Because your meals shouldn't make you gag

I have never been a fussy eater. As a kid, I would eat whatever was put in front of me and usually like it. I was not permitted to NOT like it. In fact, I can only remember not liking two things – milk in the morning and runny scrambled eggs.

My stepmother made the worst scrambled eggs. Her and my father both claimed to like the eggs kind of wet. I swear to you, they would barely be set in the pan and then they were slopped onto our plates. All four of us kids hated them. And they were always accompanied by a (mercifully small) glass of milk. It was the double whammy for me. I am gagging just thinking about it.

I brazenly asked once if my eggs could be left in the pan longer until they were more done – and even volunteered to finish the cooking myself. I was turned down flat.

And we had to eat them. We could not be excused from the table until we cleaned our plates. I could get about half of them down by filling my mouth with toast before I put a bite of the eggs in, but the toast never lasted as long as the eggs. Probably because my brother and sisters employed the same method.

I finally figured out a way to clean my plate without having to actually eat those disgusting eggs. When I was the last stubborn person left at the breakfast table and my stepmother had her back turned, cleaning up the dishes, I would shove handfuls of the nasty eggs into the pockets of my jeans. Plate thus cleaned, I could be excused – straight to the bathroom to turn out my pockets and dump the eggs into the toilet.

There is a reason why I told you that awful egg story. I believe that just about any food can be made more palatable, even to a person who claims to not like it. If my stepmother had only thrown a couple of slices of American cheese into those eggs and cooked them just five minutes longer, we all would have enjoyed the hell out of them. And the pockets of my jeans would have remained nice and dry.

Secondly, and I’m guilty of this, I think many people don’t try new things because they don’t have a clue how to go about making it – or they think it’s too complicated so they revert to the old standbys.

Beginning tomorrow, and continuing once a week or so – and until I run out of things to talk about - I will feature a new food item and include a simple recipe.

Now, I am no food blogger, so don’t be expecting gourmet recipes with lots of pictures, because that just isn’t going to happen. I think you know me better than that. But what I will do is to focus on healthier food choices (and I’ll tell you why it’s a healthy choice) and I will select recipes that even an inexperienced, or disinterested, cook can easily prepare.

Hopefully we can all expand our eating horizons in a way that our families will enjoy and we won’t hate doing.

So what do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? Suggestions? Feedback is always appreciated.