Hate vegetables, not eating enough

[Sher-o]

I really, really dislike a lot of vegetables.  They were not well prepared when I was growing up and I've just begun to eat some kinds of vegetables within the last ten years or so.

 

I'm having trouble following the meal template and getting enough vegetables at each meal. I'm trying to choke them down but I don't have much of an appetite so it's a struggle. 

 

Typical meals for a day:

 

Breakfast:  Sweet potatoes, egg quiche made with coconut milk, equivalent of 2 eggs plus sausage, plus a little green onion and parsley.  Not a whole serving of veggies in the quiche. Optional berries if I'm really hungry.

Lunch:  Plain hamburger and avocado, or cold chicken salad with mayo, apple, celery, walnuts

Afternoon snack if needed - apple and almond butter (I know that doesn't correspond to the meal template...)

Dinner:  Chicken or fish, two of these:  green beans, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, plus homemade mayonnaise for dipping veggies.

 

My meals don't vary much from this, except I might have a steak on the weekend. I know I need to eat more vegetables. I just feel like I'm eating the same ones all the time. Getting bored and wanting fruit.

 

Any thoughts on how to fix this?

 

I like lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, tiny green beans, butternut squash, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Tomato sauce is fine and I use onions to cook with. Avocados are good but they are a fat not a vegetable.

 

I will eat but do not like asparagus, tomatoes, zucchini, raw spinach.  I tried celery with almond butter yesterday and I can maybe deal with that.

 

I am allergic to peppers - bell, jalepeno, cayenne, etc.

 

I think I am a "supertaster" because all brassicas taste like dirt to me - can't stand broccoli, cauliflower, kale, beets, cabbage, brussel sprouts.  I have tried roasting and grilling them.  I have tried smothering them in various spice combinations and in cheese sauce (before Whole30 of course). I try every few years to see if my tastes have changed. Not yet.

 

 

 

 

 

[Carlaccini]

The best way to approach the veggies boredom is to find various ways of preparing them.  So you are eating the same veggie over and over - but in different ways.  Also making different sauces with homemade mayo helps a bunch too!

 

There are so many veggies outside of what you mentioned.

 

Parsnips - I obsessing about parsnips right now.  I can't get enough of them.  Roasted in the oven with duck fat.

Kohlrabi  - http://sustainabledish.com/kohlrabi-cakes-with-bacon-and-dill/

Turnip - We like roasting turnip along with Fennel and Carrots.  Fennel becomes sweet (I don't like it raw)

Soups are a great place to hide veggies in - Since it's the first day of spring - I am thinking of summer - http://whole30.com/2012/07/summer-soups/

 

Meatloaf or meatballs are a great place to add veggies and moistness to the meat.  There is a meatball recipe I have that uses mashed garlic cauliflower to keep moistness into the meatballs.  I am not a fan of cauliflower so this took a bit of encouragement to try.  They were actually pretty good.

 

Focus on what you like - and maybe every now and again - branch out a bit.

[Sher-o]

Thanks...I guess I'm not going to be nutritionally deficient after just 30 days if I eat the same things all the time.  Certainly better for me than what I was eating before Whole30!

 

The grocery store doesn't have unusual vegetables like parsnips - maybe once the farmer's markets open for the season I can try some new things.

[Carlaccini]

I'm kind o stuck myself - I am both low FODMAP (onions, garlic, cabbage, brussel sprouts, asparagus, there are many, MANY veggies on this list) and AIP - no nightshades, nuts and eggs.  And on top of this I HATE cucumber. (only vegetable I dislike intensely) So I understand the feeling of feeling limited. 

 

I have made it my business to get creative with my vegetables without feeling limited.  And to be honest - I don't feel terribly nutrient deficient. 

[jent103]

I totally get where you're coming from - I didn't like any vegetables other than potatoes and baby carrots till I was 23. That is not an exaggeration! And I had to slowly work my way into them. I'm from the South, and growing up, vegetables were always cooked to death, and I didn't like them that way. But now, especially since eating mostly Whole30, I eat them all the time and am a vegetable evangelist. So there is hope!

 

I would start with the ones you do like and eat plenty of them, in order to get as much nutrition as you can, but also commit to maybe one new vegetable (or method of prep) a week. Like, I hated squash the way I grew up eating it (canned from my grandmother's garden and boiled), but when it's quick-sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper, I love it. I hate plain steamed broccoli, but love Mel Joulwan's broccoli salad, because it's got so many other textures and flavors.

 

And things like greens are easy to "sneak" in. One of my favorite brunch-y dishes is a hash with roasted potatoes, sliced steak, cherry tomatoes and chimichurri. I throw in a few handfuls of spinach in there, and it cooks/wilts down so much and gets so masked by everything else that I honestly don't even notice it by the time I'm eating.

[Sher-o]

Jent, I grew up in the South too - standard prep method for vegetables was "boil until gray".  I remember the first time I actually "liked" a vegetable - I moved to a different region and had gone to the farmer's market.  I picked up a pastry and a pretty head of lettuce. I was sitting there munching on my pastry and decided to try a lettuce leaf.  It tasted good!  So good that I put down the pasty and kept eating the lettuce!  It was a revelation. I called my parents.  Why do people do this to their children?  Forcing kids to eat yucky foods just makes for a lifetime of bad eating habits.

 

I bought a cauliflower yesterday.  I'm going to roast it in the oven. I'm trying!  (I don't have high hopes because it's from the brassica family, but hey...) And I will try more stuff from the farmer's market.  It seems those vegetables taste better than the ones from the store.

[ShannonM816]

I bought a cauliflower yesterday.  I'm going to roast it in the oven. I'm trying!  (I don't have high hopes because it's from the brassica family, but hey...) And I will try more stuff from the farmer's market.  It seems those vegetables taste better than the ones from the store.

 

For a different take on roasted cauliflower, you could try this cocoa-toasted cauliflower recipe. You may even have all the ingredients on hand already.

[jent103]

Yes! One thing I did that really helped me was to get a CSA box. Every week I got seasonal produce that I didn't get to pick, and it forced me to figure out something to do with it. That's probably not the best way to start, but eating fresh, local, seasonal vegetables will taste so much better and could definitely help! I thought I hated tomatoes my whole life. Turns out I hate the mealy grocery store tomatoes they put on hamburgers in the middle of January, not local ripe, juicy ones in July!