I used to dislike vegetables

Yup, I did. Most all of them. Ask my mother. I’d eat canned green beans, corn and maybe cooked spinach. I never ate uncooked vegetables. Tomatoes? Yuck. I remember my dad plucking one out of the garden once and taking a bite, I cringed. It was really too bad because we had a great garden… it was massive and one of my chores was picking & snapping the beans that I refused to eat. My biggest vegemy (get it? vegetable + enemy?) was the pepper. I detested them, thought they were horrific and slimy when cooked. Then one day, it changed. It was a slow change, at first I just liked lettuce then I added others to the list, squash, zucchini, etc. Today, the only vegetables I do not care for are cucumbers and green peppers. Yep, that’s just about it. I promise I’m going somewhere with this…

Here it is… last night I had one of the best, bold statement – I know, vegetable dishes I’ve ever tasted. I’m kicking myself now for not taking pictures because in addition to being delicious, it was so pretty. The fabulous dish that was prepared for me was roasted red & yellow peppers sliced and laid atop fresh mozzarella and then drizzled with a home-made mustard vinaigrette. Ahh, so good. The rest of dinner was awesome too… couscous with sesame oil, tomatoes and toasted sesame seeds and panko covered baked chicken stuffed with cheese and pepperoni. As much as I love to cook, I love to enjoy the products of others creativity and last nights meal was a great example of just that.

In other news, I finally got my car back the other day!! This allowed me to spend some hours at the beach yesterday and run some errands today, including picking up some ingredients for the chopped salad I made for lunch and the dinner I have planned for this evening.

My yummy chopped salad with romaine lettuce, tomato, blue cheese crumbles, turkey bacon and diced apples. I dressed it with a bit of leftover poppy seed dressing from a takeout salad I had the other day.

I can’t wait to make my dinner later on and I hope it comes out as awesome as I’m imagining so I can post about it tonight!