Dear Claire,
I am trying to shed a few pounds but I have a really hard time eating healthy food like vegetables and fruits because I am not used to the taste. Do you have any suggestions?
-Anti-Veggie Girl
Dear Anti-Veggie,
Absolutely! While I would love to tell you that the taste of vegetables will grow on you, that just isn’t the way it works for everyone. However, there are many ways you can incorporate vegetables into things you love and you won’t even be able to taste them.
Take smoothies for example. I love making peanut butter and banana smoothies, not only are they delicious but they are filling and healthy. The best part is you can throw in some spinach and you will never even taste it, but get all the benefits from it!
I also recommend using a food processor to puree fruits and vegetables and then add to traditional recipes. You can blend up carrots, zucchini and/or squash, and add it to tomato sauce to eat with whole wheat pasta.
Try baking with them. Breakfast sweets can be packed with veggies, too. Try making some muffins packed with zucchini and carrots in addition to the usual raisins, walnuts, and cinnamon.
Believe it or not, beets are a great addition to any brownie recipe, just purree and add to the batter.
If you love cheese, try this twist on a traditional grilled cheese. Instead of white bread, cheese and butter, use whole grain bread, low fat cheese, and add a few layers of veggies, too. Spinach or arugula, tomato, and avocado make awesome additions.
Eggs are another easy dish to add veggies too, and you will hardly taste them. Just chop veggies really small and sauté them, then add the eggs and cook.
Another suggestion is to change the way you cook your veggies and fruits. Roasting them in the oven really brings out some great flavors, or cooking on the grill with some salt and pepper is also quite flavorful. Just keep trying and you are bound to find something you like soon enough!
