Eatin' in Eden (CJ)

I am excited that so many of you are up for the June challenge! Here’s to great results.

For those of you who felt like five veggies a day was too many dang veggies, here is a brief encouragement to give it a try. Don’t forget God’s original dietary plan for us: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Okay, so a person shouldn’t get too literal about Old Testament dietary advice (or fashion advice — otherwise we’d have exhortations to Blog Naked coming up next). But there are all kinds of good reasons to load up on the veggies.

One is weight loss. If I am making room every day for large amounts of yummy low-calorie food, I will have less room on my plate and in my stomach for the stuff that leads to weight gain.

A second is nutrition. Your mileage may vary, but I find that my energy levels and my state of mind are much improved when I am eating more asparagus (and artichokes and avocado and arugula and and and) and fewer frozen burritos.

A third is that you can train your inner autopilot this way. If I am eating chocolate chips in front of the computer every night for a week, I feel like something is missing when I try to stop. If I eat lots more veggies every day for a week, I teach my palate to expect veggies. Without even trying, I think about ways to incorporate more veggies in my cooking. I can taste the sweetness in jicama or even broccoli, and relish the bitter tang of a mess of greens.

I’m reading this over and thinking, Everybody already knows all this stuff. So I’ll just throw in a little logistical encouragement: it only takes a little while to get in the five-veggies groove. Here are a few ideas.

If you’re home in the mornings, put a few potatoes in to bake. (Unless you’re low-carbing, in which case keep reading.) Eat one for lunch with tomato sauce and cheese on top. For the next night’s dinner, cube one of the leftover potatoes and toss it in a spinach-potato frittata.

Grow sprouts with your kids (homeschool science and weight loss all in one — try lentil sprouts!) and mix in a heaping cupful with your tuna salad or egg salad. Serve it in a hollowed-out tomato.

Double the onions/celery/peppers in your recipes for casseroles, sloppy joes, etc. If I mince them finely, the kids don’t notice.

I was never a big salad-lover until I did this veggie thing two years ago. I bought dressing that I liked (no funky scratch-and-dent Ginger Dill Low-Fat Vinaigrette for me) and used as much as I wanted. I figured learning to enjoy the lettuce was worth the calories in the dressing. It worked.

Check Crescent Dragonwagon’s The Passionate Vegetarian out of library for a million tasty, nutritious, and slightly offbeat things to do with vegetables.

I went swimming while the guys ate dinner, so I’m going to eat some bean salad and grape tomatoes. And green salad. And maybe some frozen peas for good measure.

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3 Comments »

CJ..Thanks for all the insight, just for the record I think you are absolutely right.

Comment by Kellie — June 2, 2007 @ 7:02 pm

Good stuff, CJ. Plus, from what I understand, a serving size of some veggies is only 1/2 cup, and with something like raisins, only 1/4 cup. One big salad could get 2-3 servings of veggies in it, if it was loaded.

Comment by lady laura — June 2, 2007 @ 8:15 pm

I’m strange, but I like to eat spinach with my eggs in the morning. It’s kinda like the same way you eat spinach in quiche except I just eat the spinach and eggs separate

It’s a habit I began mid-way into phase 1 when I was tired of tomatoes with my eggs. The habit stuck like so many other healthy ones I credit South Beach for.

Comment by Brandi — June 2, 2007 @ 9:39 pm