Hell yes. I don’t eat fruit at all (it’s all slimy to me) but I try hard to eat lots of veg instead. Not always successfully. I’m trying to eat more veg, but cheaply and without using too much extra electric. These are things that work for me.
Soup is my go to. I make it in a soup maker, and it’s very quick with pre chopped fresh or frozen veg. I tip in frozen onions, chopped veg, a small packet of fresh herbs and stock pot thingy. Top up with boiling water and off it goes (I do carrot and coriander, tomato and Basil, beetroot and thyme, and squash and sweet potato or pea and mint) It does it’s thing for about twenty mins while I cook dinner, I pour into tubs and freeze as I tidy up. I don’t even label them, just pull one out on the way out if the door. I heat them up in a mug and drink them. It seems easier than sitting down with a bowl. I bought a big stack of takeaway style tubs from eBay to freeze them in. You can add grated carrot, tins of sweet corn/peas or fresh spinach to ready made soups and pasta sauces. They cook so quickly, they’re done by the time it’s heated through (maybe and extra minute or two for the carrot). Tinned carrots dissolve to mush, if you don’t want extra texture.
If I make a cheese sauce, I add raw spinach or cooked squash/sweet potato mixes (microwaved in the bag first) and blend. They squash one is great for macaroni cheese, and the spinach version goes bright green. You can tell the children it’s snot sauce. I also have two awesome veggie lasagne recipes I’ll post if you’re interested. Against, a faff, but freeze well.
I also make bread rolls on Friday while I’m making pizza. DD loves making dough shapes for me to bake, so it keeps her amused and the oven is on anyway. Ok, I eat weird shaped lunches, but the fresh bread is so much nicer than bought, it feels quite special. I carelessly throw them in the freezer, and microwave them when I want them.
The other thing I sometimes do is make vegetable rosti. They are an absurd faff, but SO good. I grate (thats the faffy bit) carrots, courgette, squash and sweet potato, let them sit on a towel to dry. Mix in a egg, shape the into cakes and bake in batches until they go crispy, and fling in the freezer. They are SO delicious, and you can just grab a couple and microwave to go with whatever your having for dinner or scoff as a snack. They are lovely for lunch with cream cheese and only take a minute to heat through.
I often bake an extra tray of roasted vegetables if I’m doing a roast dinner. They are nice for lunch on their own, but even nicer for a quick mid-week dinner with a baked Brie to dunk them in. Baked celeraic or sweet potato wedges are very nice. About half an hour in a halogen oven. I make them first and dunk them in mayo as a starter while I’m waiting for the meat (sometimes having eaten the salad while I’m waiting for the veg to cook). Eating veg before my meal also often seems easier.
A sweet potato with pizza toppings is messy, but amazing, either roasted or baked. Failing that, beans on toast. Baking a sweet potato takes a bit of time (although not as much as regular potato) but you can just leave it alone while you do other things (I poke a couple into gaps in the Sunday roast to fill the oven up and reheat during the week.)