10 Tips for Adding Vegetables to Your Diet

1. There is nothing wrong with eating vegetables for breakfast! Vegetable soup or a potato/vegetable patty for breakfast or a side dish with your protein if you are an Otter or Lion. As you have read before in my articles, I love sautéed vegetables on an English muffin with a piece of cheese or a bit of cream cheese. Try it, you’ll like it!

2. Wash and cut raw vegetables such as carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes and keep in the refrigerator a few days to use as snacks and in salads.

3. Puree vegetables and add them to soups and stews. A puree of cooked potatoes, onions, and celery makes a nice, low-fat stock to use instead of a cream base.

4. If your diet allows more carbohydrates, such as the Monkey and Giraffe Types, try grating carrots or zucchini into batter for muffins, pancakes, or quick breads for more fiber and vitamins in your breakfasts and snacks.

5. Add more fresh vegetables to sandwiches – not just the usual lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Try green or red bell pepper rings, cucumber slices, sprouts, and sliced radishes.

6. Add vegetables to a family favorite dishes such as chili or spaghetti. You can cut down on fat and add fiber and other nutrients to main dishes by using smaller amounts of meat with plenty of vegetables, which is particularly important for the Bear and Monkey Diet Types. Carrots and peppers in your chili or zucchini in your spaghetti sauce may sound a little odd, but once you've tried it, you'll wonder why you didn't do it years ago!

7. Roast some veggies – these are better than French fries! Arrange pepper chunks (try red, yellow, green and orange), onion chunks, zucchini, or whatever you like, on a cookie sheet, sprinkle a little olive oil and then with Parmesan cheese and a little seasoning, roast at 400 degrees about 5-7 minutes. Wow! Yummy!

8. One of my personal favorite: Cut sweet potatoes into sticks and roast as above in #7. Delicious!

9. Add more vegetables when you make a salad. Use less lettuce and add on an assortment of fresh vegetables. Salads do not have to be iceberg lettuce and a cherry tomato!

10. Offer kids and guests a big platter of cut-up raw vegetables and dip as a snack or appetizer or with the meal. You’ll be amazed at how much they like them!

What are waiting for? A vegetable a day (or more) keeps the doctor away!