Ok so you are SO tired of hearing that. Seems like the solution to everything is stuffing more vegetable into your reluctant maw. If, like me, you were traumatized by your mom's firm belief that vegetables were best prepared by boiling them for 12 hours, eating more of them can be an even less appealing prospect. And about 90% of Americans don't eat enough of them.
This is really a shame. Vegetables are a great source of healthy nutrients like fiber, potassium, folate and vitamin A. They also play a big role in helping people lose or maintain weight since all that fiber helps fill you up. Plus, when you're eating more low calorie vegetables there's less space for eating higher-calorie, less-healthful foods.
If you are tired of heading to the grocery store armed with a list and good intentions only to throw away most of the vegetables that you dragged home, here are five really easy ways to work more of them into your diet.
1. Experiment with how you prepare them.
Growing up, there was one way to prepare vegetables in my home - boil them until you could eat them with a straw. As soon as I was living on my own, vegetables were banished. You too may think you don't like vegetables, but maybe you just haven't tried the right preparation. You can boil them if you want but it is probably the worst way to prepare them, since you leave a good deal of their nutrients behind in the water. Try steaming them. Its fast, they don't overcook and the nutrients are preserved. Tossing them in a little garlic and olive oil and roasting them works especially well for root vegetables and has an amazing power to make even Brussels sprouts taste, well, good. Saute them in a pan. You can even eat them raw!
2. Expand beyond dinner.
Add spinach or peppers or tomatoes to your omelette. Onions are a vegetable and what isn't better with onions? Stuff your sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and peppers. Toss some cucumber or carrot into your smoothies. You don't have to do anything weird or disgusting (sorry, just not a green smoothie guy). But vegetables are not just for dinner.
3. Find your crock pot and use it.
The crock pot is truly one of cooking's great inventions. Toss a bunch of stuff into it, go on off to work and when you get home, dinner is ready. Soups and stews are both easy to make and a natural place to dump those vegetables that you brought back from the store last week. Soup is a great way to eat more vegetables because you can add a whole lot of produce to your soup pot. Toss some carrots into your chili (I know I said nothing gross but this is not, I promise).
4. Snack on vegetables.
Keep some veggies cut up into snack-sized pieces in your fridge. You are saving so many calories snacking on them that you can afford to go a little decadent on your dip. Ranch dressing, cottage cheese, cream cheese, salsa and hummus all work to jazz up the carrots, celery and cherry tomatoes. And speaking of hummus, make your own. Just puree a can of chickpeas in your blender with some bell peppers and whatever spices you like. Or roast something weird like kale with olive oil, salt and spices to make healthy snack chips. No one will know.
5. Sneak them into sauces.
Adding extra vegetables to your sauces and dressings is a sneaky way to increase your veggie intake, especially if you have picky kids. While you’re cooking sauces, such as marinara sauce, creole dishes or pesto simply add some veggies and herbs and spices of your choice to the mix. Onions, carrots, bell peppers, and leafy greens like spinach all work well. Just cut them up small. Pureeing roasted root vegetables can make for rich sauces with an Alfredo-like feel.
So there are a few ideas to get you started. If you don't like any of these, here is a list of 22 ways to work more of these nutritional ninjas into your diet routine. You may enjoy the challenge of doing something good for yourself. Heckfire, you may even discover that you like it!
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