Getting my Veggies

One of my goals this month was getting a full 5 servings of vegetables every day. This has been suprisingly easier than I thought.



For instance, 10 baby carrots = 1 serving of veggies. 1 Small bag of baby carrots = 5 servings of veggies (no, I did not individually count the carrots - it's usually on the bag).

So, while at my desk, instead of chowing down on a bag of peanut M+Ms, I replaced it with carrots, mmmm, sweet and juicy carrots.

And guess what! It's a veggie!

As dinner is usually our biggest meal, I like to find recipes that are packed with veggies, so if for whatever reason, life has got in the way of eating the greens throughout the day, I know I can make it up at the end of the day.

My favorite recipe - quinoa salad. Adding a little citrus, this is a fresh, protein and veggie packed salad that's perfect before or after the workout, when the last thing you want is something heavy. Can you spot the vegetables?

Now, this obviously requires a bunch of chopping, and you just can't get away from it. So I chop everything for the week on Sunday, then I don't even have to worry about it after that. Put on a fave podcast, tunes, or TV show and just go.

It feels really good to have your fridge stocked with good stuff, but if you haven't prepped it in advance, usually, it just goes to waste. All the work that is between you and stuffing your face with beets for example, is all done and you can just stuff your face!


The possibilities are endless to add veggies - we do tortillas or tacos, where I substitute lettuce for spinach, add in green, red, yellow peppers, lots of fresh tomato. Mmmm, I kinda want veggies for breakfast right now!

A shockingly tasty recipe I found the other day was this Pear and Prosciutto Pizza with Parmesan and Argula Pesto Pizza.

The recipe calls for using 4 cups of arugula, aka a WHOLE BOX of the stuff. It condenses down in the glorious blender to about 2 cups worth with the olive oil and almonds and garlic. It's this brilliant green - gorgeous and so fresh.

But, go to taste it, and it is one spicy arugula pesto!!! Was not sure about this recipe at that point.

Instead of the mini buns, we used a seedy whole wheat awesome large pizza crust already cooked from Save-On.

You then get to add pear and cheese and prosciutto (Andrew's fave) , and this is what you get:

With the sweetness of the pear, the salty of the parm (as my foodie friend Steve likes to call it) and prosciutto, it balances out the arugula perfectly. We also had enough pesto leftover for a pizza later that week. MMMMM check it out!

After finding these recipes in magazines, online, it makes me inspired to go check out more. If I am going to eat 5 servings of veggies a day, I need to make this as exciting as possible. Top 2 recipes I can't wait to try:



1) These egg muffin things on FLIP's blog and newsletter this month. They just add red pepper, but I think you can add so many more veggies!




2) The Very Full Tart from Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty (a veggie chef from Britain). Look how great it looks!

As it's holiday season, FLIP threw a great Christmas party as a client appreciation event. What, do you ask, would be the food selection at a party hosted by 3 personal trainers?

Surprise!! It's veggies!!! And some other great recipes with, you guessed it, veggies!


Also, I have found a great solution to get my veggies in while eating out: the amazing yam and avacado sushi roll - no raw fish here! Usually served warm, these are smooth and sweet and a delicious treat. I have found that about 90% of the sushi restaurants have it if you just ask. Tokyo One Sushi on West 10th (next to Urban Yarns knitting store) is the best that I've tried so far.

Now, if you have no other reason to eat veggies, maybe this will be it:

"I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli." ~ George W. Bush