Week 8 of 52 Small Changes

[OddSocksHighHeels]

All welcome to join at any time!

This week the challenge is to eat 4-6 servings of veg each day. A serving is half a cup of non-leafy veg or a cup of leafy veg.

Start off by including those that you like but try a new vegetable each week. Plan your meals out so that you can aim to include enough veg and remember that frozen and canned count too.

Ideas are to add veg to things like omelettes for breakfast or swap your breakfast chips (do people eat chips for breakfast?) for sliced tomatoes.

For lunch and dinner then try having a salad before your main meal, eat vegetables as a side dish, fill wraps and sandwiches with extra veg and pack extra into soups, stews and sauces.

For snacks then try chopped veg sticks with dips.

Try to eat different colours of vegetables to get the various benefits provided from them.

Previous weeks challenges to continue with are drinking more water, getting enough sleep, keeping active each day, logging your food intake, trying to be more positive and taking a multivitamin.

Last weeks thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/2565604-Week-7-of-52-small-changes?pg=1&order=

Ooh this is a good one! It's so easy to plan meals around meat and have veg as an afterthought. M

I made a lovely pea soup last week, was delicious!

Tonight I made a baked tomato and ricotta pasta dish ( from the highly recommended recipes thread, it's yum!) and added asparagus to it. V nutritious and tasty.

Would be great if anyone had any good veg recipes they could post, I'm always looking for ways to make veg side dishes taste less bland!

This was my pea and mint soup. I didn't have spring onions so just used a brown one, was still delicious!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/408630/pea-mint-and-spring-onion-soup-with-parmesan-biscu

This is really nice rainbowdelicious.com/recipe-potato-topped-vegetables/

Oh yeah, I did it with fennel seeds sprinkled over the top as well. It was so good that even my veg-hating ex ate it all and admitted that it was good but told me to never give him a vegetable again

And this one is one that my veg-refusing DD eats too www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/02/butternut-squash-and-sage-cream-sauce-recipe.html

For fussy veg refuses I really recommend these

Also I love many of these: veg side dishes

DrDiva yum! They look good. But then I love veggies. On the subject of chocolate, it is full of antioxidants and so is coffee... and don't forget wine!

Pointlessfan I definitely advocate batch cooking! Today's roast chicken and veggies leftovers will become chicken soup (broth cooking in slow cooker) tomorrow. Making extra saves time with the next meal, definitely.

Lots of great ideas here! I live the look of that first one, odd socks - sadly I am allergic to pumpkin and squash so the second is a no go here.

Chocolate, coffee and wine? My perfect menu!

Off to a virtuous start to the week :)
Breakfast was pate, with lettuce, cucumber, tomato and avocado.
Lunch was cauliflower rice scrambled eggs, avocado and mini cucumbers.

I make a big cabbage-based salad (big, like a whole head of cabbage) and drown it in a vinegar-y dressing which semi-pickles it and means it keeps for ages (10ish days) covered in the fridge. If you only use hard veggies it's a super-convenient and delicious way of increasing your veg intake. This week's includes red cabbage, kale, capsicum, onions, raw beetroot, carrots, radishes and is a beautiful shade of purple!

Ooh, AGap that sounds delicious! I have got some red cabbage to make some winter coleslaw this week.

Roasted veggies all chucked in the oven is another good way of adding veggies too.

I did well yesterday. Salady lunch with lots of veg, made roasted squash hummus for a snack and had 2 different curries - lentil and veg in one, spinach in the other for dinner.
Planning more hummus on toast for lunch and a big root veg casserole for dinner today. Supermarket tomorrow so have lots of lovely veggies on my list!

Did ok yesterday - would guesstimate probably about 3 portions so falling a little short. Had a bean and tuna salad for lunch and 4 different vegetables with the roast beef for dinner. I'd not much veggie wise in the fridge as I've been putting off the supermarket shop with dc being off half term. May bite the bullet today.

Thanks for that DrDiva the 3yo loves sausage rolls, that would be a good one for her.

Breakfast was a smoothie in the nutribullet with frozen cherries, spinach and some spiralina powder. Lots of green...

Lunch, I'm going to try the I Quit Sugar Mexican muffins, will add lots of veg: onions, peppers, avocados and courgettes.

Dinner will be yesterday's roast chicken turned into chicken soup and veggies, I might spiralise some veg too.

Fab, thank you oddsocks :)

Veggies done for the day;

Had the rest of the bean salad for lunch
Made hummus and had it with celery sticks for a snack. Added bonus, the dc only like the store bought stuff, think possibly home-made the garlic flavour is too strong for them, so it's mine all mine.
Fish with baby corn, asparagus, baby boils and samphire for dinner.

I've never ever tried samphire before but saw someone mention it on the thread and by chance went past it today and thought I would give it a whirl. Was lush, dc didn't like it but they both gave it a go which I was impressed with.

Now waiting on a carrot cake baking in the oven to have with some milk before bed. Carrot cake counts right?

Already made a start on tomorrow and have a spiced veggie lentil soup ready in the fridge for my lunch.

Forgot how much I used to love pottering in the kitchen.

Carrot cake sounds like a vegetable to me

What is samphire? I've never heard of it!

I had a vegetable omelette for breakfast, a carrot with my sandwich at lunch and some sweet potato wedges, spinach and broccoli with dinner. I feel very virtuous.

I have converted someone to samphire! My work is done... Oddsocks it is a seaweed but is deliciously crunchy and salty. Fab with fish.

Had salad for lunch and chicken & veg soup for dinner. Was lovely. I am really enjoying this week's challenge!

and in other news my phone now recognises oddsocks as a word

Oh samphire sounds nice! I'll have to try and find some.

I like your phone

My message disappeared, annoying phone!

Samphire sounds good, I'll have to try and find some.

I like your phone DrDiva

And now it posted twice

Oh, samphire is delicious! It is grown near here (Norfolk) but it's usually only available here in summer.

Lots of veg today:

Breakfast: smoothie with berries, spinach and spiralina (green) powder
Lunch: I Quit Sugar nacho meat muffins (lots of faff to make, won't bother again) with shallots, peppers and courgettes; winter coleslaw with red cabbage and carrot, avocado
Dinner: chicken broth with veg: celery, carrots, broccoli, green beans and cabbage

I haven't measured how many portions but I think it might be loads!

I've never tried samphire, can you get it from the supermarket?
Had a really vegetabley lunch with pulses, root veg and onions but am going out for pizza tonight. Might order a salad with it.