ok, help....vegetables....

[MaryFolse]

My struggle tends to be that I am a creature of HABIT.....

making vegetables in my meals a habit is my first goal of the year...

I like salad well enough, favorite way to eat is in a wrap...

I don't mind soup...but do not care for leftovers!  

and if you eat soup, it seems a crime not to have crackers too.

Starting small, I believe is what will help me.  trying to be conscious of those vegetables I like, and adding so many servings a day. bought some V8 too as I am terribly lazy.

[WendyB]

Veggies will fill you up where drink V8 will not.

Just plan to have with every meal. I will throw some kind of veggies in my eggs.

Have some Hummus dip and Veggies for a snack. If you dont like Hummus you can make or buy a Low fat Ranch

[Bhuvana]

@MaryFolse:  Now-a-days frech cut veggies are available in grocery stores. Just put together in a pan with some herbs, salt and pepper and roast in the 400 F oven for 30 mins. You can have these roasted veggies either in a wrap or even with rice. Also be cautious about salt in V8 drinks. 

[smwcbrie]

I'd probably nix the V8. As was said, it won't fill you up. I mean, better than nothing, but...

I second the egg thing. Do you like eggs? Today I needed a snack, so I nuked some frozen artichoke hearts and then threw them in a skillet with eggwhites. A couple minutes later I was all set. I do this all the time with frozen broccoli, fresh zucchini, kale, even tomatoes though they do add some water to the mix if you cook them too long.

You could tear up kale and put in soup. You can add all kinds of veggies into a soup or just broth and not have leftovers. Frozen veggies are great. You could dice/cut/spiral or whatever a whole slew of veggies one day and keep them in a ziploc bag in the fridge and just incorporate into whatever you're making in the moment.

For lunch today I spiralized a cuke and an apple, put those on a plate, added cut cherry tomatoes, and a can of tuna on top. A tiny bit of dressing and had a decent lunch under 300 calories. Would've been much less without that dang apple, LOL.

I was feeling peckish just a bit ago so I took out some spaghetti squash I had in the fridge that I'd already cooked and heated it up, added some chia seeds for crunch and a bit of spice and there's a 100 calorie snack that's actually a bit healthy and far better than a 100 calorie pack of chips ahoy (that I do have in the house because I have kids and they don't care if I have to exert a lot of self control, LOL).

You just have to experiment and figure out how to make it work for you. 🙂 You can do it! Good luck!!

[SAlfin]

I've just started making green protein smoothies with fruit.  And if you add a teaspoon of a natural fiber supplement, it will make the shake filling.

Here's a recipe I found online:

• In a blender, add one cup of water, then a cup of packed leafy green veggies.  (you can use what you like, but I prefer a half and half mix of kale and spinach.
• Blend the water and veggies for about 45 seconds to a minute to really break down the greens.
• Add one cup of fresh pineapple, and one cup of fresh berries (you pick)
• Add one scoop of vanilla whey protein powder 
• Add one rounded teaspoon of a powdered fiber supplement.
• Throw in 2-3 ice cubes.
• Blend for about a minute or until smooth.

The calorie count on that concoction is ~250 to 260 calories, depending on what fruit you use.  Great for breakfast and it tastes really good.

Good luck.

[MikeBuck]

I eat a lot of my dinners in a stir fry fasion.  Cook up some chicken then stirfry some veggies in olive oil.  To make it interesting look to add some peppers, or some sauce that will give it a little zip.  I'll toss in a little stake seasoning which usually has a pepper base.  Last night I added a little fajita seasonings.  Make your own sauces or look in the store for premade seasonings.  There are lots to choose from!

[LCHFmom]

Every little step forward helps:

1 - Add veggies to any form of smoothies - if you make those ( kale, cucumber, carrots, celery ) are easy to toss into a fruit  or chocolate smoothie with little interference with flavor.

2- Try once a week to add a fun side dish . Someone mentioned spahetti squash. This is my favorite recipe. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/spaghetti-squash-with-parmesan-cheese-recipe.html

They key is really not to give up!    Good for you! 

[betpchem]

I, too, am a creature of habit. My new year's resolution is about meal planning. I know that I don't eat properly if I just grab whatever's around. Planning to add vegetables to the meal is the first step in eating more vegetables.

[DerrickS]

@MaryFolse I agree with @SAlfin, green smoothies are a really easy way to consume veggies. Here's the green smoothie recipe that I use.

The nice thing about smoothies is that you can easily mask ingredient flavors that you don't really care for.

[AndyDandyPandy]

Eating salad is a fad. It won't fill you up. It is just an appetizer. If you want to eat some real vegetables go for something dense like, broccoli, cauliflower, greenbean etc. Eat it enough and you'll learn to love it. Not only does it taste good, it really fills you up for hours if you eat enough of it. I don't know if I'm crazy but I eat up to 2 cups of steamed broccoli or green beans per meal with my meat or w/e protein based meal I eat.

This is off topic but why does vegans think everyone else eat nothing but meat? Vegan is nothing but a cult lol

[Annie-NH]

First pick veggies you already know you like, and find a way to incorporate them into dishes you already make, such as adding to scrambled eggs or omelets.  Raw carrots, summer squash can be grated up and added to soups, meatloaf, etc.  I am really into roasting root veggies when I have something else in the oven  here are suggestions : Cubed winter squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, carrots, brocolli, cauliflower, vidalia onion,  toss with olive oil and add salt pepper and some minced garlic, take what ever veggies you chose and put on a cookie sheet and roast at  375-425 for 30-45 mins, I adjust the time based on the heat of what I am roasting for meat.  Another way is to cut up zuchinni and yellow squash with a red pepper and some mushrooms, cook in skillet with the same oil and spices,   leftovers go great in eggs, or puree and make into a roasted veggie soup

[emili]

The wrap you eat your salad in is killing all the goodness of eating the salad. If you read nutrition information for wraps you will be shocked by how unhealthy they actually are. You will be better off with wheat bread. If you are eating ice berg lettuce, its like drinking half a glass of water. Look for veggies with dark colors- dark green, red, orange- those are the ones that have the highest nutritional value. They will fill you up and boost your health. V8 is pure sodium. I understand being lazy and wanting to have easy habits that you can rely on.. I would just encourage you to research the good bad and ugly of the veggie world. Get the biggest bang for your health and your habits.

[melaangus]

I like to make a sort of vegetarian chili, in which I use beans and plenty of veggies such as tomato, canned corn, onion, carrots, ect.

You can also add spinach to many things, such as spinach enchiladas. And you can also make a homemade pizza with many vegetables on it, and it's way healthier / less calories than eating out