I'm really trying to eat more veg, but for a born carnivore it's difficult. Help

[clumsymum]

Nice recipes please for veg based meals (not totally veggie tho') please.

my blood pressure is slightly raised, and I've read somewhere that if I can eat 7 portions of fruit and veg, rather than just 5, it could help. Also read that people tend to eat more fruit than veg, altho the veg would be more beneficial.

But I'm a natural meat eater, in my life veg or salads form an accompaniment to the main item. lunch-time snacks automatiocally tend to be ham or cheese sarnies etc.

So go on, convert me.

How about drinking them? You could try a couple of glasses of veggy juice or fruit smoothies if just veg is a bit of a drag!

One thing I do for lunches is a huge salad with just a sprinkling of leftover roast chicken in it. Also make your usual meals - pork chops with potatoes and veg (just as an example) and give yourself a smaller portion of meat and potatoes and cook an extra veg so you have three portions of veg instead of two or whatever. A lot of things like stews, pasta sauces etc I make with half the quantity of meat and bulk out with extra veg.

Clumsymum I find the trick is to use a lot more veg than you might expect.
So for eg a sausage casserole now involves maybe one packet of sausages between the 5 of us but with 2 x tins of tomatoes, a good handful of mushrooms, an onion or two, a couple of carrots chopped up - all these added at the frying stage.
Then serve with broccoli and leeks for eg and you probably have 4 veg units per person in that.
Use the same method to bulk out any normal meal meal you do (pies/casseroles/risotto/stir fry) and it costs less to feed more as well - bonus!

It's true about veg, it's better for you but a lot easier to eat fruit. How about veg snacks - take a handful of tomatoes, half a pepper chopped up and a couple of carrots with you for lunch - that's 3 units there.

Doh! I see Bozza has said the exact smae thing. Well great minds.

Oh, I'm with you there, clumsy. If God had meant to eat that crap, he'd have given me two floppy ears

One-a-day for veg could be a nicely blended vegetable juice. One-day for fruit could be a fruit juice.

... I do think it's probably more important to eat more veg than fruit, as I believe the average Brit gets most of their Vitamin C from potatoes, but if anyone can convince me that a brussel sprout sandwich is in some way finer than a ham one, I'll kiss them on all four cheeks!

Tomatoes on toast for breakfast, boiled corn on the cob for lunch, apples for snacks, baked banana with cinnamon or baked apple for puddings, cream cheese with a big layer of watercress in your sandwiches, carrot sticks with hummous fpr snacks / a little starter before supper, or celery, veg soups - leek etc, veg curry, keep a ziplock bag of sticks of carrot, cucumber, pepper, celery etc on your desk or in your handbag for snacking, veg stir-fry with spicy / tasty sauce of your fancy (sweet and sour, chilli, etc).....

Oh, and why don't potatoes count?

I understand that chips don't count, but if I steam new potatoes with their skins on, or bake a jacket potato is that a veg unit?

No tates don't count as they do not have all the vits and minerals present elsewhere.

The key is strong colours - red raspberries, dark green broc and spring greens, purple grapes, red tomatoes.

Note that potatoes are white.....

Roast veg are delicious and slip down very easily IME. Also we are coming up to the time of year when the soft fruit are in season and I find it much easier then to up the fruit, than in the winter when you are stuck with apples and oranges and bananas.

Ah yes bozza strawberries, yummy and good for you and so few calories hurrah!

Thanks so far.

But no one has come up with a real 'treat'.

I mean, a huge salad for lunch is a bit of a trial to me. I will eat it, but find it hard work, rather than a pleasure.

Similarly, bulking up a casserole with veg. I know it's sensible, and achieves the objective, but it's making a toil of a pleasure.

There must be some veg based foods that are as enjoyable as a good steak or a Spag bol with dollops of good beef and pork mince in it?

I AM trying to snack on carrot, celery and grapes, but find myself really wanting a bar of CDM (which I have as well).

oh and thank you Desiderata, I thought I was the only one ....

For me clumsymum it is roast veg, maybe with some feta or pesto. I am aware that it would be far healthier to steam my veg, mind you. I am also fond of peas straight out of the pod as a snack.

what about a cold noodle salad?

dh does a fab one with tons of corriander, bean sprouts, chilli, sugar snap peas etc

TBH bulking up a casserole is no hardship to me. I like meat, but in small quantities. I would never go out and order a 12oz steak.

try this link www.bbcgoodfood.com/ you might find a receipe on there that inspires you. My dh is not a veg eater but if its in a curry thats another matter!

oh now .... bean sprouts ......... yeughhhhh.

I don't eat 12 oz steaks, I have a small appetite, but would love a medium rare 4oz fillet, maybe with a few mushrooms.

Just finished preping a spinach and riocotta canelloni for tea. Added lots of nutmeg and some toasted pinenuts too. With a layer of tom (spag bol sauce but without the meat) on the bottom and on the top. It's a real winner in our (fully carnivore) house. Try www.riverford.co.uk for veg receipe ideas. There are some really unusual ones in there which work really well for us (broccoli and anchovies with pasta is another favourite). I know these are veg only options, but you can always add a bit of roast chicken or pork to most of them if you want!

Remember it is 80g of fruit or veg to class as a portion. (sorry for the bad news!)

Actually I am sat at my desk eating some rather nice cherries just now. What about raspberries and cream? I picked my own last year and froze a lot so DD and I can treat ourselves all year.

see, I love a snack of cherry toms and a chopped up pepper, all nice and crunchy.

Never been as keen on the mountain of lettuce that you get when you ask for "salad" in a restaurant.

Actually mum2angels it is roughly a handful.

So maybe 5-6 cherry toms, a couple of normal sized ones, half a pepper, a couple of inches of cucumber, 3 florets of broc, a big serving spoon thingy of leeks, a medium sized carrot, 1/3 of a tin of toms,...

gybegirl, Now that's the sort of thing I'm talking about, sounds lovely.

The good food website that mumoftwoangels has given looks good too.

Now we're getting somewhere ....

I use that goodfood site too

also good is bbc.co.uk/food

There is a killer cheesecake on good food 898cal per slice, its not veg put it did have fruit on the top lol