Eat your veggies!

There’s a great deal written about convincing children to eat their vegetables, but what if your picky eater is an adult male in his forties who just refuses to enjoy the delights of garden?  That’s my fella!

Chef B has a list of the most hated items in the produce isle they include the innocent looking carrot, parsnip, beet, rutabaga and turnip, sweet potato and yam the delightful pepper, eggplant, celery and most varieties of squash as well as the ripe juicy goodness of watermelon.  To be fair he loves some things most people loath, like cabbage and brussel spouts, he’s mad about legumes and he a big fan of fungus in all it’s forms.

My list of things I don’t eat that comes from the dirt is short incomparision:  lima beans and durian.

At times this creates tension in the kitchen when all I want is steamed, fresh & green or bright, ripe & roasted stuff that he hates, resulting in separate meals or at the every least, separate side dishes.  What works with kids – bribery, coercion, trickery, negotiation, reward structures –  doesn’t work as well with adults.

I’m not his mother, he’s a grown-up he can choose these things for himself, nagging is tedious work and really not my style so I gave up my “eat your veggies” commentary some time ago.  Sometimes, change happens when you release your need for it.

This week, he shopped in a health food store, created a vegetarian burger and grilled 25 pounds of vegetables, including many on his “list of enemies”.  Why the sudden change of heart?   Partly working in a new, healthy environment, sourcing menu items for his new kitchen and… part of it might be my influence… and the promise of sexual favors.

It’s a win-win situation.  I now have a BIG bowl of fresh, grilled vegetables in the fridge and he’s now considering going vegan, if foie gras is considered a vegetable…

Chef B, surrounded by garden goodness in the Gypsy Kitchen!