Since implementing The Daniel Plan, and sticking to their allotment of veggies as half of the dinner plate, we are eating three times as many vegetables then we used to. And a much larger variety.
A quick dinner meal for us is often grilled chicken breasts and 2-3 different veggies.
Although there is more cooking, it doesn’t take really much more time to add multiple veggies to a meal. Here are three fast and easy ways of adding vegetables into your meal to meet this requirement:
1. Stir Fry
I have become much more creative with our stir-fry. Normally I start with sesame oil and a type of onion (red, yellow, green or even something like fennel) and then add what I have on hand in the refrigerator. I’ve used mushrooms, carrots (julienned) broccoli (or broccolini) Brussel sprouts, snap peas, zucchini, squash, bok choy (or red cabbage) edamame or red pepper. There are also the cans of baby corn or water chestnuts to keep on hand for stir fry.
We often use brown rice, (hence #almostpaleo), but another “rice” I’ve tried is Cauliflower Rice.
My favorite stir fry helper right now is the Calphalon Nonstick All-Purpose Pan. It is a hard-anodized 12-inch pan that pretty much stays on my stovetop. It works great for stir fry, even though it doesn’t have as narrow of a bottom as a wok. It is recommended to be hand-washed only, but since I use it nearly every day, I am handwashing it anyway.
2. Tomato Sauce
While maybe not as versatile as a stir fry, I have added different things to our standard tomato sauces to make them more robust and veggie-full. I make my own sauce instead of using spaghetti sauce from a can so that I can stay away from added sugars.
Besides onions and diced tomatoes, other veggies to add in different combinations are mushrooms (canned or fresh), green, yellow or red peppers, spinach, carrots (julienned) zucchini, or celery (diced/sliced very thin),
If cooking for little ones who don’t want chunky sauce, you can also puree carrots, zucchini, squash to hide in the sauce.
3. Steamer Bags
If you haven’t tried Ziploc Steamer Bags, they are a must-have
for quick and easy veggies! Trust me on this one.
These easy-to-use bags are my little miracle workers, perfectly steaming hard vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, and
sweet potatoes in just a couple minutes via the microwave. They will also precisely cook frozen bags of vegetables. Instructions and times
to microwave are on one side of the bag for reference:
sweet potatoes in just a couple minutes via the microwave. They will also precisely cook frozen bags of vegetables. Instructions and times
to microwave are on one side of the bag for reference:
The Hubs hated sweet potatoes since the only ones he had been exposed to in the past was the squishy, marshmallow-topped casserole at Thanksgiving. Now he asks for them all the time. And our dog Zoey loves them too. I’m still trying to persuade the Youngest to get on board, however!
So All Hail the Mighty Vegetable!