Adding more vegetables to your diet is a lot harder, I think. I mean I'd rather have french fries then Brussels sprouts. However, Brussels sprouts are so much better for you. I'm trying to work them into my diet. We don't have a good history, me and the sprouts.
If you have children, then getting them to eat vegetables can be difficult, especially if you have picky kid. There are some sneaky ways to work vegetables and I'm not talking about broccoli, corn, or the other nice vegetables that most people like. I'm talking about that weird butternut squash, kale, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, zucchini and so forth.
1. Add vegetables to dishes with sauces. The sauce will cover up the flavor and you still get most of the vitamins and nutrients that you need. For example, instead of having just spaghetti with a meat sauce, chop up some carrots (which will cut down on the acidity of the tomato sauce), zucchini and summer squash. You're bowl or plate will look fuller and more importantly, the extra veggies will fill you up.
2. Add leafy greens to your soups and stews. Even if you buy can soups, you can still add kale, collard greens, mustard green, dandelion greens, spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, and other leafy greens to your soups. Soak the greens, if they don't come pre-washed in a large bowl of water. Stir it around once and then let it set for twenty to thirty minutes. Don't dump greens and water into a strainer, pick out the leaves and put them on your cutting board. Cut the greens into small pieces. Boil for a few minutes and with tongs or a slotted spoon, put the greens in an ice bath, so that your greens keep their lovely color. Pop the top of your favorite soup, pour it into a microwave safe container with a snug lid and add your leafy greens. There you have lunch.
3. Have two or three course meals. Your first course should always be your salad. In my previous post, you see that I on my two week menu, a lot of simple side salads. I skip the iceberg and romaine lettuce and grab the organic spring lettuce mix at my favorite grocery store. Surprisingly, it's cheaper than those Dole package ones. Add cucumbers, tomatoes, asparagus, beets or whatever you have on hand or in the mood for.
A salad doesn't have to have lettuce. You can have a Caprese salad which is just tomatoes, fresh mozarella, and basil with good EVOO drizzled over. There are thousands of salads you can try. Just keep your portion to about 1 cup. You don't want to fill up on the salad and not eat the second course.
You can make a big bowl of your favorite salad and it should last up to a week. With a fork, poke holes in a gallon size freezer bag and then add all of your salad ingredients, minus the dressing. See. Simple easy, no fuss way.
4. If you're eating something like mashed potatoes or ricotta cheese, you can boil and then mash up vegetables like butternut squash (you won't even know it's in your lasagna), parsnips or turnips and stir them into the mashed potatoes or ricotta cheese. Turnips and mashed potatoes go together very nicely as does potatoes and cauliflower!
5. Puree vegetables like spinach, carrots, broccoli and so forth and add them to your soup. You won't even know that they're there. More importantly, you're kids won't know.
6. Make green smoothies. Instead of relying on fruit only, add a handful of spinach to your blender. If your using blueberries, the color won't be green. The fruit will balance out the bitterness of the greens. You can also add a dollop of honey or vanilla yogurt to balance out the taste.
7. Make meat pockets. Take a chicken breast, slice it open on the side and make a pocket. Fill it with minced or pureed vegetables and cheese. Close it with a toothpick. Sear the chicken until brown on both sides and then finish off in the oven.
8. Make veggie omelets and frittatas for breakfast. Eggs for breakfast will keep you fuller longer, studies have shown. Throw in some vegetables, you not only get your morning protein, you also get some added vitamins and minerals. Make a sandwich with whole grain bread and have a glass of orange juice and you have a complete meal. You can add virtually any vegetable into eggs. There's the standard broccoli, peppers, onion, and tomatoes. Get exotic. Throw in some cubes of eggplant or zucchini. Make a nice spring brunch with asparagus and Gruyere cheese omelet. The sky is the limit when it comes to frittatas and omelets!
There seven ways simple ways to add more veggies to your diet!
If you have children, then getting them to eat vegetables can be difficult, especially if you have picky kid. There are some sneaky ways to work vegetables and I'm not talking about broccoli, corn, or the other nice vegetables that most people like. I'm talking about that weird butternut squash, kale, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, zucchini and so forth.
1. Add vegetables to dishes with sauces. The sauce will cover up the flavor and you still get most of the vitamins and nutrients that you need. For example, instead of having just spaghetti with a meat sauce, chop up some carrots (which will cut down on the acidity of the tomato sauce), zucchini and summer squash. You're bowl or plate will look fuller and more importantly, the extra veggies will fill you up.
2. Add leafy greens to your soups and stews. Even if you buy can soups, you can still add kale, collard greens, mustard green, dandelion greens, spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, and other leafy greens to your soups. Soak the greens, if they don't come pre-washed in a large bowl of water. Stir it around once and then let it set for twenty to thirty minutes. Don't dump greens and water into a strainer, pick out the leaves and put them on your cutting board. Cut the greens into small pieces. Boil for a few minutes and with tongs or a slotted spoon, put the greens in an ice bath, so that your greens keep their lovely color. Pop the top of your favorite soup, pour it into a microwave safe container with a snug lid and add your leafy greens. There you have lunch.
3. Have two or three course meals. Your first course should always be your salad. In my previous post, you see that I on my two week menu, a lot of simple side salads. I skip the iceberg and romaine lettuce and grab the organic spring lettuce mix at my favorite grocery store. Surprisingly, it's cheaper than those Dole package ones. Add cucumbers, tomatoes, asparagus, beets or whatever you have on hand or in the mood for.
A salad doesn't have to have lettuce. You can have a Caprese salad which is just tomatoes, fresh mozarella, and basil with good EVOO drizzled over. There are thousands of salads you can try. Just keep your portion to about 1 cup. You don't want to fill up on the salad and not eat the second course.
You can make a big bowl of your favorite salad and it should last up to a week. With a fork, poke holes in a gallon size freezer bag and then add all of your salad ingredients, minus the dressing. See. Simple easy, no fuss way.
4. If you're eating something like mashed potatoes or ricotta cheese, you can boil and then mash up vegetables like butternut squash (you won't even know it's in your lasagna), parsnips or turnips and stir them into the mashed potatoes or ricotta cheese. Turnips and mashed potatoes go together very nicely as does potatoes and cauliflower!
5. Puree vegetables like spinach, carrots, broccoli and so forth and add them to your soup. You won't even know that they're there. More importantly, you're kids won't know.
6. Make green smoothies. Instead of relying on fruit only, add a handful of spinach to your blender. If your using blueberries, the color won't be green. The fruit will balance out the bitterness of the greens. You can also add a dollop of honey or vanilla yogurt to balance out the taste.
7. Make meat pockets. Take a chicken breast, slice it open on the side and make a pocket. Fill it with minced or pureed vegetables and cheese. Close it with a toothpick. Sear the chicken until brown on both sides and then finish off in the oven.
8. Make veggie omelets and frittatas for breakfast. Eggs for breakfast will keep you fuller longer, studies have shown. Throw in some vegetables, you not only get your morning protein, you also get some added vitamins and minerals. Make a sandwich with whole grain bread and have a glass of orange juice and you have a complete meal. You can add virtually any vegetable into eggs. There's the standard broccoli, peppers, onion, and tomatoes. Get exotic. Throw in some cubes of eggplant or zucchini. Make a nice spring brunch with asparagus and Gruyere cheese omelet. The sky is the limit when it comes to frittatas and omelets!
There seven ways simple ways to add more veggies to your diet!
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