I Want to Like Vegetables!!

So, my #1 hang-up in life is that I don't like vegetables. And I don't like to try new things. Does anyone out there relate or have advice? I buy vegetables and then stare at them until they go bad. I know this is something that HAS to change about myself... but I've been trying on and off for like 3 years! I kinda like carrots, and I eat mashed potatoes (which according to my mom is not really a vegetable - it's a starch). Anyway, I am just really tired of not being able to change this... any advice?

Hide them in your food. Make tomato sauce for a meal yourself with a tin of chopped tomatoes, and put in your chopped carrots, broccoli, cucumber, peppers - whatever else, and blitz it in the blender. Mash other vegetables into your mashed potatoes. Try eating them in a stew. Do you like beans? Beans are also a part of a vegetable serving - about 80g makes a serving.

Also, try them in casseroles.  Start with just a small amount, then add more the next time.  I really like lasagna with eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms and onions.  I love meat, but I forget that there's none in my veggie lasagna.

Rather than buying them and staring at them or hiding them in your food how about next time you go to a decent restaurant you order some?   Sometimes it's easier to try things when someone else has prepared and cooked them.  

Another idea.... grow some!   You only need a large bucket, some soil and a few canes for peas or tomatoes to grow up.  There's nothing more delicious than home-grown peas straight out of the pod or tomatoes fresh off the stem.

Buy a kids cook book! I highly reccommend the Roald Dahl cook book by Gary Rhodes. Food should be fun to make and eat. My daughter has a thing for Witches Pea Soup... She also goes for finger foods, and has recently fell in love with Fish Fingers and pickles in a wrap with carrot sticks and a heap of tomato sauce. She's 9.

Cole slaw is good too! I use grated cabbage, carrot and mix with a little mayo.

I don't like veg simply because of all the preparation. I like quick easy and tasty meals. And I try to find a recipe thats a little different and includes a vegetable that I wouldn't otherwise eat.

you could sneak veggies into your recipes by grinding them up first. like lalabanana said, you could add ground up veggies into spaghetti sauces, or you could make your own salsa or something.

Hey, it can be done, because I learned to like veggies.

I didn't do very well with hiding them, so I decided to focus on them.  This sounds dorky, but I bought pretty vegetables.  I bought green, red, and yellow peppers and white onions.  I cook some chicken with diced onions and when it's almost finished I throw in sliced peppers (sliced in strips).  Yum.  And very few calories.

I us the same combo with fish--like tilapia.  Put a piece of fish in foil, add a few drops lemon juice, the onion and pretty peppers, and fold up the foil.  Pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.

So, I guess for me, I don't really like veggies by themselves--I like them with something.  The exception is radishes.  Another CC+ person said she keeps a bowl of radishes prepared and in the fridge for snacking.  I bought the radishes with the tops on in stead of the bag-o-radishes and they are a lot tastier.

Hang in there.  I was actually hungry for a salad the other day.  That had NEVER happened before!

Only get the freshest vegetables....and eat a few every day... just a bite or two... your body will adjust to the new flavors...takes a while for your taste buds to adjust to the new flavors.... my own personal theory is that the body will end up liking what ever food is available .... so you have to give it vegetables  on a regular basis to change your taste buds...

until then... all the above suggestions about hiding veggies are good.... try fresh ones in a healthy dip you like....

make sure that you are cooking them properly.... I never liked asparagus until I realized that It tastes best only slightly cooked....not boiled to death..

My DH 43 years old hated tomatoes all his life.... now trying some and says they are "all right"....it can be done