Tips for getting more vegetables into my day?

[ficbot]

I do periodic exchange-based tracking to make sure I am covering all the food groups, and I am very low on vegetables. Any tips on getting more vegetable servings into the day? I have no troubles meeting the fruit quota, but 4-6 servings of vegetables isn't happening.

I think part of the problem is, I don't like cold vegetables that much. Packing a container of cold, cold cucumber in my lunch just does not appeal to me at all. Also, I tend to eat dinner in front of the computer (I know, bad, bad!) so I go for things like rice bowls or soups which I can eat in a bowl. Making tons of side dishes doesn't work for me.

So other than throwing some frozen spinach into my noodle soup or some peppers into a stir-fry, that's pretty much it. Anybody have any creative ideas for vegetables? I feel like maybe some kind of batch soup with all sorts of pureed vegetables could be good for keeping in the fridge. If I could replace my morning cup of tea with it, that might knock off a serving before I even finish breakfast. But it would have to be very low-cal if I did that. Any other creative ideas?

[VegiKate]

*Just* pureed veggies with seasonings would be very low-cal. I'd also suggest adding some sort of bagged frozen veggie mix into your nightly bowl of rice. I like the steamfresh bags as a lunch or snack - six minutes in the microwave and done.

Curious what your meals are looking like? Whats an average breakfast, or lunch? I've seen a bunch of people mention "green shakes" made with veggies and fruit, maybe something like that would be a good supplement once in a while?

[amaroque]

Grill them, roast them, make veggie and noodle soups. Create veggie versions of your favorite meat meals. Mix them in with scrambles or potatoes. What can't you do with them?

[ficbot]

Curious what your meals are looking like? Whats an average breakfast, or lunch

Well, here was today, which is fairly typical

Breakfast was oatmeal with applesauce and a cup of chocolate soy milk. This is my standard breakfast. I very seldom vary it. Sometimes I put pumpkin in the oatmeal instead of applesauce.

Morning snack was a banana. It's usually a 100-cal serving of soy nuts or sunflower seeds, sometimes a granola bar.

Lunch was chickpea noodle soup, this is a packet of rice noodles in broth with a handful of thawed frozen spinach and a handful of chickpeas. It's a favourite and I have it often. Also had half a canned pear.

Afternoon snack was 2 clementines and a 100-cal trail mix of raisins, sunflower seeds, puffed rice cereal and puffed millet cereal.

Dinner was 1/2 can split pea soup, 2 rice cakes and another glass of soy milk, warmed up this time

[dormouse]

One suggestion I have right off the bat is V8 fusion juice, a yummy mixture of vegetable and fruit juice that comes in many flavors. I'm not sure where you live, but I drink a glass of this every morning with my oatmeal and to wash down my multivitamin.

A good veggie dish for a bowl is sauteeing up some veggies (broccoli, carrots, etc.) with some teriyaki sauce and putting over rice. Yum.

I have to say, it looks like you are getting more veggies than most people do.

[MrFalafel]

I had this problem for many years. What I finally did was break out the cash and buy a super-dooper juicer device. Not just a juicer, but one that puree's the entire vegetable so you actually need to add water to make it drinkable. I'll then put some carrots, celery, kale, some ice cubes and whatever else looks good into the blender and in no time I'm drinking my daily veg and fruit. Its completely changed my diet, health and well being to be honest. Wish I had purchased one of these things years ago.

[Paradox]

Well, here was today, which is fairly typical

Breakfast was oatmeal with applesauce and a cup of chocolate soy milk. This is my standard breakfast. I very seldom vary it. Sometimes I put pumpkin in the oatmeal instead of applesauce.

Morning snack was a banana. It's usually a 100-cal serving of soy nuts or sunflower seeds, sometimes a granola bar.

Lunch was chickpea noodle soup, this is a packet of rice noodles in broth with a handful of thawed frozen spinach and a handful of chickpeas. It's a favourite and I have it often. Also had half a canned pear.

Afternoon snack was 2 clementines and a 100-cal trail mix of raisins, sunflower seeds, puffed rice cereal and puffed millet cereal.

Dinner was 1/2 can split pea soup, 2 rice cakes and another glass of soy milk, warmed up this time

From the sounds of it you need to eat a lot more, not necessarily vegetables, just more.

[giselle]

Make the centerpiece of lunch and dinner a huge vegetable-based salad. Almost every day.

[penny79]

You could make your snacks, instead of fruit and processed nuts mixes, green smoothies. Or eat the fruit and no nut/seed mixes and then an hour or two later have some vegetables or nonsweet fruits.