One of the most positive changes you can make to your diet is to add more vegetables. This is an area where many women are lacking so here are ways to easily add vegetables to each meal (even breakfast). It is possible to eat vegetables at every meal of the day. My general rule of thumb is to keep it simple and enjoy vegetables in their simplest and freshest forms.
Breakfast
This is probably the meal where you don’t even think about eating vegetables. There are several tasty ways to add vegetables at breakfast.
- Add bell peppers to scrambled eggs
- Add spinach or kale to scrambled eggs
- Add spinach or kale to your smoothie
- Add raw carrots or beets to your smoothie
- Have a salad for breakfast
Lunch
Lunch is such an easy meal to eat vegetables, but often overlooked. I like to start with vegetables and then add to it instead of making vegetables an afterthought. Here are some ideas for lunch. Many of these are also great ideas for dinner.
- salad made with leafy greens (try this one)
- Add roasted beets or sweet potatoes to your salad
- Coleslaw
- Vegetable based soups like this green soup
- Raw vegetables like bell peppers, snap peas or carrots with hummus
- Add a container of raw vegetables to your sandwich lunch instead of a piece of fruit or cookie
- One of the smoothies listed in the breakfast ideas also is a good addition to an on the go lunch
Dinner
For many of us dinner consists of some kind of meat with a starch and a small serving of vegetables or a salad added if we have time. Just like with lunch, it is better to make vegetables take centre stage when planning dinner. If you have northern European heritage good quality vegetables (aside from root vegetables ) may not have been part of your daily meals when growing up, but it is time to branch out. Here are some ideas to add more vegetables.
- Stir fried vegetables with chicken, beef or tofu, flavoured with onions , garlic and ginger
- Add lightly steamed broccoli and cauliflower to pasta
- Start with a salad and add some protein to it instead of adding a salad to your protein meal
- Try a sheet pan dinner with some type of meat and some vegetables. Serve with a green salad
- Thai curry full of vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, bell pepper
Snacks
Vegetables for snacks are great ideas since they are likely displacing less healthy snacks. You need to be careful here because many snacks that look healthy may not be. Remember the rule about keeping it simple and fresh.
- A smoothie makes a great morning snack
- Try raw veggies with a yogurt dip or hummus. Crispy vegetables like bell peppers, snap peas or carrots are good.
- Munch on some cherry tomatoes or baby cucumbers
- Dehydrate your own veggie chips with beets, sweet potatoes or kale
- I like to munch on a mix of raw nuts and raw vegetables
- When purchasing veggie chips, look for dehydrated or baked, not deep fried versions. Also look for added sugar and try to look for few ingredients.
Summary
Many of us don’t eat enough vegetables. But when you get creative you can easily add vegetables to any meal to make it more healthy. In my Meal Planning Plus course you’ll discover simple ways to create meals that tick all the boxes for healthy eating.
