Eat Your Veggies

I had an interesting conversation about broccoli today. Why don't more of us consider vegetables comfort food? One of my favorite foods on the entire planet is a canned green bean. Ask me the last time I had a canned green bean. I have no clue.

Admittedly, a canned green bean isn't the healthiest option out there, but when compared to cheese fondue and crunchy bread, canned green beans are gold. Ask me the last time I had cheese fondue and crunchy bread. Last weekend. You see my point?

In fairness, I do love vegetables. Even back when I was a bachelor, living in Worcester, and refused to cook anything more intensive than spaghetti and preferred my meals to come from a microwave, I still ate my veggies. Sometimes they were part of the frozen dinner I had just nuked. Usually, they were out of a glass of V8. Now that Lithus is cooking, they tend to be fresher, actually bought from a produce section, and include the occasional seasoning. If I go a whole day without something green and leafy - or at least green and cruciferous - I know it. I feel it. And the next day, I load up.

And yet...vegetables are rarely considered comfort food. We don't treat ourselves with salad. We don't feed our fears, insecurities, and pains with vegetables. We rarely settle down after a long, hard week, excited to eat vegetables. I know vegetarians who don't vegetables every day.

Still, when you reach for the broccoli instead of the cheesy, melty, greasy goodness, and not because you had to, but because you want to...sometimes that's comforting. Confusing, sure, but maybe a little comforting, too.

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.