How do you get your veggies and fruits?

[Anonymous]

I am a WAHM with a 5 month old who is EBF. I don't like a lot of fruits (bananas, berries, mango, kiwi, etc. -- I think it's mostly a texture thing). I do like a lot of vegetables but find I don't like to prep them. I buy salad greens with every intention of eating salads for lunch, but I am so hungry at lunch time and have so little time that I don't prep the salad and then things go bad. Usually for lunch I heat up leftovers from the night before, so I get one serving of veggies there, plus one or two that night with dinner.

I want to eat healthier and get more servings of fruits/veggies during the day.... how do you do it? Extra helpful: how do you do it cheaply? And how do you do it with minimal effort (for example, I don't see me dirtying the blender to make smoothies everyday, plus, I don't want to start drinking extra calories from yogurt, although maybe that would be the only way I eat more fruit?). Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I am a big fan of frozen berries. You don't have to worry about them being in season. I throw them on oatmeal or eat them straight from a bowl. They are good for smoothies.

I want to get a really good blender like a Vitamix or something and make my own smoothies, but in the meantime I do like those Naked Juices, the fruit and veggie blends. Some are lower calories than others. There is a lot of sugar but it's not any added sugar, just sugar from the fruit and vegetables. I like throwing one in my bag and having it midmorning. It's easy and I can take to meetings or whatever and don't have to worry about a sticky banana peel or anything.

I like to have baby carrots around to munch on while I'm making dinner. I just make myself have a vegetable with dinner. I am not a huge salad fan but found when I make my own dressing I enjoy it more. I like to get prewashed spinach leaves and make a quick dressing of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper, and dice up apples to throw on. Sometimes I toast pecans but sometimes not. Great salad!

But sometimes I just make the kids frozen broccoli or peas and just make a serving for myself.

[Anonymous]

It is a constant struggle!

[Anonymous]

I eat some sort of fruit, fresh or frozen for breakfast topped with Greek Yogurt. I WAH too so I usually just cut up some combination of carrots, cucumbers, celery, green, red or yellow peppers. I will usually have three from that list. (2-3 carrots, a cucumber and a pepper) plus some type of protein. (a few ounces of sliced meat or leftover meat from dinner the night before) If I don't have any meat on hand I will eat some poached eggs or apples with peanut butter, or hummus. Some days I will cut up cauliflower and broccoli and cook it at lunchtime, instead of the raw vegetables. (I don't like those two vegetables raw)

For dinner we have some sort of protein, veggies and a starch. I am trying to avoid the starchy carbs for a bit. Last night I coated chicken in pecans and spices and baked it. I sliced up 1 red onion, 2 zucchini, 1 yellow squash and 1 container of mushrooms tossed with olive oil and put them all on a baking sheet to roast. (salted and peppered after they came out of the oven) I made a baked potato for my husband.

I believe that gets plenty of vegetables into my day. There were no leftover veggies from dinner last night. I ate 3/4 of the roasting pan.

I hate making salads too for some reason but I do have the patience for cutting up individual vegetables and eating them raw.

[Anonymous]

You can also buy baby carrots, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, etc. and just put them in a bowl and eat them with your hands. I find that if I have to make a salad, I won't do it and then things go bad. But, if I just have to put vegetables in a bowl and rinse them, I will do it.

Frozen berries and frozen grapes eaten out of a bowl like snacks are also pretty low effort since they don't require me cut or peel anything.

[Anonymous]

I roast or steam veggies anytime I can and have them ready whenever I want them. Yesterday, for example, I worked from home, so I just rotated veggies in and out all day. I now have cooked butternut squash, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, asparagus, and zuccinni that I will eat off of for several days. I just grab an assortment and some of the brown rice that I also cooked and bring for lunch everyday. I also do a smoothie in the morning. It really only takes a minute, but I have a small blender just for that. I blend it and take it in a jam jar everyday for work. Every meal has at least 3/4 veggies.

[Anonymous]

I was tired after work yesterday and nuked a pound of frozen spinach, and gobbled it all up while dinner was in the oven...

[Anonymous]

1024 here, and I'm also lazy about cleaning greens so I buy the salad mixes, whichever kind is on sale. It's a couple bucks more but otherwise we wind up wasting the greens 'cause nobody eats them unless I prep it, lol.

and I keep apples, bananas, berries, green peppers at work and eat them throughout the day.

[Anonymous]

Salads get old fast. We did that for like 2 weeks and then maxed out. For us, oven roasting veggies with olive oil, salt, and pepper is delicious and something we can happily eat most nights.

If you want to keep it super minimal, just get pre-cut veggies, toss with olive oil, salt & pepper in a mixing bowl and put in the over at 375 for 15-20 min, flip them, cook for another 15.

[Anonymous]

Also, cleaning a blender after having made a smoothie is a hundred times easier if you do it right away and not let anything get dried out and caked on. Pour out smoothie, add some water and a tiny squirt of dish soap and blend it again. Rinse and dry, easy peasy.

[Anonymous]

It's just plain harder than eating like crap.

The things I do to minimize the prep:

-boxed salad- keep my salad dressing in the fridge at work
-but veggies that are ready to go for the salad (cherry tomatoes, just rinse, pre-washed sugar snap peas)
-olives- drain whole jar at the beginning of the week and just add to salad daily
-load up salads with nuts and seeds (just pour out of pouch- same with craisins, raisins)
-buy matchstick carrots
-slice up entire cucumber at a time and keep in ziplock
-buy crumbled / shredded cheese

I still find it to be a total pain in the neck, but I feel best when I'm eating lots of fresh veggies, so I'm willing to deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Juicer:

Carrot, orange, ginger
Beet, apple
Cucumber, lemon, apple, kale
Kale, grapefruit
Pear, spinach, apple

just get one that goes in the dishwasher!

[Anonymous]

Steam broc for dinner most nights. Takes two seconds.

I like to eat just a medium bowl of plan arugula with my fingers. So tasty.

My favorite breakfast smoothies don't have yogurt but you do need to clean the pan. Frozen kale, one banana, another fruit plus water or ice makes a great breakfast smoothie.

[Anonymous]

I honestly don't worry too much about fruit. If I get one piece a day, that's fine. Some days, I don't even get that. I emphasize veggies. Fruit is pricier and often comes from more remote locations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I roast or steam veggies anytime I can and have them ready whenever I want them. Yesterday, for example, I worked from home, so I just rotated veggies in and out all day. I now have cooked butternut squash, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, asparagus, and zuccinni that I will eat off of for several days. I just grab an assortment and some of the brown rice that I also cooked and bring for lunch everyday. I also do a smoothie in the morning. It really only takes a minute, but I have a small blender just for that. I blend it and take it in a jam jar everyday for work. Every meal has at least 3/4 veggies.

Damn, lady! You're impressive. I would say that you probably weren't doing a full day WAH....