5 Ways for you and your family to eat more Veggies

Often when we eat processed carbs they are the base of something in our meal.

Think about it… pasta is a base to the sauce, a bun is the base to a burger, bread is the base to a sandwich, tortillas are a base to tacos. All of these can be replaced once in awhile by veggies to help up your nutrition and help if you are trying to stick to a paleo or low-carb diet.

For Pasta, try spiraled zucchini, sweet potato or squash.

For Rice you can use riced cauliflower or broccoli. They even have them really conveniently riced already at sprouts or trader joe’s in the frozen section. If you can't completely give it all up, then go half and half with rice and cauli rice for example.

For a burger try portobello mushroom caps for a really savory substitute, you can also put on a bed of lettuce or wrap in collard leaves.

For sandwich bread, they now sell wraps made out of coconut at many health stores in different flavors. You can try seaweed sushi wraps instead! Or you can simply wrap veggies in a slice of deli meat, or wrap in lettuce leaves.

For tortillas I have a jicama recipe showing you how you can make easy street tacos

So get creative and see how easy it is to make simple substitutions.

You can sneak so many veggies into soups, this is especially great for kids.

In tomato soup, you can steam and puree cauliflower to make the soup extra creamy. You can also puree in spinach leaves.

Butternut squash soup is a sweet and creamy soup you can add additional carrots, apples, or spinach into.

In chili or a chicken rice soup you can add a bag of the riced cauliflower or broccoli.

 The same goes for smoothies similar to soups, once blended in you will hardly know many of the veggies are there!

A few weeks ago we had a smoothie challenge over in the Personalized Natural Health group — head over and join if you have not yet. We had lots of ideas to make more veggie based smoothies instead of lots of fruit.

Trying a variety of greens such as baby boy choy, spring greens, sprouts. You can add carrots, steamed cauliflower, and avocados without anyone noticing.

If you would like to catch up to some of these ideas go check out the previous posts in that group. I also have a free download of 10 smoothie recipes you can grab for inspiration!

One reason why you or the kids may go for tortilla chips or snack bars quicker is because of the thought of having to chop up veggies or wash them. So take just a little time, maybe on the weekend, and have your older kids help out. 

This doesn't mean you have to have just basic carrots in celery.

You can cut jicama into sticks and store in pyrex with a little lime juice, sea salt, and maybe chili flakes

You can slice up cucumber and store in a jar with water, a little vinegar and some dill and lemon for quick pickles

You can roast cauliflower florets in olive oil and sprinkle on nutritional yeast or a cheesy snack later on.

Have tasty dishes ready to go that are super simple to make ahead of time. Have guacamole, hummus, or salsa ready for a dip. A little time to prepare a couple veggie dishes that keep well in the fridge can save you from grabbing something else when that snack time comes.

A great way to get kids to eat more vegetables is to have them be more involved with the cooking process and be aware of where food comes from. If you have a garden, your kids can get their hands dirty and help out. Look into community gardens that may be in the area, or even just have a pot or two outside your door or apartment window that you can grow lettuce, tomatoes or herbs in.

Studies have shown that gardening with children increases their nutrition knowledge, preference and consumption of vegetables and fruits.