make peace with vegetables

My mom was a boiler….from the school of “cook it til its dead then cook it some more” My early experiences with vegetables were largely unpleasant. A lot of squishy wet green beans that were cold by the time I forced them down. Swiss chard all the time…bitter and soggy. I don’t think I will ever come to terms with asparagus or artichokes but I’m getting better with some of their cohorts. I like raw veggies and roasted veggies. Cucumbers are wonderful and subtle. I was 30 before I ever had a brussels sprout and I loved it…roasted on the grill with hollandaise sauce. a cauliflower souffle is so good it can make me cry. Then why do I cringe still when meal planning and the topic of ‘what are we going to have as a vegetable’ comes up? I’m a vegetarian even and I still look at my greens with trepidation. Couldn’t we just have mushrooms again? They’re sort of a vegetable? How about we drown it in cheese sauce so it won’t take so vegetable-like? Stuffed tomatoes are a great treat but please don’t give me a plate of carrots. Here in the South people seem to have gotten around dislike of vegetables by deeming such things as macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes, and apple sauce vegetables. Although I’m with them in spirit I do think I have larger nutritional needs than that. Can I just have a strawberry daqueri and call it ‘goal met’? Or will I ever be able to wring out my greens and eat them with a smile?