Eat your vegetables

Everyone has heard "eat your vegetables" at one point or another, but in my experience that is easier said than done.  An expression I once heard has stayed with me:  vegetables are the "intestinal brooms" that help prevent major problems such as colon cancer.  As we all know, they hold many vitamins and minerals. Although fruits and vegetables are supposed to be the largest portion of your diet, they can be difficult to prepare, expensive, and I have not generally found them to be foods of convenience for a busy family.

For example, I can easily sit at my desk and eat a bag of chips with one hand, but it is not so easy to neatly peel a juicy orange.  It is much easier to go by the fast food restaurant and get neatly packaged sandwiches, but it is much harder to prepare a wholesome salad that must be eaten at a table.

Here are some ideas that I have used or heard about others using to get fruits and veggies into your family's diet:

Eat lots of colors - Thinking in terms of color has helped me to easily identify which vegetables and fruits I eat the most of (red) and which ones I eat the least of (dark green).  Take a look at your plate.  Are all the foods tan?  Try adding some color with red bell pepper, purple potatoes, or green spinach.

Juicing - I love my new juicer, and I definitely feel that it gives me a boost of energy as well as vitamins.  It is easy to do and takes less time than food prep and cooking.  I can also slip in vegetables such as carrots and the juice still tastes great.

Smoothies for kids - This is what my daughter and I have named those cute little pouches with pureed fruits and vegetables.  You can get organic ones and they have all sorts of interesting ingredients that are hard to get into a two year old, such as spinach and purple carrots.

Trying something new - I now try to pay attention to different and unusual vegetables and fruits in the store.  If I come across a recipe that looks delicious but has a strange ingredient, I am more willing now to try it than I used to be.  For example, my Romanian friend told me about parsnips, which I had never used.  Turns out they are delicious and look just like potatoes, and they now regularly go into my vegetable soups with minimal complaints at my house.  This winter I plan to try out celeriac, or celery root.

Secretly add vegetables to dinners your family enjoys - I have heard of people adding grated carrot or other vegetables into ground beef, where the flavor is masked.  It sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure if I would be able to slip it past my husband.

Try to find more convenient fruits and veggies - Once you know which fruits and vegetables you like, see if you can find a way to make them convenient to eat.  You can buy cut fruit, pre-packaged salads, and grapes, apples, and bananas can be eaten with one hand.

Use the vegetable in a pleasing way that your family will like - My husband and I do not like cooked spinach, but we regularly eat spinach salads.  We also eat raw kale and it is delicious, but again we don't like it cooked.  I eat a lot more sweet potatoes than I used to because I bake sweet potato fries, which satisfies my wish for a  "french fry", and olive oil is the only fattening ingredient.

Here is Dr. Weil's recipe for a Tuscan Kale Salad:  http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/RCP02206/Tuscan-Kale-Salad.html#.  As usual, I like to change it up a little for convenience:  I use 1/4 cup of store-bought bread crumbs, regular kale, and only 1/2 cup store-bought grated Parmesan cheese.

Remember to wash your produce, even if it is organic!

Do you have any tips to eat more fruits and vegetables?

(Photo from http://www.organicsoul.com/great-ways-to-integrate-more-vegetables-into-your-diet/)