Note: This is Day 5 in the “Recharge Your Creative Batteries in 31 Days” Challenge. For the rest of July, we’ll be posting different ways for you to get yourself on the path to living in a creative flow and reaching your writing goals. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any.
For some people, eating lots of fruits and vegetables is easy. For most others, it’s a challenge.
The recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables is at least 5 to 9 servings (or 9 to 11 servings for optimal health). That can be difficult to get in every day, especially if you’re on the go and not able to cook.
Eating fruits and vegetables will nourish your body and keep it energized. A must for any writer.
Veggies and fruit are ridiculously low in calories, which means you can eat two or even three servings without feeling guilty. And the best part is, eating lots of fruits and veggies can actually help you lose weight while eating more food (it’s the whole low in calories thing).
Making It Easier
If you want your creativity to soar, you have to feed your body the fuel it requires for optimal performance (you wouldn’t put regular gasoline in a BMW, right?).
And you’d think with three meals and a couple snacks a day you’d be able to eat all the fruit and veggies you need, yet it still doesn’t happen.
But it probably would if you had an easier way to make it happen.
That’s when it’s time to get a little creative.
Sneaking Veggies In
Fruit servings seem to be easier to eat than veggies. So here are some ideas for sneaking additional veggies into your meals:
- A Spinach Bed—before you toss hot pasta into a bowl, first lay down a bed of spinach. The heat from the pasta and sauce will wilt the spinach, then just mix it all together and enjoy.
- A Veggie Mash—next time you make mashed potatoes, think of other veggies that could be tossed into the mix. For example, my dad’s mom likes to mash hers with rutabaga. You could also mix potatoes with parsnips (white carrots) or even cauliflower and carrots. The combos are endless. Just choose veggies that will mash when soft, then place them all into a pot of boiling water, when all the veggies are soft, drain the water, let them cool for a minute or two then mash. Add salt, pepper and some olive oil (or butter if you’re not allergic).
- A Secret Sauce Thickener—if you’re making tomato sauce, you can get it nice and thick by adding a can of beans. Just use an immersion blender or food processor to puree the sauce before serving it.
- Speaking of Sauce—sauce is a great way to sneak veggies in, especially if you blend it up before serving it. I’ve snuck in everything from pumpkin to roasted red peppers to zucchini. It works, and the flavor of tomato sauce goes with pretty much everything.
- Sub Avocado—avocados are high in good-for-you fat and have a buttery, creamy texture that makes a great substitute for mayo. Instead of glopping mayo on your next sandwich, mash some avocado and use that. Or use an avocado to replace the mayo (or some of it) the next time you make pasta salad.
- Pile veggies on your sandwiches
- Cook a side of veggies and mix in with your pasta
- Add veggies and fruit to your chicken salad—I’ve used: red grapes, dried cranberries, carrots, celery, onions and even pecans.
- Make a salsa—you can turn a large amount of veggies and fruit into many different varieties of salsa, and who doesn’t love eating dip with some tortilla chips?
- Green Smoothies—can’t recommend this enough. You can sneak in tons of fruit and veggies with a daily green smoothie. Plus they taste awesome.
Get a little creative and see how you can add some more veggies into your day today.
Share With Us
How do you sneak the good stuff in?
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I lurv avocados and eat them everyday – mixed in with salad, use instead of mayo for sandwiches, etc. Will have to try some of your other ideas.
Yep, the two things I eat daily: avocado and banana. Can’t get enough!
These are great ideas, Jen! Never would’ve thought of the “spinach bed” thing, but I will try it (and these other tricks) for sure!
I know right?! One of my vegetarian friends gave me the idea.
I eat a lot of bananas and avocados, and since Bing cherries are in season (and low in price) I’m inhaling them. Today I visited a juice bar recommended by a friend and realized that a fruit smoothie with vegetable add-ins costs little more than I would pay for coffee. So I may go there to write instead of to coffee shops.
What a cool idea to write at the juice bar! I need to try that one instead of Starbucks sometime. Thanks for the writing location inspiration!
Summer is the best time for low-priced amazing fruit like cherries and berries. I like to stock up during peak season and freeze some, although the frozen fruit still doesn’t last me very long
Avocados are one of my favorite foods. I eat several every week. I’ll have to try avocado instead of mayo on my next scrambled egg sandwich. Made with gluten-free bread. I had an omelet in San Francisco once that had avocado in it. Yummy!
I keep a covered glass dish of celery sticks, baby carrots, and cauliflower in the fridge and put it out for most lunches and dinners. And I can skip the ranch dip. Have to, actually.
I love zucchini, sliced cremini mushrooms, onion, and garlic, sauteed in olive oil. Seasoned with basil.
I have two books on order about the Paleo diet. It’s very close to what I eat anyway, so I thought I’d take a look.
Barb
One of my first avocado experiences was in an omelet I got when I was living in Southern California, how funny! Personally, I’m not a fan of the Paleo diet. I feel it’s way too restrictive and missing some key elements most people need in their diets. But everyone’s body is different, so if Paleo works for you and makes you feel great, I say go for it. I just know I could not survive eating that much meat. I’m no vegetarian, but I’m definitely not much of a meat eater either.
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