Vegetable Bake

Broccoli is one of my least favorite vegetables. I can't stand the way cooking it stinks up the house, and the combination of its taste and texture literally makes me gag when I try to eat it. Way to go, broccoli, you upset three out of five of my senses. I'm willing to bet that if broccoli made a noise, it would sing my most hated songs incessantly.

I've made the attempt at trying to coax myself into liking broccoli. I used to dislike bananas and onions, and now I'm fine eating them (not together, obviously). I've even turned a corner with tomatoes. Maybe it was a matter of time before I accepted broccoli. I started making it for dinner, much to Jenn's delight, but I just couldn't do it. I would chew as little as possible and wash it down with whatever I was drinking. I decided to give up.

She and I recently had people over. In preparation, she sent me a few recipes to try out on our guests. The one that caught my eye was the Easy Vegetable Bake. The person who posted it online boasted that she "had a recipe that might just get everyone to eat their veggies." I'm guessing that's what caught Jenn's eye. One of the main players in the dish is broccoli, and I'm led to assume that she's looking for me and broccoli to finally get along.

The recipe calls for broccoli, cauliflower (broccoli's less offensive, but still undesirable cousin) and carrots. You take the vegetables and mix in cream cheese, cheddar and some spices. Put it in a dish and cover it with crushed crackers. No, not just any crackers; buttered crackers, like Ritz. Only, for this recipe, there isn't enough butter on those crackers, so you're supposed to melt some butter and mix it into your bowl of crushed pre-buttered crackers and then sprinkle the double-buttered crackers onto the top. Throw it in the oven and there you have it.

I figured that if ever there were a set of circumstances in which I would be able to handle broccoli,  it would be covered in cream cheese, cheddar and buttered butter crackers. I was willing to give it a try.

I have to admit, the cooked broccoli smell just wasn't there. Though the taste was dulled a bit, broccoli will always feel like broccoli in my mouth. So, I think we're just going to have to accept the fact that broccoli and I just aren't meant to be.

Just a side note about the person who posted this recipe and said that it was a good way of getting children to eat their vegetables. I have to wonder if all of the other fattening (but delicious) garbage in this dish cancels out the nutritional benefits that comes with the veggies.