Ideas for eating more cooked veggies without daily cooking?

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kiela64
kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
edited November 2018 in Food and Nutrition
I’m terrible at eating vegetables because I hate most of them raw and salad makes me gag. Now that it’s getting into winter the few veggies I like raw taste bad & are more expensive (raw carrots & cucumber taste weird now 😞).

But I love stir fry & cooked veggies! Mushrooms & peppers & cauliflower & broccoli & cabbage & beets are delicious to me. But I can’t bring myself to spend the extra 30min every day to chop and wash and cook a stir fry. I frankly almost never do this. I also live with people and the times when the kitchen is clear is very early AM or late PM. Cooking daily isn’t possible really.

I also have extremely limited freezer space, again due to sharing. But I really need to and would like to eat more vegetables. I’d really appreciate any suggestions, I seem to go in a loop where it doesn’t seem possible.
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Replies

  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    roast a week's worth on the weekend (most veggies need little to no prep for roasting, especially compared to stir frying), store in refrigerator, then eat them cold (dressed like a salad) or refresh them with a quick trip through boiling water, in a frying pan, or in the microwave during the week.

    Can you keep them overnight that long? My mom throws out refrigerated food after 2 days/one night.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    edited November 2018
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    Frozen protein/veg combos that can be nuked.

    Birdseye and the like have a lot of options now.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    Buy frozen vegetables. Ready to cook.
    Buy precut fresh vegetables.
    Precut your vegetables for several days all at once, store them in the refrigerator and take out what you will use for that meal.
    Get a food processor to more quickly slice or chop things.
    Cut and cook the vegetables on all one day and reheat them throughout the week.
    I don't know how you feel about pickled vegetables but that might be another way to eat them.
    Those are pretty much the options I see to cut down on daily prep time of home cooked vegetables.
    Otherwise I suppose just go to a restaurant and order cooked vegetable dishes.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,966 Member
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    I have never suffered any ill effects from this. Obviously, use common sense and discard if you see mold or smell (or taste) something "off". I usually discard (or freeze separately for making soup) any liquid that cooks out of the veggies, and store the veggies in the refrigerator in something reasonably air-tight, such as aluminum foil with well-crimped edges, a storage container with lids that "burp", or plastic bags with a seal.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    I have never suffered any ill effects from this. Obviously, use common sense and discard if you see mold or smell (or taste) something "off". I usually discard (or freeze separately for making soup) any liquid that cooks out of the veggies, and store the veggies in the refrigerator in something reasonably air-tight, such as aluminum foil with well-crimped edges, a storage container with lids that "burp", or plastic bags with a seal.

    Thank you! I’ll have to look up how to roast, my cooking knowledge is bad lol.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    kiela64 wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    roast a week's worth on the weekend (most veggies need little to no prep for roasting, especially compared to stir frying), store in refrigerator, then eat them cold (dressed like a salad) or refresh them with a quick trip through boiling water, in a frying pan, or in the microwave during the week.

    Can you keep them overnight that long? My mom throws out refrigerated food after 2 days/one night.

    4-5 days should be okay to keep most cooked food if you have cooked and stored it properly in a refrigerator.
    Cooked cabbage for example https://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/16658
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,140 Member
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    Stirfry, saute, or roast a large amount of vegetables of your choice, and use them in omelets, soups, rice or pasta dishes or stews (add beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, sausages, etc. for added protein). You can use the hand-held blender to pure the vegetables when making soup.

  • PotentiallyCrazy
    PotentiallyCrazy Posts: 69 Member
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    Prep for several days at once, if you can devote early morning or late night time like you said... Buy a bunch of fresh produce or frozen vegs, slice them and have ready for easy things... Make stir fries, curries, veg soups and stews in the crockpot. Maybe make a huge amount of stirfry vegs one day, and end up using leftovers in stew later in the week... Get canned vegs if need be, might be easier for the purpose of sharing the kitchen without needing to prep fresh vegs, maybe stuff like canned beets and beans and greens, etc.
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
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    Yeah I can't imagine that 2-3 day old cooked veggies would be very appetizing, even if they are technically OK to eat. If you really can't find the time to cook fresh every day I would just eat raw brocolli, peppers and cauliflower with a low cal dip to make it more palatable.
    You can also use prewashed and quicker cooking veggies and add them to whatever you are eating. I buy a large container of baby spinach every week and have it with my eggs in the morning, and add to soups and pastas. It sautees in like a minute.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
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    Womanvsfood18 wrote: »
    Frozen steam bag veg are a godsend, a few mins in the microwave and your done 👍

    That sounds convenient, does it actually taste okay? I assumed that would just be like mush.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
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    33gail33 wrote: »
    Yeah I can't imagine that 2-3 day old cooked veggies would be very appetizing, even if they are technically OK to eat. If you really can't find the time to cook fresh every day I would just eat raw brocolli, peppers and cauliflower with a low cal dip to make it more palatable.
    You can also use prewashed and quicker cooking veggies and add them to whatever you are eating. I buy a large container of baby spinach every week and have it with my eggs in the morning, and add to soups and pastas. It sautees in like a minute.

    Yeah....I think I've had a second day stir fry before but nothing later than that. I've really never been able to eat more than one piece of raw broccoli or cauliflower, I really can't do raw veggies. I like cooked spinach alright, but how do you ever finish the container?! I've bought some before and I'd get maybe a handful cooked with eggs but the giant container would go bad in like 2 days.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
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    PotentiallyCrazy wrote: »
    Prep for several days at once, if you can devote early morning or late night time like you said... Buy a bunch of fresh produce or frozen vegs, slice them and have ready for easy things... Make stir fries, curries, veg soups and stews in the crockpot. Maybe make a huge amount of stirfry vegs one day, and end up using leftovers in stew later in the week... Get canned vegs if need be, might be easier for the purpose of sharing the kitchen without needing to prep fresh vegs, maybe stuff like canned beets and beans and greens, etc.

    That's when the kitchen is available for more than 5min at a time. Before 7am or after 8pm. I'm usually tired and not able to focus much at those times (just injured myself trying to do laundry while overtired lmao). I'd ideally only want to make things once or twice a week that aren't too complicated. When I prep lunches I just make sandwiches with deli meat and freeze them. That takes up my entire section of the freezer sadly, about 10 sandwiches. So I can't really make and freeze anything in addition. Canned beets sound good! I'll check that out, thanks!
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    edited November 2018
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    kiela64 wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    Yeah I can't imagine that 2-3 day old cooked veggies would be very appetizing, even if they are technically OK to eat. If you really can't find the time to cook fresh every day I would just eat raw brocolli, peppers and cauliflower with a low cal dip to make it more palatable.
    You can also use prewashed and quicker cooking veggies and add them to whatever you are eating. I buy a large container of baby spinach every week and have it with my eggs in the morning, and add to soups and pastas. It sautees in like a minute.

    Yeah....I think I've had a second day stir fry before but nothing later than that. I've really never been able to eat more than one piece of raw broccoli or cauliflower, I really can't do raw veggies. I like cooked spinach alright, but how do you ever finish the container?! I've bought some before and I'd get maybe a handful cooked with eggs but the giant container would go bad in like 2 days.

    Well I actually eat a ridiculous amount of spinach so I have to buy the big container- but they have a smaller size too. And spinach shrinks a lot. 😁 I eat 2+ cups in my eggs every morning. The small container would last maybe 3 days for me?
    But anyway put a paper towel in the container once you open it to absorb the moisture and it keeps it from going soggy - it makes it last longer. I have found it usually last several days to a week.
  • jamesjeffsmith
    jamesjeffsmith Posts: 34 Member
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    i eat the same vegies with similar living conditions. i steam every 3 days and refrigerate. be sure to drain well. i like them cold.
  • Dilvish
    Dilvish Posts: 398 Member
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    Why not make a soup with those veggies and a few more. It keeps well in the fridge and is also good in the freezer. Offer some to the "roomies" in exchange for more fridge/freezer space. this is a great veggie soup
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    COGypsy wrote: »
    kiela64 wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    roast a week's worth on the weekend (most veggies need little to no prep for roasting, especially compared to stir frying), store in refrigerator, then eat them cold (dressed like a salad) or refresh them with a quick trip through boiling water, in a frying pan, or in the microwave during the week.

    Can you keep them overnight that long? My mom throws out refrigerated food after 2 days/one night.

    I only cook on Sundays and eat that food from my fridge until Friday or Saturday. I haven’t died, or even gotten queasy yet!

    I cook on Sundays and eat the portioned out roasted veggies through the following Saturday. Never had a problem as long as they’re refrigerated

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