How do ->YOU<- get your veggies in?

i find that this is the hardest struggle for me. i have not really had a hard time keeping my calories in check. but, i've had to start taking a fiber supplement because since i started this diet, for the first time in my life, i'm getting constipated. so i know i need more fiber. i am absolutely terrible about getting veggies in. i don't like snacking on raw veggies. the only one i would eat is carrots, but not without a buncha ranch dressing. that kinda ruins the usefulness of eating it. our family likes broccoli, carrots, beans and corn. there are many meals where we have no veggies at all. i'm struggling with ideas on what and how to add more in. i actually started drinking V8 fusion with my breakfast to get 1 serving in a day. some days that is all i get. i know a good salad would help, but i cannot eat a salad every day. i get tired of salads very quickly. i would appreciate any ideas!

I find that eating lots of beans helps me....  pinto beans with BBQ sauce.... kidney beans in chili... hummus...

Jessica Seinfeil (sp?) has that new cookbook deceptively delicious.  The recipes have vegetables hidden into other foods.  There is a brownie recipes that is made with butternut squa**** is designed to get children to eat vegetables but I think it could be useful in your situation as well.  I ordered it on ebay.

You say you are "terrible about getting veggies in." I would say now is the time to start training your palate! In my opinion, it's important that you don't just accept yourself as "not a vegetable person." Growing up, I didn't eat many vegetables. In fact, when I was really young I would flip out if there was parsley on my plate, just because it was green! Even when I was older, I would scream at my family for cooking broccoli in the house. I thought it was "disgusting." Eventually I was able to change my attitude, and there are very few vegetables I won't eat now. You just have to think of it as a discovery project. Are there any vegetables you "don't eat" but have actually never tried? Try some. Try some a few times before you give up on it. You may be surprised. This happened to me with simple steamed asparagus, for example. Try different textures too. I would rather go hungry than bite into a huge chunk of steamed beet, but I think it's great raw and shredded over salad. DON'T OVERCOOK ANYTHING! If you can't eat a salad every day, eat one every other day. If salads bore you, don't keep eating the same one over and over. Make your salads pretty with red radishes, shredded carrots, white vegetables like daikon or jicama, purple cabbage. Do you have a farmers market near you? If so, try visiting once a week to pick out one new vegetable to experiment with. Ask the vendor about their favorite way to cook it. Are all the vegetables you try fresh? IMO, not all veggies work frozen, and a lot of the frozen ones can be gross! You say you like corn. How about making a grain dish (such as brown rice or quinoa cooked in some reduced sodium stock) and mixing in a lower percentage of corn with a higher percentage of finely chopped and sauteed yellow bell pepper? You get a bit of visual trickery there. Tuna on celery hearts? Mashed sweet potato and butternut squash with cinnamon? Here's a simple recipe for broccoli, which you already like, and potatoes. Sprouts on your sandwich? Cole slaw? (My favorite cole slaw is my dad's: just savoy and purple cabbage, a tablespoon or two of plain green yogurt, lemon juice and caraway seeds.) An ounce of avocado (is this technically a fruit?) never killed anyone. It's great that you like beans -- how about a white bean and collard green soup? While you're working on it, you can get fiber in with whole grain products such as english muffins, wraps, cereal, pasta! "Whole grain" is hot marketing these days, so aim for wholesome, simple ingredients. IMO, the more texture you can see in the bread, the better...although I do make an exception for Trader Joe's low-calorie wheat. I think "whole grain white" and similar products are a waste.

You hit the nail on the head, Sonora!!!!  It takes a basic belief that you need vegetables. Your post mentioned beets, which are really great raw and julienned.  I also found that fresh beets are WAAAY better than the cannned and pickled beets.  Fresh beets roasted are magnificent, we put balsamic vinegar all over them, then eat them on the side the rest of the week. Here is a recipe that may sound awful, but I make it once in a while and it is amazing:   Julienne the following: 1/2 c raw sweet potatoes 1/2 c raw beets 1/2 c raw yellow zuccini 1/2 c raw carrots For the dressing:  mash together 1/2 avacado, sliced green onion, lemon juice, salt & pepper.   Toss And, again, you get the prize for metioning grain fiber, insoluble, BTW, which is great for constipation and keeping colonic health. With all the colon blow cereals these days, try any one of them - you only need a cup a day to get in about half of the day's fiber. You reminded me of white bean dip - cooked white beans, pureed with garlic and basil - tiny bit of olive oil...yum...try that with veggies or on a whole grain wrap!  Good thinking, Sonora!!!!

I eat veggies cuz I am convinced it is a missing nutrient in my diet and when i do a ****ty job of eating them, i get weird cravings. In my reading in treating bulimics, the use of greens is prevalent - the folic acid and other nutrients seem vital in replacing cravings. Like you, I don't really enjoy eating raw veggies, but i make myself eat them with little to no dressing.  Most work days in winter, i have some kind of greens like spinach or mustard greens or turnip greens stirred into a beef broth then my high protein soup mix as  my lunch Salads are hard, for one thing most people use low nutrient things like iceberg lettuce and radishes and cucumbers, then slop dressing all over it and call it a healthy salad. here are some trix i use:

1.  use fresh spinach leaves and/or shredded carrots in place of lettuce in sandwiches or wraps. 2.  in the winter, i make a green drink:  greens of any kind blenderized with 1/2 cup pineapple juice and water.   Pulse, then slam it down. 3.  eat fresh bell pepper, red and green with sandwiches.  4.  Mix in broccoli slaw into boring ole tuna salad, add wasabi and call it a tuna wasabi salad 5.  soup is good...i always try to add kale or spinach the last half hour of cooking to most of them. 6.  Steamed raw or frozen spinach in omelets. 7.  mixing several kinds of veggies as side dishes:  brocoli + corn + red bell, then cooking it. Onions + mushrooms + green beans; tomatoes + zuccini + onion + garlic.  8.  Try oven roasting things:  sweet potato chunks with red bell and onion chunks, brussel sprouts are wonderful!, asparagus, too. Most of all, DH and I try to incorporate veggies as a main part of our meal:  winter squash with rice & sausage baked in it bell peppers stuffed with rice and beef and tomato sauce cabbage rolls stuffed mushrooms (mix ground beef with lipton onion soup, stuff into big mushrooms), serve with lite sour cream EDIT: also, try cauliflower cooked, drained very well, pureed and baked again with paprika on it in place of mashed potatoes.

 

I get my veggies in twice a day, and I am quite regular, as well as not liking salads or steamed vegetables.  At lunch, I have a sandwich with two medium whole wheat pita pockets or breads, a handful of raw spinach, three thick slices of tomato, healthy lunch meat (ham, chicken or turkey), 1 slice American cheese, and 1 teaspoon mayo.  At dinner, I have a protein, two starches, a fruit, and a can of vegetable soup (condensed, using half a can of water).  I heat the vegetable soup for 2-1/2 minutes in the microwave. Denise Phares/Kitties4

Thanks for all the ideas! i just wanted to point out that if i gave the impression that i don't like veggies i'm sorry. it's totally not that i don't like them, it's just that i really don't know what to do with them! there are only a few foods that i absolutely hate and won't eat. Hominy is one of them, ugh. my biggest problem i guess is that my mom did not really cook, therefore i never really learned how to cook. my husband cooks more and better than i do, and he even is stumped when it comes to this. we just don't know what to make and most importantly HOW to make it where it tastes good! we also unfortunately fall into the trap of choosing the "quick" choices because we are always so busy and are cramming supper in at the end of the night after endless child events. i will try some of the ideas mentioned. and i also was interested in that book but mostly because my son will absolutely not eat ANY vegetables other than mashed potatoes. my daughter is great and loves alot of veggies.

Jersey is right, veggies are not real portable, so it is another step to have them on hand.  BTW Unless you grow them or are lucky enough to have farmer's markets around, frozen is a great alternate. People tend to think of frozen produce as not as healthful, but actually they are processed immediately  - far more so than lots of the produce at the store, which can be well over a week old by the time you see them! I have read that potatoes can be one year old in the stores...they are kept at warehouses and treated to prevent aging! No, i did not think you did not like them exactly - hey at least you were asking about them! I assumed you are like me and just have to work at that food group more. It's an easy food group to neglect, not many people take them seriously enough or are too limited in their thinking about them! I grew up with a pretty limited view of veggies - green beans, corn, tomatoes were about it. My mother's idea of salad was iceberg lettuce, pale pink tomatoes tossed with miracle whip.  No wonder i thought I did not like them.  I had not even heard of avocados, broccoli, brussel sprouts, artichokes, radicchio, arugula, mustard greens, kale.  My one and only hated food?  lima beans...can't get next to 'em! I love the foodie movement.  yes, there can be more exposure to low-nutrient foods, but the wonderful learning about new things is pretty awesome. Once a person branches out and makes vegie-eating a priority, tastes change...I actually crave sweet potatoes and beets...two things i thought were only canned at the store. To use them as fresh produce opened up a whole new world!

I can be the same way, but for a different reason--time.  I'm always on the run, and so veggies can be hard to come by.  I keep v8 cans with me when in a pinch, carry baggies of raw carrots and snap or snow peas or celery), make salads and soups my first option for a meal, and sneak it in where I can (ex: I finely chop broccoli, carrot, and onion and spopn the mixture into eggbeaters for a veggie omelette that is complimented by mozzarella). It's very easy in today's culture to go an entire day without veggies, but that is the worst thing for your diet.  YOU NEED THE FIBER TO LOSE WEIGHT!!!!