"Write down a list of vegetables that you like"

In February 2009, I decided to give meat up for Lent.  It was more of a challenge kind of thing and something hard to prove to people that I could do something others couldn't (yeah, sometimes the whole God thing gets lost on me, but I'm working on it!).  I did not prepare whatsoever or do any research.  Duh, no meat means you eat...uh...idk!  The first day of Lent, I had cereal for all of my meals (100% seriously).

One of my co-workers was a vegan and was VERY excited that I was going meat free (I did keep in eggs and dairy, I would not have survived vegan!).  She told me she would cook something for me if I wrote down a list of vegetables that I liked.  So I sat down with pen and paper.

"Mushrooms"

Ummmmm....potatoes?  Corn?  I kind of like those.  Oh, and lettuce.

I ended up writing a short list of veggies that I had before and could tolerate, but my list of veggies I hated were nearly as long (I'm looking at you tomatoes and cucumbers!).

I went 40 days w/o meat, but I literally day dreamed about meat every day!  And some meat substitutes were horrible while others weren't that bad.  That co-worker never did cook for me.  Perhaps it is because she asked if I liked spicy food.  I said "Uhhhh...I like salsa a little bit".  She replied  "I'll take that as a no".

And lately, I have been  buying veggies more and more when I go to the store.  Last week I decided to renew my love of squash (after I got burnt out the first time-everyday for weeks on end got to be a little too much). After review, it was DEFINITELY the veggies in this post.  That was an awful food week.  I'm not making either of those things again!  I had squash/zucchini, bell peppers, and onions slow cooked w/chicken thighs.  Love! Last week I bought a few things to make stir fry, but not enough to make the amount/type I wanted.  And then SwimSis used my chicken for dinner yesterday.  Sure she bought more, but that was rock hard in the freezer - and did me no good!  I went to the store today and bought more chicken and 1 more pack of veggies.  When I got home, I was on the interwebs too much (oh fb!) and then I got to chopping!  I was just in a mood to not to cook all of this up, so I gave into the slow cooker/crock pot - again!

I got out the 3 packs of veggies that I had purchased on separate occassions.  They are somewhat pre-chopped and were all on "manager's special".  I had 2 packs of "grilling vegetables" (zucchini, yellow squash), red onion, red and green bell peppers and one pack of stir fry veggies (bok choy, pea pods, carrots, broccoli, onions, bell peppers).  I threw in the stir fry veggies, chopped up the grilling veggies a little more finely.  Then I chopped some carrots, not peeling them though (why do we peel them?  Seems like a bit of a waste to me!  I did peel a few odd looking spots, but just chopped the rest).  Then I went into the fridge to get an extra yellow squash and zucchini when I saw the bok choy I bought last week!  Someone (SwimSis) had likely shoved it to the back of the fridge where it froze.  The leafy greens were good no more, but the stalks were pretty much okay.  I chopped that all up and the crock pot was REALLY full.  I had opted not to put the chicken in the same crock pot quite a few chops ago.

Crock O' Veggies

I went to get some teriyaki sauce from the fridge when I saw a massive mountain of mushrooms (yay mushrooms!) that I had completely forgotten about!

Lots of Fungi!

 I ended up squeezing a few more mushrooms in with the veggies and  some in with the chicken in a separate, but small slow cooker.  And the lat mushrooms SwimSis grilled up with bell peppers to have w/ tacos - yummy.

I am glad to see I have evolved as a vegetable eater.  A couple of years ago I would not have eaten onions, pea pods, bok choy, etc.  I like cucumbers now, but tomatoes will always be the worst thing ever!  I know I will overcook them in the crockpot, but I'm hoping they will still be yummy!

How has your eating evolved?