15 Tips to Ignite a Veggie Revolution In Your House

15 Tips to Ignite a Veggie Revolution In Your House

It doesn’t seem to matter where I travel these days, I have a knack for finding vegetables.

Whether it’s using tools like Yelp or inquiring about the farmer’s market, I’m usually able to sample local foods AND fulfill my desire for LOTS of food. That’s right part of my veggie love comes from enjoying feeling full, which a big plate of veggies will do.

Since one of the most frequent questions in the Clean and Lean Project is about how to learn to like vegetables {participant or family}, I thought I’d share some of the tips that have worked for me.

That’s right this VegHead {is this a real term? I don’t know, but I like it} used to shun most veggies unless they were covered in cheese!!

Now if I’m traveling and don’t have some veggies at each meal, I start craving them. David knows the signs…it’s time to eat and I start scouring every menu because it must be one that includes a veggie packed meal. Not to say that isn’t balanced with a delicious amount of chocolate later.

Re-Market the VeggieVegetables have a bad wrap. It’s totally undeserved, but many kids refuse to eat veggies because they’ve been toughed as “healthy”. Those kids turn in to adults who think healthy foods must taste awful and granted the over steamed broccoli of our youth didn’t do much for making veggies seem exciting.

Here are some ways to generate interest:

• Go to the farmer’s market – the colors make everything seem so appealing!
• Ask kids to pick out one fruit or veggie each time you visit the store.
• Involve the family in making dishes {kids like eating what they’ve invested time in}.
• Play with your food! Change the perspective from “you must eat these to have dessert” {which implies veggies suck and sugar is good} to veggies are fun. How many peas can they get on their fork? Make faces or shapes with the veggies.
• Remember it takes up to 5 times for your taste buds to adjust {hence why you might not have liked something as a kid, but enjoy it now}
• VOLUME – Shoot this may only work on people like me, but I like to eat in VOLUME so knowing that eating more veggies means a bigger meal makes me feel full and happy.

Taste Bud TipsNow that we have some interest going, the food better taste great or the next go round will be a fight. You’ll get your family to eat more vegetables in no time!

• Find a hummus you love then experiment with chopped peppers, broccoli, cauliflower or baby carrots for a snack in the afternoon.
• Start with a sweeter vegetable like carrots or sweet potatoes, as those flavors will be more enticing initially than the smell of brussel sprouts.
• Glaze your veggies before roasting with: honey, minced garlic, ginger and balsamic vinegar
• Puree’s are a great way to start introducing new flavors. i.e. butternut squash puree in your meatloaf or spinach puree in your tomato sauce. Most people won’t notice the addition, but will then be more open to trying vegetables after realizing they ate some and enjoyed it. Checkout Deceptively Delicious for tons of recipes with puree’s.
• Add some veggies to an existing meal! i.e. broccoli in your macaroni and cheese, shredded zucchini in your muffins, shredded carrots in your oatmeal. Most of the time these little additions won’t change the flavor, but they get everyone to used to seeing more veggies.
• Stir fry veggies with just a little EVOO, garlic and onions. Especially for kids who love to dine out, serve with chopsticks or fortune cookies to turn it in to a at home Chinese meal {the experience is part of why we love food}
• Smoothies. Come on this wouldn’t be a blog post of mine if I didn’t recommend you try the green smoothie. I’ve got a whole guide on how to start increasing the veggies in them and what flavors are best.
• Grill it! Summer time is a great opportunity to toss some veggies on the grill with your burgers or brats. First it associates them with something you love, but it also adds a flavor you just can’t get with baking.

MORE IDEAS

21 Sneaky Vegetable Recipes (from breakfast to dessert)

10 FAST ways to sneak vegetables in more meals

Healthy, yet manly, Recipes for Father’s Day

12 Healthy Foods You’re Overeating (hint they aren’t veggies!)

Join me in Thinking Out Loud today and share your tips!!!

Have you always loved veggies?

Any tips you would add to the list?

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