Did you know that only one in every ten adults eats enough veggies? It’s crazy, right? There are so many ways to eat more veggies, and every single one of them is easy and tastes good, too. Let’s look at some of my favorites.
1. Eat veggies for breakfast
One of the easiest ways to meet your daily intake for vegetables is to eat them for breakfast. And there are so many ways you can incorporate veggies into your morning meal! One of my favorite ways to eat veggies for breakfast is by incorporating them into a breakfast casserole. I love to add a mix of whatever vegetables I have on hand into my basic breakfast casserole recipe. Some of our favorites include red, orange, or yellow bell peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, and zucchini (diced or shredded).
Adding chopped veggies to scrambled eggs is another way to eat veggies for breakfast. Just sauté them until tender before adding your eggs and you’ll have what I like to call “farmer’s market scramble.” Again, lots of different veggies work here, including tomatoes, chopped greens like kale or arugula, peppers, and summer squash.
If you prefer a lighter breakfast (or just don’t like eggs), try adding veggies to your morning smoothie. You don’t need to add much to reap the benefits. Beets are a great addition to cherry, mixed berry, or strawberry banana smoothies, while carrots work well in smoothies with tropical flavors like pineapple, mango, or passionfruit. You can also add a handful of greens or a few chunks of diced avocado for an extra boost.
2. Add veggies to your rice
Another easy way to get an extra serving of veggies is to add them to your rice. Riced cauliflower or riced cauliflower/broccoli blend are easy to mix into your batch of rice. Make your rice as usual, and heat up the riced veggies per the instructions on the bag. Mix the two together and you have a healthier side dish!
3. Substitute half of the meat for veggies
It’s easy to substitute some or all of the meat with vegetables in many recipes. And it’s a great way to add more veggies to your meal without making another side dish. Dishes like curries, soups, and stir fry are easy to modify. One of my family’s favorite curry recipes, Half Baked Harvest’s 30 Minute Spicy Indian Butter Chicken, is a great example. The recipe calls for two pounds of chicken. Instead, I use one(ish) pounds of chicken and a head of cauliflower. I season and cook the cauliflower the same as the chicken and the mix of the two makes the dish absolutely delicious!
4. Shred veggies into ground meat dishes
Adding shredded veggies to a dish with ground meat is another easy way to get an extra serving of veggies on your plate. By shredding veggies like beets, zucchini, or carrots into burgers, shepherd’s pie, meatballs, or pasta sauces, you get the added nutrition the veggie provides without sacrificing the taste of the dish. And in some recipes, like my beef & beet burgers, I would argue the veggies take the dish to the next level.
5. Serve lots of salads
Okay, this one may be obvious but I’m including it anyway. One of the easiest side dishes in the world is a salad. You can customize it to add only the veggies you and your family enjoy. And they come together in a matter of minutes. Salads are a great way to use up the odds and ends of veggies in your fridge, too. Try The Best Kale Salad You’ll Ever Eat if you’re looking for something new. I also love to mix fruits into my salads to add some additional interest (and goodness!). My Strawberry Kale Salad is a great choice all year round, and my Harvest Honeycrisp Salad is perfect when apples are in season.
I hope this post gave you some new ideas for ways you and your family can eat more veggies! If you have other ways you incorporate more veggies into your meals, please share in the comments!