veggie ideas?
 

i'm finding i'm having a hard time getting in all of my veggies. i have to admit i'm not very adventerous when it comes vegetables, but i'm willing to try some new things. my family loves broccoli and asparagus steamed and plain, and i did try a cauliflower mash (although it was very watery and i don't think turned out the way it's supposed to). but what are some other good veggie ideas that are easy (we have a very busy schedule with the kids and dinner time is often a rush). not just for dinner, but for lunches too. i'm a stay at home mom and my typical salad with sunflower seeds and lite caesar is getting old and boring. is squash a fruit or vegetable? i have spaghetti squash on my list for next week and going to give that a try too. thanks for any suggestions!
~lisa

Leafy Green Smoothies!
 

I've been having a leafy green smoothie every morning to get in more veggies/greens. I've been eating greens I normally wouldn't this way and they taste great! I read the book "Green for Life" for recipe ideas and make my own up too. For instance, today I had a pineapple, pear, kiwi and kale smoothie. Mmmmmm!

i know how to make a strawberry banana smoothie with milk and yogurt, but how do you make a green smoothie or the one you mentioned, pineapple, pear, kiwi and kale?

Cut up some fresh mushrooms, onions, fresh peppers, and some fresh, shredded carrots. Add just a bit of your favorite dressing (not much, so you can make it full-fat and still have it be low-calorie) to the mix, toss vigorously and then stuff it in pita bread. Great, tasty sandwich! Cukes would make it crunchy. Sliced celery, sliced raw zucchini, too.

If you pack this kind of sandwich for kids to take to school, make the dressing a little on the sweet side by adding some honey. Raisins, too.

Pack the pita and stuffing in separate containers and show the kids how to stuff the pita with a plastic fork. Have one or two days a week be veggie sandwich day in their lunch bags.

Have a small salad start each dinner meal. You can mix fresh fruit in with raw veggies and get creative with the dressing. Or just use olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice and get creative adding fresh herbs (lemon juice can be bought frozen in the freezer case at the supermarket these days.)

Vegetable soups are yummy and all you need is a 'stick blender' to blend it all up right in the pot after the veggies have cooked. You can get a lot of mileage, flavorwise, out of very little cream (add milk if you want to lighten up the cream).

Make pasta and toss it with fresh steamed veggies. Add a light alfredo sauce and some parmesan cheese. Cook the veggies and add while they are still crisp, the pasta is al dente (slightly undercooked), and don't put much sauce on it. Even butter and parmesan would be enough with the veggies. One of my favorite ways to eat pasta - don't spoil it with frozen 'mixed vegetables' but anything that cooks and doesn't end up soggy would be fine!

Do the same mixture and stuff an omelette. Serve with a few strips of bacon and oven-roasted or hash browns.

There are so many great things and tasty things to do with veggies - shop around for a good vegetarian cookbook (or just browse the library) and make one or two good main-course vegetable dishes a week and that will really get you started.

Squash is a vegetable. Winter squashes are denser. Summer squashes are less dense (more water, like zucchini and yellow squash) and make great stir-frys with onions, peppers, water chestnuts, any nuts, leftover potatoes and leftover sweet potatoes.

thank you kathy! i am going to try your veggie pita idea. i think i'll buy some broccoli slaw since that's already shredded and would save lots of time. already tasting those red onions in there, too. great idea! my 16 year old has been a vegetarian since she was 12. you'd think i'd know more vegetable main courses, but i don't.

Help
 

Hello!

I'm really glad I read this. I for one, had a hard time adjusting to veggies. But I found that having cooked carrots and cooked broccoli with some chicken or vegetable broth mixed up is absolutely delicious. Low calories with a flavor boost. If you like omelets as much as I do. I love making egg white omelets with broccoli low fat cheese and tomato. its fantastic. obviously, if you don't like all of those things you can mix it up! Its fun to add vegetables into every day foods, its surprisingly really good. Cooked vegetables bring out the flavor, and make it filling and delicious. Hope this helps! Good luck on your journey. Looks like we're headed in the same direction :p Green beans are great to, lightly buttered and lightly salted.

Have you ever had roasted beets or radishes? Roasting beets brings out their sweet, earthy flavor. They taste totally different from those awful canned pickled beets. Also roasting radishes takes the 'bite' out of them but still leaves them with a nice flavor. They make a good potato substitute in things like soup or roasts. Another thing you should try is called Jicama. It's good to eat it raw where it has a sweet/crunch flavor sort of like water chestnuts. It can be cut up and added to a fruit salad, or added to regular salads or even in soups. It doesn't get soft when cooked. It says crunchy. It's delicious.

i've never roasted vegetables before, rubystars. how do you do it? what oven temp? how long? what do you do to prepare the radishes and beets for roasting? i'll try some jicama to. i've heard of it a lot, but just never tried it.

Huge portion, lots of veggies!
 

I always make my servings look bigger with those veggies. I chop and ENTIRE tomato up on my salad. I buy the monster size bags of frozen broccoli, Carrot and Cauliflower and steam about 3-4 cups and serve with just about everything-supper. I drizzle a little homemade vinaigrette on it... I even mix my not-so-good-for-you mac and cheese with an entire 10 ounce bag of basic frozen mixed vegetables, or I get a 10 oz bag of frozen broccoli florets and throw the bag on the floor a bunch of times to break them up really small (yes I have a great time when i cook!) and toss them into the mac and cheese... I know I am getting probably 5 ounces of broccoli along with some what could be dangerously delicious, mac and cheese. Still delicious, but I also am getting a bonus broccoli helping. I always measure how much mac and cheese I have, and now my family has leftover mac and cheese but no leftover broccoli. Never happened before.