Embracing change and asparagus

I’m not the only one making changes in this household. My husband – who grumbles over any green food -- has changed too. Mostly, because I’ve forced him to. I figured out real quick, that I wouldn’t be making separate meals just to indulge his fantasy that potato chips and carrot cake count as a vegetable serving. And, we both want our daughter to have a variety of healthy foods in her diet, so that requires everybody in the house to make healthier choices.

To get him to buy into the changes, I decided, as chief cook, that each month we would add one new vegetable to our menu. And to appear slightly less controlling, my husband gets to choose which one to add.

First time out, he picks asparagus. The one thing I’ve never cooked, because, simply, I HATE asparagus. But I figured, if he’s trying, then I too must walk the talk, or in this case eat the stalk. First I had to figure out to cook the stuff. I took it easy and roasted the asparagus with salt and olive oil. And a crazy thing happened. We both loved it. We both wanted seconds. We both talked about it for days after.

Now we are an asparagus-eating household getting healthier by the day and I’m thrilled to have a third green food on our menu plan, particularly since I was burned out on broccoli and lettuce. Change might be hard, but there are plenty of unexpected payoffs –who would have thought roasted asparagus would be one?