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How to fit in more veggies every day?

I'd love to hear how everybody fits in more veggies besides eating salads and putting lettuce & tomato on sandwiches. I'm running out of ideas and getting bored with the usual. Thx!

Sun. Feb 24, 9:48am

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soup

Make a big pot of soup with a range of vegetables. Put it in individual serving containers and warm and eat with lunch or as a snack. It's tasty and good for you.

I use onions, carrots, summer squash, zucchini, parsnips, celery, escarole, green beans and other vegetables that look good. A can of crushed tomatoes and a base of chicken or vegetrable stock and some water serve as the base. That's LOTS of vegetables.

Sunday, February 24, 2008, 11:21 AM

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I like to put chopped veggies: onion, red pepper and zucchini are my favorites - broccoli, too, in omelets: Chop and stir fry in a non stick pan with cooking spray, then pour the eggs over: A veggie serving at breakfast!
Also make veggie spreads - baba ganoush or hummus or my favorite: Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Spread (recipe up on the Healthy Recipes thread) to snack on.

I second the soup idea, too!

Sunday, February 24, 2008, 12:55 PM

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I like to make veggie burritos: sliver lots of peppers, onions, mushrooms, zucchinis (anything left in your fridge, basically), saute with some olive oil, garlic, and cayenne. Then wrap in a whole-wheat tortilla, with a bit of low-fat sour cream. *So* good.

Sunday, February 24, 2008, 1:04 PM

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Great Thread! Great Input!

Love these ideas! Keep it up!

Sunday, February 24, 2008, 5:04 PM

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I put as many vegetables into my eggwhite omelet or scramble as I have in the house. I'll steam the green ones first in the pan, drain off the water and then add everything else. I can easily get a couple of servings in first thing in the morning.

Sunday, February 24, 2008, 7:44 PM

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I skip the meat on a sandwich and add sliced cucumber, onions, mushroom, red peppers, lettuce, spinach, tomato - pretty much whatever I like, piled high, and so few calories!

I have left over soft taco tortillas - I'm going to make those burritos, they sound great!

Sunday, February 24, 2008, 9:59 PM

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My new favorite dinner. Had it two nights in a row now. It even reheats well.
Have to give credit where it is due, Got the idea from Rachael Ray just tweaked it a bit for my taste.

Roasted vegetable rattatoullie
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with sides with parchement paper and spray with pam.
Take a piece of foil and double it, about 12x12 inch.
Cut the tops off of a bulb of garlic. Place on foil and spray with pam and salt and pepper. Wrap it up and place in the oven for 40 min.
While it is roasting prepare the veggies.
Cut into larch chunks; 1 peeled eggplant, 2 unpeepled zucchini, 2 small onions, 1/2 red and 1/2 green bell pepper, 3 large mushrooms and 1 carrot peeled and diced small. (your baking sheet will be heaping) Spray the veggies with pam and salt and pepper. Place in the oven 25 minutes. In a foil tray or foil pie plate, spray and pour 1 pint of grape tomatoes. Spray them and salt and pepper them. When 10 minutes are left for the other veggies add the tomatoes to the oven.
While all this is cooking, boil water and add 6oz campanella pasta or any kind that you like.
While everything is cooking cut 2 good size bunches of fresh basil and set aside.
Just before everything is done, take your garlic and squeeze it out of the bulb into a large bowl. Add just a bit of pasta water and mash with a fork to make a paste of the garlic. When tomatoes are done (wrinkled and skins bursting) put them in with the garlic. Mash lightly.
Now add roasted veggies and finally the drained pasta. Leave just a bit of water. (Like don't get all the water out that you can.)
Mix everything together well and add basil and stir well.
After it is plated top with 1 Tbls of grated parmesan cheese.
I like to spray with a touch of I can't believe it's not butter spray and a little more salt and pepper.
Serves 4 @ aprox 225 cal each.
It is a really simple dinner to make. And I especially like that everything comes together at the same time.


Sunday, February 24, 2008, 10:35 PM

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Google Green Smoothies! You can literally eat 15 serving of yummy veggies for breakfast!

Link

Monday, February 25, 2008, 2:09 AM

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If you're in a hurry usually, buy bags of frozen veggies. Use them as the base for stirfries, cook them as a side dish to fish, or throw them in with pasta.

Monday, February 25, 2008, 10:25 AM

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Thanks for the recipe 10:35!

I'm going out of town for a week and was wondering what to do with all the vegetables I have in my fridge right now. I have almost everything in the recipe so this will be a perfect way to use them up :)

Wednesday, February 27, 2008, 11:25 PM

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I get these sweet potato pancakes in the frozen section. They're SO delicious, all natural, 180 calories for 2 pancakes, and at 7am, I've already had vegetables!

Thursday, February 28, 2008, 2:08 PM

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I received Mollie Katzen's (from Moosewood Restaurant) cookbook _The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without_ as a gift a couple of months ago, and it's fabulous. I've tried maybe 6 or 7 of the recipes, and they have all been really good. I definitely recommend checking it out. (see link to amazon)

I don't have it in front of me, but one of the recipes is something I make enough to do it by heart now:

Squash Curry
1 kobacha squash (substitute butternut if you can't find kobacha)
~4 c of other vegetables (try a mix of cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, etc), chopped into slightly-less-than-bite-sized pieces
1/2 an onion, chopped finely
1T minced fresh ginger
2 cloves ginger, pressed or minced
1 can lite coconut milk
1t red curry paste (Thai kitchen brand is available in a little jar in my grocery)
4 c vegetable stock or broth
2 fresh tomatos, chopped coarsely (or substitute a 14 oz can)
20 leaves fresh basil, chopped coarsely
~2T veg or olive oil

Cut the squash into large chunks, leaving the skin on, but removing the strings and seeds. Steam until the pieces are almost cooked through, but not quite. (test by sticking with a fork or sharp knife) Let cool and then remove the skin and chop the flesh into the same size pieces as the rest of your veggies.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the ginger and garlic and let sizzle for a minute. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the coconut milk, curry paste, and vegetable stock/broth. Bring to a low simmer. Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Add all the vegetables except the tomatoes and let simmer, uncovered, until they are cooked. You can stage this if you think some things (like carrots, or maybe the squash) will take longer to cook than others.

Stir in the tomatoes. When the tomatoes are heated through, taste for spice and salt. 1t of curry paste will make a very mild curry. Add more if you want it spicy.

Remove from heat. Stir in basil leaves. Serve immediately over rice. Or, to add even more veggies, serve over a bed of baby spinach leaves instead of the rice.

-B

Link

Thursday, February 28, 2008, 2:34 PM

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I sometimes like to buy frozen lean cuisine or other meals for work lunches, buy a bag of mixed frozen veggies, such as broccoli/cauliflower, and throw in a cupful or so into the frozen meal when heating up in the micro. There is usually enough sauce to deal with the extra veggies, and you have just eaten two more servings. Plus you can keep your frozen veggies in the freezer at work with the meals so no excuses.

Another trick is to make up a ziplock bag with lovely fresh broccoli, cauliflower, green pepper, radish slices, carrot sticks, celery, etc. Stuff the bag full, and include one or two boiled eggs. Bring a container of lowfat ranch with you, and you are set for a really great snack with some added protein.

Thursday, February 28, 2008, 9:55 PM

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Oh yeah. Add chopped or pureed vegetables into everything. soups, casseroles etc. Mac and cheese with broccoli or cauliflower. Pureed carrots into beef stew (with the other carrots and veggies). Thicken soups with pureed foods. Puree fruit with your yogurt.

Or, you can always make juice. I have been juicing 2 carrots and 1/2 apple for a very sweet tasting juice. Carrots with orange are good too. Carrots and celery. Or try making homemade V-8. Look at a V-8 can, find out what is in it, juice some proportionally (remember, if its listed first, it has more of that than 2nd, 3rd, etc.) and add tomato juice.

Make gazpacho soup. Tomato juice, chopped tomatoes, onion, green pepper, chiles, cucumbers. Spice with chiles, cumin, cilantro. Eat cold.

Thursday, February 28, 2008, 9:59 PM

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Last one, really.

Try making the vegetable the centerpiece of your meal instead of the meat. Have a vegetarian entree, and put a small serving of meat on the side. Lowfat veggie lasagna with spinach and white cheese, avocado and walnut enchiladas, mushroom stroganoff...

Thursday, February 28, 2008, 10:01 PM

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Avocado and walnut enchiladas!

PP, those enchiladas sound amazing. How do you make them?

Friday, February 29, 2008, 12:58 PM

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I make a big mix of sautee'd veggies, freeze parts of it, and then it's easy to make omeletts in the AM - just defrost a pack of veggies and cook up with eggs. The long part of cooking is already done!

Also - I make lasagna - but sautee up a bunch of veggies with tofu, and put that int he middle instead of the meat. I use plain tomato sauces instead of sugared sauces, and fat free ricotta and mozzerella. An hour of mess, and chop and freeze it in little containers - take one to school each day! :-)

Good Luck!

-CoffeeGal

Sunday, March 02, 2008, 9:33 AM

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I usually eat around 8 servings of fruits/veggies per day

I try to eat 2 servings at each meal (5 meals per day)

Sunday, March 02, 2008, 6:25 PM

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veggies

I have mixed cole slaw or broccoli slaw in with a can of tuna...very tasty.

Sunday, March 02, 2008, 7:43 PM

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I'd love to hear everybody's take on this. I need to eat more fruits and veggies, please tell me how to fit them in so I enjoy my meals and feel satisfied.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 10:47 AM

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I put our dinner list on our refrigerator. Each dinner has a list of veggies that will be included in the meal. We just look at the list each night, decide what dinner we want, and see which veggies to include. We use the list for our shopping, too. This way we don't forget to use all the veggies we bought!

We're vegetarian, so getting most of our vitamins and minerals from eating lots of fruits and veggies is really important!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 11:48 AM

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Low sodium V-8 juice ~ I drink it almost every day.

I often take a sweet potato, poke it with a fork a few times, and microwave it about 5 or 6 minutes depending on the size of the potato. It makes a great snack ~ I don't usually add anything to it ~ just slice and eat.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 12:25 PM

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Do sweet potatoes count as a vegetable? I know they're lower GI than white potatoes, so they're a better source of carbs, but how are they nutrient-wise? Do they count as one of your 5 a day fruits and veggies?

Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 1:12 PM

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I love to make a couscous salad w/ tomatoes, garlic, and whatever else I have in the fridge - broc., cucumber, onion, cooked asparagus, and top it with a little lemon and olive oil.
I also like to pump up a store bought tomato sauce with extra veggies - whatever is in the fridge that day - mushrooms, zuccini, etc.

Thursday, May 29, 2008, 12:30 PM

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bump

Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 9:51 PM

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Wednesday, July 09, 2008, 1:00 AM

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This is probably not going to help anyone but I just bring the dang ol things in raw and eat them that way. I was looking at another thread about not having the time to pack lunches every day and I fall in that category. So I just bring in a sack of carrots, broccoli, or whatever and fit them in my day by eating them raw. I've also been walking around with a couple of raw potatoes in my bag for a while now. Not the same ones obviously but no matter where I am, I can always just throw that in a microwave with a paper towel and I'm not hungry for a while. Better than eating from the vending machine.
Needless to say I usually don't have a regular lunch hour like most folks:-)

-buzzard

Thursday, July 10, 2008, 11:22 AM

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I'd really like to know more about how to get in extra veg.

Friday, July 11, 2008, 6:41 PM

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saoup

Tuesday, July 29, 2008, 8:43 AM

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008, 11:31 AM

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This is where eggplant is a magical vegetable for me. (Squash to a lesser degree as well.) I make rattatouile variations a lot and will sometimes just make eggplant in place of almost any meat. I also make a lot of stir fry type dishes with eggplant or zucchini so they're really filling.

I also eat veggies raw. Instead of dipping carrots, broccoli, etc, I marinate them in a light balsamic vinagarette dressing and then strain them and refrigerate, so they taste like they were dipped in it.

And I like vegetables, so I just add them to everything. Rice, casserole, etc.

Saturday, August 09, 2008, 8:52 PM

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I have 3-4 servings of fruit in my smoothie in the am. I then have salad and soup at lunch. Dinner I have a salad and a cooked veggie. (and protein sources at all meals).

If you're having a hard time eating more veggies, I'd say the question is what are you eating instead of veggies and why. Answer that question, and it should become a lot easier to eat veggies instead of other things you're eating.

Sunday, August 10, 2008, 8:11 PM

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I eat a huge salad for lunch every day and vary the vegies in it. I have 1-2 pieces of fruit a day either as a snack or on the table with dinner. Dinner this time of year always includes vegies from the garden (squash, spinach, tomatoes, carrots).

Monday, August 11, 2008, 5:51 PM

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I just found the Garden Harvest chips last week. I got the vegetable medley. Apparently that has quite a bit of actual veggies in it, or so the container says.

Monday, August 11, 2008, 6:09 PM

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Friday, August 15, 2008, 5:01 PM

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