Eat Your Veggies

When I was little my parents and I had a constant battle over the vegetables.  My mother would always say, "When you grow up, you'll learn to like vegetables."

Well, I am pretty sure that I could be considered "grown up" now and I still hate vegetables!  Yes, I am a veggie hater.  But did you know that George Bush doesn't like broccoli either?  And I'm pretty sure he is "grown up" too.

Even though I hate veggies, I eat them.  They are so healthy!  They are one of the best foods that you can give to your body.  High in fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants, while being very low in calories.  They lower your cholesterol, boost your health and help you feel better all the way around.

So for you veggie haters... like me... I have some solutions for you to help you eat your veggies.

Sneak your veggies in - You can add chopped vegetables to dinners you already love.  Zucchini slices, chopped spinach, crushed tomatoes, or cooked carrots will go unnoticed if added into lasagna, omelets, quesadillas, hamburger helper, spaghetti sauce, soup, salads, or other types of food you may love.

Cooking vs. raw - Try different ways to eat your vegetables.  Try steaming, baking, grilling, anything in between, or just eat them raw.  Find which way you prefer.  For example, I prefer raw carrots to cooked carrots.  And I hate raw and steamed broccoli, but I love it when it is baked!  For a good recipe for baked broccoli check this post out.

Take a dip - If you need to use a little ranch in order to eat your veggies then go for it!  Yeah ranch is pretty fattening, but you can go for a low fat or fat free ranch.  You can also get fat free sour cream and season it with a ranch packet.  Overall it's worth it if it means you'll be getting the servings of vegetables you need each day.  (you can also try a little melted cheese on your veggies, just make sure there isn't more cheese than veggies!)

Drink up - This is my number one method of choice for getting the servings of vegetables that I need.  I suggest V8 vegetable juice - low sodium.  Doesn't taste as good as a milk shake, but they are small 5.5 oz cans that I can drink in less than a minute.  So a very healthy serving of veggies in a matter of seconds?  Yes please.  I'll take that over a plateful any day.

Make it fun - Going along with drinking vegetable juice, you can make green or monster smoothies!  These are amazing!  Who doesn't love a smoothie?  They are full of vegetables and fruits, very healthy and very delicious!

So give some of these tips a try and see if you can eat more veggies in your diet.  I am going to be making a monster smoothie later this week and I will post the recipe and tips for making a delicious smoothie so stay tuned!