuring him to take a bite. Like the main character says to Sam, "If you let me be, I will try them. You will see."

But I will remind him of the outcome of the story.

When he does take a taste, his response to Sam is, "Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them, Sam-I-Am!"

In the spirit of this new way of approaching what my child eats, I whipped up this plate of green "eggs" (two ways), no ham.

First, I made a scramble out of white mushrooms, something I've been thinking about experimenting with for a while. However, it would certainly work just as well with Ani Phyo's Love the Chick pate.

I ground up the mushrooms (after removing the dark colored "gills") in a food processor until mushy with a drizzle of EVOO, a couple drops of apple cider vinegar (for some reason it tastes "eggy," maybe since vinegar is added to the water used to poach eggs), tumeric for color (not that you will even notice it in this dish), nutritional yeast (found in most vegan scrambles), sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Then, to keep the mixture firm, I put it in a nut-milk bag and squeezed out the excess liquid (mushrooms are like sponges, which kind of reminds me of eggs).

Then, I made a pesto in the food processor with ground pumpkin seeds, parsley, meyer lemon juice, garlic, sea salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. I folded some of it into the "egg" mixture to create its green color and topped it all off with more pesto, a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds, nutritional yeast, paprika and more parsley for garnish.

The deviled-style green "eggs" were just leftover white mushroom caps stuffed with a creamy tomato-less guacamole. These were also topped with a dash of paprika.

It wasn't my prettiest dish, but I enjoyed the flavor. Unfortunately, Jacob wanted nothing to do with it, except laugh at its resemblance to the food in the book. I couldn't get him to try my version, but he did ask for real green eggs.

Maybe he'll be more willing to experiment next time. I'm not going to force him.