Easy Ways to Add Veggies to Your Diet
(This post contains affiliate links.)
Unless you’re on a crazy diet, pretty much everyone agrees that vegetables are an important part of your diet.
Vegetables are full of nutrients, lighter on calories, fats, sugars and carbohydrates (yeah, everything that tastes good!) and you NEED them!
As I made it my goal to eat more veggies, we’ve been looking at ways to add more into our diet. Easy ways.
The first thing I did was look up a list of vegetables. (Okay, some of them are technically fruits, but generally get included as vegetables and are still good for you!) And there are so many more, but this gave me a good start on things to focus on.
- Artichokes
- Asparagus
- Avocado
- Bell Pepper
- Broccoli
- Carrot
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Cucumber
- Eggplant
- Green (Snap) Beans
- Green Cabbage
- Green Onion
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Mushrooms
- Okra
- Onion
- Parsnip
- Peas
- Potato
- Radish
- Spinach
- Squash
- Sweet Corn
- Sweet Potato
- Tomato
It’s not that I don’t like at least some of these…but I really don’t care for a lot of them! Here are the sneaky ways I’ve been tricking myself (and my family) into consuming more of them.
Add Just a Little
For breakfast most mornings, we’ve been making scrambled eggs with spinach. And then adding some salsa garnish to eat them. I started by just putting a couple leaves of spinach in and have worked up to a somewhat decent amount.
Keep the Favorites around as Snacks
I love tomatoes. I don’t have to gag those down. In fact, they’re almost a treat. So we keep plenty of them around, including the grape/cherry variety for quick snacks throughout the day. My husband loves eating bell peppers like apples, so those often make it in our fruit bowl.
Mix it Up
Salads are a go around here. I prefer romaine, my husband prefers iceberg. While both are a vegetable, there are other greens that pack a bigger nutritional punch. So we’ve been mixing them in. I can’t eat a straight spinach or kale salad, but mix it with romaine or iceberg and I’m in.
Take Turns
I’m responsible for dinner Monday/Wednesday/Friday, my husband is on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. We have different tastes in vegetables and tend to use different ones. Actually we have very different tastes in food, period. Our rule is that you have to at least TRY whatever the other makes, and make a good faith effort to eat. But midnight snacks are allowed later. It does, however, force us to try the vegetable ideas that the other had, and sometimes they’re pretty good! And while the kids don’t get a turn (yet), I always keep in mind that green beans are a hit with them and likely to go over well.
Give the Produce a Prominent Spot
I used to buy produce and put it in the crisper drawer in the refrigerator and forget about it. Then I’d throw it away when I opened the drawer to find a moldy mess. Now, our produce is either on the counter/in the fruit bowl or it’s front and center in the fridge. So when I go looking for food ideas, the vegetables are the first thing I see. It makes me want to use them before they go bad and I plan meals around the produce I encountered.
Try New Recipes
There are literally thousands of recipes out there to try vegetables in a different way. Sometimes I try it and it’s awful! Sometimes, though, I try them and it’s awesome and becomes a regular part of our repertoire.
