Middle Aged Mama

Blogging about my Midlife Adventures

6 Foods I didn’t eat til Adulthood

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a box of vegetables - yum!It’s funny how our tastebuds change as we grow older. I Must Confess: when I was a kid, I didn’t like any of these foods – and now I LOVE them!

6 Foods I didn’t eat til Adulthood

1. Avocado

I first remember eating avocado on crackers as an appetiser at a dinner that I went to at age 16 – and I was distinctly unimpressed. It was so bland! Why did people rave about it?

I’m not sure how or when my opinion changed. Perhaps I ate a tasty dip one day only to find it was guacamole and made of avocado. By the time I got married at age 23, I loved it – I remember because the hubster’s parents had a huge – and very fruitful! – avocado tree in their yard so we ate it often.

2. Mango

Again, I couldn’t understand the fuss over mango when I was a young ‘un. I have to blame the hubster for giving me the taste for this one – again! He had family in Mackay with mango trees and we got to sample them whenever we visited – and sometimes his uncle would even send a box of home grown goodness to us in Brisbane as a special treat! Now I really look forward to mango season each year.

3. Mushrooms

When we were first married, I used to make steak stroganoff WITHOUT mushrooms as I thought they were horrible (now, it is such an integral part of the dish to me that I can’t understand my reasoning at all!). Then we went to a friend’s house for dinner and ate – you guessed it – stroganoff WITH mushrooms, and I had to admit it really did make a great dish even better. But I still wouldn’t eat them in anything else. Hubster would still enjoy frying them at times to eat with bacon, eggs and tomato, and what can I say but they smelt SO GOOD that I started pinching them from his plate!

4. Zucchini

I don’t remember being served zucchini at all when I was growing up. I don’t remember the how and when of when I started to eat zucchini, but it must have been in some stage of my adult life. Now, I can’t imagine cooking a stirfry without it!

5. Peanut Butter

Although peanut butter was a staple on sandwiches for kids at school, I was of the Vegemite persuasion and turned my nose up at it.

Until the day in 2001 when we were caravanning around Australia. I was absolutely starving for lunch and there was nothing quick and easy except for some fresh bread and a jar of peanut butter. How good it tasted! Nowadays I love peanut butter in pretty much any form, from cookies to satay. One of my favourite snacks is fresh celery sticks dipped in peanut butter … mmmmm.

6. Kiwifruit

kiwifruitAnd the latest food I have discovered a new appreciation for? Kiwifruit!

Maybe I’ve only ever tasted it when it hasn’t been fully ripe, but I always found it to be too tart for my taste.

Lately, whenever hubster eats a nice kiwifruit, he insists on making me taste some. And guess what – I actually like it. 🙂

I guess the moral of my story is: parents, don’t despair if your children are fussy eaters. Eventually they will come around … even if it does take 40-odd years!

How about you? Which foods did you turn your nose up at when you were a child, only to discover them as a new taste sensation once you hit adulthood?!

Joining up with My Home Truths for another Monday of I Must Confess.

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Comments

  2. I hated pumpkin as a child but don’t mind it now. I have loved all of the foods you mentioned forever though lol. I do go through stages with tomatoes and eggs, sometimes I can’t get enough of them and then I think I must just eat too much and don’t touch them again for 6 months. I was the same growing up. Used to drive my mum batty!

  3. I’m a foody from way back and I wish I could eat all those foods now. Sadly my dodgy pancreas has me on a rather raw and bland diet at the moment and I’m suffering just as much as if I’d eaten the good foods. Hoping to get everything sorted and back to eating with the rest of the family soon.

    • That would be really hard Ms Mystery. I hope you are able to enjoy a broader diet soon too xxx

  4. Corned Beef/silverside. I used to turn my nose up at it well into my teenage years and insisted on having a pie instead. One night I tried it for some reason and realised it was actually very tasty – now it is one of my all-time favourite meals!

  5. I still hate corned beef/silverside. My MIL served it up to me on the first night I met hubby’s parents. I still ate it, but luckily had some wine to wash it down. 7 years later, I only told her I didn’t like it earlier in the year. I used to hate boiled pumpkin but eat it now. I still hate broad beans and brussel sprouts. Gosh I sound very fussy, but I do eat most things

    • I didn’t like it either Pinky. Miss Almost 17 loved it when she was a tiny tot, and can I just say it looks exactly the same when it comes out as when it went in … or is that TMI?!