Calorie Counters - My Frozen Vegetable Epiphany

Okay guys..I just wanted to see if anyone else had this same experience.

I have been eating horribly forever, so needless to say my palate is not used to cooked vegetables without butter or cheese on a regular basis.

Thursday night I steamed some green beans in water with a little lemon pepper...I walked away from the kitchen for a bit and my boyfriend finished up our meal. When I tasted the green beans I accused him of putting butter in them because they tasted so buttery...he couldn't convince me otherwise until he showed me the liquid he cooked them in and I saw that it was just water.

THEN, tonight I steamed some frozen spinach and it tasted buttery too! Is this just the natural flavor of vegetables? Do they have a natural buttery taste?! Or am I just going crazy? Has anyone else experienced this?!?!?!

They are pretty good steamed aren't they? I still use a little oil and saute some, especially bell peppers.

I eat a lot of veggies, mostly frozen, and I have to admit I can't think of any that taste inherently buttery to me. OTOH, a little salt goes a long way when you haven't been using too much, and maybe you are associating a little saltiness with the flavor of salted butter. Did you or your bf add any salt to the veggies?

If so, congratulations on recalibrating your tastebuds to a low salt diet!

Dumb question - but you did check the label, to make sure there weren't added ingredients like butter or salt to the veggies right?

I've bought vegetables without reading the label, only to find out (which was listed in very small print) that the veggies were in "butter sauce."

CoolMom-thanks for the tip! I love bell peppers so maybe I will by yellow, red, orange, and green and have a colorful veggie on my plate instead of the normal green!

Yoyo-We didn't use any salt, just a little lemon pepper, maybe it was the lemony stuff and I have recalibrated my taste buds! YES!

kaplods - I'm pretty sure they didn't have added butter because the cal content was so low and they were just your run of the mill walmart brand spinach and green beans in a frozen package. That would be awful though.

I would say it's the lemon pepper as well - i use it on fresh steamed veggies, not frozen... i notice a similar taste although i wouldn't say buttery, it is extremely good and does make butter unnecessary.