Veggies

Camy here! I’m still going strong on my New Years resolution to eat healthier and exercise!

Believe it or not, I’ve realized recently that I’ve grown to love veggies. Who’da thought? I hated veggies growing up. But now I’ve come to see that it might have been just that the veggies my parents liked weren’t what I liked.

For example, Mom served us raw cabbage tossed with mayonnaise dressing. Yuck! (The cabbage, not the dressing.)

However, last year I discovered a French recipe for cabbage sauteed with onions, a little butter, and a little bacon. Yum! Cooked cabbage is darn tasty!

We got served salads a lot, too. While I don’t hate salads, they just don’t really appeal to me, especially in wintertime because I’m always cold (especially my hands). My parents don’t get cold very often, whereas I’m always freezing, so they couldn’t understand my aversion to cold veggie dishes.

But now that I’m cooking for myself, I take the option of choosing to cook vegetables, and I rarely make salads. Instead, I’ve been experimenting with different vegetables that I never ate when I grew up, like Brussels sprouts and collard greens.

I love Brussels sprouts! Can you believe it? Sauteed with garlic and olive oil and a dash of parmesan cheese—fantastic!

And I love collard greens! Boiled first for about 10 minutes, drained and then sauteed with bacon (see a trend, here? LOL)—delish! I never had it growing up.

Radicchio! Sauteed in olive oil with garlic, then tossed with sausage and pasta!

Kale! Boiled for about 10 minutes, then sauteed with chicken and marsala wine and pasta!

Rutabagas! Diced and thrown into minestrone soup!

I’m going nuts these days finding out new ways to eat new vegetables. It helps that we belong to an organic co-op that delivers a basket of organic veggies to us each week (we don’t get to choose what we get, but we get a huge variety of stuff, all great quality, that costs only a little more than the non-organic stuff at the grocery store).

How about you? Any veggie recipes you want me to try? Any tips? Any ideas for how you can incorporate more veggies into your daily diet?

Camy Tang lives in San Jose, California. She previously worked in biology research, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she runs the Story Sensei critique service. Her humorous romance, Single Sashimi, and her romantic suspense, Deadly Intent, are both out now. She also gives away Christian fiction on her blog and her newsletter YahooGroup.

Comments

[LaShaunda]

Never had sauteed greens. Might have to try those.

[Camy Tang]

They're good! Just make sure you boil them for about 10 minutes first, then drain and then saute. Otherwise they're too bitter and tough.

[Carrie]

Veggies rock! I totally agree with you on the cabbage. Cooked with sliced up brats - yum!

One of my favorites is to saute some onion, garlic, and mushrooms, then toss in some steamed green beans (fresh or frozen), cashew halves, and hoisin sauce. So yummy, even my husband doesn't miss the meat in this dish!

[Camy Tang]

Oooh both those ideas sound great!!! I'm definitely going to have to try those. I have hoisin sauce in my fridge!