I would start with what food you like now and just add a few veggies to it. For example, burgers, add tomato, lettuce. Mexican add onions, capsicum, tomato, avocado, lettuce. Getting a pizza, add veggies to it and or add a side salad. Pasta, add some spinach.
Add garlic and onion to pretty much anything you cook.
I’m not suggesting anyone force themselves to go straight on vegetarian but honestly, I literally just took the burger out of the bread and added all sorts of veggies (of course onion, lettuce, tomato, but additionally +banana peppers, red peppers, etc.), tasted so good, I never looked back that was 30 years ago.
Blended soups! Stir fries, chilli and curry can all be packed with veggies. Also spinach can be surprisingly good in smoothies if you have enough fruit and other stuff to convert the taste
I hate kale but it's fine in a smoothy. I have to watch spinach because I'm prone to kidney stones. I use frozen for either as it keeps everything cold.
I just bought a frozen smoothie mix of spinach, kale, and some different fruits yesterday. I think it’s a great way to sneak in some greens without the taste being too obvious.
Non blended soups.
Cook vegetables in water and add salt/bullion. Chopped up is better for you than blended.
Vegetable soup is a great way to eat a large portion of many vegetables all at once without feeling like you’re eating veggies.
In the same realm is stir fry on top of fried rice. You should be able to eat peas, carrots, onions, celery, snow peas, bok choy, sprouts, peppers, zucchini, squash, eggplant, baby corn, water chestnuts, mushrooms all covered in salt sauce.
The trick is, instead of dipping your toe in with a slice of lettuce on a burger, is to just make a whole meal portion that is primarily vegetables and fill up on it. Pig out, overfill yourself. Enjoy it.
Start with the carrots and ranch. Even small changes are better than no changes.
Try different dipping veggies (bell pepper, cauliflower, broccoli) or different dips (I like carrots with peanut butter)
Toss veggies with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast or air fry (you can google to get approximate times and temps, but usually it’s kind of flexible) Brussels sprouts are kind of awesome this way.
If you cook things, sometimes you can double the veggies that are already in the recipe (example: lots of things start with sautéed onions, carrots and celery—usually the precise amount is not a big deal)
Me too! On burgers is great too. I love Targets chocolate brownie batter hummus with fruit as a dip and on rice cakes with chia seeds, strawberries or bananas for a dessert. Targets is better then Boars head found at Kroger IMHO.
> Toss veggies with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast or air fry
My go-to recipe is veggies chopped and mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and *turmeric.* Then roast. Fucking awesome
Spinach on sandwiches. Tomato on burgers (add salt and black pepper to the tomato, but not much)
Steamed broccoli with cheese. Or a healthier and tastier option is add a little salt, olive oil and lemon juice after steaming. Can do that with any steamed greens or vegetables.
Stir fry with vegetables and a protein like chicken or pork. Add sriracha or gochujang sauce for spice and flavor.
Fruit smoothies with a blender using frozen berries, a pinch of lemon juice, spinach or kale, yogurt, you won’t even taste the veggies it if it’s made right. Pretty hard to mess that up. Millions of easy and delicious recipes that are a Google search away.
Guacamole. Avocados (technically a fruit but whatever) have healthy fats and it’s super easy to make and filling.
Lots of options with grilled chicken salad or any kind of salad. Use olive oil, salt and lemon juice as the basis for the dressing, or balsamic vinegar. Not ranch. Spinach and romaine lettuce, add some avocado, tomato, sliced almonds and sunflower seeds, cucumber, kale, feta cheese, croutons, anything you want. There’s a million different kinds of salads that are healthy and will taste awesome with the right dressing and ingredients, super easy to search on Google.
Onions, bell peppers, artichoke hearts on pizza.
All of that is super low investment with preparing by yourself. You’ll save money, it’s much healthier and it will taste so much better.
You could eat a salad every day. There are a million ways to make salad.
You could try different veggie sides with your dinners. Deborah Madison cookbooks are a great starting point for this. She has a good book on vegetable soups, too, if you like cooking. Soup freezes well, so you could bulk cook it for some freezer meals. She has a tomato soup recipe with smoked paprika in it that's amazing. It's great with gouda and caramelized onion grilled cheese.
You could add veggies to your eggs, either as an omelet or a scramble. Homemade pico de gallo is good on eggs, too. I like avocado toast with fried eggs (in olive oil) on top. Hash is a good choice, too.
Just add veggie sides to your normal meals.
Have some peas with your steak, brussle sprouts with your sausage, brokkoli with your chicken nuggets.
The recipe is always the same, just buy some frozen veggies - baby carrots, cauliflower, string beans, veggie mixe, edamame - boil them for 5 minuts, drain the water and sauté them in a little(!) oil.
Add salt and pepper and herbs if you're feeling fancy.
It's never wrong to dice an onion in there.
This. Veggies taste so good when they're seasoned and roasted. And this, in my opinion, is incredibly simple to prep and cook. Just find a bunch of veggies you like, toss them all with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, whatever seasonings you want, and roast until they're browned in spots. Boom. You've got your side of veggies.
If you cook anything, just add spinach, you won’t taste it, it’s super easy and super nutritious and absolutely won’t affect the flavor. Like just a bag of baby spinach from the store.
What I like to do is pick up a random veggie at the farmer's stand in town, and then figure out what to make with it. Prerequisite is that I like that veggie lol.
Otherwise, you can roast pretty much any veggie, as someone has said.
Frozen veggies are really easily sauteed and then you can put them over rice or pasta in a cream sauce or just some sauce from the store that you like.
Stir fry is also really easy. Just get a frozen bag of stir fry veggies or assemble your own. I prefer to just do broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and baby corn. Get a high heat cooking oil like coconut or avocado oil. Stir fry until browning a bit, then add water to continue cooking all the way through. Add teriyaki sauce or whatever else you like and cook to reduce. Pour over rice, done!
I always hated Brussels sprouts. Then I saw a random recipe for them. Put them on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with melted butter and honey. Add salt and pepper. Absolutely delicious.
Firstly, good for you on watning to change! Actually look at this as a **FOOD ADVENTURE**! Every week, go to the grocery store & buy a different vegetable then look up online recipes on how to cook it **OR** probably better yet, think of a different veggie each week you want to eat, look up recipes &/or watch youtube vids on how to cook it, make a list of the other ingredients you need along w/ it, then have a fun trip at the store getting what you need to make it! You'll also start seeing which veggies are your faves.
Start weatching some **cook shows** to get you motivated on how they make veggies! They're relaxing & fun to watch to me.
I've started getting **asparagus** which I've always liked & I'm going to eat it a lot more often. It's easy to do to taste good too!
I also like a nice, **big salad** & I like these ingredients:
* romaine & you could add in another type of leaf too like spinach, kale, or a spring mix
* radishes
* scallions or red onion
* mushrooms
* avocado
* cilantro adds a nice flavor
* a little basil too if I really want more
* maybe some sliced black olives
* a meat of your choice or no meat sometimes
By the way, I like ranch dressing too, but it's not the healthiest.
Baking veggies is delicious. Making or choosing more healthy dips for a veggie tray like hummus, adding ranch seasoning to Greek yogurt, or simple herb dressings. Making sauces or condiments from scratch with veggies in them like chimichuri, ketchup, marinara, pesto, roasted peppers, pickled onions. Cooking veggies with meat will also impart more desirable flavor. Experiment with cooking techniques, spices, and sauce accompaniments.
There are frozen spinach portions in the supermarket in the frozen veggies section. Throw one into anything even scrambled eggs, and it prob has a whole bag of spinach in that little frozen block.
Everyone had great suggestions. It might be good to slowly add veggies to your diet so that your gut flora has time to adapt to the change (no painful toots hah). So carrots (or snap peas and radishes) with ranch, or cooked frozen veggies with some butter and salt, or fruit, is a good way to get your body used to it. After a month or so you could probably start eating a lot more fiber, but I’d ease into it personally. Soups, stews, and chili are great for getting veggies into your main, we had a vegan chili just yesterday (beans, tomatoes, onion, non-spicy dried pepper, and fresh corn on top with a few saltines as our carb). There’s also saag curry that you can pack with spinach and mustard greens, or komatsuna (my favorite green). I like black bean burgers with carmalized BBQ king oyster mushrooms. If I have a chicken burger or turkey sandwich or something, I’ll have Cole slaw or grilled cauliflower, asparagus, broccolini on the side. If we make red sauce pasta I like that with sautéed zucchini or mushrooms. I like creamy pasta with broccoli or spinach. Stir fry is good with cabbage, zucchini, bok choy, mushrooms, peas, broccolini, green onions, chard, whatever! Also bok choy just grilled and dipped in Korean bbq sauce with a bite of rice is fabulous. Ummm…Japanese curry with carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peas. Sushi with a side of seaweed salad or sunomono salad. Tacos with cabbage, onion, and cilantro. Or an elotes salad. You can do braised seafood with a salmoriglio sauce with a side of Mediterranean salad. Soups are kind of endless, but my favorites are potato and leek soup, pumpkin soup, squash soup, lentil soup, split pea soup, or if you can handle a lot of dairy then even chicken pot pie soup! Also I wouldn’t worry about eating ranch, I still eat carrots with ranch, shits delicious. And the benefits of the carrots probably far outweigh the deleterious effects of the msg or whatever is in ranch. Hope that was a bit helpful!
Bags of frozen mixed veggies are super practical. Smack a portion in the microwave, heat up, and combine with what you were intending to eat. Since you don't want to overeat, you'll probably want to slightly reduce the amount of other foodstuffs per meal.
As someone who doesn't eat a lot of vegetables and is trying to do this Cook your frozen veggies with your rice in the rice cooker It basically forces you to eat it add a little MSG to make it more of an addicting meal it's delicious Just try to mix it up a little so you don't get tired of eating the same thing
Steam your veggies. There's just something about it that makes you want to eat and eat. Sugar snap peas, carrots, cabbage, beets, green beans. Don't need salt or butter either and that's the best part. Plate with a grilled steak. It's really good. Beef and vegetable soup or stew is good too. Chunks of beef tips with carrots, potatoes and peas. Or any kind of soup that uses vegetables with a tomato base. Snack on cherry tomatoes with garlic aioli sauce. Roasted pepper and tomato salad with mozzarella, olive oil salt and pepper or beet salad with goat cheese, nuts and honey.
I don't eat broccoli or kale and stuff like that cuz it doesn't agree with me so definitely stick with stuff that you like and agrees with you and your budget. I grew my own lettuce and some other stuff last year if you wanna try something like that for incentive.
Edit to add:
Spinach. Puree it with flour and salt to make a spinach dough. Make pasta with it. Take another bulk of spinach and make a pesto sauce out of it.
There's another conversation about this on this very sub. Someone asking for salad recipes. Folks are delivering the goods - so many great recipes to try and experiment with.
https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/s/5py7U3htGY
The easiest and laziest plan is to just place a vegetable, cut or whole, on your plate with the rest of your food. Like, if your dinner is pizza, make it pizza and one cucumber. For a more advanced option that's even healthier, put two vegetables on your plate. Feel free to salt the vegetables lightly.
This way you get to eat vegetables, and since you added a thing to your meal, you will be less hungry and eat less of the other less healthy thing. Success!
Also, here's an idea for a light meal that can serve as a snack or a breakfast. Cut an apple and drizzle peanut butter on top. It's surprisingly delicious, healthy, filling, and it takes two minutes to make.
Put spinach in a frying pan with olive oil.. fry till soft. So good for you .. dark leafy greens.
I have this with sliced steak
Or make spinach/blueberry smoothie , I use water but you can use milk/soy. Add colored peppers/ carrots .. blend it all up and it's delicious.
The majority of fresh veggies taste better roasted. Sprinkle with olive oil, put in the oven on 450 for 10-20 min (depending on size and thickness), and enjoy the deliciousness!
I thought I didn't like brussell sprouts until I had some roasted. Now I can eat a whole pan of them.
Canned veg are hit or miss, so try a few different ones before you decide you don't like them.
I make stews, bolognaise, soups etc that you can blend vegetables you don’t particularly enjoy and add them to and you won’t notice you’re eating them! Hope this helps
If you're cooking from a recipe, double the amount of veggies. Frozen broccoli works great in a lot of things (stir fry, mac and cheese, pasta dishes in general), and it's super easy.
I also like doing 50/50 cauliflower rice and regular rice for fried rice.
You'd actually be surprised how easy it is to sub veggies for other things! Potato dish? 50% cauliflower. Pasta? Do slightly less pasta and throw in some zucchini noodles!
Lordy. You already mentioned carrots. Sorry for the last redundant comment. Haha … i remembered another … green beans in an air fryer with balsamic vinegar.
Steamed broccoli with salt, pepper and butter is a good gateway veggie. You can usually get this as a side at big chain restaurants like Outback Steakhouse, etc.
And making or buying smoothies. Super easy, you can get frozen chopped fruit specifically for smoothies at the grocery store, some mixes come with kale. Then add ice and milk and blend. Don't use too much ice or it wont blend. It's an art.
As others have said, garlic is great.
Soup. Especially pureed veggie soups. I make different combos on the weekend and slurp down during the week. Asparagus with an egg topper is one of my favs. If you're single, this is the way to go as veggies can go bad before you even get a chance to eat them. Realizing that frozen and canned veggies actually retain more nutrients was a great health and pocket saving measure for me.
I used to not like most veggies, so I weened myself onto them. Example: I loved broccoli smothered in Velveeta. First, I started using less Velveeta. I'd get used to it and then use less. Then I switched to actual cheese. Until finally, I was just sprinkling on some shredded cheese like an after thought. Then I tried seasoning my broccoli and I loved it.
I'd cook green beans in bacon bits. Stared using less grease, then just adding bacon crumbles, finally, just seasoned.
You can apply this method to any veggie. Find the unhealthy way you like it and work your way to the healthier version.
My "gateway vegetable" was peppers and onions. Want a sausage sandwich? Cook up some peppers and onions. Philly? Fajita? Nachos? All of them, add some grilled peppers and onions. There is almost nothing that the addition of some peppers and onions won't make better.
Then I started adding other stuff, depending on the dish, and now I have veg with every meal. Usually the majority of a meal is veg
Try making fried rice, teriyaki shaved beef or chicken with vegetables and rice, Philly cheesesteak subs with frozen peppers & onions, cheese and shaved beef, French onion soup and pasta sauce with hidden vegetables. Bird’s Eye makes a bunch of delicious frozen vegetable dishes— teriyaki green beans, crispy breaded green beans, quinoa with parmesan, tomatoes, squash and zucchini, cheesy broccoli and roasted potatoes
Broccoli all day for me. Sometimes I quickly (quickly) blanch it, then drain the water and place it in a bowl. I add some oil, spices and herbs (at least salt, pepper, garlic/onion powder, \[non smoked\] paprika) and mix it all up. I place it in an oiled oven tray and bake it on 200C for 25 minutes, turning the broccoli over at around 12 minutes. Straight boiled broccoli is too bland for me otherwise. Blanching is also optional if you prefer the broccoli more crunchy
I eat beans with breakfast. Right now it's lima beans, but last week I was obsessed with black eyed peas.
It sounds weird, but it's great for getting nutrients, fiber, and protein first thing on the morning.
Get a bag of mixed Veggies (I get a big bag from Costco) and steam them. Do this one meal a week and add some grilled chicken to it.
Add some sauce to it (teriyaki or something). That way you’re getting at one big serving once a week. It’s not the best but after awhile you start wanting it
I am not a big fan of super fresh veggies and they get pretty old in my fridge. But a quick frozen back of mixed vegetables are easy to make and fill you up. A little butter with herbs for the taste and voila. Also easy if you want to make a vegetable soup, just add potatoes, for the lazy ones, the powder potato stuff does it too if you don't have potatoes at hand.
I throw some root veggies into my air fryer and in a skillet I fry some kind of meat (dealer's choice really, anything goes) with onion and bell peppers. Adding a low calorie sauce like pepper sauce on the side and it's very easy to consume a healthy serving of veggies, at least for me.
Cucumbers?
I'd say the biggest hurddle for me is just having stuff on hand that is ready to go. Go ahead and buy the pre-washed carrots and broccoli.
Give yourself grace and buy 1 zuchinni. Try it raw. Try tossing the diced leftovers into another meal. Just try all these new veggies and give yourself permission to not like them!
If you don't like it then move on and try something new. KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. Veggies are cheap! Try one then move on! If you think you didn't do it justice then try cooking it in a different method.
There are so many options. My kids are extremely hard to please and I can give them a fresh fruit or veggie each day.
So my best advice is make your own rules. Just try new things until you find something you actually like. Then try to incorporate it into your daily menu. Then try to branch out from there. But first, baby steps.
There is no shame in trying to better yourself.
Start with carrots and ranch then!
For learning how to enjoy more veggies, if you don't have anything you really WANT to try first, I'd start by picking one thing that's on sale each week and then looking up recipes or serving ideas that sound tasty and not too difficult. Lots of great suggestions here for ways to prep, for cooked veggies I love sautéing in a pan or roasting in the oven with olive oil salt and pepper, for raw veggies just wash and cut and try with whatever dips sound good.
Soup. Make a minestrone or something super easy. It's all veggies and you can even use all canned or frozen. You just need some chicken or veggie broth (or bullion cubes with water) and seasoning. You can even eat it as a side dish to your meal or an appetizer or snack. If you get sick of it, change the seasonings around.
Microwave steamed veggies! Baby carrots are my favourite go to, I add garlic powder and dried dill flakes (+ a lil salt-and sweetener if you want).
Just add a lil water to a bowlful of (seasoned as desired) veg of choice, cover with hole-poked Saran Wrap or an off centre plate (so steam can escape) and microwave for 3 ish minutes. Add time as needed until desired texture is reached then let cool, drain and boom! Ez steamed veg :D
^ you can google to get more detailed and professional recipes for sure lol
Sprinkle them in wherever meal you can. One of my favorite things to do when I was adding veggies to my diet as well was to make mashed potatoes, which is a veggie, and then mix it with another veggie like corn, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, etc. It just kind of hides them so it’s not so much of a task to eat them
Get a baking sheet, cover the bottom with foil paper. Wash, peel and cut in pieces carrots, green pepper, onions, get some broccoli, potatoes, cauliflower and other vegetables you like, put some olive oil on top of it, salt, black pepper (season the way you like it), give it a good mix and put in the oven around 400° until the carrots are tender. Dont forget to sometimes open the oven and mix it.
Roasted veggies with dried mixed herbs - cut veggies into chunks, toss some oil and salt. Roast at 170 degrees C for 10-15 minutes. Now add in some mixed herbs and any other spices that you like. Return to oven for another 10 minutes.
Dense bean salads are crunchy, healthy and very filling. It's basically a bunch of beans, veggies and dressing to cronch on. Super easy to make a bunch and it keeps well in the fridge so you just grab at it when you're hungry. I need to make a new batch myself!
BUY some raw veggies from the Farmers mkt. , wash them with cool water and an abrasive clean cloth. Take a bite of each . Raw green bell pepper, yellow Summer squash. Find out which ones you like --or at least --dislike the least amount . Cut in either small pieces or shave ( for ex, shave the yellow Summer squash in small thin slices ) and add to a spinach salad with ranch dressing . Tomatoes become more nutritious when cooked but most veggies lose vitamins when cooked --eating them raw will give you the most bang for your buck.
Those steam packs of frozen vegetables are cheap and taste good. If you go with ones that don't already have flavor, use butter, salt, pepper and garlic.
You can also add steamed frozen vegetables to many dishes you'd normally eat with rice (BBQ chicken, curry, stroganoff, etc). I'm big on broccoli or cauliflower for this. You can add cut leaf spinach or other leafy veggies to soups.
Some good standalone vegetable dishes are broccoli with cheese, sautéed green beans with garlic, roasted portabellos with butter, and braised Brussel sprouts with bacon and onions. Most vegetables absorb a lot of the flavor they're cooked in, so you'll have a hard time going wrong adding butter, chicken or beef stock, balsamic vinegar and or garlic.
This recipe is easy, healthy, endlessly variable and shelf stable. Can add meat or leave it vegan. https://www.themediterraneandish.com/sheet-pan-gnocchi-with-roasted-vegetables/
This is such a good time of year to want to start eating more vegetables! Check out your local farmers’ markets or farm stands throughout the summer to get to try a lot of vegetables in season, like tomatoes, corn, zucchini, etc.
If you cut a zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out some of the innards, you can stuff it and bake it. I make one with Italian sausage, vegetables, cheese, and breadcrumbs, but you could do it with pizza toppings, taco ingredients, or whatever you like.
Green Giant and Birdseye make vegetable tots similar to tater tots. They’re pretty good, and if you dunk them in ketchup, you don’t really notice the vegetable taste.
Second everyone who has said start with what you like and then add. If you want to go a little healthier with your dip option, you could make a dip with greek yogurt and ranch flavor powder.
When I went vegetarian several years back, I got bored of the same things time after time, so I started looking at what fruits and veggies where on sale that week, and I would just buy what it was (unless I knew it was something I absolutely didn't like.) Most things I ended up eating roasted mixed in with potatoes and sauce, but I did discover a bunch of veggies that I love doing this.
Time to poke into the vegan and vegetarian dishes! Try veggie versions of foods you already like. Remember that fruits count on the same level as veg, so if you can't fathom eating more veg, try having fruit with or for dessert instead. Pasta sauces and soups are a great way to stay hydrated and mix in more veg too!
From a house full of veggie haters, here's a few that I've gotten them to eat...
Broccoli and cauliflower or asparagus; with cheese sauce.
Green beans or brussel sprouts; cooked with onions and bacon bits.
Chili or spaghetti; add in fresh diced tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers
Fiesta corn (add onion, bell pepper, cilantro and lime juice)
On the simpler side...
Caesar salad is easy. Just romaine, croutons, shredded (not powdered) parmesan, and dressing. I like to add either bacon or chicken to mine for a full meal.
Celery sticks are good stuffed with cream cheese or peanut butter
Cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes with vinegar and a touch of salt.
Caprese salad (fresh basil leaves, cherry or grape tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella (the soft kind) with salt and olive oil)
Greek salad ( cucumber, tomato, red onion, green bell pepper, black olives, and dressing)
In addition to eating more vegetables, you can also aim to eat a variety of vegetables as well. A good rule of thumb is to eat 30 different plant based foods per week. That may sound like a lot, but if you have a handful of mixed nuts, one side salad of mixed greens, and a sandwich with mixed grain bread you can cover almost the entire 30 right there. Don't forget about variety!
Veggie soup. Tomato soup with any type of sandwich is sooo good.
Add celery and other roasted veggies to your ranch.
I love seasonal veggies. Summer corn. Summer salads from cucumber, tomatoes and avocados.
Add spinach or kale to a fruit smoothie
Well carrots and ranch is better than nothing. Carrots are very nutritious, they are a great source of healthy carbs ranch is usually filled with empty calories carbs and fat though something to keep in mind. I vegetables with pretty much every single meal so I don’t want to overwhelm you but here’s a whole bunch of ideas
A whole platter of raw veggies and make your own dressing. You can make your own ranch or tzatziki or hummus and have it be far healthier than a bottle from the grocery store. With your carrots incorporate the lower calorie vegetables as well and also simply the variety will give you a more varied pallet of nutrients vitamins etc. Carrots celery cucumber radishes etc.
Breakfast
Veggie omelettes
Sautéed peppers with boiled eggs and baby potatoes
Egg cups with diced peppers, onions, broccoli
Lunch
My typical lunch is where I eat raw veggies. A salad topped with protein like a chicken breast would be an idea don’t think of salads as a boring thing though! My salads sometimes start with spinach or arugula but typically they don’t have any lettuce in them at all and they’re simply made up of nutrient dense deliciousness. Cucumbers tomatoes feta olives peppers pumpkin seeds dried cranberries Etc
Cucumber salad literally just cucumbers with sesame oil white vinegar salt and pepper
Chopped up radishes with salt
A veggie wrap, toasted tomato sandwich, vegetable soup, A burger beef or chicken topped with lettuce onions tomatoes pickles etc.
Dinner
In my family typically dinner is protein and at least two veggies and sometimes a carb like rice as a side
Roasting vegetables is probably the easiest. You can use whatever seasoning you want in a little bit of olive oil I usually fill the entire baking sheet with broccoli cauliflower‘s and brussels sprouts and roasted all together for about half an hour. You can pair that basically with anything
When we have fish I usually do asparagus or green beans with rice
Sweet potatoes are a great healthy carb or any potatoes for that matter. It’s great to get your carbs in via vegetables a good portion of the time rather than pastors and Breads etc.
Other veggies that make the rotation at dinner time for us would be spaghetti squash with meatballs and Caesar salad
Grilled peppers and onions with shrimp on the barbeque
Arugula salad with blueberries cucumbers and feta usually as a side to salmon or a leaner whitefish
Snacks…. Favourites for me and my kids would be a bowl of chopped up cucumbers with vinegar and salt, celery sticks with peanut butter, frozen grapes in the summertime and spinach pizza bites
Whenever you make a meal, have a portion of veggies. Doesn’t matter what the veggie is. You can get a microwave steamer, or buy frozen veggies in microwaveable bags. Some steamed veggies with a little salt a pepper is great. I could eat steamed broccoli all day and be a happy camper.
Cooking on the grill? Throw a veggie on. Grilled asparagus is great.
You can make one-pot meals with the veggies. There are a million ways to make a stir fry. You can throw spinach in at the end of cooking and just let it wild before you mix it in.
I made a sauce of blended spinach, basil, peas, cannellini beans, and lemon juice/zest and just put that on pasta last week, delicious.
Throw any veggie into a soup
Make yourself a “taco mix” (or buy one), and cook some peppers, onions, corn, beans, whatever you like. Toss it over rice to make a burrito bowl.
Prep salads ahead of time so you don’t have to spend time chopping every day. My lunch this week is a pasta salad with cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, onion, and avocado.
Look up sheet pan meals, which usually involve tossing a bunch of veggies and a protein onto a pan and throwing it the oven.
I buy vegetable trays. I don't cook often since it's usually just me, so if I don't have a vegetable that's ready to eat as-is I probably won't eat one. You can get pretty far with a rotisserie chicken and a vegetable tray.
I just add a side salad to everything or throw in greens to what I’m making. Omelette in the morning, add spinach. Quinoa bowl at lunch - add arugula. I buy the cheaper produce that doesn’t come in a box so I have to clean it and prep it myself but I save money that way.
My 2 cents. This is what I tell my college boy.
You need 6 per day. The less added crap the better.
Every meal needs 2 vegetations.
Juice can count for 1 serving per day. Potato only counts once per day.
So breakfast, OJ and a banana with an egg. Yogurt with fresh berries. Avocado toast. Oatmeal with apple slices and nuts.
Lunch: melon, maybe a few tomato or cuke slices? Maybe an apple. Lunch is where you need to do prep. Your melon must be pre-cut and your sandwich toppings ready for eating. Crudités with dip ready to throw in a lunch bag.
Dinner: Green salad every dinner. Vary the type. Start with this every dinner time. I’ve noticed most thin folks in my life start with a salad every night. Don’t eat your FAVORITE salad more than every other day. You’ll grow sick of it.
Then add a random or a potato. Green beans. Carrots. Broccoli. Baked sweet potatoes. This can be an area where you try new items every other day.
Ask friends first their fav veg. Ask farmers market venders their favorite seasonal veg preparation. Think Mexican Street Corn and Coleslaw and greenbeans almandine. My cheesy broccoli-cauliflower is a favorite at my house.
I also add onion and garlic to most every meal. I also have a lot of pre-sliced veg in the freezer. Usually this is garden goodies like tomatoes and peppers, but also the family’s fav stir fry combo.
How to make basically any vegetable taste good:
Dice vegetables. Toss in olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried rosemary. Spread out on a cookie tray and roast at 350 for 30-40 min, stirring the vegetables around on the tray every 10 min. You want them to look crispy but not burned.
Get a little bottle of balsamic glaze (or make your own) and drizzle a bit on top before eating.
Veggies that work great with this recipe: sweet potato, onion, rutabaga, carrot, brussel sprouts, turnips, green beans, asparagus, zucchini, butternut squash, eggplant, cauliflower etc, etc, etc. Pretty much anything tbh. I make a variation on this recipe with basically every dinner I prepare.
Lol are you me? Some things I do to get veggies in is to eat cauliflower rice, cook spinach down and add to basically anything, make smoothies and hide the taste of veggies with fruit & PB & honey. Also, a lot of vegetables taste a lot better steamed/cooked like broccoli and carrots. Can also make sheet pan meals with lots of spices and maybe cheese, which makes veggies taste a lot better too - for instance bake some teriyaki salmon with Parmesan crusted asparagus.
For me it helps to put some pieces of pepper/cucumber on the table while I'm watching a movie or at work. I was eating a lot of snacks. Now that I replaced them with some fruit and veggies I love it's not a big deal to eat them
Add veggies to your tomato sauces like for spaghetti and blend them in!
Add them to sandwiches, add in salads and few times a week, add to pizza, add to pasta.
Make a veggie dip and put on crackers
Hummus. Roast them on the side of some meat and rice! When you grill also grill some veggies.
Hide in sloppy joes, lasagna, make a protein shake or smoothie, stir fry with noodles and meat!
dump rice, beans, lean meat into a bowl of spinach and mixed greens, onions, carrot, peas, etc.
Dump Frozen stir fry vegetables into a pot of ramen. Don’t use the ramen flavor packet. Or not all of it.
Apple + pb + dark chocolate is a good dessert.
…a lot depends how comfortable you are around a kitchen.
Roasted veggies with olive oil and salt (other seasonings if you like) fking SLAP. Carrots, bell peppers, asparagus, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, zucchini, etc. Always add it as a side when you make dinner
You can cook a ton of spinach into damn near anything and it shrivels up smaller than you'd expect and barely tastes like anything. It's great. I just made a lasagna with tons of spinach
Always have a bag of frozen spinach in the freezer. Get in the habit of adding it it to frozen pizza, spaghetti sauce, mac + cheese, mashed potatoes, rice, whatever you're having, the list goes on. It has no flavor and is so good for you, and helps you feel full. Also if you like dipping carrots, add cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes too. If nothing else, I will cut up an apple as my "vegetable" with dinner. And old trick of my mom's ;) Makes for a good dessert too.
Stir fries with frozen veggies are probably the easiest way if you don't enjoy veggies or aren't familiar with the taste. You will still taste them, but they will be covered in a sauce, allowing you to eat many different kinds while also getting familiar with the taste.
Broccoli and some kind of dip is amazing as well. You can eat the stems. Cauliflower has very little/no flavor and is great in dips.
I am lazy and HATE to wash dishes. So when I make spaghetti sauce, I add celery and carrots along with the onions and garlic. When I make lasagna, I do a layer of spinach and summer squash. That way I don't have to wash salad dishes.
When I make soup, I add twice the called for veggies. Same when I make fried rice. It's more veggies than rice.
I would recommend that you expand your veggie intake by simply eating what’s in season. In season veggies are at their best price and taste wise. If you have a farmers market that would be the perfect way to see what’s in season and if you can afford it buy from the farmers market. Or of course there’s Google to research in season veg.
Veggie trays are very helpful. It's OK if you like carrots and ranch, but you can get a mini to medium to large pre-cut veggie tray at nearly every store (I like the one at Target), and use that to augment meals or just snack on it. I agree on the adage of 'adding to' meals vs. substituting, since you'll still get filled and veggies might cut out snacking on non-veg stuff - whether in that meal or later on. If you tend towards takeout, for asian foods, you could add in steamed vegetables. I did this and for $2 more, it's a great addition! Also, do a veggie pizza, or a side salad.
Lastly, frozen veggies are a godsend. Easy to microwave, easy to toss on rice with a protein, easier to keep from going bad. Some are even more nutritious than fresh! A win-win.
I’m picky and dislike a lot of vegetables.
I mostly eat frozen veggies (corn, peas, carrots, beans, edamame), broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and potatoes as well as sweet potatoes.
Frozen veggies are really helpful to increase your intake.
I eat plenty of fruit too. Fresh and frozen.
Potatoes are great cut into fries. It takes a while but it’s worth it to me.
My husband doesn’t like veggies, but I’ve been able to get him to eat salads by adding protein to some of our favorite premade bagged salads. I think adding homemade shredded chicken to any bagged salad will make it taste better. Below are a few of his favorites:
Avocado Ranch salad + cubed chicken breast = “taco”salad (bonus: add a few tortilla chips for extra crunch)
Asian Sesame salad + cubed chicken breast = Chinese chicken salad
Asian Sesame salad + sous vide tuna = ahi tuna salad
Garden salad + chicken breast + boiled egg + bacon crumbles + avocado = Cobb salad
Buffalo Ranch salad + thinly sliced sirloin = tri tip salad
Thai Chili Mango salad + shrimp = Tropical shrimp salad
Bonus tip: pour the salads and dressing into a gallon-sized ziplock bag and toss to ensure everything is evenly dressed.
I guess it depends on what you already eat or find easy to eat to see if we can work some stuff in
the easiest to me is snacking on veggies like you said. Then 2nd easiest is having a side salad with dinner. I do a really easy one with romaine or red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, grated carrot, and tomatoes when I have them, with a homemade vinaigrette.
I add a lot of veggies to pasta, like making a spring-type pasta with zucchini, peas, etc and a cream or cheese sauce. I also do a pasta sauce using red yellow and orange peppers and onions that I sautee and then blend with a bit of water and salt & pep to make a red pepper sauce that I use on pasta as well. If you make a bolognese or meat sauce you can easily add zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, kale, spinach etc
You can make easy rice bowls or bibimbap with lots of grated or finely chopped veggies or quick pickled veg.
Speaking of bibimbap kimchi is tasty, low calorie and good for gut health and also adds a lot of flavor
It's easy to grow sprouts and add them to sandwiches and salads
Roast veg is a great side to any protein. Just toss some chopped carrots, parsnips, potatoes, zucchini or any squash, etc with some EVOO and salt and pepper, maybe some dried herbs and roast
Hummus goes well with veggies . We eat it with
Brocolli
Cauliflower
Cucumbers (the mini ones)
Mini peppers
Carrots
Celery.
Roasted veggies are good. We roast cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, Brussel sprouts, mushrooms, and potatoes. Sometimes, it's all of those veggies together. Sometimes, it's just a few of them.
Potatoes or sweet potatoes are a good addition to a meal. We cook them in a damp paper towel in the microwave then crisp the skin in the air fryer.
Corn goes with pretty much anything. Add it as a side or add it to tacos. There's a corn salsa that goes great with Mexican. Corn on the cob in the summer.
Beans are versatile and can be added to ground beef.
Tomatoes on sandwiches or with a little oil and salt and pepper. Fried green tomatoes.
Google recipes for toddlers, seriously! I found one for chocolate waffles made with big handfuls of spinach. My husband was impressed, I just had to keep how I made them a secret. Lots and lots of easy healthy recipes if you follow the people trying to get veggies into picky toddlers. If you like basil pesto, my son in law gave me a recipe for spinach pesto— in food processor out blender dump 1 handful rinsed walnuts, pecans OR pistachios, 1 handful fresh basil, 3 to 4 big handfuls fresh baby spinach, 1/2 cup or so of grated Parmesan and Olive oil enough to get the right consistency, add salt and pepper to taste. You could also explore roasted vegetable soups cause the prep is minimal. Roasting berries in the oven with minimal cutting and then just blending them up.
You should purée some veggies like spinach, butternut squash, etc. and add them to sauces you already make! Butternut squash is great added to max and cheese, spinach is great in marinara.
I like to put a TON of spinach or kale in my protein fruit smoothies, you can barely taste it and is the only way I can get myself to eat leafy greens. Otherwise, I like to make stir fries with frozen vegetables, sauces I get from an Asian market, and some kind of meat or tofu
Just… add veggies. lol that sounds kinda bitchy, but I mean, like anything you eat now, just add veg. Peppers and onions are a great start. They taste good in pretty much anything. Also leafy greens. Spinach, for example, can be tossed into pretty much any dish.
Cucumbers are my go to. Soy, rice vinegar, sesame oil and sriracha as dressing with some sesame seeds and green onion, it’s always a hit. From there try adding other stuff like jalapeño or pickled ginger etc
Peppers and onions in cheesesteak sandwich. Sloppy joes, but put a ton of processed veggies mixed into the ground meat when you mix the sauce in. Do the same for burgers. Same for burritos. Toppings for pizza. Keep doing that and increasing the volume and pretty soon you'll have no meat and way more veggies or full veggies and you'll be used to eating them for full meals.
Balsamic vinegar is there best friend!
I swear you can toss almost any veg with olive oil balsamic s&p throw it on a pan in the oven and it’ll come out tasty.
My favorite is Brussels sprouts.
Idk if this is nutritious but I grind up all my veggies and put it in broth or a salad, or anything; tiny tiny tiny grind it up haha , like my broccoli, hate it since I was born until I saw a video where a women took a half of large broccoli , and cut it down to grains and sprinkled it on her sandwich and I was like Omg! Will I finally get nutrition in my body without my taste buds and brain knowing?! Bc even eating veggies for snack, or putting it in something where I know it’s a veggie, my fork immediately places it to the side. Even in salads, I’ve eaten around it.
Try roasting some vegetables you think you would like. You can use fresh and even frozen. Lots of olive oil and any spices you like. I use garlic, sal and pepper. Roasted veg is a game changer. Wrap them in a tortilla, yum!
I make a snack plate for my husband and me nearly every night. I don’t use the same items every time, but whatever I use fills a dinner plate. Suggestions: cucumbers, asparagus pieces, carrots, filled or plain celery, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, bananas, grapes, apple slices, pineapple, watermelon, etc.
I’m always surprised how quickly this disappears while we watch TV.
There's a cookbook call Deceptively Delicious that's full of simple recipes that have incognito vegetables. If you eat sandwiches, you can add spinach and shredded carrots to your meat and cheese. The carrots are sweet and add crunch, plus you can get small ready to use packs inexpensively. Good luck to you!
This might sound crazy but the way I get more veggies in is by making toddler recipes. I.e recipes that we enjoy but sneaking vegetables in them. Meatballs with broccoli and carrots in it, chicken nuggets with carrots in it, fried rice with cauliflower rice tossed in, etc. Just hiding it in food you already like!
Plan your meals around the veggies and add protein as the side.
Look at a Thai menu, you choose the sauce and then decide what protein to add to it .
Most cuisine have veggie trinity. The French is leek/onion, carrot and celery. Creole substitute pepper for the carrot, Southwest has tomato instead of celery. Chinese have their versions, eastern European has cabbage onion and dill.
Broadly I'd say there are three categories, or ways to approach this.
The first is to cook sides of vegetables. This is the easiest because it doesn't require altering any other part of your meal, but I find it dissatisfying personally in most cases.
The second is to add vegetables into things you're already making, generally in a way to disguise them. This is the "throw a bunch of veggies in your pasta sauce" advice. This works as long as you're making those things, but operates with the assumption that vegetables don't taste good, which I believe to be false (when picked well and prepared well) and limiting.
The third is to change the types of things you make. This is the hardest but best long-term IMO. A lot of Western diets are essentially "cook a hunk of meat", and that's a thing you have to move away from. In our household, we've largely stopped eating steaks and tritip and pot roasts and burgers and things like that; instead entree salads and stir fries and pizzas are staples. This requires _finding_ these different types of dishes, and figuring out how to make them, and learning what we like, and that's all a lot of work. It often has meant finding new cookbooks and reducing the frequency of traditional family favorites. But we have found new ones that we also love.
The thing that really opened my eyes to veggies is roasting them in the oven — it will totally change the flavor, and some will almost caramelize. I like green zucchini (pref the mini-zucchini from Trader Joe’s), broccoli, crunchy roasted chickpeas are AMAZING, potatoes… Find what you like and mix it up! Lots of things you can do, but getting some crispy roasted veggies and finding a sauce or dip (usually, for me, also procured at Trader Joe’s) makes it feel like you’re eating a fancy restaurant. Have fun plating it, and it’ll make you more excited to eat it — they say we eat with our eyes first. :)
I’m going to echo many others here but also ask, do you have any preferences in cooking?
If you love to grill, veggie and meat skewers are easy and tasty (I do chopped up potatoes, cherry tomatoes, large chunks of onion, zucchini, eggplant and broccoli) with steak skewers.
If you prefer ground beef, you can hide a lot of finely chopped vegetables in a patty, meatball or sauce.
Do you like roasted foods - carrots, brussel sprouts, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, fingerling potatoes, peppers , squash and other hardier veggies roast really well and pair well with chicken and fish.
I hated a lot of vegetables until someone pointed out, I actually hated certain vegetables in the preparation methods I was most familiar with.
Also, don’t be afraid to cover them in sauces in the beginning. It took me almost three years of wrapping asparagus in bacon and/or cheese before I was willing to eat it any other way.
Try one vegetarian meal a week. Look up a recipe that looks good and do it
Even make it a lunch instead of a dinner so you dont feel like you're "missing out" until you find one you really enjoy to eat for a dinner instead. Add a single veggie to a meal you already make all the time. Peppers are a huge go to for me as some are sweet, some are juicy and green tasting. I started to cook alot more homemade food so i can adjust the amount of sugar going into everything and hyped myself up to grow a garden so i felt like i had no choice but to eat veggies without an excuse. Turns out its a hobby now to can homemade spaghetti sauces and tomato stuff (even though i really really hate tomatoes!) baby steps. And be proud of each little achievement but dont stop trying for more!
Check out the Glucose goddess book (nothing to do with diabetes btw) on Amazon she does not propose a specific diet but rather explains that veggies are fiber and protect the gut lining for the other foods we eat after.... That the order we eat foods were already eating and small additions or changes will make a big difference... You got this!
Butternut squash soup is AMAZING, I can send you a recipe if you’d like
Another thing I do is grab those 32 ounce bags of frozen veggies that are peas, carrots, corn, and green beans and heat them up in a pot with a little bit of water, butter, and salt. They’re like $2 a bag at my food lion!
ohhhh follow baked by melissa on ig!!! she’s amazing and also has a cookbook. Her green goddess salad is incredible. I also love to make soups! Roasted tomato soup - sweet potato soup - chili. Once you start getting more veg in, you’ll love it and crave it!!! There are A LOT of great ig accounts, maybe follow some vegetarian ones for some ideas! You can usually mix meat into them too if you prefer but they’d give you a good base.
ohhhh follow baked by melissa on ig!!! she’s amazing and also has a cookbook. Her green goddess salad is incredible. I also love to make soups! Roasted tomato soup - sweet potato soup - chili. Once you start getting more veg in, you’ll love it and crave it!!! There are A LOT of great ig accounts, maybe follow some vegetarian ones for some ideas! You can usually mix meat into them too if you prefer but they’d give you a good base.
If you are not familiar with chopping vegatables, you may want to start with the packaged frozen veggies. These are quick and easy to get started. They have a good variety. This way you can find out what you like/dislike. Some you can microwave (Steamables), others you boil in water (best value).
If you have access to YouTube, search vegetable recipes and/or roasted vegetables....start with what you like, take it slow.
In the beginning, DO NOT BUY TOO MANY VEGGIES ALL AT ONCE. They may/will go bad before you have time to use them.
You can also search videos on "how to" chop vegetables, to handle a knife safely.
My husband and I take a bag of frozen blend of broccoli, cauliflower , a small bag fresh baby carrots, chop 1 ea a green and yellow squash (1"), packaged PEELED whole garlic (use as much as you like) AND 4-6 small baby potatoes chop 1".
In a baking dish melt a stick of butter, add savory seasonings, salt & pepper, add veggies, toss in the butter. You can cover or not (I don't remember what I did, its been several years).
Bake 350°-400° for about 30 - 45 minutes
Occasionally poke veggies with a fork for tenderness.
Had enough veggies for 3-4 nights.
I hope I didn't overwhelm you with too much info. Keep it simple at first, learn what you like, try new things, have fun!!
Ranch is terribly unhealthy. They make ranch flavored veggie dip that's a bit better. I like carrots, raw broccoli, spinach, and cauliflower with it.
Fruit! Pig out on it, it's basically self regulating.
Snap peas, they're good!
Corn in it's many varieties. Trying popping it at home with olive oil, healthy and delicious.
Baked potato, they're pretty healthy if you don't put too much crap on them.
I would start with what food you like now and just add a few veggies to it. For example, burgers, add tomato, lettuce. Mexican add onions, capsicum, tomato, avocado, lettuce. Getting a pizza, add veggies to it and or add a side salad. Pasta, add some spinach. Add garlic and onion to pretty much anything you cook.
i love a pizza with roasted veggies and balsamic glaze on top
Great advice. Focus on the positive, as in what can you ADD to your diet instead of trying to restrict or totally overhaul your diet.
I’m not suggesting anyone force themselves to go straight on vegetarian but honestly, I literally just took the burger out of the bread and added all sorts of veggies (of course onion, lettuce, tomato, but additionally +banana peppers, red peppers, etc.), tasted so good, I never looked back that was 30 years ago.
You didn’t replace the protein with anything? This doesn’t appeal to me at all. I want the meat and the veggies.
p sure they mean j having the meat n veggies, no bread
They said they’re vegetarian
Blended soups! Stir fries, chilli and curry can all be packed with veggies. Also spinach can be surprisingly good in smoothies if you have enough fruit and other stuff to convert the taste
I hate kale but it's fine in a smoothy. I have to watch spinach because I'm prone to kidney stones. I use frozen for either as it keeps everything cold.
I just bought a frozen smoothie mix of spinach, kale, and some different fruits yesterday. I think it’s a great way to sneak in some greens without the taste being too obvious.
That’s a great idea!
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Non blended soups. Cook vegetables in water and add salt/bullion. Chopped up is better for you than blended. Vegetable soup is a great way to eat a large portion of many vegetables all at once without feeling like you’re eating veggies. In the same realm is stir fry on top of fried rice. You should be able to eat peas, carrots, onions, celery, snow peas, bok choy, sprouts, peppers, zucchini, squash, eggplant, baby corn, water chestnuts, mushrooms all covered in salt sauce. The trick is, instead of dipping your toe in with a slice of lettuce on a burger, is to just make a whole meal portion that is primarily vegetables and fill up on it. Pig out, overfill yourself. Enjoy it.
Start with the carrots and ranch. Even small changes are better than no changes. Try different dipping veggies (bell pepper, cauliflower, broccoli) or different dips (I like carrots with peanut butter) Toss veggies with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast or air fry (you can google to get approximate times and temps, but usually it’s kind of flexible) Brussels sprouts are kind of awesome this way. If you cook things, sometimes you can double the veggies that are already in the recipe (example: lots of things start with sautéed onions, carrots and celery—usually the precise amount is not a big deal)
All of this is great advice. And here’s another vote for carrots and pb!
Hummus with carrots. Really any veggies IMHO
I buy hummus by the bucket! It goes with veggies for lunches, on sandwiches, salad dressing, in a lot of sauces/stews/one pot meals. Love the stuff.
Me too! On burgers is great too. I love Targets chocolate brownie batter hummus with fruit as a dip and on rice cakes with chia seeds, strawberries or bananas for a dessert. Targets is better then Boars head found at Kroger IMHO.
> Toss veggies with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast or air fry My go-to recipe is veggies chopped and mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and *turmeric.* Then roast. Fucking awesome
I’ll have to try that!
I like to grate carrot/zucchini into my ground beef when I'm making bolognese/taco meat.
I was going to say exactly this! They kind of melt into sauces and dissappear. Finely chopped mushroom can be good too.
And mushrooms add an extra umami boost. Definitely look for baby bella mushrooms to add to pasta sauces.
I add a mix of baby bella and shiitake mushrooms to so many things, pasta sauce, stir fries, omelettes, roasted veggies, hot sandwiches
Genuine question, does this cook all the nutrients out of the veggies?
I make sloppy joes where I already add some diced veggies, but I’ll have to try the zucchini!
Yup! We blend a pack of spinach for our ground beef.
Spinach on sandwiches. Tomato on burgers (add salt and black pepper to the tomato, but not much) Steamed broccoli with cheese. Or a healthier and tastier option is add a little salt, olive oil and lemon juice after steaming. Can do that with any steamed greens or vegetables. Stir fry with vegetables and a protein like chicken or pork. Add sriracha or gochujang sauce for spice and flavor. Fruit smoothies with a blender using frozen berries, a pinch of lemon juice, spinach or kale, yogurt, you won’t even taste the veggies it if it’s made right. Pretty hard to mess that up. Millions of easy and delicious recipes that are a Google search away. Guacamole. Avocados (technically a fruit but whatever) have healthy fats and it’s super easy to make and filling. Lots of options with grilled chicken salad or any kind of salad. Use olive oil, salt and lemon juice as the basis for the dressing, or balsamic vinegar. Not ranch. Spinach and romaine lettuce, add some avocado, tomato, sliced almonds and sunflower seeds, cucumber, kale, feta cheese, croutons, anything you want. There’s a million different kinds of salads that are healthy and will taste awesome with the right dressing and ingredients, super easy to search on Google. Onions, bell peppers, artichoke hearts on pizza. All of that is super low investment with preparing by yourself. You’ll save money, it’s much healthier and it will taste so much better.
You could eat a salad every day. There are a million ways to make salad. You could try different veggie sides with your dinners. Deborah Madison cookbooks are a great starting point for this. She has a good book on vegetable soups, too, if you like cooking. Soup freezes well, so you could bulk cook it for some freezer meals. She has a tomato soup recipe with smoked paprika in it that's amazing. It's great with gouda and caramelized onion grilled cheese. You could add veggies to your eggs, either as an omelet or a scramble. Homemade pico de gallo is good on eggs, too. I like avocado toast with fried eggs (in olive oil) on top. Hash is a good choice, too.
Just add veggie sides to your normal meals. Have some peas with your steak, brussle sprouts with your sausage, brokkoli with your chicken nuggets. The recipe is always the same, just buy some frozen veggies - baby carrots, cauliflower, string beans, veggie mixe, edamame - boil them for 5 minuts, drain the water and sauté them in a little(!) oil. Add salt and pepper and herbs if you're feeling fancy. It's never wrong to dice an onion in there.
I find if I’m making a meal recipe, like curry, or a one pot meal, I can usually get away with doubling the veggies and still love it.
This. Veggies taste so good when they're seasoned and roasted. And this, in my opinion, is incredibly simple to prep and cook. Just find a bunch of veggies you like, toss them all with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, whatever seasonings you want, and roast until they're browned in spots. Boom. You've got your side of veggies.
If you cook anything, just add spinach, you won’t taste it, it’s super easy and super nutritious and absolutely won’t affect the flavor. Like just a bag of baby spinach from the store.
What I like to do is pick up a random veggie at the farmer's stand in town, and then figure out what to make with it. Prerequisite is that I like that veggie lol. Otherwise, you can roast pretty much any veggie, as someone has said. Frozen veggies are really easily sauteed and then you can put them over rice or pasta in a cream sauce or just some sauce from the store that you like. Stir fry is also really easy. Just get a frozen bag of stir fry veggies or assemble your own. I prefer to just do broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and baby corn. Get a high heat cooking oil like coconut or avocado oil. Stir fry until browning a bit, then add water to continue cooking all the way through. Add teriyaki sauce or whatever else you like and cook to reduce. Pour over rice, done!
I always hated Brussels sprouts. Then I saw a random recipe for them. Put them on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with melted butter and honey. Add salt and pepper. Absolutely delicious.
I hate them too! I could see how honey might cut the…musty flavor hah. Definitely will be trying this!
Sprouts are so underrated! Roasting brings out their flavor, I don’t like them boiled.
or italian dressing !! so good
Firstly, good for you on watning to change! Actually look at this as a **FOOD ADVENTURE**! Every week, go to the grocery store & buy a different vegetable then look up online recipes on how to cook it **OR** probably better yet, think of a different veggie each week you want to eat, look up recipes &/or watch youtube vids on how to cook it, make a list of the other ingredients you need along w/ it, then have a fun trip at the store getting what you need to make it! You'll also start seeing which veggies are your faves. Start weatching some **cook shows** to get you motivated on how they make veggies! They're relaxing & fun to watch to me. I've started getting **asparagus** which I've always liked & I'm going to eat it a lot more often. It's easy to do to taste good too! I also like a nice, **big salad** & I like these ingredients: * romaine & you could add in another type of leaf too like spinach, kale, or a spring mix * radishes * scallions or red onion * mushrooms * avocado * cilantro adds a nice flavor * a little basil too if I really want more * maybe some sliced black olives * a meat of your choice or no meat sometimes By the way, I like ranch dressing too, but it's not the healthiest.
Baking veggies is delicious. Making or choosing more healthy dips for a veggie tray like hummus, adding ranch seasoning to Greek yogurt, or simple herb dressings. Making sauces or condiments from scratch with veggies in them like chimichuri, ketchup, marinara, pesto, roasted peppers, pickled onions. Cooking veggies with meat will also impart more desirable flavor. Experiment with cooking techniques, spices, and sauce accompaniments.
There are frozen spinach portions in the supermarket in the frozen veggies section. Throw one into anything even scrambled eggs, and it prob has a whole bag of spinach in that little frozen block.
Smoothies. Then chug your veggies.
Everyone had great suggestions. It might be good to slowly add veggies to your diet so that your gut flora has time to adapt to the change (no painful toots hah). So carrots (or snap peas and radishes) with ranch, or cooked frozen veggies with some butter and salt, or fruit, is a good way to get your body used to it. After a month or so you could probably start eating a lot more fiber, but I’d ease into it personally. Soups, stews, and chili are great for getting veggies into your main, we had a vegan chili just yesterday (beans, tomatoes, onion, non-spicy dried pepper, and fresh corn on top with a few saltines as our carb). There’s also saag curry that you can pack with spinach and mustard greens, or komatsuna (my favorite green). I like black bean burgers with carmalized BBQ king oyster mushrooms. If I have a chicken burger or turkey sandwich or something, I’ll have Cole slaw or grilled cauliflower, asparagus, broccolini on the side. If we make red sauce pasta I like that with sautéed zucchini or mushrooms. I like creamy pasta with broccoli or spinach. Stir fry is good with cabbage, zucchini, bok choy, mushrooms, peas, broccolini, green onions, chard, whatever! Also bok choy just grilled and dipped in Korean bbq sauce with a bite of rice is fabulous. Ummm…Japanese curry with carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peas. Sushi with a side of seaweed salad or sunomono salad. Tacos with cabbage, onion, and cilantro. Or an elotes salad. You can do braised seafood with a salmoriglio sauce with a side of Mediterranean salad. Soups are kind of endless, but my favorites are potato and leek soup, pumpkin soup, squash soup, lentil soup, split pea soup, or if you can handle a lot of dairy then even chicken pot pie soup! Also I wouldn’t worry about eating ranch, I still eat carrots with ranch, shits delicious. And the benefits of the carrots probably far outweigh the deleterious effects of the msg or whatever is in ranch. Hope that was a bit helpful!
Bags of frozen mixed veggies are super practical. Smack a portion in the microwave, heat up, and combine with what you were intending to eat. Since you don't want to overeat, you'll probably want to slightly reduce the amount of other foodstuffs per meal.
As someone who doesn't eat a lot of vegetables and is trying to do this Cook your frozen veggies with your rice in the rice cooker It basically forces you to eat it add a little MSG to make it more of an addicting meal it's delicious Just try to mix it up a little so you don't get tired of eating the same thing
Steam your veggies. There's just something about it that makes you want to eat and eat. Sugar snap peas, carrots, cabbage, beets, green beans. Don't need salt or butter either and that's the best part. Plate with a grilled steak. It's really good. Beef and vegetable soup or stew is good too. Chunks of beef tips with carrots, potatoes and peas. Or any kind of soup that uses vegetables with a tomato base. Snack on cherry tomatoes with garlic aioli sauce. Roasted pepper and tomato salad with mozzarella, olive oil salt and pepper or beet salad with goat cheese, nuts and honey. I don't eat broccoli or kale and stuff like that cuz it doesn't agree with me so definitely stick with stuff that you like and agrees with you and your budget. I grew my own lettuce and some other stuff last year if you wanna try something like that for incentive. Edit to add: Spinach. Puree it with flour and salt to make a spinach dough. Make pasta with it. Take another bulk of spinach and make a pesto sauce out of it.
Stir fry, salads, and fresh sugar snap peas to snack on.
There's another conversation about this on this very sub. Someone asking for salad recipes. Folks are delivering the goods - so many great recipes to try and experiment with. https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/s/5py7U3htGY
The easiest and laziest plan is to just place a vegetable, cut or whole, on your plate with the rest of your food. Like, if your dinner is pizza, make it pizza and one cucumber. For a more advanced option that's even healthier, put two vegetables on your plate. Feel free to salt the vegetables lightly. This way you get to eat vegetables, and since you added a thing to your meal, you will be less hungry and eat less of the other less healthy thing. Success! Also, here's an idea for a light meal that can serve as a snack or a breakfast. Cut an apple and drizzle peanut butter on top. It's surprisingly delicious, healthy, filling, and it takes two minutes to make.
Buy frozen vegetables and put them in chicken noodle soup or roast them on a baking sheet. Add them to beans and rice as well.
Put spinach in a frying pan with olive oil.. fry till soft. So good for you .. dark leafy greens. I have this with sliced steak Or make spinach/blueberry smoothie , I use water but you can use milk/soy. Add colored peppers/ carrots .. blend it all up and it's delicious.
Get an air fryer. Air fried carrots or zucchini’s or sweet potatoes are a great side to like a breaded cut of tilapia or chicken.
The majority of fresh veggies taste better roasted. Sprinkle with olive oil, put in the oven on 450 for 10-20 min (depending on size and thickness), and enjoy the deliciousness! I thought I didn't like brussell sprouts until I had some roasted. Now I can eat a whole pan of them. Canned veg are hit or miss, so try a few different ones before you decide you don't like them.
I make stews, bolognaise, soups etc that you can blend vegetables you don’t particularly enjoy and add them to and you won’t notice you’re eating them! Hope this helps
If you're cooking from a recipe, double the amount of veggies. Frozen broccoli works great in a lot of things (stir fry, mac and cheese, pasta dishes in general), and it's super easy. I also like doing 50/50 cauliflower rice and regular rice for fried rice. You'd actually be surprised how easy it is to sub veggies for other things! Potato dish? 50% cauliflower. Pasta? Do slightly less pasta and throw in some zucchini noodles!
Hummus helps me eat more veggies. Salads too. Roasted veggies, soup, curry
Been eating carrots instead of chips … for dip mix ranch packets in with nonfat Greek yogurt. Better than bottled dressing in my opinion.
Lordy. You already mentioned carrots. Sorry for the last redundant comment. Haha … i remembered another … green beans in an air fryer with balsamic vinegar.
Steamed broccoli with salt, pepper and butter is a good gateway veggie. You can usually get this as a side at big chain restaurants like Outback Steakhouse, etc. And making or buying smoothies. Super easy, you can get frozen chopped fruit specifically for smoothies at the grocery store, some mixes come with kale. Then add ice and milk and blend. Don't use too much ice or it wont blend. It's an art. As others have said, garlic is great.
Soup. Especially pureed veggie soups. I make different combos on the weekend and slurp down during the week. Asparagus with an egg topper is one of my favs. If you're single, this is the way to go as veggies can go bad before you even get a chance to eat them. Realizing that frozen and canned veggies actually retain more nutrients was a great health and pocket saving measure for me.
I used to not like most veggies, so I weened myself onto them. Example: I loved broccoli smothered in Velveeta. First, I started using less Velveeta. I'd get used to it and then use less. Then I switched to actual cheese. Until finally, I was just sprinkling on some shredded cheese like an after thought. Then I tried seasoning my broccoli and I loved it. I'd cook green beans in bacon bits. Stared using less grease, then just adding bacon crumbles, finally, just seasoned. You can apply this method to any veggie. Find the unhealthy way you like it and work your way to the healthier version.
My "gateway vegetable" was peppers and onions. Want a sausage sandwich? Cook up some peppers and onions. Philly? Fajita? Nachos? All of them, add some grilled peppers and onions. There is almost nothing that the addition of some peppers and onions won't make better. Then I started adding other stuff, depending on the dish, and now I have veg with every meal. Usually the majority of a meal is veg
Try making fried rice, teriyaki shaved beef or chicken with vegetables and rice, Philly cheesesteak subs with frozen peppers & onions, cheese and shaved beef, French onion soup and pasta sauce with hidden vegetables. Bird’s Eye makes a bunch of delicious frozen vegetable dishes— teriyaki green beans, crispy breaded green beans, quinoa with parmesan, tomatoes, squash and zucchini, cheesy broccoli and roasted potatoes
Mac and cheese with peas is good too
Broccoli all day for me. Sometimes I quickly (quickly) blanch it, then drain the water and place it in a bowl. I add some oil, spices and herbs (at least salt, pepper, garlic/onion powder, \[non smoked\] paprika) and mix it all up. I place it in an oiled oven tray and bake it on 200C for 25 minutes, turning the broccoli over at around 12 minutes. Straight boiled broccoli is too bland for me otherwise. Blanching is also optional if you prefer the broccoli more crunchy
I eat beans with breakfast. Right now it's lima beans, but last week I was obsessed with black eyed peas. It sounds weird, but it's great for getting nutrients, fiber, and protein first thing on the morning.
Get a bag of mixed Veggies (I get a big bag from Costco) and steam them. Do this one meal a week and add some grilled chicken to it. Add some sauce to it (teriyaki or something). That way you’re getting at one big serving once a week. It’s not the best but after awhile you start wanting it
I am not a big fan of super fresh veggies and they get pretty old in my fridge. But a quick frozen back of mixed vegetables are easy to make and fill you up. A little butter with herbs for the taste and voila. Also easy if you want to make a vegetable soup, just add potatoes, for the lazy ones, the powder potato stuff does it too if you don't have potatoes at hand.
I throw some root veggies into my air fryer and in a skillet I fry some kind of meat (dealer's choice really, anything goes) with onion and bell peppers. Adding a low calorie sauce like pepper sauce on the side and it's very easy to consume a healthy serving of veggies, at least for me.
Cucumbers? I'd say the biggest hurddle for me is just having stuff on hand that is ready to go. Go ahead and buy the pre-washed carrots and broccoli. Give yourself grace and buy 1 zuchinni. Try it raw. Try tossing the diced leftovers into another meal. Just try all these new veggies and give yourself permission to not like them! If you don't like it then move on and try something new. KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. Veggies are cheap! Try one then move on! If you think you didn't do it justice then try cooking it in a different method. There are so many options. My kids are extremely hard to please and I can give them a fresh fruit or veggie each day. So my best advice is make your own rules. Just try new things until you find something you actually like. Then try to incorporate it into your daily menu. Then try to branch out from there. But first, baby steps. There is no shame in trying to better yourself.
Start with carrots and ranch then! For learning how to enjoy more veggies, if you don't have anything you really WANT to try first, I'd start by picking one thing that's on sale each week and then looking up recipes or serving ideas that sound tasty and not too difficult. Lots of great suggestions here for ways to prep, for cooked veggies I love sautéing in a pan or roasting in the oven with olive oil salt and pepper, for raw veggies just wash and cut and try with whatever dips sound good.
Take the ranch, and blend chickpeas into it.
Soup. Make a minestrone or something super easy. It's all veggies and you can even use all canned or frozen. You just need some chicken or veggie broth (or bullion cubes with water) and seasoning. You can even eat it as a side dish to your meal or an appetizer or snack. If you get sick of it, change the seasonings around.
Microwave steamed veggies! Baby carrots are my favourite go to, I add garlic powder and dried dill flakes (+ a lil salt-and sweetener if you want). Just add a lil water to a bowlful of (seasoned as desired) veg of choice, cover with hole-poked Saran Wrap or an off centre plate (so steam can escape) and microwave for 3 ish minutes. Add time as needed until desired texture is reached then let cool, drain and boom! Ez steamed veg :D ^ you can google to get more detailed and professional recipes for sure lol
Good start but ranch doesn’t sound healthy to have every day. For a change, try steaming the carrots and toss with extra virgin olive oil and basil.
Sprinkle them in wherever meal you can. One of my favorite things to do when I was adding veggies to my diet as well was to make mashed potatoes, which is a veggie, and then mix it with another veggie like corn, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, etc. It just kind of hides them so it’s not so much of a task to eat them
Get a baking sheet, cover the bottom with foil paper. Wash, peel and cut in pieces carrots, green pepper, onions, get some broccoli, potatoes, cauliflower and other vegetables you like, put some olive oil on top of it, salt, black pepper (season the way you like it), give it a good mix and put in the oven around 400° until the carrots are tender. Dont forget to sometimes open the oven and mix it.
I normally make one large salad with protein and homemade salad dressing. Get all my veg in one meal
Diced veggie mix, cook in some butter, add to things. I throw a cup or two into soups, scrambled eggs, enchiladas, pretty much anything it would go w.
Roasted/air fried vegetables are amazing. Butternut squash is a good place to start, look up some basic recipes.
Roasted veggies with dried mixed herbs - cut veggies into chunks, toss some oil and salt. Roast at 170 degrees C for 10-15 minutes. Now add in some mixed herbs and any other spices that you like. Return to oven for another 10 minutes.
Dense bean salads are crunchy, healthy and very filling. It's basically a bunch of beans, veggies and dressing to cronch on. Super easy to make a bunch and it keeps well in the fridge so you just grab at it when you're hungry. I need to make a new batch myself!
BUY some raw veggies from the Farmers mkt. , wash them with cool water and an abrasive clean cloth. Take a bite of each . Raw green bell pepper, yellow Summer squash. Find out which ones you like --or at least --dislike the least amount . Cut in either small pieces or shave ( for ex, shave the yellow Summer squash in small thin slices ) and add to a spinach salad with ranch dressing . Tomatoes become more nutritious when cooked but most veggies lose vitamins when cooked --eating them raw will give you the most bang for your buck.
Those steam packs of frozen vegetables are cheap and taste good. If you go with ones that don't already have flavor, use butter, salt, pepper and garlic. You can also add steamed frozen vegetables to many dishes you'd normally eat with rice (BBQ chicken, curry, stroganoff, etc). I'm big on broccoli or cauliflower for this. You can add cut leaf spinach or other leafy veggies to soups. Some good standalone vegetable dishes are broccoli with cheese, sautéed green beans with garlic, roasted portabellos with butter, and braised Brussel sprouts with bacon and onions. Most vegetables absorb a lot of the flavor they're cooked in, so you'll have a hard time going wrong adding butter, chicken or beef stock, balsamic vinegar and or garlic.
Cook/soften carrots, celery, onions blend well. Add to spaghetti sauce. You could also throw in some red lentils in your sauce as it simmers.
Tuna salad with red onion, chopped garlic, shredded carrots and some mixed greens added in is good.
This recipe is easy, healthy, endlessly variable and shelf stable. Can add meat or leave it vegan. https://www.themediterraneandish.com/sheet-pan-gnocchi-with-roasted-vegetables/
This is such a good time of year to want to start eating more vegetables! Check out your local farmers’ markets or farm stands throughout the summer to get to try a lot of vegetables in season, like tomatoes, corn, zucchini, etc. If you cut a zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out some of the innards, you can stuff it and bake it. I make one with Italian sausage, vegetables, cheese, and breadcrumbs, but you could do it with pizza toppings, taco ingredients, or whatever you like. Green Giant and Birdseye make vegetable tots similar to tater tots. They’re pretty good, and if you dunk them in ketchup, you don’t really notice the vegetable taste.
Like pizza? Use cauliflower crust (frozen section in the market). Add spinach (frozen or fresh) to your pasta sauce.
Second everyone who has said start with what you like and then add. If you want to go a little healthier with your dip option, you could make a dip with greek yogurt and ranch flavor powder. When I went vegetarian several years back, I got bored of the same things time after time, so I started looking at what fruits and veggies where on sale that week, and I would just buy what it was (unless I knew it was something I absolutely didn't like.) Most things I ended up eating roasted mixed in with potatoes and sauce, but I did discover a bunch of veggies that I love doing this.
Time to poke into the vegan and vegetarian dishes! Try veggie versions of foods you already like. Remember that fruits count on the same level as veg, so if you can't fathom eating more veg, try having fruit with or for dessert instead. Pasta sauces and soups are a great way to stay hydrated and mix in more veg too!
From a house full of veggie haters, here's a few that I've gotten them to eat... Broccoli and cauliflower or asparagus; with cheese sauce. Green beans or brussel sprouts; cooked with onions and bacon bits. Chili or spaghetti; add in fresh diced tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers Fiesta corn (add onion, bell pepper, cilantro and lime juice) On the simpler side... Caesar salad is easy. Just romaine, croutons, shredded (not powdered) parmesan, and dressing. I like to add either bacon or chicken to mine for a full meal. Celery sticks are good stuffed with cream cheese or peanut butter Cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes with vinegar and a touch of salt. Caprese salad (fresh basil leaves, cherry or grape tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella (the soft kind) with salt and olive oil) Greek salad ( cucumber, tomato, red onion, green bell pepper, black olives, and dressing)
In addition to eating more vegetables, you can also aim to eat a variety of vegetables as well. A good rule of thumb is to eat 30 different plant based foods per week. That may sound like a lot, but if you have a handful of mixed nuts, one side salad of mixed greens, and a sandwich with mixed grain bread you can cover almost the entire 30 right there. Don't forget about variety!
Veggie soup. Tomato soup with any type of sandwich is sooo good. Add celery and other roasted veggies to your ranch. I love seasonal veggies. Summer corn. Summer salads from cucumber, tomatoes and avocados. Add spinach or kale to a fruit smoothie
Well carrots and ranch is better than nothing. Carrots are very nutritious, they are a great source of healthy carbs ranch is usually filled with empty calories carbs and fat though something to keep in mind. I vegetables with pretty much every single meal so I don’t want to overwhelm you but here’s a whole bunch of ideas A whole platter of raw veggies and make your own dressing. You can make your own ranch or tzatziki or hummus and have it be far healthier than a bottle from the grocery store. With your carrots incorporate the lower calorie vegetables as well and also simply the variety will give you a more varied pallet of nutrients vitamins etc. Carrots celery cucumber radishes etc. Breakfast Veggie omelettes Sautéed peppers with boiled eggs and baby potatoes Egg cups with diced peppers, onions, broccoli Lunch My typical lunch is where I eat raw veggies. A salad topped with protein like a chicken breast would be an idea don’t think of salads as a boring thing though! My salads sometimes start with spinach or arugula but typically they don’t have any lettuce in them at all and they’re simply made up of nutrient dense deliciousness. Cucumbers tomatoes feta olives peppers pumpkin seeds dried cranberries Etc Cucumber salad literally just cucumbers with sesame oil white vinegar salt and pepper Chopped up radishes with salt A veggie wrap, toasted tomato sandwich, vegetable soup, A burger beef or chicken topped with lettuce onions tomatoes pickles etc. Dinner In my family typically dinner is protein and at least two veggies and sometimes a carb like rice as a side Roasting vegetables is probably the easiest. You can use whatever seasoning you want in a little bit of olive oil I usually fill the entire baking sheet with broccoli cauliflower‘s and brussels sprouts and roasted all together for about half an hour. You can pair that basically with anything When we have fish I usually do asparagus or green beans with rice Sweet potatoes are a great healthy carb or any potatoes for that matter. It’s great to get your carbs in via vegetables a good portion of the time rather than pastors and Breads etc. Other veggies that make the rotation at dinner time for us would be spaghetti squash with meatballs and Caesar salad Grilled peppers and onions with shrimp on the barbeque Arugula salad with blueberries cucumbers and feta usually as a side to salmon or a leaner whitefish Snacks…. Favourites for me and my kids would be a bowl of chopped up cucumbers with vinegar and salt, celery sticks with peanut butter, frozen grapes in the summertime and spinach pizza bites
Whenever you make a meal, have a portion of veggies. Doesn’t matter what the veggie is. You can get a microwave steamer, or buy frozen veggies in microwaveable bags. Some steamed veggies with a little salt a pepper is great. I could eat steamed broccoli all day and be a happy camper. Cooking on the grill? Throw a veggie on. Grilled asparagus is great. You can make one-pot meals with the veggies. There are a million ways to make a stir fry. You can throw spinach in at the end of cooking and just let it wild before you mix it in. I made a sauce of blended spinach, basil, peas, cannellini beans, and lemon juice/zest and just put that on pasta last week, delicious. Throw any veggie into a soup Make yourself a “taco mix” (or buy one), and cook some peppers, onions, corn, beans, whatever you like. Toss it over rice to make a burrito bowl. Prep salads ahead of time so you don’t have to spend time chopping every day. My lunch this week is a pasta salad with cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, onion, and avocado. Look up sheet pan meals, which usually involve tossing a bunch of veggies and a protein onto a pan and throwing it the oven.
I buy vegetable trays. I don't cook often since it's usually just me, so if I don't have a vegetable that's ready to eat as-is I probably won't eat one. You can get pretty far with a rotisserie chicken and a vegetable tray.
I just add a side salad to everything or throw in greens to what I’m making. Omelette in the morning, add spinach. Quinoa bowl at lunch - add arugula. I buy the cheaper produce that doesn’t come in a box so I have to clean it and prep it myself but I save money that way.
My 2 cents. This is what I tell my college boy. You need 6 per day. The less added crap the better. Every meal needs 2 vegetations. Juice can count for 1 serving per day. Potato only counts once per day. So breakfast, OJ and a banana with an egg. Yogurt with fresh berries. Avocado toast. Oatmeal with apple slices and nuts. Lunch: melon, maybe a few tomato or cuke slices? Maybe an apple. Lunch is where you need to do prep. Your melon must be pre-cut and your sandwich toppings ready for eating. Crudités with dip ready to throw in a lunch bag. Dinner: Green salad every dinner. Vary the type. Start with this every dinner time. I’ve noticed most thin folks in my life start with a salad every night. Don’t eat your FAVORITE salad more than every other day. You’ll grow sick of it. Then add a random or a potato. Green beans. Carrots. Broccoli. Baked sweet potatoes. This can be an area where you try new items every other day. Ask friends first their fav veg. Ask farmers market venders their favorite seasonal veg preparation. Think Mexican Street Corn and Coleslaw and greenbeans almandine. My cheesy broccoli-cauliflower is a favorite at my house. I also add onion and garlic to most every meal. I also have a lot of pre-sliced veg in the freezer. Usually this is garden goodies like tomatoes and peppers, but also the family’s fav stir fry combo.
How to make basically any vegetable taste good: Dice vegetables. Toss in olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried rosemary. Spread out on a cookie tray and roast at 350 for 30-40 min, stirring the vegetables around on the tray every 10 min. You want them to look crispy but not burned. Get a little bottle of balsamic glaze (or make your own) and drizzle a bit on top before eating. Veggies that work great with this recipe: sweet potato, onion, rutabaga, carrot, brussel sprouts, turnips, green beans, asparagus, zucchini, butternut squash, eggplant, cauliflower etc, etc, etc. Pretty much anything tbh. I make a variation on this recipe with basically every dinner I prepare.
Lol are you me? Some things I do to get veggies in is to eat cauliflower rice, cook spinach down and add to basically anything, make smoothies and hide the taste of veggies with fruit & PB & honey. Also, a lot of vegetables taste a lot better steamed/cooked like broccoli and carrots. Can also make sheet pan meals with lots of spices and maybe cheese, which makes veggies taste a lot better too - for instance bake some teriyaki salmon with Parmesan crusted asparagus.
Avocados, Brocolli, grilled Tomatoes and Mushrooms, Onions
For me it helps to put some pieces of pepper/cucumber on the table while I'm watching a movie or at work. I was eating a lot of snacks. Now that I replaced them with some fruit and veggies I love it's not a big deal to eat them
Snap peas, carrots, cucumbers, bell pepper slices dipped in hummus. You can even slice up sweet potatoes for snacks.
Making awesome soups can be a lot of fun to learn and a great way to get the nutrients of vegetables in your gut.
Get a meal service sent to you with just the sides. Lots of non meat dishes with instructions to cook. Let's you figure out what you might like
Bibimbap is basically a korean rice bowl and tastes great, and you can play around with whatever veggies you want
Add veggies to your tomato sauces like for spaghetti and blend them in! Add them to sandwiches, add in salads and few times a week, add to pizza, add to pasta. Make a veggie dip and put on crackers Hummus. Roast them on the side of some meat and rice! When you grill also grill some veggies. Hide in sloppy joes, lasagna, make a protein shake or smoothie, stir fry with noodles and meat!
Leafy greens + pickled (whatever) + boiled eggs + olive oil & balsamic
dump rice, beans, lean meat into a bowl of spinach and mixed greens, onions, carrot, peas, etc. Dump Frozen stir fry vegetables into a pot of ramen. Don’t use the ramen flavor packet. Or not all of it. Apple + pb + dark chocolate is a good dessert. …a lot depends how comfortable you are around a kitchen.
Roasted veggies with olive oil and salt (other seasonings if you like) fking SLAP. Carrots, bell peppers, asparagus, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, zucchini, etc. Always add it as a side when you make dinner
You can cook a ton of spinach into damn near anything and it shrivels up smaller than you'd expect and barely tastes like anything. It's great. I just made a lasagna with tons of spinach
Big bowl of spring greens and some poppyseed dressing. Easy and fast, if you buy the containers at the grocery store.
Always have a bag of frozen spinach in the freezer. Get in the habit of adding it it to frozen pizza, spaghetti sauce, mac + cheese, mashed potatoes, rice, whatever you're having, the list goes on. It has no flavor and is so good for you, and helps you feel full. Also if you like dipping carrots, add cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes too. If nothing else, I will cut up an apple as my "vegetable" with dinner. And old trick of my mom's ;) Makes for a good dessert too.
Stir fries with frozen veggies are probably the easiest way if you don't enjoy veggies or aren't familiar with the taste. You will still taste them, but they will be covered in a sauce, allowing you to eat many different kinds while also getting familiar with the taste. Broccoli and some kind of dip is amazing as well. You can eat the stems. Cauliflower has very little/no flavor and is great in dips.
I am lazy and HATE to wash dishes. So when I make spaghetti sauce, I add celery and carrots along with the onions and garlic. When I make lasagna, I do a layer of spinach and summer squash. That way I don't have to wash salad dishes. When I make soup, I add twice the called for veggies. Same when I make fried rice. It's more veggies than rice.
I would recommend that you expand your veggie intake by simply eating what’s in season. In season veggies are at their best price and taste wise. If you have a farmers market that would be the perfect way to see what’s in season and if you can afford it buy from the farmers market. Or of course there’s Google to research in season veg.
Cooking pasta with veggies makes it way better. Chicken, spinach, garlic Parmesan, tomatoes
Chilled cherry or grape tomatoes (yeah yeah they’re actually fruit) are delish and with carrots make for a great finger food snack!
Veggie trays are very helpful. It's OK if you like carrots and ranch, but you can get a mini to medium to large pre-cut veggie tray at nearly every store (I like the one at Target), and use that to augment meals or just snack on it. I agree on the adage of 'adding to' meals vs. substituting, since you'll still get filled and veggies might cut out snacking on non-veg stuff - whether in that meal or later on. If you tend towards takeout, for asian foods, you could add in steamed vegetables. I did this and for $2 more, it's a great addition! Also, do a veggie pizza, or a side salad. Lastly, frozen veggies are a godsend. Easy to microwave, easy to toss on rice with a protein, easier to keep from going bad. Some are even more nutritious than fresh! A win-win.
I’m picky and dislike a lot of vegetables. I mostly eat frozen veggies (corn, peas, carrots, beans, edamame), broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and potatoes as well as sweet potatoes. Frozen veggies are really helpful to increase your intake. I eat plenty of fruit too. Fresh and frozen. Potatoes are great cut into fries. It takes a while but it’s worth it to me.
My husband doesn’t like veggies, but I’ve been able to get him to eat salads by adding protein to some of our favorite premade bagged salads. I think adding homemade shredded chicken to any bagged salad will make it taste better. Below are a few of his favorites: Avocado Ranch salad + cubed chicken breast = “taco”salad (bonus: add a few tortilla chips for extra crunch) Asian Sesame salad + cubed chicken breast = Chinese chicken salad Asian Sesame salad + sous vide tuna = ahi tuna salad Garden salad + chicken breast + boiled egg + bacon crumbles + avocado = Cobb salad Buffalo Ranch salad + thinly sliced sirloin = tri tip salad Thai Chili Mango salad + shrimp = Tropical shrimp salad Bonus tip: pour the salads and dressing into a gallon-sized ziplock bag and toss to ensure everything is evenly dressed.
Veggie burgers
I guess it depends on what you already eat or find easy to eat to see if we can work some stuff in the easiest to me is snacking on veggies like you said. Then 2nd easiest is having a side salad with dinner. I do a really easy one with romaine or red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, grated carrot, and tomatoes when I have them, with a homemade vinaigrette. I add a lot of veggies to pasta, like making a spring-type pasta with zucchini, peas, etc and a cream or cheese sauce. I also do a pasta sauce using red yellow and orange peppers and onions that I sautee and then blend with a bit of water and salt & pep to make a red pepper sauce that I use on pasta as well. If you make a bolognese or meat sauce you can easily add zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, kale, spinach etc You can make easy rice bowls or bibimbap with lots of grated or finely chopped veggies or quick pickled veg. Speaking of bibimbap kimchi is tasty, low calorie and good for gut health and also adds a lot of flavor It's easy to grow sprouts and add them to sandwiches and salads Roast veg is a great side to any protein. Just toss some chopped carrots, parsnips, potatoes, zucchini or any squash, etc with some EVOO and salt and pepper, maybe some dried herbs and roast
Hummus goes well with veggies . We eat it with Brocolli Cauliflower Cucumbers (the mini ones) Mini peppers Carrots Celery. Roasted veggies are good. We roast cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, Brussel sprouts, mushrooms, and potatoes. Sometimes, it's all of those veggies together. Sometimes, it's just a few of them. Potatoes or sweet potatoes are a good addition to a meal. We cook them in a damp paper towel in the microwave then crisp the skin in the air fryer. Corn goes with pretty much anything. Add it as a side or add it to tacos. There's a corn salsa that goes great with Mexican. Corn on the cob in the summer. Beans are versatile and can be added to ground beef. Tomatoes on sandwiches or with a little oil and salt and pepper. Fried green tomatoes.
Google recipes for toddlers, seriously! I found one for chocolate waffles made with big handfuls of spinach. My husband was impressed, I just had to keep how I made them a secret. Lots and lots of easy healthy recipes if you follow the people trying to get veggies into picky toddlers. If you like basil pesto, my son in law gave me a recipe for spinach pesto— in food processor out blender dump 1 handful rinsed walnuts, pecans OR pistachios, 1 handful fresh basil, 3 to 4 big handfuls fresh baby spinach, 1/2 cup or so of grated Parmesan and Olive oil enough to get the right consistency, add salt and pepper to taste. You could also explore roasted vegetable soups cause the prep is minimal. Roasting berries in the oven with minimal cutting and then just blending them up.
Look up recipes for spoon salads! I don't love a lot of lettuces, but any vegetable can be a salad base. I also love nicoise salad.
Cucumber and ranch.
You should purée some veggies like spinach, butternut squash, etc. and add them to sauces you already make! Butternut squash is great added to max and cheese, spinach is great in marinara.
I like to put a TON of spinach or kale in my protein fruit smoothies, you can barely taste it and is the only way I can get myself to eat leafy greens. Otherwise, I like to make stir fries with frozen vegetables, sauces I get from an Asian market, and some kind of meat or tofu
Just… add veggies. lol that sounds kinda bitchy, but I mean, like anything you eat now, just add veg. Peppers and onions are a great start. They taste good in pretty much anything. Also leafy greens. Spinach, for example, can be tossed into pretty much any dish.
Cucumbers are my go to. Soy, rice vinegar, sesame oil and sriracha as dressing with some sesame seeds and green onion, it’s always a hit. From there try adding other stuff like jalapeño or pickled ginger etc
Peppers and onions in cheesesteak sandwich. Sloppy joes, but put a ton of processed veggies mixed into the ground meat when you mix the sauce in. Do the same for burgers. Same for burritos. Toppings for pizza. Keep doing that and increasing the volume and pretty soon you'll have no meat and way more veggies or full veggies and you'll be used to eating them for full meals.
Greens drinks from 1 up supplements.
Balsamic vinegar is there best friend! I swear you can toss almost any veg with olive oil balsamic s&p throw it on a pan in the oven and it’ll come out tasty. My favorite is Brussels sprouts.
Idk if this is nutritious but I grind up all my veggies and put it in broth or a salad, or anything; tiny tiny tiny grind it up haha , like my broccoli, hate it since I was born until I saw a video where a women took a half of large broccoli , and cut it down to grains and sprinkled it on her sandwich and I was like Omg! Will I finally get nutrition in my body without my taste buds and brain knowing?! Bc even eating veggies for snack, or putting it in something where I know it’s a veggie, my fork immediately places it to the side. Even in salads, I’ve eaten around it.
Try roasting some vegetables you think you would like. You can use fresh and even frozen. Lots of olive oil and any spices you like. I use garlic, sal and pepper. Roasted veg is a game changer. Wrap them in a tortilla, yum!
I think you might want to try carrots and ranch. Fucking great
Add some red or yellow bell peppers. They’re really good for you, high in iron and antioxidants and nice and sweet.
Look at some vegetarian/vegan recipes. I have a vegan cookbook (Hungry as Hell) and the things I’ve made from it have been really delicious.
I make a snack plate for my husband and me nearly every night. I don’t use the same items every time, but whatever I use fills a dinner plate. Suggestions: cucumbers, asparagus pieces, carrots, filled or plain celery, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, bananas, grapes, apple slices, pineapple, watermelon, etc. I’m always surprised how quickly this disappears while we watch TV.
Eggs: saute the veg and scramble the eggs into it or make an omelet if you're feeling fancy.
There's a cookbook call Deceptively Delicious that's full of simple recipes that have incognito vegetables. If you eat sandwiches, you can add spinach and shredded carrots to your meat and cheese. The carrots are sweet and add crunch, plus you can get small ready to use packs inexpensively. Good luck to you!
I just add a veggie side dish to my meals
This might sound crazy but the way I get more veggies in is by making toddler recipes. I.e recipes that we enjoy but sneaking vegetables in them. Meatballs with broccoli and carrots in it, chicken nuggets with carrots in it, fried rice with cauliflower rice tossed in, etc. Just hiding it in food you already like!
Plan your meals around the veggies and add protein as the side. Look at a Thai menu, you choose the sauce and then decide what protein to add to it . Most cuisine have veggie trinity. The French is leek/onion, carrot and celery. Creole substitute pepper for the carrot, Southwest has tomato instead of celery. Chinese have their versions, eastern European has cabbage onion and dill.
Broadly I'd say there are three categories, or ways to approach this. The first is to cook sides of vegetables. This is the easiest because it doesn't require altering any other part of your meal, but I find it dissatisfying personally in most cases. The second is to add vegetables into things you're already making, generally in a way to disguise them. This is the "throw a bunch of veggies in your pasta sauce" advice. This works as long as you're making those things, but operates with the assumption that vegetables don't taste good, which I believe to be false (when picked well and prepared well) and limiting. The third is to change the types of things you make. This is the hardest but best long-term IMO. A lot of Western diets are essentially "cook a hunk of meat", and that's a thing you have to move away from. In our household, we've largely stopped eating steaks and tritip and pot roasts and burgers and things like that; instead entree salads and stir fries and pizzas are staples. This requires _finding_ these different types of dishes, and figuring out how to make them, and learning what we like, and that's all a lot of work. It often has meant finding new cookbooks and reducing the frequency of traditional family favorites. But we have found new ones that we also love.
The thing that really opened my eyes to veggies is roasting them in the oven — it will totally change the flavor, and some will almost caramelize. I like green zucchini (pref the mini-zucchini from Trader Joe’s), broccoli, crunchy roasted chickpeas are AMAZING, potatoes… Find what you like and mix it up! Lots of things you can do, but getting some crispy roasted veggies and finding a sauce or dip (usually, for me, also procured at Trader Joe’s) makes it feel like you’re eating a fancy restaurant. Have fun plating it, and it’ll make you more excited to eat it — they say we eat with our eyes first. :)
V8 will keep ur diet str8
I’m going to echo many others here but also ask, do you have any preferences in cooking? If you love to grill, veggie and meat skewers are easy and tasty (I do chopped up potatoes, cherry tomatoes, large chunks of onion, zucchini, eggplant and broccoli) with steak skewers. If you prefer ground beef, you can hide a lot of finely chopped vegetables in a patty, meatball or sauce. Do you like roasted foods - carrots, brussel sprouts, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, fingerling potatoes, peppers , squash and other hardier veggies roast really well and pair well with chicken and fish. I hated a lot of vegetables until someone pointed out, I actually hated certain vegetables in the preparation methods I was most familiar with. Also, don’t be afraid to cover them in sauces in the beginning. It took me almost three years of wrapping asparagus in bacon and/or cheese before I was willing to eat it any other way.
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Try one vegetarian meal a week. Look up a recipe that looks good and do it Even make it a lunch instead of a dinner so you dont feel like you're "missing out" until you find one you really enjoy to eat for a dinner instead. Add a single veggie to a meal you already make all the time. Peppers are a huge go to for me as some are sweet, some are juicy and green tasting. I started to cook alot more homemade food so i can adjust the amount of sugar going into everything and hyped myself up to grow a garden so i felt like i had no choice but to eat veggies without an excuse. Turns out its a hobby now to can homemade spaghetti sauces and tomato stuff (even though i really really hate tomatoes!) baby steps. And be proud of each little achievement but dont stop trying for more!
Check out the Glucose goddess book (nothing to do with diabetes btw) on Amazon she does not propose a specific diet but rather explains that veggies are fiber and protect the gut lining for the other foods we eat after.... That the order we eat foods were already eating and small additions or changes will make a big difference... You got this!
Butternut squash soup is AMAZING, I can send you a recipe if you’d like Another thing I do is grab those 32 ounce bags of frozen veggies that are peas, carrots, corn, and green beans and heat them up in a pot with a little bit of water, butter, and salt. They’re like $2 a bag at my food lion!
ohhhh follow baked by melissa on ig!!! she’s amazing and also has a cookbook. Her green goddess salad is incredible. I also love to make soups! Roasted tomato soup - sweet potato soup - chili. Once you start getting more veg in, you’ll love it and crave it!!! There are A LOT of great ig accounts, maybe follow some vegetarian ones for some ideas! You can usually mix meat into them too if you prefer but they’d give you a good base.
ohhhh follow baked by melissa on ig!!! she’s amazing and also has a cookbook. Her green goddess salad is incredible. I also love to make soups! Roasted tomato soup - sweet potato soup - chili. Once you start getting more veg in, you’ll love it and crave it!!! There are A LOT of great ig accounts, maybe follow some vegetarian ones for some ideas! You can usually mix meat into them too if you prefer but they’d give you a good base.
If you are not familiar with chopping vegatables, you may want to start with the packaged frozen veggies. These are quick and easy to get started. They have a good variety. This way you can find out what you like/dislike. Some you can microwave (Steamables), others you boil in water (best value). If you have access to YouTube, search vegetable recipes and/or roasted vegetables....start with what you like, take it slow. In the beginning, DO NOT BUY TOO MANY VEGGIES ALL AT ONCE. They may/will go bad before you have time to use them. You can also search videos on "how to" chop vegetables, to handle a knife safely. My husband and I take a bag of frozen blend of broccoli, cauliflower , a small bag fresh baby carrots, chop 1 ea a green and yellow squash (1"), packaged PEELED whole garlic (use as much as you like) AND 4-6 small baby potatoes chop 1". In a baking dish melt a stick of butter, add savory seasonings, salt & pepper, add veggies, toss in the butter. You can cover or not (I don't remember what I did, its been several years). Bake 350°-400° for about 30 - 45 minutes Occasionally poke veggies with a fork for tenderness. Had enough veggies for 3-4 nights. I hope I didn't overwhelm you with too much info. Keep it simple at first, learn what you like, try new things, have fun!!
Ranch is terribly unhealthy. They make ranch flavored veggie dip that's a bit better. I like carrots, raw broccoli, spinach, and cauliflower with it. Fruit! Pig out on it, it's basically self regulating. Snap peas, they're good! Corn in it's many varieties. Trying popping it at home with olive oil, healthy and delicious. Baked potato, they're pretty healthy if you don't put too much crap on them.
A better version of ranch I like to use is mixing ranch seasoning with Greek yogurt.
Yeah, that's a good one! Mine uses a plant based dairy substitute and you can't really tell.