How to add more veggies to your diet: 6 easy & delicious ways!

You want to know how to add more veggies to your diet! These fast and simple ways will make you the leader of the pack.

Imagine sitting around a table with a big spread of food and 9 of your friends and relatives. You enjoy the chatter and delicious aromas. Everyone is smiling.

Of the 10 of you, who’s eating their veggies?

According to the CDC, only 1 in 10 adults eats the recommended 2 – 3 cup of vegetables daily. Are you that 1? Or part of the other 9?

Photo credit: Lee Myungseong

Eat more vegetables!

“Eat more vegetables” is some of the most common advice I give because vegetables are practically magical. Most are low-calorie, low-carb, and high nutrition. They’re loaded with health-protective nutrients and phytonutrients. You get:

• appetite control – filling food for few calories
• dietary fiber
• potassium
• magnesium
• folate
• vitamins A, C and K
• anti-inflammatory compounds
• antioxidants
• cancer fighters
• boosters of insulin sensitivity
• so much more!

Here’s how to add more veggies to your diet

Tip #1: Add vegetables to the foods you already eat

• Stuff a sandwich: Stuff it like it’s a salad between two slices of bread! Add tomato, spinach, onions, cucumber, bell pepper, even jarred artichoke hearts and leftover roasted vegetables. Include the meats and cheeses, but smother them with veggies.
• Pasta salad or potato salad: Dilute your favorite starchy foods with non-starchy vegetables like broccoli florets, baby spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes, red onions, carrots and more. Check out Veggie-Stuffed Potato Salad and Bean and Barley Salad.

This recipe is found in Prediabetes: A Complete Guide

• Soup: Add fresh, frozen or canned veggies to the pot. I love to add fresh spinach in the last minutes of cooking.
• Eggs: Try a veggie omelet. Even simpler, pour your favorite salsa over scrambled eggs.
• Casseroles: Add diced cauliflower, broccoli or tomatoes to lasagna or mac and cheese. Here’s one way I veggie-up my macaroni and cheese.
  

  Healthy Macaroni and Cheese: This one is Greek inspired.

• Spaghetti sauce: Saute onions and mushrooms with your browned meat. Simmer zucchini, eggplant or green beans along with your sauce. My kids grew up eating my veggie-packed spaghetti sauce, so they were confused when they had something planer when they ate with friends.
• Meatballs or meatloaf: Add shredded carrots or summer squash to ground meat before shaping.

Gazpacho with shrimp

So fast to make. So delicious to eat. Easy Chickpea Bowl.

Tip #3: Double up on whatever you have on hand

• Make twice as much.
• Eat twice as much.

These Orange-Scented Roasted Carrots and Parsnips are oh my my delicious!

Tip #5: Cook ahead