Eating our 10-a-day thread

[Breathmiller]

I would like to try to start a project of getting my 10-a-day of fruit and veg in every day.

Anyone fancy joining me? I find groups on here of support so useful.

I know lentils and beans and chickpeas are part of it too so I will up them. I'm vegan so I'm hoping that should make things easier as I eat lentils as part of my diet anyway.

This thread is for everyone who would like to focus on 'eating the rainbow' as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Or anyone who does this already who has any hints and tips?

twentin glad you had a good birthday but sorry that you had a bellyache after.

Yes, I am the same. I wish I could get out of that mindset. But it takes a long time to reset I suppose.

I'm still not doing to well on the F&V , got a day off today so thinking of 'treat' food. I also need to go for a shop. One of the best things is totally just to not have it in the house. So I need to go get a healthier shop.

Today I had

1. beans
2. onion/cabbage/carrot (coleslaw)
3. tomato
4. banana
5. tropical juice

Not a great day but I won't be having anything except water now until tomorrow 10am. However I won't be hard on myself, it's okay to have off days as long as they aren't too frequent.
Yep @Breathmiller having unhealthy food in the cupboards is too tempting. Is it me or is everything so expensive now! Strawberries in Asda cost £2 and had like 5 in there

1. Raspberries
2. Bolt from the blue juice
3. Pak choi/spinach
4. Mushrooms/shallots
5. Cabbage/green beans
6. Carrots

Half Olives

Bit better today, we had a stir fry. But I am still finishing up all the crap I bought. I am actually impressed at how much I managed to buy. What a numpty!

Yes, I have noticed the prices have gone up. I try to not buy berries out of season because they are not environmentally friendly, far too expensive but usually tasteless. But i have been struggling not to buy raspberries. But today's were so tasteless I've decided to stick to my guns.

If the out of season stuff was tasty it would be harder, but I agree I don't buy fresh berries now, just some cranberries shortly maybe. I have got into the habit of buying cherry tomatoes in autumn/winter as they have a bit of flavour left (unlike the bigger tomatoes) and little kids will eat them.

However I wasn't doing the buying or even list writing this week so we ended up with fresh blueberries and a melon!

Yesterday:
1 Prunes
2 satsumas, tiny so I had two.
3 apple (from our little trees that are after 6/7 years fruiting more freely! tasty🍎)
4 Broccoli, more than 1 portion
5 Carrot
6 melon
Which is good for old version of me but has room for improvement with more veg. I'm planning on chopping lots of veg as it's my turn to do dinner and I've got it all lined up on the kitchen counter to prompt me later.

Yes, I find that really helps, just getting it out of the fridge and put it on the worktop. It's like it clears a mental block.

Last night I had it all out ready to start chopping for the stir fry and and dh had to go into town. He said shall I just get chips for ease as he couldn't be bothered cooking. Now I think if the veg and tofu had still been in the fridge or I didn't know what we had in I might have agreed. But the simple fact it was all out ready to be chopped felt for some reason that I was halfway there.

I did the same at lunchtime today. Was thinking what to have (still haven't been shopping) and thought I'll have a roll with something easy in. Then I just started grabbing anything fresh I had out the fridge. Once it was out it didn't seem that onerous to throw it into the bowl. And I ended up having a (mumsnet massive) salad. Jars of roasted peppers are handy as are some seeds and nuts for protein.

I was also thinking of how we could add a quick hot element to salads for winter and I found a packet of frozen roasted sweet potato. That might be nice with a salad in winter, might have that tomorrow.

I do find a salad is the best thing to get me to 10 but sometimes you just need something hot.

I didn't eat after dinner last night until my salad at lunch after being inspired by Twentin. Definitely helps giving my digestion a break.

Anyway, I'm on 8 just from lunch.

1. Prune juice
2. Lettuce
3. Tomatoes
4. Red pepper
5. Cucumber
6. Grapes
7. Houmous/mushrooms
8. Carrots

I won't eat now til after work at 9 but I try to keep it light at that time of night. Only 2 to go.

Yep I tasted a strawberry the other day and it was awful. Watery and tasteless. Problem is they are the baby's favourite fruit and one of the few my Ds1 (ASD) will eat so we get through a lot. They're clearly unfazed by the taste. Or lack of!

1. Mushroom/pepper omelette
2. Tropical juice (this bottle just won't finish!)
3. 2x tomato
4. mixed lettuce/kale
5. sweetcorn
6. cucumber
7. radishes/red cabbage
8. onion/spinach
9. kidney beans
10. Sharon fruit

Made my usual massive salad for lunch and had some tortellini pasta in fridge so chucked that in. Definitely with you on wanting something hot, OP. Sometimes I add hard boiled eggs. I'll have a look in my local supermarket for the frozen sweet potato.
DH just came home from work with a pizza he grabbed on the way. So, SO tempted but I won't have any. Evil man!

Oh I need to resume massive salads😂.
Today:
1 Blueberries
2 Carrot (2 portions)
3 Olives
4 cauliflower (2 portions, spiced: so nice.)
5 onion
6 Pak choi, garlic, fennel bulb
7 apple

Just popping in mid way through the day to say that the sweet potato was so good in my salad. Nice and warming.

www.strongroots.com/uk/

Oh that's not taking you to the right page. It was the garlic roasted sweet potato

May I join? A friend of mine in France has been doing 800g of fruit and veg for a while which I think is around 10 portions, quite inspiring. I need to up my intake (recently disabled and need to prioritise being as healthy as possible). I may measure 800g of f and v each morning to reset my mindset. Though I'll need a working kitchen scales!

Yes that's it: 80g of fresh counts as a portion. You do get your eye in quite quickly.

I’ve not been counting the last few days, but I have had 2 vegetarian days this week again (first was a decadent vegetable gruyere bake, second was vegetarian enchiladas). It feels good to reduce the meat consumption.

Good point about the berries. Having said that we have a strawberry/raspberry farm within walking distance and was surprised to find they were still selling some at the farm fridge (it’s an honesty box). The raspberries were huge. Didn’t have enough cash for strawberries as well.

My estimates for today:
1 Blueberries (defrosted- nice enough)
2 satsuma
3 Carrot
4 leek, spinach, lemon
5 Prunes
Not as much as I thought!

Otherplans there is a link up thread somewhere that Breathmiller put on which gives a guide per item of what 80g is (e.g. 14 grapes or whatever) which might mean you don’t need your scales.

Thank you Wildernesstips. I'll look for that. I also have measuring cups with may help too.

1. Prune juice
2. Lettuce
3. Tomatoes
4. Cucumber
5. Sweet potato
6. Carrots
7. Grapes
8. Chickpea, onion, tomato soup
9. Veg stew

10. Cabbage/leek

Love the idea of living next to a fruit farm and having an honesty box for berries.

Welcome otherplans. I tend to go by how much of each thing as opposed to weighing as I wanted to get away from that. So I looked every time I had something and now I'm pretty much able to do it by memory. For instance I worked out how portions of chickpeas were in homemade houmous and now know a 5th is a portion of chickpeas. Same if you weigh i guess. You get to know what is a portion. I also never mind going over.

Welcome @OtherPlans

Mine from yesterday-

1. Mixed lettuce/spring onion
2. Cucumber
3. Tomato
4. Carrot
5. Tropical juice
6. Mushy peas

7 and 8. Frozen mixed veg

1. Grapes

10. Mixed nuts

I doubt I'll be able to get much in today as out of the house til late, also I feel I need a little break from the excess veg as I'm suffering from terrible flatulence it's getting embarrassing. I could try and focus more fruit for a week or so as that's an area I've been lacking in anyway.

Thanks for the link @Breathmiller I found the garlic roasted one on swiping right. Will check the local Tesco.

Thanks Breathmiller and Twentin. I'm hoping to overshoot the 10 a day eventually but don't want to let myself get away with deluding myself that i've had the right amount.
I tend to batch cook and freeze puy lentils and veg stews when I have the energy. I just need to make sure i eat them!

A great day yesterday

1. Orange juice

2., 3. & 4. Homemade Enchilada filling: mixed beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, parsnips

1. Apple
2. Leeks & mushrooms (made into a lovely sauce with a bit of cream cheese)
3. Roasted Carrots
4. Roasted Brussel sprouts (these tasted a bit weird)

Not sure I’ve made it to 8 before!

Well done wilderness
Only 5 for me yesterday but for Friday that's not too bad.

Homemade enchiladas sound good. I'm always looking for good Friday night dinners.

1. Lettuce
2. Onion/cucumber
3. Coconut
4. Raspberries
5. Tomatoes

1. Spinach, apple, cucumber, ginger, courgette, broccoli, carrot, avocado juice
2. Spiced butternut squash soup
3. Chickpea and tomato curry
4. Okra curry
5. Onions/peas

1. Raspberries
2. Orange juice
3. Plum tomatoes
4. Hummus
5. Peas/kale
6. Carrots

6.5 Olives

Was glad to eat a few of these up - tomatoes were wrinkly but still fine to be lightly cooked and the olives had been hidden in the fridge a bit too long.

I managed 5 portions yesterday
1 large baked apple
2 tomatoes
3 broccoli
4 chickpeas
5 spinach

Well done Wilderness on doing a best ever day.
This last week has been far from best but it's mostly a bit better than it used to be!
Yesterday:
1 Apple
2 lettuce/tomato
3 chickpea
4 beetroot

OtherPlans I do love baked apple. Might do that tonight.