The Professional Mom Project

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7 Sneaky Ways to Add More Vegetables to Your Day

Eating vegetables should be an important part of every person’s day. Veggies include nutrients, fiber and are naturally low in fat and calories. Most people don’t eat nearly enough…

Canada’s food guide suggests that veggies should take up half your plate with whole grains taking up one quarter and meat/meat alternatives completing the picture. Eating more vegetables can help protect you from some diseases and maintain a healthy body weight.

Knowing how important it is to eat veggies, how do we add more vegetables to our plates?

Searching for ways to include more veggies in your day? Try these 7 Sneaky ways to add more vegetables to your day from The Professional Mom Project

 

7 Sneaky Ways to Add More Vegetables to Your Day

7 sneaky ways to add veggies to your day Click To Tweet

Add spinach to your smoothie

This is one of my favourite ways to add vegetables to my morning. By putting spinach or kale into my smoothie I get an extra burst of vitamins, fiber and nutrients but don’t taste a thing. I usually add about a cup of leafy greens to my smoothie and then add in my fruit, nut milk etc.

This sneaky method even gets my very picky 5 year old to eat his greens.

Start your dinner with a salad

No matter what type of meal we’re having, E and I always start with a salad. It’s usually pretty simple with romaine lettuce or spinach (better for you than iceberg), tomatoes, carrots, peppers and cucumbers. Easy to throw in a bowl and eat. Adding these definitely increases our veggie intake for the day.

Choose a new veggie every week at the grocery store

I really enjoy trying new foods including new vegetables. I challenge you to try a new veggie each week. If you’re not sure how to make it, search Pinterest for ideas. Most vegetables are great roasted in the oven with some olive oil, herbs and a bit of salt. I’ve made root vegetables, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and many other types of vegetables using this simple method.

Make sure you have at least one veggie on your plate at each meal

This is one that I’m working on for sure. At dinner I always add an extra veggie to our plates but lunch is a challenge. I’ve been trying to make more chopped veggie salads for lunch or bringing sliced peppers, cucumbers and peppers in a baggie as a snack.

Cut up your veggies when you first buy them

This tip goes with the tip above. I find that it’s much easier to eat more vegetables if I chop them up when I first bring them home. Then I can just pull out the Tupperware with veggies inside, put some in a Ziplock baggie and take them to work.

Put veggies in new places

This is where your creativity comes into play. Try adding more vegetables in interesting places. I’ve added all kinds of different veggies to my mac and cheese – broccoli, roasted squash, peas and cauliflower to name a few. You can try adding pureed squash or carrots to the egg mixture when making french toast and experiment by adding veggies to baked goods.

If you’re making something like tomato sauce, soup or chili include some additional veggies. You’ll be adding nutrients and healthy benefits and no one will even notice…

Have one meal per week that is vegetable based

One day per week, put veggies in the spotlight. Instead of having steak, chicken or fish, try a vegetable stir fry, a vegetarian pasta with loads of veggies or try having big salad for dinner.

I hope these tips make incorporating more vegetables into your life easier. I’d love to hear how you include veggies in your day!

PMP

Here are some great healthy recipes to try:

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Comments

  3. You are so right, veggies need to be the main part of the dish. Coming from a family that used to serve fresh cucumbers ad tomatoes with every meal….I totaly get this and love it!

    Thanks so much for joining the DI & DI Link party.

    Reply

  8. Some great tips! We always add either spinach or kale to morning smoothies. Our kids actually think that all smoothies are green no matter what they have in them! #KCACOLS

    Reply

  11. We need to eat more salads!!! Adding greens to our juices is like the number one way we get our greens, because you really can’t notice them at all. Even my toddler drinks a handful or two of spinach every day! Thanks for sharing <3 #KCACOLS

    Reply

  15. I love the roasting veggies idea. My family and I have also gotten into grilling the veggies. So yummy! I’m actually due to juice some veggies right now. Need to get the ginger! Great article!

    Reply

  18. I really love the idea for trying something new each week, also the one on chopping them up right away, I think I’ll give those a try for sure 😀 #SmallVictoriesSundaylinkup

    Reply

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