The words of your mother telling you to “eat your vegetables” may still be ringing in your ears, but unless you make a conscious effort to consume them, you may have a hard time eating them. Most people could stand to eat a few more vegetables in their diets. With our fast food culture, potatoes are about the only vegetable that people consume, and most of the time, they are in french fry form. If you are interested in getting more vegetables into your diet, here are a few tips to keep in mind.
Get Started Early
If you want to make sure that you get the recommended five servings of vegetables a day, you may want to get started early on in the day. Eating veggies with breakfast can help ensure that you get the total amount of vegetables that you need throughout the day. Try putting some salsa on your eggs in the morning, and you’ll get a nice mixture of vegetables. Make an omelette with onions, peppers and any other vegetable can be delicious first thing in the morning. If you get some of your vegetable servings out of the way first thing, you will have a much better chance of reaching your goal throughout the day.
Substitute
If you are the type of person who eat out at restaurants regularly, you may think that it is difficult to eat enough vegetables. In reality, you can probably substitute some of the things on your plate for some veggies. For example, many restaurants will allow you to substitute fries for a side salad or a bowl of steamed vegetables. If you will get in the habit of simply substituting something in your meal for vegetables, you’d be surprised how much more you can eat.
Add Them to Dishes You Like
If you don’t exactly enjoy vegetables, try adding some of them to dishes that you already like. For example, dropping some vegetables into your spaghetti or lasagna can provide you with a serving of veggies without having to eat them by themselves. Many times, we simply leave out the veggies when we cook. If you’ll make a conscious effort to add vegetables to your recipes, you will be able to get your daily servings much easier. You could even grind up the vegetables and mix them into the recipe without any problem. This will get rid of any textures that you don’t like.
Eat Soup
For some reason, people who don’t really like vegetables will tend to eat them in soup. If you like the occasional bowl of hot soup, consider adding some vegetables into the broth. For example, dropping some carrots into a chicken noodle soup won’t affect the delicious taste, but it will give you some healthy vegetables in your diet.
Dip the Veggies
Another strategy that you can use is dipping your vegetables into some kind of dip to make them more palatable. For instance, dipping carrots or broccoli into some ranch dressing can make them delicious. While you don’t want to overdo it with the ranch dressing, a little bit isn’t going to hurt you.
Drink Them
Even if you really do not like eating vegetables, you can still get them through certain drinks. There are a number of juices out there that combine fruit and vegetable juices into a single drink. For example, V-8 Splash is a fruit and vegetable combo that gives you a serving of vegetables with a fruity taste. Most of the time, you won’t even be able to tell that you are drinking any vegetable juice with these types of drinks.
Grill Out
In the summer, you’re probably used to grilling anyway. You might as well throw some veggies on the grill while you’re at it. Grilling vegetables completely changes the taste and texture.
By using some of these strategies, you should hopefully be able to get your daily serving of veggies in without any problem. The health benefits of doing this are numerous, and can make anyone feel better.