Help me eat more veg please!

[weatherall]

Hi I've been directed here from another thread where I was worried about my health as I eat almost no veg at all. (At most one small portion pwk)

I didn't realise this was so unusual or so unhealthy. I eat fruit and lots of dairy and wholemeal bread so I thought that was ok.

We are really broke atm and DP is a vegetarian so we don't eat (can't afford) much meat. Meals are often carb and dairy based eg pizza, mac cheese, toasties.

I was surprised on the other thread that people were saying they actually like veg. To me they are something I tolerate because I know I should. After spending 2 days thinking about this the only examples of veg I like are: garlic, mushrooms, pickled baby beets, home made tziki (cucumber), onions in things eg mac cheese, home made chips with skins on, tomato sauce in pizza and spag bol.

Veg I don't find too bad are: raw or roasted carrot, really buttery sprouts, blended homemade lentil soup (carrot and tomato), red pepper on pizza.

If it's on a plate in front of me I'll eat baby spinach, green beans, lettuce (not rocket) but I don't 'like' them.

I don't like lots of flavours or textures mixed together. I don't like black pepper, salad dressings, chilli, anything spicy/hot/strong.

So what can people suggest?

Sorry I don't have time to read the whole thread, but have you tried roasting vegetables. You can do a mixture of lots of different ones, so a great way of getting your 5 a day and they taste delicious. So much better than boiling.

At this time of year I roast a lot of Mediterranean vegetables - tomatoes, red onion, courgettes, peppers and aubergine. Just chop them up into chunks, add some salt, pepper and maybe some dried herbs and toss them in olive oil.

Sweet potato and butternut squash are also lovely roasted.

sorry, I have just read that I wrote source instead of sauce

Was there aubergine in the lasagne? That and spinach don't agree with my gut too much.
How about roasted giant mushrooms? When they're nearly cooked add some cheese, like Brie or Stilton so it melts.
I'm not very good at eating veg apart from evening meal, so try to make sure I have tomatoes/lettuce/cucumber in my sandwich.
I make coleslaw and have that with lunch too.

A bit of butter on your veg lifts it and improves the taste no end.

Or grate some cheese over the top - feels much less of a chore to eat, then!

Do you put extra veg onto pizza? I sometimes buy plain then load it up - mushrooms, peppers, red onions, mange tout. Maybe stir fry for a couple of minutes first? (I always put extra cheese on top, too!)

Carrots and celery in bolognese with the onion - the Italian way to do it, I believe. I've always done 1 onion, 2 carrots, 3 sticks of celery with 400g of mince.