STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I love having eggs (or egg beaters) with spinach, pepper, or onion.  You can do an omlette or just scramble the veggetables in.  I also like to cut up veggies and snack on them at work (cucumber, pepper, or baby carrots).

I actually find it pretty challenging to get in my daily 5 - partially because it's winter, which makes the pickins' slim, and I just don't feel like eating tons of veggies when it's cold out.  And I consider myself a veggie-eater too.

Honestly, when I lived in OR/WA, it was super easy to get lots of veggies because there was always a really big variety of stuff year round.  Now in CO, they have to ship alot of stuff alot farther and the things that do actually end up here are less fresh and more expensive.

ANYWAY, we keep the go-to carrot sticks in the fridge, and I also get a couple of cucumbers each week.  I cut a whole one up and eat it all as a snack.  For dinners and stuff we sneak things in - we modified a chicken & cream cheese enchilada recipe to include an entire box of chopped frozen spinach in it, or we just toss some veggies straight from the freezer into the microwave (whole green beans are my favorite).  We've also actually been making an effort to eat semi-vegetarian and that alone forces us to be a little more creative with the recipes we choose.  Fajitas are another good, mostly veggie-based meal and you can get the peppers frozen if fresh are too expensive.  We eat them with a little chicken and fat-free vegetarian refried beans.

Alot of vegetable-based side dishes can be modified into meals if you include some protein (meat, fish, poultry).  Rachael Ray has some good vegetable-heavy recipes too (even though some people think she's annoying).  She has a monthly magazine out now that is really good too, and I actually like it better than her cookbook.

HTH!

I really dont eat near enough. Since I started weight watchers again I have made a concerted effort to eat a salad every night and a steamed veggie. I have to force cold vegetables down- but, I have been eating baby carrots as a snack. I am such a cheese and carb junkie that alot of my calories, prior diet, are from these two things. And I know thats why I end up packing on the lbs. I need to change this behavoir if I am ever going to keep weight off longterm, and this is my future goal :to learn to cook vegetables, and a variety of them, in a more appetizing way.

i think part of the problem with eating a lot of veggies is that people tend to get stuck on the more well known vegetables and forget about all the other yummy ones that are out there. yes, brocolli, carrots, peppers, and cucumbers are good but there are three thousand other veggies out there that are fantastic. here's a couple recipies/ other vegggies that get eaten in my house fairly often:

lima beans, snap peas, sugar peas, yellow (wax) beans, asparagus, brussel sprouts, bok choy, leeks, squash, eggplant, and mushrooms of any kind.

one of my favorite things to eat is vegetable soup, and it's also one of the easiest things to make. one weekend, buy a couple stalks of leeks and boil them. don't add anything to the water, just boil them for like four hours or something (same as you would making chicken broth). strain the leeks out of the water and then freeze the broth. then whenever you are stuck for what to eat for dinner...throw a couple containers of the broth into a pot on the stove, add some frozen peas, corn, lima beans, brocolli and whatever else you have laying around. it doesn't really matter what you put in the soup, it will all taste good. cut up an onion and throw that in as well. perhaps you have some soy meat laying around that you could throw in for some protien. or instead of the soy meat, cut up a couple of portabellas and throw them in instead. a little salt, pepper, and garlic powder and you're good to go. oh..and perhaps a can of diced tomatoes as well.

stir fry is always good, that's basically the same prinicple as the vegetable soup, except you're lightly fying it in some olive oil. throw whatever you have around into a pan and watch as magic happens.

boy choy is one of my favorite veggies, it just needs to be steamed a little and then some soy sauce added. oh, and instead of soy sauce, we use braggs liquid aminos which has a slightly different flavor, more intense, and has more protein in it because well, it's made from directly from soybeans.

brussel sprouts are suprisingly good if you buy them fresh and not the frozen kind.

perhaps go to your local library (or just use the internet!) and check out some asian cookbooks. i love of asian stuff is veggie heavy and it's filled with those vegatables that americans don't normally know anything about. basically, it's about having lots and lots of vegetables on hand, whether that be frozen or fresh. just force yourself to eat more veggies and less meat. instead of a chicken breast, rice, and a side of asparagus, try a veggie burger with sauteed mushrooms and onions, and asparagus mixed yellow beans. one of the easiest ways to up your veggie intake is simply to eat less meat and make the vegetable the main course. it's almost impossible to get in five servines without making veggies the main part of your meal. with three meals, if you only eat one serving at each, that doesn't work. at dinner you can eat two/three servings if you cut out the mean and just eat veggies and tofu or soy products for protein.

and honestly....tofu and soy taste good. i don't know if you eat soy or not, but there are so many different flavors and types that there will be something that you like. start with veggie burgers or gimmie lean brand sausage/beef.

 

added later: oh yeah...the moosewood cookbook is the best for veggies! it's completely vegetarian and has awesome tasting stuff in it! and most of it's really easy to make. check out eggplant ratatoille, and the spinach kalzones.

-- Edited by relrel at 13:27, 2006-01-20