I need to eat more veg - any tasty ideas?

[busybeeee222]

I need to loose about a stone, I know I need to add more veg to my diet, so far my ideas are:

Make a big load of roast veg (I don't usually do roast veg)
Eat it with dinner tonight
Add it to couscous for lunch
Make ratatouille with it

Make a vegetable soup

Any other ideas what else?

Also I am snacking on chocolate and biscuits all the time and I need to stop. Any ideas for for healthy snacks?

I'm thinking:
Carrots and celery and hummus

Maybe making homemade banana bread .

Snack on boiled eggs, they keep you full for ages.

Roast butternut squash is lovely, I add Moroccan spices and eat hot or cold with winter salad leaves, chickpeas and feta.

Roast cherry tomatoes, lovely with rocket and mozzarella.

I always add vegetables to my sauces. I blitz them, so no one knows they are there. So my bolognaise, curry, stew etc., all have hidden veg in them. I add celery, carrots, turnip, swede, parsnip and tomatoes.

Another way of eating vegetables is to make your own soup.

Nothing is the least fattening alternative snack to chocolate and biscuits - why are you snacking so much? Can you work out why you snack and find a different way of getting that reward?

I make vegetable soup (with pulses) and have that for lunch most days.

every Day I make a bowl of chopped fruit or veg so it’s ready to snack on (apples, kiwi, grapes, carrot, celery, cucumber, peppers). I eat more as it’s there and bite size!

Also I have cauliflower rice and courgetti instead of carbs. Butter beans instead of pasta.

Or make a sauce with onion, pepper, courgette and tomatoes, then blend.

Roast veggies with feta
Veggie stir fry with soy sauce garlic and feta is amazing

Apple and peanut butter - sounds disgusting but is really tasty

Carrot and butternut squash, blended with some chilli powder, oxo cube and some water to make it soup. It goes really creamy and doesn't feel like eating veg at all.

I have now only started buying veg I really like. I'm not getting "filler" veg that just makes my fridge look nice.

I'm also buying ore prepped veg for some stuff because it takes away the hate of the prepping and a bit of the cooking and washing up.

It's a pretty obvious thing to do but I had to realise I was doing it.

I'm seem to be cooking lots of risotto but with less rice and more veg.

So, cooking the rice, doing all the veg in a separate pan then adding together at the end. I had pea, leek, asparagus, with butternut squash last week and it was lovely and easy. Refrigerated well also.

Another thing I do is I portion my veg first so there seems to be more veg and then add the carbs after so it's veg heavy not pasta heavy if that makes sense.

Someone had a snack pack of apple and peanut butter in work and my daughter loves it. At £1.75 though from m and s which is the only place I've seen it, I will be making my own!

It is really nice.

The problem I find with roast veg is that to get it really nice, you have t have a fair amount of oil on it. I dont find 2 tablespoons is enough and 2 tablespoons is 260 cals on its own.

I find roasted cauli a good bet because it doesnt really need oil over it, just a few squirts of fry light.

Don't know if you can get it, but sweet pepper kebabs with pizza oil drizzled over are lovely. It has rosemary, cumin, coriander seeds and dried chili in it.

Use some spices with vegetables that will increase the taste of your vegetables

Some lovely ideas in the link below. The Mediterranean diet is not a 'diet' but the best way of eating delicious and healthy foods, including lots of vegetables.

www.eatingwell.com/gallery/8025586/mediterranean-diet-dinners-for-weight-loss/

Instead of rice and pasta, eat cauliflower and broccoli. Roast vegetables are easy any yummy: butternut squash, parsnips, beetroot, carrots, peppers, tomatoes. I often make extra and put the leftovers in a stew, made with tomato or curry sauce, the next day.

Don't keep rubbish food (biscuits, icecream, milk chocolate) in the house. A square of dark, high-cocoa chocolate is fine. No bread other than a bit of pitta bread. Banana bread is still a cake and should be an occasional treat. Snack on melon, cantaloupe, grapes, apricots, apples, satsumas, carrots........ so much to choose from!

Keep boiled eggs in the fridge. Excellent if you think you're starving - only 70 calories each.

Remember to stay hydrated. Often, when we think we're hungry we're actually thirsty. But try not to drink calories, especially sugary sodas and booze.

Delay breakfast until 11 and don't eat after 7 pm. AKA intermittent fasting. Very effective if you don't eat excessively in between.

Lastly: exercise. Minimal calory loss but a powerful motivator, not to mention the resulting toned body. Get yourself some 3-5 kg dumbbells and aim for at least 20-30 minutes a day - try Growingannanas, Heather Robertson, Rebecca Louise, Jo Wicks, Caroline Girvan on YouTube. Try to walk - at a fair pace! - at least 10,000 steps a day.

Once all this becomes a way of life, the idea of wasting hours on the sofa eating biscuits will have lost its appeal.

You need to separate the two things. Yes if you are eating less than 5 a day (preferably much more) then you should up your veg.

Weight loss is more complicated. If you are already overweight/obese you need to prioritise calorie control. Some of your ideas are/ can be high calorie. Eg roasting veg in lots of oil will lead to weight gain if you don't burn it off. Same with hummus and some types of soup. Banana bread is a high calorie 'treat' food, the last thing you should be eating if you are trying to lose weight!

But if you have a BMI under 25 already and just want to add more veg to your diet roast veg and high calorie healthy food like nuts and avocados are a good idea.

Low cal veg means snacking on baby spinach instead of crisps, a carrot instead of a chocolate bar. Boiled veg with every meal.

The word diet simply means your food intake. Your daily diet.

I'm going to make that thank you