Thursday, September 11, 2008

Vegetable Haters Anonymous

From Sept. 11...

Several months ago, I made a new recipe I found for roasted cauliflower. We loved it so much that we started serving it to all our friends who came over for dinner! So when our wonderful friends, Dave and Amanda, came over with their two little cuties, I, of course, made Roasted Cauliflower. They loved it, too! In fact, they loved it so much that now they eat it all the time! And Amanda wasn't even too keen on cauliflower in the first place, yet now she can just about eat an entire head alone!

Amanda posted the recipe on her blog (http://www.mandajuice.com/) and she was telling me just yesterday that that particular post gets more hits than anything else! People across the nation are raving about my Roasted Cauliflower. Coolio! So I perused her blog this morning and found the Roasted Cauliflower post. Confession: I really just wanted to read all the comments. And commenter after commenter said she didn't care too much for vegetables (my Roasted Cauliflower recipe aside. LOL!)

Amen to not liking vegetables! I don't like them one bit. I literally have to force myself to eat them 9 nights of out 10. I used to be able to do canned veggies okay, but now I can't even stomach the thought of them. I'll eat corn (preferably on the cob), carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, beets, most beans and the occasional squash. That's really about it. No peppers, no onions, no mushrooms, no artichokes, no eggplant or zucchini, no peas and most of all NO TOMATOES!!!!

Tomatoes are the worst things in the entire world. I won't even touch them. Oh, sure, I'll eat them in sauce or ketchup form, but my relationship with the horrid things ends there. I can tell you exactly why I severed all potential relations with the squishy, oozing, seedy blobs -- Kristy Reed's mother.

I must have been about five or so when I spent the night at my friend Kristy's house. With dinner her mom served sliced, raw tomatoes. I didn't like tomatoes and I politely told her so, but she would not let me leave the table until I ate the two slices she put on my plate. I gagged and gagged, but finally got through them. I have not willingly eaten another since.

But seriously, what a hideously cruel thing to do to a small guest in your home!!! I would never in a million years force a guest to eat something they don't want to. That woman scarred me for life! I've always been a selective eater (note the "selective" instead of "picky"), but there are plenty of things I've learned to like over the years. Tomatoes could have been one of them. Alas, it was not meant to be.

I did, however, finally figure out how to eat salsa! I love the taste of the juice, but would not touch those tomatoes. Makes it hard to eat salsa, right? So now, I pour the whole jar into a bowl and use my hand blender to mix it till it's just this side of smooth. Oh, bliss! The taste without the texture!Back to the original point of Vegetable Haters Anonymous. There are way more of us out there than we think! Grown up women of all ages and stages don't like vegetables. There's all the pressure out there to eat a zillion fresh fruits and veggies a day. I would love to eat more vegetables! I would love to make a recipe without having to tailor it specifically for my particular tastes (and Scott's allergies, but that's another post altogether). I would love to choose from a restaurant menu without sounding like Sally in the restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally.

My name is Kate and I hate vegetables. I, the founding member of Vegetable Haters Anonymous, vow to support any member in their refusal of the healthy ruffage. I vow to help assuage the associated guilt whenever a member looks at that damned food pyramid. I vow to stand behind all members when others put them down because of their vegetable dislike.
Vegetable Haters Anonymous unite!

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