Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Clumps and Stumps



When it comes to being a kid, Caroline is fairly typical:   messy, energetic and loud.  While most kids turn their noses up at even the thought of ingesting a green vegetable, Caroline asks for them.  She may leave her things scattered about and she might have to be reminded more than once to perform even the most perfunctory personal upkeep tasks, but that girl of mine sure loves her vegetables.

My palate may be a bit more adventurous than Caroline's, but our tastes and food preferences are really quite similar.  Our diets are predominantly comprised of our four favorite food groups:  vegetables, carbs, cheese and chocolate. 

From a very young age, Caroline has chosen, without any prompting, broccoli as one of her favorite foods.  I mean, she still loves Doritos, syrupy, sickeningly sweet, sweet tea, and things colored with red dye#40.  She asks for chocolate with a glass of chocolate milk for dessert and would dip everything in syrup or Nutella  if allowed.   She does not have a perfect diet, but at least I don't have to remind her, or plead with her, to eat her veggies.

Up until recently, we mainly ate frozen broccoli, but now we both prefer fresh to frozen, which has been 'steamed' for a few minutes in the microwave to eliminate that overly cruciferous bite and then quickly sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.   

 Over cooked broccoli is tragic.

And we both love the clumps



and the stumps.



How many nine year olds eagerly snatch a few sliced up broccoli stems to eat as her mom prepares dinner?


Now....if only I could convince her that fruit snacks aren't 'healthy' because they have the word fruit in their name.

1 comment:

joshkc said...

I just spoke to my friend about broccoli and I think I was steaming it too long. It would always turn green/brown. So I bought some today and am going to try again. It's the one vege Josh and I can agree on. However, he prefers it raw and I prefer it steamed.