Not your mother’s vegetables!

I’ve been cooking and baking for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, one of my chores was to cook dinner for the family. Both of my parents had full-time jobs and my mom went to school part-time, so that left little time for cooking. My mom would make the menu on Saturday so we knew exactly what we were having each night (apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!!). I probably complained a lot about having to do it at the time, but that’s how I found my love of cooking. Through trial and error, I also learned how cooking things in different ways made them taste differently.

AT quite a young age, I learned that vegetables from a can were gross and mushy. I’m pretty sure most kids hated peas (as did I) but probably because our first exposure to them (besides mashed up in a baby food jar) was from a can. When I was about 7 or 8, while visiting my grandparents in England I had my first taste of fresh peas, right out of the pod. They were the most delicious peas I ever had . Who knew vegetables could be delicious? The point, I think a lot people don’t like vegetable because they don’t know how to cook them. When I first met my husband he didn’t eat vegetables at all.  He claimed he didn’t like them.  Now, he willing chooses vegetables as a side when we eat out!!! My advice to people who think they don’t like vegetables is to try cooking them (or not cooking them) in different ways. Broccoli for instance tastes completely different when grilled or roasted versus steamed or stir fried. And for Pete’s sake stop eating shit from a can, not only is it loaded with salt and preservatives but it’s gross!! Peas are not supposed to be olive-green.

This brings me to a “one pot” recipe I made this week. I won’t call out the blog where I found it, but even reading it I thought “those are going to be some mushy vegetables”. I modified the recipe a bit, lightly sauteing the vegetables first (zucchini, leeks, garlic scapes etc) and then added them close to the end…still mush!! What frustrated me was the whole point of the blog post was to get the best use out of your CSA vegetables, but they totally ruined them! Cooking vegetables until they die not only makes them gross but you also lose any nutritional value they had in the first place.

Seeing as I’m now craving peas, take a peak at the awesome bunch of peas I got from Farmer Dave this week! I could just eat them right from the pod. Fresh, clean with a touch of sweetness. Delicious! One of my most favorite things to eat in college (besides Kraft Mac & Cheese) was rice and peas!! Here’s an updated version with quinoa. Substitute fresh peas for frozen and you have a perfect summer time side dish.

On another note, this was officially week 1 of my Marine Corps Marathon training (yes…I’m doing another).  It wasn’t the best week in terms of mileage, but I did manage to get in a Monday morning NP workout (see below), yoga, Btone, bootcamp and a full tour of Harvard Stadium.