If you are a regular reader around here, you know that I am passionate about healthy eating and I enjoy eating a vegetarian diet. Many of my readers have asked me for tips on how to add more plant based meals to their diets and how to get their families to eat more vegetables. Believe me, I struggle with this within my own family as well. Over the years, I have devised a few ways to trick your family to successfully add more vegetables to your diet.
How to add more vegetable to your diet
Start first thing
Breakfast is the perfect opportunity to get at least one serving of vegetables into your day. Spinach, red pepper and tomatoes to name a few are perfect additions to omelets and egg muffins and frittatas. You won’t even realize that you are getting in your first serving of veggies. Avocado toast lover? Add some arugula and tomatoes on top and you are on your way.
Snack on the rainbow
If I cut up carrots, celery and cucumbers and put them in the fridge, I will definitely snack on them. They are perfect dipped in some hummus, cream cheese, salad dressing or peanut butter. Portable and ready to go. Otherwise, I am more apt to just grab some empty carbs like pretzels.
Be creative
It’s really fairly easy to add in veggies to your family’s favorite meals. Making spaghetti bolognese? Add in some mushrooms or peppers to your sauce. Anything goes in stir fry meals and they are a perfect way to clean out the fridge at the end of the week. Making burgers? A little veggie slaw on the side is a yummy accompaniment.
Taco, Burritos or enchilada fans at your house? Peppers, onions and even diced zucchini are fabulous additions to any Mexican meals. Chances are your family won’t even notice and might even enjoy the new additions.
Baked goods are a fan favorite with my kids. My son never realized that I added zucchini to his muffins but he sure did enjoy them.
These are some of the tips and tricks I try to implement at our house. Some work better than others but they are certainly worth a try to add more vegetables to your diet.
Tell me-How do you get your family to add more vegetables to their diet?
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Your frittata looks delicious. We just had veggie frittata for dinner last night. What a coincidence! When my kids were little, we used to hide veggies in meals, but my hubby and I are both veggie freaks, so there is no hiding anymore.
WEll that’s great to hear!
Cutting veggies up makes it so much easier to grab when I’m hungry. It’s helped infinitely on healthier snacks instead of some more junk food type items.
I hope you’re having a great trip!
I have this conversation with my patients and their parents every day, all day! The parents complain that the kids don’t eat veggies but neither do they. It’s tough. I make suggestions and I get excuses. Ok then.
Ha! I have to sneak the veggies in…more so that I’LL eat them thananyone else LOL
I know you are veggie challenged! 🙂
ALL the veggies with eggs at breakfast are my fave way to incorporate them into my diet.
Yes a great way to start the day!
These are great tips! One that I have found works on young ones (like my sister) is to give them veggies in different cooking preparation. For example, my sister won’t eat cooked broccoli but she will eat it raw. Carrots she won’t eat raw or steamed but she likes them roasted. Play around with how you prepare vegetables for your kids and you may be surprised at what they will like.
Keeping cup up vegetables in the fridge is key for me. Fruit too! I will reach in and grab it for a snack. I do have to sneak veggies to my husband! I just made a soup/stew and I cut up broccoli and spinach very small so that he wouldn’t know. He loved it!
I wish I could get my husband to be a little more open minded about veggies. I guess if you are both vegans he has to eat veggies!
I used to be a sweet breakfast person, but these days I’m loving a more savory veggie breakfast. It’s a great way to start with a serving of veg!
Me too! I love eggs with veggies for breakfast. Fills me up and I don’t feel weighed down at all
I’ve also tried doing this to our family! There was a time I tried to slice carrots as thin as possible, and there was also a time I tried to chop a broccoli to bits just so I could put it in a dish. It’s so hard sometimes but their health is more important 🙂
It is hard sometimes! Sounds like you’ve got it under control though
My husband is definitely a veggie-hater so it can be hard. Much like a kid, I just keep trying to expose him to them and also sneak them in. 🙂
Green smoothies can be a wonderful way to get in some veggies, too! Unfortunately I haven’t been able to interest my husband in them . . . yet. 🙂
My hubs is a total carnivore and it’s hard to believe we actually are compatible! I think he has gotten worse in his old age 🙂
These are great tips! I love finding ways to sneak veggies into whatever I’m eating…like adding a bunch of extra veggies to pasta sauce! You don’t even realize they are there!
Yes exactly!
we are so lucky the kids have always loved vegetables – all kinds! So there has never really been an issue here. They don’t live with us, but at their mom’s they got plenty of veg too. my husband and I probably eat at least a pound of vegetables every day. Sometimes at breakfast, always at lunch and dinner. And snacks. I even will make bread from fruit and veg pulp if I juice!
Well that’s great to hear!