Options
A Question About Vegetables
2020 was a good year, nutritionally speaking, for me. The one area I continue to struggle with is getting in five servings of vegetables daily. Raw vegetables don't do it for me, so I am exploring more ways to add vegetables in ways that are tasty, but don't load up with saturated fats from sauces and dressings. Any ideas?
Comments
I love most vegetables roasted. I add a bit of oil and then either salt and pepper, or mix it up with some spices. I eat a lot of brussels sprouts and broccoli with garlic (staple at our house), sometimes parmesan and fennel and/or lemon juice. I like cinnamon and cumin on squash and sweet potatoes. Beets are next level good when they are roasted too!
Karen Stark
cronometer.com
As always, any and all postings here are covered by our T&Cs:
https://forums.cronometer.com/discussion/27/governing-terms-and-disclaimer
I don't know what kind of food you eat, but I put vegetables into most everything I make. If I make pasta sauce, I add broccoli, zucchini and onion for example for a "chunky" sauce. I made a Mexican style lasagna with 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 2 poblano peppers, onion, tomatoes and also corn and black beans... not veggies but nutritious anyway. If I make chili, the veggies barely fit in the pot. I add spinach to a lot of stuff too, after it is done cooking add a couple large handfuls of fresh chopped spinach, it wilts and just kinda melts into the chili or sauce. You can use kale the same way. Also, I often eat large salads. I often use salsa as a salad dressing. Balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard goes well with most roasted veggies. You can also get a variety of flavored balsamic vinegars online. Eating lots of veggies fills you up and as a result you eat less of the higher calorie foods. I have lost 65 pounds and I am working on losing about 20 more. Edit: PS I don't use any oil at all, veggies roast well without it and I learned how to "water sautee" Oil adds too many calories.
I also do salad with salsa - top it with black beans/corn/avocado etc, for a mexican meal.
I put shredded carrots and zucchini in pasta sauce and chili .
Grilled veg are wonderful, I do mine on a grill mat, no oil required.
And I agree, balsamic does wonders for veg!
Try juicing your vegetables. Juicing carrot with or without celery in the mix is easy to do. Try it. Believe it or not carrot juice is sweet! You can also throw some fruit into the blender, too. Make your own V8 Juice without the sodium!
Juicing does, however, reduce the fiber content .
Juicing reduces fiber? It takes a pound of raw carrots to produce a cup of carrot juice. Any reduction of fiber is only seen in a laboratory. Your bowels won't detect any reduction. Trust me.