If your family is anything like mine, you look for ways to sneak more veggies onto their dishes. I’m blessed with a 12-year old that will eat anything, the crunchier the better. Together we have a sneaky way of getting more veggies into my ‘meat and potato’ husband!
Here are some tips to getting your loved ones a little healthier one bite at a time, even if you have to be a little sneaky at times. It’ll be our little secret.
- Prep Prep Prep. This is key! I devote a few hours each week to come up with a meal plan for the week and prep everything I’ll need to make the meals quick and easy. Veggies are washed and chopped. Quinoa and beans are cooked and stored. Hard-boiled eggs, check. Did I mention I received an Instapot over the holidays, it’s my new little helper!
- Add veggies to meals you love. From layering zucchini into your lasagna to adding spaghetti squash to your angel hair pasta dish, adding veggies deceptively will increase the number of veggies on your plate.
- Make a batch of soup. Soup is a great way to use up veggies, serve a nice warm meal, and a great source of fiber. This week I made meatballs ahead of time, cut up carrots and was able to throw together some albondiga soup quickly after soccer practice.
- Serve them raw. While you may need to hide veggies in meals to get your family to eat them, having a plate of raw, ready to eat veggies, may make them reach out and try them. I always have cut up celery (which my husband is finally eating with peanut butter), and carrots in the fridge. The key is to pull them out of the fridge and put them on a plate on the counter, otherwise, they just won’t be found.
- Grill them. I recommend grilling veggies to add to your dishes. After all, why waste those hot coals? Make a kabob with chunks of vegetables. Heck, I even use the marinade that I used for the fish or chicken I had prepared.
I have found that by incorporating these 5 simple tips, I go through all our veggies from the CSA box in 3 days!
Need help getting your veggies? Order a veggie box from us. Get your order in by Sunday evening and have it waiting at your doorstep next Wednesday (for south of the 56) or Thursday (for north county)! After all, we all need a little help getting everything done.
Since we all spend so much time at work, make sure that there are healthy snacks in the office. If there isn’t any, let us know and we’ll deliver a sample of our finest fruit.
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