All your veggies

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canadacatman
canadacatman Posts: 224 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How do you get all your veggies in if you do not like salads. How many cups of veggies a day should you eat. Thanks

Replies

  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    There are no "shoulds."
    If you want, there are ways to get vegetables without salads. Consider roasting/baking/ grilling veggies. I like grilling sliced yellow squash in the foreman grill or cutting up broccoli, adding 1/2 tablespoon of oil, and baking it until it turns slightly brown.
  • MorganMoreaux
    MorganMoreaux Posts: 691 Member
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    I juice my veggies in the morning to makes sure I get everything - usually two cups of kale, 1 cup spinach, 1 cup arugula, 1 red beer, 2 carrots, 1oz wheatgrass, 2 apples, 1/8 pineapple. It tastes pretty good and gives me the nutrients I need and might have missed had I not juiced. I hve an extruder type juicer so there is actually very little waste, I can juice greens, and it's relatively quick (15 min).

    I find even if I just have a salad I am still not hitting all my micronutrient levels so the juicing is a good supplement, and the above recipie comes to about 250 calories and is not very filling so I can still eat breakfast. Any other veggies I eat during the day are just a bonus.
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
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    Frozen veggies - microwave or steam in minutes
    Smoothies - whiz up in a blender, an easy way to get several portions down the hatch with no cooking and little prep
    Roasted - put chunks of veg (carrots, beets, sweet potato, squash, parsnip, etc) in a roasting tray with a drizzle of olive oil, some garlic and rosemary and bake in oven.
  • Gun4a
    Gun4a Posts: 68 Member
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    Good idea @RodaRose! I love butternut squash but never thought of grilling it in the Forman grill. Will try out today :-)
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    There is no minimum need for veggies. They can technically be skipped as log as you get plenty of protein and fats. Yesterday I had about 10 roasted baby carrots, and snap peas. Oh, and some macadamia nuts. That's it.... And that was a pretty typical day for me.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,082 Member
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    You can also puree veggies in a blender or food processor then use them in recipes, like soups or things that would usually have a sauce (lasagna, say).
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    www.mccormick.com ... thank me later.

    Plain veggies = ehh...

    roast and/or stemed with garlic, parsley, pepper = awesome.
  • crystalewhite
    crystalewhite Posts: 422 Member
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    Green smoothies, I get a ton in that way. Also use them in soups and sauces, especially pasta sauces. I love pasta primavera.
    There is no magic number you should strive for, but I like to eat as much as I can so I have less room for more calorie dense foods that don't fill me up.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
    edited September 2015
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    Make them in ways that taste good.

    This has been coming up a lot lately.

    Watch the Alton Brown "Good Eats" shows on veggies. He was great about make veggies in ways that taste good. "Give Peas A Chance" and "Field of Greens" are the only titles I remember, but if you google "Alton Brown" and any food,there is a good chance you'll find a link that tells what show it was...and a recipe.

    Buy some cookbooks on veggies.

    Begin experimenting with herbs and spices. If you don't have a store near you, Penzey's and World Spice Market both sell good quality spices online. The World Spice Market people have a cookbook and you can buy little sample jars of all the spices used in that book, so you get a big variety of new spices to try without a huge cost.

    Eating healthy does not require eating bland or bad food. It can taste good!!!
  • Marilyn0924
    Marilyn0924 Posts: 797 Member
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    psulemon wrote: »
    www.mccormick.com ... thank me later.

    Plain veggies = ehh...

    roast and/or stemed with garlic, parsley, pepper = awesome.

    Yup!! Love me my mccormicks!!
  • rockmama72
    rockmama72 Posts: 815 Member
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    I make a big pot of vegetable soup every week and have a bowl every day. Sometimes I put cheese on it, sometimes I want a 75-calorie snack and eat it plain.

    I also make a fruit and spinach smoothie almost every day for breakfast. Pineapple, mango, and spinach is my favorite.
  • lingo10
    lingo10 Posts: 305 Member
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    Can do green capsules or greens powders with water or almond milk. I love the Amazing Grass ones, Garden of Life ones, and the Green Vibrance that has the probiotics in it. :)
  • SuggaD
    SuggaD Posts: 1,369 Member
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    I mostly get them at dinner. Dinner is usually some protein, sweet potato or grains, various vegetables. Sometimes I have them at breakfast.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Kalikel wrote: »
    Make them in ways that taste good.

    This has been coming up a lot lately.

    Watch the Alton Brown "Good Eats" shows on veggies. He was great about make veggies in ways that taste good. "Give Peas A Chance" and "Field of Greens" are the only titles I remember, but if you google "Alton Brown" and any food,there is a good chance you'll find a link that tells what show it was...and a recipe.

    Buy some cookbooks on veggies.

    Begin experimenting with herbs and spices. If you don't have a store near you, Penzey's and World Spice Market both sell good quality spices online. The World Spice Market people have a cookbook and you can buy little sample jars of all the spices used in that book, so you get a big variety of new spices to try without a huge cost.

    Eating healthy does not require eating bland or bad food. It can taste good!!!

    All of this.

    Also explore seasonally-themed cookbooks and perhaps visit a farmer's market.

    As for the specific question, OP, how to eat all the vegetables without salads -- eat cooked vegetables. I rarely feel like a salad in the winter. You ideally should have something like 5+ servings, but a serving isn't that large, it's easy to have multiple servings with a meal just by eating a few different kinds of vegetables or larger servings. I try to eat vegetables with all meals.

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