5 Easy Ways to Sneak in More Veggies Into Your Life

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cooking, greens, juice, juicing, pureed vegetables, salad, snack, vegetables, veggie

We all know we’re supposed to be eating more vegetables, but time, effort, and cost can get in the way. Below are a few ideas to help bring more vegetables into your life.

1. Adding A Bed O’ Greens

If making a separate side salad is daunting, why not eat what you’re already having on a bed of crunchy greens?  A rice stir-fry (or even Lean Cuisine) plated onto a few handfuls of fresh spinach makes your meal more filling, healthy, and attractive. Pasta dishes are wonderful on top of arugula or an herb blend of greens. Rice and beans get a nice crunch when spooned over shredded lettuce.

2. Pureed Vegetables

If sneaking pureed veggies into recipes works for kids, chances are it will work for you too.  Some canned pumpkin or pureed sweet potatoes added into pancakes or muffins will add extra vitamins.  (You may have to adjust by reducing other liquids in the recipe).  Pureed tomatoes and carrots mixed into tomato sauce would go unnoticed in a casserole or lasagna. And if you’re just too busy or don’t have a food processor, shop the baby aisle and pick up some jars of baby food!

3. Top It Off

Garnishing your plate with vegetables is another great way to add a serving and to make your food look appetizing as well. Most supermarkets carry salsa fresca and mango salsa in the produce section. Or you can make your own! Just finely mince tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions and toss together and store them in an airtight bowl in the refrigerator. You can keep them on hand for sprinkling into wraps, over salads and pastas, or even as a topping on crackers or chips. A salsa fresca is a great way to add a little freshness and life to a packaged microwave meal at work too.

4. Vegetable Juice

Thirsty? Hungry? Treat yourself to a vegetable juice! You can enjoy it at home using a juicer or simply buy premade ones in store. Or stop by a cafe / health food store while you are out and order a fresh raw juice. Juicing packs a large number of servings of fruits and vegetables into a quick and convenient size. You won’t get all the fiber of the original produce, but the vitamins and antioxidants will be a megadose.

5. Keep ‘em on Hand

When coming home starving, who wants to chop and prepare vegetables? We fling open the pantry door and look for the quickest, most easily accessible snack-which usually isn’t the healthiest. Don’t wait until you’re hungry to prep yourself a healthy snack.  Wash and chop carrots or celery sticks ahead of time, and keep in airtight containers in the refrigerator alongside hummus, guacamole, or bean dips. Always stay one step ahead of your hungry self.

What are some ways that you have kept yourself and your family getting enough vegetables every day?

Written by Sarah Decker, RN

(Edited by Integral Practice Team)

Best Vegetarian Chilli You’ve Ever Had

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Beans, chilli, health, mexican, nutrition, receipe, tex-mex, vegan, vegetarian, vegetarian chilli, vegetarian receipe, veggie

I don’t like to stereotype my people, but I think most of my fellow South-Asians would agree that we love our Tex-Mex. Last year, my husband and I spent a month in the predominantly Hispanic Mission district of San Francisco where there’s a taqueria on every corner, and we would eat burritos 3-4 days a week. We almost got burritos again at the airport before flying back to New
Jersey but decided on principle to get Japanese instead. We regretted the decision later.

In my younger days I associated beans with Taco Bell and (by extension) with junk food, but I had no idea that beans are actually wonderful for you. They are full of resistant starch and fiber
– the kind of carbohydrates that are associated with health-benefits and help you feel full for longer with less calories. One of my favorite recipes is vegetarian chili. A guaranteed a crowd-
pleaser, it appeals even to the most meat-and-potatoes palate. The best part of vegetarian chili? It’s a wonderful way to get people to eat vegetables! It’s also a pretty versatile recipe.

My one request – please don’t ruin it by using hot sauce! Most hot sauce is mostly vinegar, and it really overwhelms the taste. Using it as a condiment later is fine, but I really would not
recommend adding it to the recipe.

I also added optional Indian spices to be used. Although not essential, I can never resist adding these spices into all kinds of dishes. I find that they make it easier to digest the beans. In this particular chili, I used fresh heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market. I just love all the gorgeous colors, shapes and sizes! I also used red Russian kale, pictured below.

Ingredients:
The biggest pot you have and a separate sautee pan
5-6 cloves fresh garlic minced
1-2 large onions
1-4 jalapenos depending on how hot you like it. I don’t de-seed them, but you can.
4-6 vine ripened or 2-3 beef-steak tomatoes
4 cans black beans, 2 cans chickpeas or other type of beans, 2 cans white beans or any other type of beans or rough equivalent amount of beans that have been soaked overnight.
2 cans sweet corn or kernels from 2 ears of shucked corn
Suggested veggies-
Desired amount of squash and/or zucchini (usually i use 2 of each) – halved and sliced into thin rounds
Leafy green veggies 2 bunches (usually I use Kale and Chard).
EVOO

Optional –
2-3 carrots diced into 0.5-1in cubes
2-3 sticks celery diced into 0.5 to 1in cubes
2 cans of refried black or pinto beans

Spices:
Cumin powder (i usually grind mine fresh quickly in a mortar and pestle. I find the aroma intoxicating!) 1 heaped tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Chilli powder to taste
Optional-
1-2 bay leaves
Coriander powder
Fresh coriander to use as garnish
Tempering indian spices such as a tsp black mustard seeds, tsp cumin and pinch asoefetida to help with digestion of the beans
Salt to taste

Directions:
-Heat desired olive oil in the large pot
-Add optional tempering spices at this point. Wait till black mustard seeds start to pop before next step.
-Add chopped garlic and jalapenos. Stir to coat with oil
-Add onions
-When onions are half done(not totally translucent but half way there) add cumin, 1 tsp chilli powder, turmeric and stir to coat the onions with the spices
-Add tomato, stir everything together and then cook covered until the peel is comes off the tomato, stirring occasionally
-Once tomato is thoroughly cooked, add all the canned beans, another tsp chilli powder and the cumin powder and cook for a bit, stirring occasionally. You can cook the beans however long you want. I usually clean most of the kitchen at this point.
-In a separate pan, heat oil and sautee squash with 1 tsp whole cumin. Once it is done, add it into the cooking beans.
-add chopped celery and carrots and stir them in
-add greens and push them to the bottom of the chilli so they wilt.
-garnish with scallions and chopped cilantro

Fun-fact:

While you’re enjoying your vegetable-packed chili, you might be interested to know that beans are a wonderful source of iron (which helps protect against anemia), zinc (which aids enzymes,
including those involved in DNA synthesis and repair), folate (which prevents birth defects during pregnancy, and is much more effective in food form than in folic acid-pill form) and potassium.

Beans count as a serving of both protein and vegetable, so they are a wonderful addition to your diet. They have a lot of resistant starch which makes them a wonderfully low-glycemic
food, meaning they don’t give you a sugar high. That makes you less hungry and less apt to gain weight!

I hope this recipe makes you want to eat your beans!