Adventures in Vegetable Eating

I am an embarrassingly picky eater. I've gotten better as I've gotten older, but it's still pretty bad. You can hand me almost any vegetable and I'll probably tell you I hate it. I can stomach a handful of different ones raw, but I can't bring myself to eat most cooked vegetables. This is a problem because, surprise! Most dishes contain vegetables. The ones that don't are: chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, rice-a-roni, and Hawaiian pizza. And thus we have my childhood diet.

Aaron isn't particularly fond of vegetables either, but he will eat them if they're put in front of him. He actually really likes salads and sometimes even craves them for lunch or dinner (this is so foreign to me).

A few weeks ago Aaron made a comment about how we should eat more vegetables in order to set a good example for Wes. I agreed that maybe it's time for us to be grown ups in our food choices. I really do try to eat healthy, despite my dislike of vegetables, so that was something I could get behind.

(Although, I recently read an article saying that babies get a taste for food in the womb, so you should really try to eat good fruits and veggies then. If that's true, Wes is going to grow up wanting nachos and pasta roni. Sorry dude.)

I had heard of spaghetti squash before but it wasn't until Pasta Queen blogged about it a year ago that I thought maybe I could handle it. I vowed that I would buy one and give it a try if I came across one. I vowed this knowing I had never before seen one in any of my grocery shopping experiences. It's the thought that counts, right?

In the wake of our decision to eat more vegetables I decided weekly trips to our local farmer's market, Superstition Ranch Market, were in order. They have ridiculously cheap, fresh, local produce. I should have hopped on board that train long ago, but it's a bit of a drive and it's over populated with old people who will hit your car in the parking lot and drive away without leaving a note (I've seen it happen. Twice).

As I wandered the market with Wes snoozing in his sling I saw them. A big pile of shiny yellow spaghetti squashes. And I had made a vow. So I made a guess about what a good once should look like and brought it home.

Ok, this looked so pretty in my sunlit kitchen but in the picture it just looks kind of sinister.

Did you know spaghetti squash is the fun squash? Considering that girl is holding a watermelon on her head, I think they might be a little confused.

Something else you may not have known: spaghetti squash are ridiculously difficult to cut. It took me a good long while to get to the point you see above and then another good long while to get my knife back out again.

When I started cutting the squash I was like, "Uh oh..this smells an awful lot like pumpkin."

Turns out it looks an awful lot like pumpkin too.

I really hate cleaning out pumpkins.

Finally, they were cut and cleaned and ready for baking. Allrecipes.com said 30 minutes. The Fun Squash sticker said 45 minutes. I ended up cooking mine about 35 and I have no clue if that was right.

But when it was done it came out looking like spaghetti, just like it was supposed to. This is where Aaron came home and said, "Uhhh...I'm not so sure about this."

We heated up some spaghetti sauce, dumped it all together, and sat there staring at our bowls for a while.

Final verdict: I ate three bites and decided I was done. Aaron ate a small bowl full and decided he was done. Then we had scrambled eggs and hashbrowns for dessert.

I'm kinda bummed because I reeeaally wanted to like this. It's possible it was the sauce (I'm kind of picky about my spaghetti sauce--I usually make my own--and I'd never had this kind before) and I'd like to try it again prepared a different way (someone suggested just butter and salt, which might be kinda good). And I think it may have been undercooked, but it's hard to tell since neither of us have ever had it before and had nothing to compare it to.

But I'm really proud of us for trying. Neither of us had any clue if we'd even had squash before, so to jump in like that was a big step for us.

Next up: eggplant?