Most eating plans that encourage healthy eating habits recommend multiple servings a day of vegetables and fruit, but it is often difficult to incorporate them into a busy schedule. Fruits are often the easier to incorporate, but vegetables can be much trickier.
Add vegetables into breakfast: While vegetables for breakfast are not typically included in an American breakfast menu, there are ways to incorporate them. I never considered much fresh produce for breakfast other than bananas, until I took a trip to Israel. Every place we went had beautiful breakfast buffets including vegetables, fresh sliced tomatoes and fruits. I quickly learned that I enjoyed having fresh tomatoes with eggs for breakfast.
In recent years, I have learned to add other vegetables to my breakfast. The easiest and quickest way is to have them in an omelet. Do a little prep work and chop up some vegetables the night before or on your designated prep day. Vegetables can include red onions, peppers and cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach. Once your frying pan is warm, sauté your vegetables in olive oil or a small amount of butter until they are soft. Remove the softened vegetables and add more butter to melt. Spread the butter and pour in 2-3 stirred eggs. Once the eggs appear to be cooked and no longer appear to be runny, place your vegetables on one half of the cooked egg. Sprinkle with your cheese of choice, if desired, and fold the other side of the cooked egg on top of the vegetables. Remove from the pan and eat immediately.
Incorporate vegetables into snacks: Grab some baby carrots, raw broccoli, sliced cucumbers, celery sticks or sweet peppers and use eat as a snacks. Pair them with some hummus and it can be very filling.
Always have a vegetable with dinner: In our house, dinner is our more formal meal because it is the meal we all have together. We always try to have a vegetable with dinner. Not only does the standard in our house help us get in our daily requirement of vegetables, it helps expose our children to vegetables as they grow up. Our two oldest children will eat some vegetables by their own choice after years of placing a small amount of vegetables on their plate every night at dinner.
Here are some quick and easy ways to eat vegetables with dinner. Brocoli: Cut broccoli stems, rinse and toss in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven at 400 degrees until the tips just begin to turn a little black. Asparagus: Cut off the ends, rinse and cook on the stove top in just enough water to cover. Season with salt and pepper and cook until softened. Asparagus is also good cooked in the oven. Simply toss rinsed and cut asparagus in olive oil and seasoning salt and cook in the oven on 400 until slightly brown. Okra: cut off the ends, slice in half, toss in olive oil and seasoning salt and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes.
Writer Bio: Summer Bolte
I spend most of my time and days with my three kids, husband and dog. My kids frequently play near me as I garden, cook, DIY and volunteer. My most unusual paying job has to be feeding fruit flies in a research lab, and my most fulfilling job was being an oncology nurse for seven years.
