Love/Hate for Vegetables

Again, I wish I could've taken this picture with Gage. So funny. So officially I'm on 3 of the 2nd cycle and not much has changed. Well except for that thing on Friday where I ate a slice of cake. Oh and did I mention I ate a little potato salad too? But that wasn't a big deal, because it really was just a little nibble. ANYWAY, I did the shopping today and picked up a few things that I can incorporate into my menu planning for next week, mainly brown rice (for lunch) and oatmeal (for breakfast). I get a 1/2 cup serving of each at their respective meals every other day (starting tomorrow) and I have to get them in before 2p. Easy Peasy.

Now, on to the topic at hand. Vegetables. I have a long and complicated history with vegetables. Growing up, I hardly ever ate them. You had to really force me to eat any vegetables that weren't corn, potatoes or carrots. And carrots had to be raw, not cooked, and I had to be able to dip them in ranch. It's a long story, but basically, terrible about eating vegetables. When J and I met, he would make jokes about my inability to eat vegetables. I would eat a "salad" and it would really just be lettuce and dressing. Tomatoes were a big NO GO for me about 8 years ago. Luckily, J grew up eating EVERYTHING and slowly, I started trying more and more as well. I found that there were several things I had never even tried and by trying different cooking techiniques, I could usually find a way to make them tasty.

However, as tolerant as I have become, I do get tired of them quickly. On this diet I have been eating vegetables every day...and because I am still limited, I tend to eat the same 2 vegetables...broccoli and green beans....and now...I'm having a hard time choking either of those things down. I know that there a ton more green, non starchy vegetables out there, but as someone that had to be pushed into eating green stuff, I feel guarded and limited by both my lack of experience and knowledge in this genre. So I am asking...please recommend some of your go-to vegetables and vegetable dishes. I need to shake things up around here and get a little more adventurous. I don't want Gage to grow up with this limited idea on veggies. Thank goodness J is so open to whatever - I hope Gage has his mentality about trying new foods.

Gage and I took a 45 minute walk at the lake today and we had a pretty good time. Told you there would be cardio.