Veggie Tales

[vanillafluffy]

One of my NYRs has been to consume some veggies every day. I'm keeping my definiton of "vegetables" broad---I imclude beans and V8 juice---and so far, I'm keeping up with it. (And for the record, Ruby Tuesday's grilled green beans are out of this world! They taste almost meaty; they definitely have more character than any green bean I've ever had before, including Cracker Barrel's "touch of bacon" beans.)

Tonight's dinner was half a bag of stir-fry snap bean medley (Great Value brand) over rice, dash of soy sauce. Yum. New year, new lifestyle (It's NOT a diet!), trying new things---yesterday, I sampled fried okra for the first time. Beats the hell out of boiled okra, is all I'm gonna say. There's yellow squash in the medley, I shut up and ate squash.

As I was forking up snap peas and rice and broccoli, I was thinking about the whole "diet" versus "lifestyle" ethos, and the thought popped into my head, "I have to spend the rest of my life eating this crap?!".

Because deep down, I'm not completely convinced that vegetables count as Real Food. Growing up, vegetables as a side accompanied Sunday dinner, but the rest of the week, er, no. It was eggs for breakfast, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch and a hamburger on bread for dinner most nights, except for Thursday, which was Aunt Mary's spaghetti night. Occasionally one of the 'rents would make stir-fry---they were into wok before wok was in---so I *did* develop a taste for bean sprouts and water chestnuts and the like. Those were exotic veggies, though, so they got a pass for novelty.

When my dad was working evenings, Mom would fix me a burger and herself a salad. She was always trying to lose weight, although I think the most she ever weighed was 160. Anyway, I got it into my head at a young age that that was a kind of self-denial---not something I've ever been good at. (We've already established my feelings on the subject of iceburg lettuce.)

In fact, I'd say I'm "self-taught" on a lot of vegetables. Two, for example, are spinach and mushrooms. My mother regarded spinach in any form as toxic; she was forced to consume it when she was a child in the children's home she was in, and she wouldn't have any form of it in the house. GK served a spinach salad at her bridesmaids' luncheon, and I discovered that fresh spinach is perfectly acceptable as an edible green leaf. The jury's still out on the boiled form.

Mom also had a neurosis about mushrooms. She cautioned me often never, never, EVER to eat any mushrooms that might have sprouted on the lawn, and like spinach, she wouldn't have them in the house. I finally had the spiphany that I'd never heard of *anyone* being poisoned by the mushrooms on a pizza. Because they're specially raised, domestic mushrooms. So yeah, sauteed mushrooms at a steakhouse? Hell yes!

Likewise, broccoli and cauliflower were things I wasn't made to eat as a kid. I'm not thrilled by either one, but I'll eat then. Ditto squash.

Green beans are nice, especially fresh, I love a *good* tomato, I'll entertain carrots raw or cooked, celery when I'm in the mood. Members of the onion family, particularly shallots and Vidalias. One of the things I like best about onions is their longevity, because it's shameful how often I've vowed to "clean up my act", bought a fridge full of veggies, which then sat there and rotted.

I just don't have a whole helluva lot of enthusiasm for most veggies. I know in theory they're good for me and all that happy crappy (and have I mentioned gas?! OMG!), and maybe when it gets to be summer and there's fresh stuff available and I can learn to cook it---maybe then I'll enjoy them, but at this point, all these veggies are underwhelming me.

Thoughts? Pep talks? Recipes?

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Comments

[torn-eledhwen.livejournal.com]

More likely to be next to carrots. They're basically a white carrot, after all. But you know any root vegetable casseroles well. And you don't even need a slow cooker - I just have a deep stainless steel pan with a lid.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

I've also got a stainless pot or two or three, and a bunch of ceramic casserole dishes. I'm just lazy about things like that. Bung it into the slow cooker and ignore it til it smells god, is my method of cooking.
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[torn-eledhwen.livejournal.com]

But veggies don't take long to cook - I'd still argue you'd be better off doing a veggie casserole in a pot on the stove. You still don't need to touch it once everything's in the pot. It'll be done in 45 minutes. Honest. An hour in total including the chopping.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

That's another reason I've avoided veggies---not a clue how to cook them most of the time.

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[torn-eledhwen.livejournal.com]

I've always been of the opinion that experimenting is the best way of learning how to cook. Vegetables can be cooked in so many ways - roast, casseroled, stir-fried, steamed, boiled - and you can cook most of them any way you want. Also they never need cooking that long.