Vegetables come in every color of the rainbow, almost every believable shape and size, and the flavors they share are absolutely astounding. Whether you’re talking about the staple vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and onions, or the diverse range of vegetables from around the world like Bok Choy and watercress, there is something for everyone.
Vegetables were one of the hallmarks of civilization. As we perfected our ability to grow them they became part of the foundation of our culture and cuisine. As time went on we learned about the many benefits to eating them.
Eventually, it was established by science that they were a vital source of nutrients that were hard or impossible to get from eating just animals. These nutrients can help to prevent heart disease and decrease bone loss, offset diabetes, and even improve the health of your hair and skin.
The history of Eat Your Vegetables Day started with a desire to increase awareness of nutrition and the role it plays in a healthy lifestyle. Here are ways that you can get more Vegetable in your life, improve your health, and feel better.
Easy Ways to Add Vegetables to (Almost) Everything
Around the Kitchen
Keep a bowl of fruit within easy reach on the kitchen counter or your desk at work so that you can grab a piece of fruit when you're hungry.
Keep a container of snack sized bags of carrot sticks, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets, sliced bell peppers, cauliflower, or cucumbers that you can grab quickly for a snack.
Buy packaged, ready-to-eat fresh vegetables and fruits. These cut down on preparation time.
Keep dried fruit on hand for a snack that is easy to take with you when you're away from home.
Keep a notebook or binder in your kitchen of new recipes and ideas.
Boost Your Breakfast
Stir berries (fresh or frozen), dried fruit, or banana slices into yogurt, cereal, or oatmeal.
Add finely minced broccoli, or steam and purée or finely grate cauliflower to mix with scrambled eggs. This veggie addition doesn't change the texture of eggs and fits in an whole serving of veggies.
Make a smoothie. Combine some low fat milk or yogurt, 1/2 cup frozen berries and a banana for a super easy blended breakfast that includes 2 whole servings of fruit.
Add peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms or onions to your eggs for a delicious omelet.
Pile those scrambled eggs on your favorite bread, tortilla, or bagel for a nutritious breakfast sandwich.
Breakfast sweets can be packed with veggies too. Try making some travel-friendly bran muffins packed with zucchini and carrots in addition to the classic raisins, walnuts, and cinnamon.
Classic oatmeal might be topped with brown sugar and fruit, but oats can be savory too! Cook plain oats with water and add your choice of steamed or sautéed veggies. Top with an egg for extra protein and season with salt, pepper, or a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
Have a glass of juice. Make sure it’s made from 100% fruit juice, and limit yourself to eight ounces per day to avoid too many added sugars.
Whole fruits are a quick, prep-free, on-the-go snack. Grab an apple, peach, banana, or orange and enjoy it on your way to work.
Double the Veggies
Stir extra veggies into soups. Don’t be afraid to steer off the beaten recipe path just a bit. When it comes to something like soups, an overdose of chopped vegetables will not ruin the recipe. It will enhance the flavor, nutritional value, and your daily vegetable tally.
Pile veggies on pizza. Don’t hold back. You can add extra veggies to a frozen pizza, order double veggies from delivery, or create your own where the sky's the limit.
Add some extra peppers, mushrooms, and squash, carrots, and even cauliflower to your casseroles. Don’t forget that you can top them with tomato, zucchini, squash, and even a veggie-heavy salsa. Eggplant Parmesan? Double the eggplant. Chicken Pot Pie? Double those peas and carrots. You’ve got the idea.
A sandwich is another blank canvas just waiting to be stuffed with healthy nutrient dense vegetables, and even fruits. Take your turkey sandwich and jazz it up with sliced apples, cucumber, zucchini, sprouts, and spinach. A 1/2 cup of this colorful combination just scored you another serving.
Be a Sneaky Chef
Shred or grate fruits and vegetables down, or puree them up and see how creative you can get with your favorite recipes. Grated zucchini and carrots do wonders for turkey burgers, meatloaf, and meatballs, adding both moisture and nutrients to the dish.
Puree cooked cauliflower, winter squash, or red peppers and stir them into sauces, mashed potatoes, pot pies, or even mac and cheese.
Make a marinara that’s loaded with vegetables. In addition to your traditional tomato sauce base, use any combination of chopped mushrooms, eggplant, onions, peppers, squash, and carrots. This versatile sauce can then be used in a variety of creative ways to add both flavor, as well as a serving of vegetables to your day. Spoon it over noodles, mix it into lasagna, start it as a soup base, spread it over pizza crust, or use it as a dipping sauce.
Both vegetables and fruits are healthy, delicious, and fabulous additions to breads, cakes, biscuits, and pies. Experiment in your baking to find savory and sweet ways to add more fruit and vegetables to your day.
Make-Ahead Mondays (or Tuesday, or any day, really!)
Choose a day convenient for you. Use this as a “day of preparation” for the entire week to assist your goal to increase your fruits and vegetables by a pound of fruit and a pound of vegetables each day.
You can also make ahead couscous, wild rice, or another grain salad to enjoy throughout the week in wraps, over a bed of spinach, or heated into omelets.
Sauté or grill extra vegetables on your Make-Ahead Monday, and continue to use the leftovers later in the week in pasta dishes, soups, sandwiches, and salads.
Make a large batch of fruit salad to have on hand for meals and snacks.
Don't forget the food processor. Use the shredding blade to grate squash, carrots, zucchini, turnips, onions, and sweet potatoes. Bag them up and keep them in the refrigerator. Later in the week, you can add them to sauces, soups, stir-fry, casseroles, and pizzas.
Don’t know what you are going to eat all week? Don’t worry about it. Vegetables and many fruits freeze well either raw or cooked.
Feature a Fresh New Vegetable Each Week
Visit the local Farmer’s Market or Co-Op and support your community while eating healthier. Get the whole family involved, give a different family member the honor of choosing the Featured Veggie each week.
If you live alone, or are cooking for one, invite a friend or two over to try out a new dish with you. Celebrate the day, and your new recipe, and your New Lifestyle together.
Once spring is here, “U-pick” farms are a fun way to get up close and personal with your produce. You can even make it a family outing. And you can freeze or can your extra produce to use later in the season.
You can create a “Make-Ahead” book of recipes that you would like to try. As you find new recipes that feature an unfamiliar fruit or vegetable you’d like to try in your monthly food magazines, cookbooks, and food blogs, print off, photocopy, or tear them out. Keep them in a folder or binder next to your cookbooks for easy access.
Check the weekly specials at your local grocery store or Co-Op and choose one of the items on sale that week. The specials often reflect the abundance of certain seasonal produce.
Savor the Snack
Keep a bowl of fresh fruit on the counter at home, and another in your office for a healthy quick snack.
Keep dried fruit in your car or purse for busy days when a break is just not an option.
Pack pre-cut fruit and veggies into snack-size bags for perfectly-portioned munchies.
Trade your afternoon soda for 1/2 cup of 100% juice to fit in an extra serving and give you a healthier pick-me-up.
Don't Skip Dessert
Freeze grapes and bananas for a super satisfying, pop-able delight. For an added bonus treat, dip half a banana in a small amount of antioxidant-rich dark chocolate.
Blend up some fresh fruit with 1/2 cup low fat yogurt or 100% fruit juice, then freeze in a popsicle mold for delightfully refreshing fruit popsicles.
When you choose ice cream or frozen yogurt, add on 1/2 cup of fresh peaches, mangos or berries.
Our favorite fruit pie recipes lose their healthful status for just one reason, the buttery, fat-laden crust. What is the solution? Get rid of it. Pour the filling of your favorite fruit or pumpkin pie recipe into individual ramekins. Bake until set, and enjoy a serving of warm, satisfying fruit pie without the rich crust.
You can upgrade your cookie dough by adding carrot or sweet potato purée to chocolate chip cookies for a treat that's just as tasty, but has hidden health benefits too.
Super Salads
Alternate your greens from the normal Romaine or iceberg, to darker greens like spinach and kale. As a general rule of thumb, the darker the greens the more nutrient rich they are.
Supersize your salad. One cup of leafy greens is a serving. Then when you pile on the healthy toppings, remember that every 1/2 cup of chopped fruits and vegetables is another serving.
Don’t cheat yourself on the dressing. Be moderate, but be tasteful. A lot of the fat-free and low-fat dressings out there are full of sugar and sodium and are completely deprived on flavor. So these may not be the best choice. A few splashes of a good quality dressing, including a heart-healthy canola- or olive-oil based dressing can make your salad perfect.
As you find new ways to fit more fruits and vegetables into what you eat everyday, add them to a notebook or binder in your kitchen. Show off your healthy creations and accomplishments on social media, and celebrate your successes!🍏
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The Role of Hypnosis
What if you don’t like vegetables? What if you find their texture hard to take, or you just can’t stand the thought of them? What if you feel that you are addicted to sweets?
If there are things you want to change, hypnosis can help. Hypnosis is a powerful tool that can quickly and effectively change the way we think, the way we react, our behaviors, and our habits. It can be used to change the way we perceive certain textures, and eliminate childhood beliefs about different types of foods and our habits around eating.
Hypnosis can also be used to eliminate sugar cravings and increase the desire for healthier food. Most weight loss programs focus on allowing you to make small changes that you can live with, without restrictions, and without dieting.
These changes are created during a series of hypnosis sessions that usually include education about nutrition, exercise, and stress (the main cause for emotional eating). The hypnosis session starts with your hypnotist giving you simple instructions to follow, such as closing your eyes, and taking a deep breath. Your hypnotist will guide you into a relaxed hypnotic trance - you are still fully awake, aware, and in control throughout the session - and use suggestions and advanced techniques to replace old behaviors and habits with newer, healthier, more beneficial ones.
The result is that you have more control over how you think and feel than you ever thought possible. You begin to be more aware of your actions, are able to make better choices more often, and feel calmer with less stress in everything you do.
You can learn more about how hypnosis is used in weight loss at https://www.greenmountainhypnosis.com/lose-weight.html ∎
Karen Gray is a Certified Hypnotist, a Registered Nurse, and the Director of Green Mountain Hypnosis. For more information on how you can use hypnosis to change your life, contact Karen at karengray@greenmountainhypnosis.com, or (802) 566-0464.