Growing up my dad would tell me, his picky eater, that life would be much easier if I learned to like onions.
I never did.
I was the girl that would pick out all of the teeny-tiny pieces of zucchini out of my mom’s zucchini casserole. And, I wouldn’t touch anything that had an onion, mushroom, cucumber, tomato (ugh, tomatoes!), peppers, lettuce or squash in it.
Basically, I would eat carrots. If they had ranch. But if you cooked them? No way. Put them in cake? Even worse.
Luckily, for me, tastes change. My tastes have changed dramatically over the last ten years. Now? I love salad. At first, I could only eat them with ranch dressing and lots of croutons. These days, I’ll eat them with different dressings and I don’t often put croutons on. I’ll eat them with carrots, ham, eggs…I even had one a few weeks ago with nuts and strawberries – seriously, the best salad ever. I’ll eat cooked carrots, and I like onion rings.
I still don’t eat tomatoes unless they are in the form of ketchup, spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce. I just can’t get over the smell of tomato breath. Please, stay away from me if you’ve just eaten a tomato. I also don’t eat cucumbers. I tried one a few weeks ago. No thanks. I haven’t tried a mushroom in twenty five years. I can’t get past the mushrooms that grow in the grass.
My WW leader gave me a yam a couple of weeks ago. She challenged me to bake it, then, squeeze some fresh lime over the top and sprinkle on some pepper. We cooked it up and served it with dinner and…I kind of liked it.
I was thinking yesterday that life would be easier if I liked onions. After all, you find onions everywhere.
So last night, I made sweet and sour chicken. The recipe called for one green pepper, one onion, pineapple, and carrots. I cut the peppers and onion up smaller than I normally would and…
…I ate them!
Granted, they were covered in sweet and sour sauce, but I ate them. And they were good!
I’m sure that I’m a ways away from having sautéed onions on my steak, but it’s a small step.
Now, if I could just get the 9-year-old and the 5-year-old to believe Grandpa’s wisdom ~ Life is easier if you like onions.
7 comments:
Smart man, your dad. :)
The wisest food advice I've ever heard!!!
Isn't it funny how our taste buds change as we get older? I like things now that I SWORE I never would.
Things like yams and parsnips.
But I've always LOVED onions and for some reason, just very recently, tomatoes in their raw form just don't appeal at all.
Weird.
Good for you for trying onions again! I try fresh tomatoes all the time, hoping I'll like them one day. On my mission I ate them at every meal thinking that surely my tastes would just change. Wrong! I like everything else though. Brian claims he doesn't like onions, but I'm figuring out it's just the crunchy kind in potato salad or on hamburgers...because I probably use an onion in most every meal I cook, and he's loved it all. :)
Thank goodness as we grow up our tastes do, too.
My kids have learned recently that they can like something cooked even if they don't like it raw. That's how they are with onions and tomatoes. For now I'm just fine with that.
So impressed you are trying new things. That's not always easy, but it is a HUGE step toward good health.
I'm sure there is a parable in here somewhere!
My husband won't eat onions either and MY life would be easier if he'd like onions. I strain spaghetti sauce, soups and salsa for him.
I guess that is good wisdom there..
sandy toe
I love all those things you mentioned. In fact, cucumbers are my most favorite vegetable. It is funny how our taste buds change over time.
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