First, the background. I don't eat vegetables. None. Nada. Not at all. No broccoli, cauliflower, no beans of any sort. So you can imagine my limited "healthy" choices. It seems to stem from some acute sensitivity to some called Phenylthiocarbamide. It has the unusual property that it either tastes very bitter or is virtually tasteless, depending on the genetic makeup of the taster. Guess which lucky one I am?

So now, here I am 48 years later, and of course, overweight. I have started a diet called the Ideal Protein program. It's pretty restrictive, except for vegetables. Which, as we have established, I don't/can't eat.

However, in lamenting this on a professional cook's forum, I was advised that roasting the vegetables tend to mix up their molecular structure, and will break down this PTC chemical so that it might not be tasteable to me (tasteable...is that a word?). Anyway, I hemmed and hawed and finally gave it a shot with cauliflower.

Well, bless my soul, it worked! Cauliflower (roasted only, mind you) almost has a sweet taste to it. I actually can eat it and enjoy it. Yay, success! So, let's move on to other vegetables.

Cauliflower - A success. Eat some almost every day.
Sliced Portobello mushroom - Did quite well. Am actually sauteeing them very thoroughly and enjoying them in a salad.
Broccoli - Not so much. The texture of the fuzzy tops get me. But I can still eat it.
Asparagus - That was today's experiment. I think I may have over-roasted them. They were pretty dry and crispy, and not much taste.
Zucchini - Cut into little disks and roasted. My oven does not cook evenly, so I ended up with half burnt to a crisp, the other side still mushy, and the middle almost just right. Those were actually good. A success.

So over all, I am adding vegetables to my diet. Now to go google and see if roasting them somehow turns them into something unhealthy. Which, since it's working for me, means the suddenly inherit a bajillion calories and fat. :)

I go for my weigh-in tomorrow. So far, in two weeks, I've lost 17.5 pounds. I think tomorrow's weigh-in will be more like a 2-3 pound loss, as I am bloating up for the monthly 'big event'. :(