An ad reminded me:

Broccoli: Meh
Broccoli with melted cheddar cheese: Yum!

In reply to OceanLake (msg # 1):

I like broccoli, but the way I like it, you pretty much have to cook out most of the nutrition. Broccoli Beef is yummy. As is your option, with melted cheese.

I like broccoli.  Fresh, or cooked.  Dipped in cheese, or in a recipe.  Strangely, two out three of my kids do, too.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:31, Tue 27 Apr 2021.

Broccoli is one of those foods that I never say, "Hmmmm...I have a craving for this," but I'm never upset to see it being served, either.  It's good with a lot of different stuff...as long as it isn't old enough to have started going pithy and fibrous.  Once that happens, it's like someone's hiding small wood chips inside the broccoli...

I'm very fond of broccoli, raw, steamed, roasted, in a dish or by itself. I first learned to like it with cheese sauce, but now it's fine all by itself. I prefer it cooked to tenderness but not mushy. Cauliflower, too.

When I was a kid I didn't like broccoli, I preferred cauliflower.  But somewhere along the way my tastes shifted, almost reversed.  I prefer broccoli now, cauliflower is okay, but only with a few dishes, where as I'll eat broccoli with almost anything.

If you want an easy way to lose weight, buy heads of broccoli or cauliflower. Something like 2 pounds of broccoli only has 200 calories. You could eat 6 lbs of food in a day, spend the entire day stuffed to the gills and consume < 1/3rd your daily calorie intake.

Not saying that is sustainable long term but the new weight loss formula is every 10 calories daily reduction equals 1 pound lost...over the course of three years. I know, I know but that diet puts you on track for losing 140lbs, all things considered.

As a single meal replacement though it is fantastic, as long as you can stomach it (ha!) Eat it raw if you are very lazy like me and it not only replaces an entire meal but also you will be so stuffed it will bleed into the next meal. I liked to replace my lunch with it and have a lighter balanced dinner. No more snacking, no more second courses. Just watch that weight bleed off while still being lazy and not doing any exercise.

Only downside is, it is kind of expensive. Kind of. Honestly $2 a meal is dirt cheap but its not something you can stockpile a pile of and eat all month.

Cheddar cheese on cauliflower is yummy too.

Broccoli: as a child it was steamed, with butter and salt and pepper, never cheese.

Or, roasted along with other veggies in various medleys.

The joke was always trying to get grandma to eat her broccoli: she loathed it.

As an adult, I prefer it raw with a good tzatziki; as a minor addition to various strir fry; or, if pressed for time and trying to simply get a green on the plate for kiddo, steamed with salt and pepper and maybe a pat of butter.

Still never cheese.

Edit: When stir frying it, my wife has come home and accused me of 'cooking farts' based on the smell. :| :| :\ :D
This message was last edited by the user at 12:46, Tue 27 Apr 2021.

Olive oil. Garlic powder. Good seasoning (I prefer Lawry's seasoned salt, or Greek seasoning) applied very liberally.

Into the oven at 375 (with convection) or 425 without for 30-45 minutes depending on how much broccoli you've crammed onto your baking sheet. I never have leftovers - no matter how much broccoli is on the pan. The kids, the spouse, all of them always start looking around for whether or not there's seconds available before they even get through their firsts.

Also does wonders for cabbage, green beans, and brussels sprouts.

I hate and loathe raw broccoli with a passion. Just typing that, I can taste that lingering bitterness on the back of my tongue, thanks to years of my mother slipping it into salads and forcing me to eat it (when I couldn't manage to sneak it to the dog). It's okay stir-fried, now, but it's best roasted to a salty, crunchy crisp.

Sun wins the thread. I was pretty "meh" on veggies until my wife started putting them with a little salt and oil and roasting them in the oven. Now I will eat an entire tray of roasted cauliflower/broccoli/brussel sprouts/carrots etc. with a smile on my face.

Broccoli is yummy to me but my husband hates it so at a restaurant when the meals have broccoli I get my husbands.  LOL  Not a trade off unless it is small tomato.  Broccoli and Califlour cheese casserol... comfort foot.

It was a happy day when my parents (FINALLY!) said I didn't have to take a bite of sauerkraut "to see if my tastes had changed".

I hated sauerkraut when I was a kid,  Then one day in my late teens was walking past a hotdog cart and I smelled the sausages and kruat as the vendor was serving a 'krautdog' to someone and it smelled incredible.  I tried it and I've loved kruat ever since.

I also switched over to loving brown mustard and spicy food about the same time, and started to hate ketchup on pretty much everything except corndogs.

Your taste buds change a lot from being a kid to an adult, namely they become less sensitive so more complex flavors can be appreciated without experiencing a taste overload.

A LOT of "acquired tastes" like mustard, spices, wine I hated as a kid but love as an adult.

Almost *exact* same experience with sauerkraut; also mustards, spices, et al.

For me the real change was pickles. Well beyond me as a child, pretty good in moderation now.

Broccoli in cheese is good, but raw as a dipping vegetable is better, and I'm sure has more of the vitamins left.

Something I can't understand why I don't like are dill pickles.  I like cucumber, dill, garlic. but not the combination.  Miss my mother's nine day pickles, though I did hate the way the house smelled when she made them!

In reply to Brianna (msg # 18):

My father loved delis, and late in life I would take him to one as a treat once in awhile. They always had pickles free on the table, and he loved them. I started with a nibble, and eventually grew to really enjoy them.

Someone has taken to putting pickles in to bags as snacks, and I bought one, good stuff.

I only like raw broccoli. Cooked broccoli smells like dirty socks to me--not a smell I am fond of.

As I've aged, I've found many things that I loathed in youth, I now find palatable. Strangely, cooked spinach went the other way. I loved it as a kid the way that Grandma made it, but now only enjoy it raw.

In reply to Westwind (msg # 21):

Fybbt you should say that, I have fond memories of my mothers spinach, which was cooked very well, can't find anyone who cooks it that way anymore.

I also enjoyed the way my mother cooked liver.

In reply to OceanLake (msg # 1):

My modus operandi of avoiding starving as a young adult in a bad home environment was eating whole...bunches?...of broccoli. I would occasionally be able to get a hold of bleu cheese, and that was my meal I made to supplement the one meal I got "for free". When I got help to move out, I ate so much broccoli I had an "abnormally high" calcium and...IIRC potassium. Though that was coupled with milk, potatoes, and the aforementioned bleu cheese. After I lost teeth, I have craved broccoli way more than anyone probably should. George Bush would probably have said it wasn't prudent. ;)