What are ‘whole grains’ and ‘leafy greens’

[Mushroo]

I know this sounds really dim but all healthy eating guidance suggests eating legumes, whole grains and leafy greens.

But, what does that actually look like in terms of family meals? Can someone provide some ideas for each meal?

A typical day for us at it stands might be:
Porridge with peanut butter and fruit
Lunch might be soup / a sandwich
Dinner: lasagne and salad
Quite ‘normal’ but I suspect not the epitome of healthy.

Not fussy eaters but a complete lack of ideas

Thank you!

Leafy greens are things like spinach and kale. We put spinach in curry, just at the end so it wilts rather than cooks.

Whole grains - e.g. whole grain bread, wholewheat pasta, brown rice, pearl barley, bran, whole oats etc.

Leafy greens here are spinach and spring greens. Both frozen and fresh spinach, frozen is normally a side dish, fresh is cooked into a recipe. Spring greens is a cooked curry with potato and tomato.

Wholegrains = rice? Bread? 🤷‍♀️

Cabbage, kale, chard, basically all salad leaves, spinach, arugula, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels, etc. Cruciferous is another useful search term.

In terms of legumes and whole grains, well you can get microwaveable sachets of flavour lentils and quinoa in supermarkets, or if you’re cooking from scratch then adding a tin of green lentils to the meat/base mix for your lasagne immediately adds in some extra protein and legumes. Instead of rice as a side we will sometimes have quinoa and grains with a big heap of spinach or leaves and then the main part of a dinner such as a veggie curry or chilli or burger.

As a general rule we would swap out the carb (potatoes, chips, rice or bread) for the grains and legumes. Or add the legumes as an additional protein in whatever recipe we’re making.

Leafy greens: kale, all the various kinds of cabbage, spinach, spring greens.

Whole grains: freekeh, quinoa, brown rice, wild rice, bulgur, farro, pearl barley, millet

For bread - choose wholemeal/granary. Pasta - wholewheat pasta. Although I don't always do this as it does taste different!!

I'd make the lasagne with kale and mushrooms, or switch up the salad for sautéed savoy cabbage or cavolo Nero. Or for another pasta dish, add kale or spinach.

If you make meat of some kind, switch up the potatoes for a pilaf of whole grains. Switch white rice with a curry for brown or wild, or a mix.

Other legumes are baked beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, borlotti beans, butter beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, edamame, etc etc.

Heinz do a tin of mixed beans in their normal tomato sauce, if you’re looking to vary your fibre intake for gut health, etc. Most supermarkets sell a tinned mixed bean salad in a vinaigrette if you’re not confident with preparing multiple types of beans.

Thank you! It sounds so obvious written out, I think a good mindset i need to get into is adding these things in, rather than completely changing family favourites.