by Pat Veretto

Created on: October 14, 2008   Last Updated: November 30, 2011

Fitting enough vegetables into your day may be a tedious chore if you look at it as a task to be completed. Why not consider it a fun challenge? We're told we need to eat five to nine servings... That sounds like a lot of food! How can we get them into a day's worth of eating? Here are a few ideas:

1. Drink your veggies! Cold tomato juice with pureed vegetables added goes down pretty well for most of us. A half cup of vegetables in a cup of juice makes for three servings - not bad. Drink it while you watch TV instead of coffee or soft drinks. (3 servings)

2. Hide them in a meatloaf. It's easy to hide a couple of cups of raw vegetables in a meatloaf. Just make it the way you usually do, then mince carrots, cabbage, squash (summer or winter type), broccoli, cauliflower... anything you have on hand. Add it to the mix and bake. Most vegetables shrink in the cooking, so keep that in mind if you're controlling portions. (1 serving each of an 8 serving meatloaf)

3. Snack on fruits. Apples, bananas, grapes or whatever suits your fancy (or whatever's in season), will keep you satisfied until the next meal. Fruit juice is not really a serving of fruit, since it contains mostly sugar and none of the fiber of fruit. The exception may be specialty juices that now advertise fiber. (1 serving)

4. Use them in desserts. Apple pie, anyone? It's actually good for you, if you don't overdo the sugar. Blackberry cobbler? Yum! Healthy! (Don't tell the kids). Cobblers, pies, sherbets, butters and so on, can take their place in the lineup of healthy fruit servings. Just don't overdo the sugars and carbohydrates when presenting them. (1 serving)

5. Soups, stews and casseroles are a great way to add vegetables to your diet. It doesn't take a great amount of meat to flavor a nice pot of stew or soup, so use it sparingly and add more vegetables. Besides the traditional starch like potatoes, rice or pasta, add brussel sprouts, spinach, okra, peppers, tomatoes and on and on. Almost anything goes, except for some so-called "salad vegetables." (1 to 2 servings)

6. Which brings us to the salad. Make a habit of eating salad or from a raw vegetable platter at least once a day. With your favorite dressing or alone, raw vegetables are easily digested, low in calories and they complement a heavier meat dish, both tastewise and colorwise. (1 serving)

That's 9 servings - enough for the heartiest, biggest person. Better watch it, you'll get in the (good) habit of eating more than your basic needs!

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