Nutrition

Ideas for Getting more Veggies in:

* Vegetables, fresh or frozen: Artichokes, avocado, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celeriac, cilantro, corn (fresh), cucumber, green pepper, greens (e.g., arugula, chard, turnip, spinach, mustard, beet, collard, kale, etc.), jicama, onion, parsnip, parsley, peas, radish, Tomatillo, scallion, summer squash (e.g., spaghetti, patty pan, summer, zucchini, etc.), sweet potato, winter squash (e.g., acorn, butternut, buttercup, delicata, honey delight, sweet dumpling, kabocha), yam, and generally any non-starchy vegetable, etc.

1. Eat at least 5-9 servings of vegetables each day (a serving is ½ cup cooked or sliced or 1 cup lettuce or other salad greens): So you’ll be eating roughly 2 1/2 to 5 cups of vegetables a day—They can be fresh or frozen. The darker green and orange vegetables are some of the most nutritious. Try to purchase at least one different type of vegetable per visit to the grocery store. When preparing vegetables try to cook the vegetable at least 3 different ways before deciding if you like it or not.

2. An easy way to get started is to purchase precut vegetable mixes or chopped hardy greens (such as kale, collards, mustard or turnip greens) in the fresh produce section at the store. This speed up meal prep. As you become a faster cook you can do all the chopping at home. Dark leafy greens (e.g., kale, collards, mustard, turnip, or spinach greens) shrink to 1/4 of their raw volume when cooked, so you’ll need to buy a lot.

3. Make enough of any vegetables dish to serve 2 to 3 days in a row so you have leftovers for one or more meal the next day. Mix and match entrees and side dishes and change the condiments (salad dressings, mix-ins, garnishes, and other toppings) for variety.

4. A great way increase veggie intake is to make omelets in the morning and add chopped onions, bell peppers, zucchini, and spinach to the duck or quail eggs (not for the next 6 weeks) or fold leftover steamed, sautéed, grilled, or roasted veggies in just before serving, or have them on the side. Add a few slices of avocados on top with a fresh salsa and this makes a great breakfast or dinner. Dark leafy greens blend up really nicely in a blender or Vita Mix, so consider adding these to his morning smoothie. Incorporate pureed flesh of squash (butternut, kobocha) or sweet potatoes or yam into his pancakes or muffins.

5. Chop or slice some vegetables on Sunday, making them ready for salads, stir fries, and blanching for the first half of the week. Have jars of peeled, seeded, and sliced cucumber, diced bell pepper, radish, sliced carrots, minced scallions and parsley, sliced onion, and jicama ready for salads. Slice celery and cauliflower close to when you use it. Cut veggies in larger pieces for quick stir fries, blanching, or soup if time permits.

6. Consider grilling or roasting extra vegetables (onions, zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers, garlic, etc.) to use in salads or to serve as side dishes. Grill, boil, or roast artichokes to last for a couple of days.

7. Blanch vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, radish, bell pepper, green beans, cabbage, etc.) to last for 2 to 3 days. Serve with dips, salad dressings, guacamole, bean dips or hummus.

8. Use sweet potatoes (sold as red garnet, jewel, or Beauregard yams, Japanese sweet potatoes, or white sweet potatoes) and winter squash (butternut, buttercup, acorn, Delicata, sweet dumpling, Kabocha, honey delight, etc.) to replace grains and potatoes in meals. Use spaghetti squash to replace pasta. They are filling, have a low calories density and you can find so many great ways to prepare them.

9. Breakfast ideas:

a. Buckwheat cereal with 1-2 teaspoons of flaxseed or hempseed oil (drizzled AFTER cooking is done). Top with toasted nuts (pecans, almonds, cashews, macadamia, pine nuts etc.) or/and seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, chia etc.) and ½ cup of fresh or frozen fruit (blueberries, cherries, raspberries, strawberries etc.) Can add cinnamon if desired.

b. Pumpkin or sweet potato GFCF muffin with almond butter spread and a sliced raw or ½ poached apple or pear.

c. Freshly made quinoa (grains or the flakes) topped with cinnamon, small amount of honey, fresh or frozen berries, toasted nuts and drizzled with flaxseed or hempseed oil.

d. Green smoothie: combine berries, banana and handful of spinach to a blender or Vita Mix and blend smooth with almond/rice milk. Sweeten if needed with small amount of fruit juice or honey. Can also add Ricera- plain rice yogurt

e. Chop sweet potatoes, onions, bell peppers to make fried potatoes using ghee or bacon drippings as fat. Cook with side of GFCF pork or turkey sausage or bacon

f. Poached pears with dried fruit to sweeten (see Garden of Eating) with side of GFCF pork or turkey sausage/bacon

g. Banana slices on a brown rice cakes with almond/cashew/macadamia nut butter

h. Brown rice tortilla topped with refried beans and tomatillo (not tomato) salsa. Place under broiler or in a toaster oven until hot and then add guacamole on top.

10. Snack ideas

a. Guacamole/hummus/ bean dips/ cashew dip (see Garden of Eating) with raw veggies jicama, green/red/ yellow pepper strips, cucumbers, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower. Or with brown rice crackers, or Mary’s Gone Crackers

b. Guacamole/hummus/ bean dips/ cashew dip (see Garden of Eating) with parboiled vegetables (see Garden of Eating), green beans, pea pods, green/red/yellow peppers, broccoli, cauliflower etc.

c. Poached fruit (see Garden of Eating) with toasted nuts.

d. Nut butters with bananas or brown rice cakes

e. Green smoothies (see above)

11. Other ideas

a. Use swiss chard leaves to replace lettuce leave for wraps. Can add roasted/grilled or canned chicken to wrap with hummus/guacamole/cashew dip, cucumbers and rice noodles for a lunch.

b. Mexican wraps: use chard leaves to add hot refried or whole beans with cumin and chili powder, cilantro, green/red/yellow peppers, onions or scallions and brown rice if desired. Add guacamole or a tomatillo salsa.