7 Great Ways To Incorporate Veggies Into Your Diet To Maintain Health And Weight

If you don’t like vegetables or are just looking for creative ideas to add more vegetables to your day (including breakfast!) you’re in the right place. Most of us don’t get enough vegetables. For most vegetables, 1 cup is a serving. For raw, leafy vegetables like salad greens, it’s 2 cups. Vegetables are a great source of healthy nutrients like fibre, potassium, folate, and vitamin A.

They also play a big role in helping people lose or maintain weight. Vegetables are rich in fibre, which helps fill you up. Plus, when you’re eating more low-calorie vegetables, there’s less space for eating less higher-calorie less-healthful foods.

You may think you don’t like vegetables, but maybe you just haven’t tried the right preparation. Broccoli may taste boring steamed, but roasted and topped with Parmesan cheese, and it takes on a sweet and nutty flavor.

1. Add vegetables (and fruits) to breakfast

The nutrients you get are a plus for your health, but eating produce in the morning can also help you maintain a healthy weight. The most common items on their A.M. menu? You guessed it: fruits and veggies. So whip up a chock-full-of-veggies omelette or smoothie bowl bursting with fruit.

2. Eat more veggie soup

Research has shown that when people eat soup they tend to eat fewer calories. Soup is also a great way to eat more vegetables because you can add a lot of produce to your soup pot. Make a chock-full-of-vegetables soups to help you get your fill this week.

3. Snack on vegetables

And we don’t mean potato chips and French fries. Your snacks should help you fill up in between meals so you don’t feel starving at dinner. They also can help you fill your vegetable quota. Try carrots or cucumbers dipped in hummus, celery with peanut butter or a small cup of vegetable soup.

4. Turn vegetables into noodles

Flip pasta night on its head and make noodles out of vegetables. Use sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini, turnips or beets to replace pasta and you’ll be getting loads of nutrients for not a lot of calories. Make Shrimp Scampoi Zoodles, Sweet Potato Carbornara for dinner tonight. If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can use a vegetable peeler to create long “noodles” with your vegetables.

5. Make wraps with lettuce

Cut down on calories and carbs by using with lettuce to make a wrap. Butter lettuce leaves, cabbage leaves, lacinato kale and Swiss chard all make good stand-ins. It’s a fun spin on lunch or dinner and an easy way to add more vegetables to your day. Wrap up your favourite sandwich fillings.

6. Use spaghetti squash for lasagne

Think outside the box of traditional lasagne and instead of noodles use spaghetti squash. You get a satisfying portion of lasagne and a full serving of vegetables.

7. Turn your vegetables into chips

Make eating vegetables fun and whip up homemade chips with beets, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts or kale. Baking thin slices or leaves with a little salt gives you a crunchy snack or side. Even kids and picky eaters can’t resist vegetables when they’re served like chips!