eating more veggies

[Lauxa]

Whether omnivorous or veg*n, I think most of us can agree we should be eating more vegetables. So, what are some of your strategies for doing this? Here are some problems I have found that keep me from eating as many vegetables as I think I should:

* they don't keep very long in the refrigerator
* I have trouble remembering what's in season. If I buy out-of-season, they are very expensive. If I buy what's cheap without a plan they end up going bad.
* green salads can get boring
* they take a long time to wash, chop, and prepare
* I usually need to eat something else as well to fill me up (a protein or carb), so when I'm short on time the veggie gets skipped
* I'm not sure how to work them into breakfast
* my 3-year-old usually won't eat them

I've got some ideas of my own, but I want to hear what others out there are doing. I'd like to get to the point where 2/3 of my food intake is fresh fruits and vegetables.

[dor]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

Whether omnivorous or veg*n, I think most of us can agree we should be eating more vegetables. So, what are some of your strategies for doing this? Here are some problems I have found that keep me from eating as many vegetables as I think I should:

* they don't keep very long in the refrigerator
* I have trouble remembering what's in season. If I buy out-of-season, they are very expensive. If I buy what's cheap without a plan they end up going bad.
* green salads can get boring
* they take a long time to wash, chop, and prepare
* I usually need to eat something else as well to fill me up (a protein or carb), so when I'm short on time the veggie gets skipped
* I'm not sure how to work them into breakfast
* my 3-year-old usually won't eat them

I've got some ideas of my own, but I want to hear what others out there are doing. I'd like to get to the point where 2/3 of my food intake is fresh fruits and vegetables.

a. you can get special, reusuable plastic bags that make veggies stay nice and fresh - even lettuse - up to two weeks.
breakfast: omlets with lots of green peppers and onions.
b. in warm weather, make gazpacho in bulk and serve it a few times a week.
c. make soups in cold weather or stews .


here is a great book about eating 'real' food and why you should eat it Nina Planck: Food Writer & Expert on Farmers' Markets & Local Food

once you get used to it and see the benefits, it doesn't take that much longer to prepare, when you understand what you're putting into your body with industrialized food, you won't want to

[ZenDude]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

* they don't keep very long in the refrigerator
* I have trouble remembering what's in season. If I buy out-of-season, they are very expensive. If I buy what's cheap without a plan they end up going bad.
* green salads can get boring
* they take a long time to wash, chop, and prepare
* I usually need to eat something else as well to fill me up (a protein or carb), so when I'm short on time the veggie gets skipped
* I'm not sure how to work them into breakfast
* my 3-year-old usually won't eat them

Some winter veggies can stay good for quite some time when stored in a dark and not to warm place (potatoes, carrots, onions).
If you don't know which vegetables are cheap when, just look at the prices when you're in your supermarket, but planning meals beforehand might be a problem then.
Instead of salads I make a lot of Indian curry style vegetable dishes, they're great and I love the spicyness. Also mashed potatoes with mildy baked vegetables is great (think carrots, peppers, some nuts, onion, garlic, some cheese if you eat that).
I'm a vegetarian myself and for filler I use nuts a lot, you can use them in quite a lot of dishes.
I suggest buying a couple of really good knives and a big and practical cutting board and then reading about cutting techniques. I've seen some cooks chop vegetables at an alarmingly fast rate
For breakfast I eat sandwiches, my favorite is whole weat bread with peanutbutter and cucumber slices.

Good luck!

[elainevdw]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

* they don't keep very long in the refrigerator

My 3-day raw trial gave me a great idea: green smoothies! I never used to be able to finish a bag of spinach before it went bad. Now I just throw a banana, some frozen berries (which keep forever), and 2+ cups spinach in the blender with some water, and I'm suddenly drinking my leftovers. And, it tastes like berries -- I swear I couldn't tell the spinach was in there. Though spinach-apple-avo smoothies are really tasty, too!

Also, I love my frozen veggies. They last for months in the freezer, and if you're lazy one day, you can bust out a box of Mac 'n Cheese (or a can of Campbell's stew or whatever) and throw in a bag of mixed, frozen veggies to it. Voila! An instant serving of vegetables.

* I have trouble remembering what's in season. If I buy out-of-season, they are very expensive. If I buy what's cheap without a plan they end up going bad.

Find a local grocery store with a relatively intelligent produce staff. Raley's is pretty good. Ask them what's in season. In the summer, go to farmer's markets. Also, look up local produce delivery services in your area, like Planet Organics in the Bay Area. They'll deliver local, in-season produce to your door.

* green salads can get boring

Try sauteed kale, or marinated cucumbers, or carmelized beets! Planet Organics has a lot of simple veggie recipes that are super tasty.

* they take a long time to wash, chop, and prepare

Invest in good kitchen tools. I never ate salad because I hated washing and chopping it just to have it end up watery and soggy and gross. I spent $25 on a salad spinner, and by god, it makes salads easier! I want to get a mandolin slicer one of these days, too, to make it easier to slice stuff like beets for my favorite beet recipe, or cucumbers for hummus sandwiches, or carrots to make them fun to dip.

You can also get prepared veggies, either fresh or frozen. They're a little more expensive, but if you really, really hate dicing onions, get the little baggies of frozen, diced onions. No more crying, and they dethaw really quickly when you're cooking with them.

* I usually need to eat something else as well to fill me up (a protein or carb), so when I'm short on time the veggie gets skipped

Add chicken, beans, or nuts to a salad. Or, add frozen veggies and spices to your rice cooker, and serve some sort of protein over the top of it. Another thing, though, is that if you eat enough veggies, heck yeah you're going to be full. While half a turkey sandwich might fill you up, it might take a salad the size of your head to fill you up as much as the sandwich. But, as long as you don't drench it in too much dressing, it won't be more calories than the sandwich.

* I'm not sure how to work them into breakfast

Veggie smoothies! Seriously, they're very tasty! Or, have leftovers for breakfast. I wouldn't add celery to your Cheerios, but there's no rule that says you have to eat American "breakfast foods" for breakfast. Try lunch for breakfast, or dinner for breakfast... usually less sugary, too.

* my 3-year-old usually won't eat them

I don't have kids, so I don't have a lot of advice here. Maybe blogs like Vegan Lunchbox would have ideas your kids would like. It sounds like most kids just like fun foods, like ants on a log (celery with PB and raisins) or carrots cut into flower shapes (they make kitchen tools that do this, I think). I think I read somewhere that if you constantly offer your kids different foods, like veggies, they'll probably reject them 3 or 4 times, but after a while, they'll try them, and maybe even like them and request them again. So diligence might be the key, though some kids just plain don't like the taste or this or that.

Anyway, I hope that helps. Eating more veggies is a goal of mine, too.

[Healthyfit]

I am working on eating one pound of green veggies per day

I am eating:
Kale sauteed with garlic and olive oil
Cabbage (Bok Choy, Dark Green Cabbage) sauteed in garlic and olive oil
Spinach
Spicy Okra
Brussel Sprouts
Brocolli Slaw
Marinated Kale

I am also drinking things that I mix up in my vitamix. I will be drinking carrot juice daily.

This keeps my tummy full and drinking water keeps me very regular

I would like to add more raw veggies but since it is so cold I have been cooking them for the most part.

[Lauxa]

Healthyfit: That's awesome! I'd love to hear more about your progress on this goal as the year develops, what challenges you encounter and how you overcome them.

elainevdw: I saw the green smoothie thread earlier and am dying to try them. Do you cook the spinach first? I also love the idea of putting veggies in the rice pot to cook at the same time!

dor: I have seen those bags before, but never bought them. Sounds like a good idea! I have similar views regarding eating philosophically, but implementing them is the challenge...

Thanks for all the great ideas on this so far! I'm inspired.

[elainevdw]

Nope, you put the spinach in raw!

I love using my rice cooker for more than just rice! Another thing you can do is substitute veggie broth for water when you're making rice, in addition to throwing fresh or frozen chopped veggies in there. I'm a real fan of adding garbanzo beans, too.

Hey, tonight I just discovered that I was taking probably 10 times too long to chop my own heads of romaine. I used to pull each leaf off, wash it, cut it, then do the next one. Duh, all you have to do is chop the bottom of the head off, slice the entire thing up, wash it really well in a strainer under the sink, and spin it dry in the salad spinner. I'm going to be eating a lot of salad this week!

Oh, by the way -- if you add spinach to smoothies, you probably want to put the spinach on the bottom, the slightly heavier banana in the middle, and the heavy frozen berries on top (and throw in 1/4 a cup of water or juice). I put the spinach on top last time, and had to force the spinach onto the blades with a wooden spoon... which I got a little too close to the blades, resulting in a fruit-veggie-splinters smoothie! LOL. That stomper thing the VitaMixes come with is awesome. I wonder if I can order one by itself?

[jbischke]

So I've been on a fruits & veggies kick this year too and I'm currently aspiring to a couple of smoothies (including a green one), a big salad and a bag of chopped veggie each day. Doesn't happen every day but I at least get two out of three. FWIW, here are my smoothie recipes along with approx. number of serving of fruits and veggies I'm getting each day.

Smoothie Recipe (AM)

Frozen Blueberries
Frozen Mango
Kale
Parsley
Spinach
Sprouts
Acai
Maca
Goji Berries
Green Powder
Hemp Protein
Hemp Seed Oil
Flax Seed Oil
Water

Smoothie Recipe (PM)

Frozen Pineapple
Banana
Raw Chocolate Powder
Maca
Coconut Oil
Hemp Seed Oil
Flax Seed Oil
Whey Protein
Soy Milk
Vanilla
Ice


Fruits & Veggies

*Smoothies*

Frozen Blueberries (1)
Frozen Mango (1)
Frozen Pineapple (1)
Banana (1)
Kale (1)
Parsley (1)
Spinach (1)

*Salad*

Lettuce (3)
Carrots (1)
Tomatoes (1)

*Veggie Mix*

Cucumber (2)
Bell Peppers (1)
Carrots (1)

16 total serving + Anything else I end up eating that day...

[ReallyGoodIdeas]

Smoothies ARE breakfast!
Couple of pieces of fruit, whatever is in season (read - cheap) and whatever green leafy vegies are in season (read as before!). At the moment here because its sumer, there are a million and one lettuce types, but spinach costs more, so I'm doing lettuces and celery in mine (and the odd bok choy or chinese cabbage) along with peaches, bananas and mangoes. YUM!

Before we got into green smoothies, I developed a breakfast ritual which you may like, I buy heaps of fruit (most things keep the week, some things you may need to keep in the fridge), and each morning I'd prepare a large platter of chopped fruit pieces. For the 2 of us there'd be a banana, an apple, an orange or mandarine, some melon, maybe kiwifruit, or whatever else was cheap that week. You can also have a small dish of ground seeds/nuts (sesame, linseeds, almonds, sunflower seeds, grind them up once a week and store in a jar in the fridge) which you can dip the pieces of fruit in as you eat them. Also yum!

And bravo for your new improved lettuce preparation routine. I wonder if there are easier ways for the other things you're doing as well? I find the more I do the washing, and chopping etc, the quicker I am at it. The salad spinner is good for washing a few types of vegies etc. Just putting the things into the basket, filling the bowl with water, swishing around a bit and lifting the basket out is pretty quick. Maybe not spinning them though!

Carrot sticks, capsicum sticks, cucumber sticks, celery sticks and hommus are great for an after school snack or pre-dinner nibble. Dips are fun. Beetroot dip is pretty.

I reckon kids will eat what they see you enjoy. I used to do the fruit platter as a picnic we'd have in our garden for an afternoon tea with a difference, when mine was about 3. So if you lead the charge, your 3 year old will probably follow.

Joy to you!
Hazel

[dor]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

dor: I have seen those bags before, but never bought them. Sounds like a good idea! I have similar views regarding eating philosophically, but implementing them is the challenge...

they really work - I am single and love to buy stuff at the farmer's market in season - but there's only so much romaine one guy can eat in the few days before it begins to spoil - the bags extend the freshness up to two weeks!

[Mark Lapierre]

Another tip for storing green leafy vegetables: Make sure they're completely dry when you store them, and don't just put them in a bag; wrap them in paper towels first to keep the vegetable away from the plastic and to stop it from absorbing any condensation that forms inside the bag. I just use (and clean and re-use) regular plastic bags.

[Lauxa]

Thanks for all the great tips posted so far. We just got back from a week-long vacataion with not-so-great nutrition, so the new diet (30 day challenge) starts tomorrow! I've decided on a goal of 5 servings of veggies a day. I just got back from Whole Foods with a boatload of kale, parsley, mustard greens, and chard for green smoothies, and just made and drank my first one -- YUM! We've always been smoothie-for-breakfast fans anyways and my cousin has been telling me you can put veggies in there, but I guess I had to read it on the internet before I could believe it.

[jbischke]

BTW, found out the hard way yesterday that mustard greens are not necessarily the best smoothie ingredient. Was about halfway through my smoothie and went "My gosh, why is my throat burning?"

[gberardi]

Originally Posted by jbischke

BTW, found out the hard way yesterday that mustard greens are not necessarily the best smoothie ingredient. Was about halfway through my smoothie and went "My gosh, why is my throat burning?"

Hah, thanks for posting that. I just started drinking green juices, and I can see that sometime in the next few weeks I probably would have tried mustard greens. B-)

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

* I usually need to eat something else as well to fill me up (a protein or carb), so when I'm short on time the veggie gets skipped

You will get all the protein and carbs you need from a vegan diet. No need to poison yourself in the name of convenience.

[madgeylou]

if you have a whole foods or a good deli nearby, you can get good, fresh, prepared raw veggies from the salad bar, in just the quantities you want. this prevents a lot of waste in my 1-person household.

[jbischke]

Originally Posted by madgeylou

if you have a whole foods or a good deli nearby, you can get good, fresh, prepared raw veggies from the salad bar, in just the quantities you want. this prevents a lot of waste in my 1-person household.

Yeah, the only bummer is that the size of the salads I normally consume would probably run me about $25 at a place like Whole Foods. Eating well can definitely be tough to do on the cheap...

[Lauxa]

Originally Posted by jbischke

BTW, found out the hard way yesterday that mustard greens are not necessarily the best smoothie ingredient. Was about halfway through my smoothie and went "My gosh, why is my throat burning?"

That's strange, mustard greens have been one of my favorites for the smoothies. I got mustard greens, kale, chard, parsley, and romaine lettuce for my first batch of veggies. Strangely, the one I like least is the lettuce, seems to have a stronger taste. I use 3 cups greens, 3 cups raw milk, 1 banana, and 16 oz frozen fruit. LOVING IT!!!

[lolly]

there looks like a thread with lots of advice about veggies just what i need. I think i just might make use of some of the ideas and advice here.

Great thread