by Bozena Hartley

Created on: May 18, 2009

Everyone knows that vegetables are good for you, yet not everyone eats them. It is not easy to make yourself eat vegetables, if you chose not to, or if you don't know how to prepare them. If you are trying to lose weight, change your family's as well as your own eating habits, improve your health, or simply add variety to the meals, vegetables offer endless benefits and possibilities.

Usually we eat three main meals and a couple of snacks a day. Lets take a look at each of those meals and see how to incorporate vegetables into them.

Breakfast

Most people don't have time to cook breakfast during the week, but on weekend mornings you can take a break from a coffee and a muffin rut and cook up a delicious meal. Omelets, frittatas, and quiches taste wonderful with vegetables. Add diced onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, or any vegetables of your choice. Make it a rule to add at least two different vegetables and change them from time to time. The more colorful the meal, the more appetizing it will look. Eventually you might come up with a perfect omelet or a breakfast casserole that you and your family will love. You can either saute the vegetables to make them a little softer, or add them raw, if you like the extra crunch.

Lunch or Dinner

Lunches and dinners are very similar as far as food choices, except that lunch we usually eat at work and it often consists of leftovers from the night before. Generally, it is better to eat a light lunch, so you don't have 'a heavy stomach' and don't feel sleepy for the rest of the day. A large, heavy meal takes a lot of energy to digest and that's why it makes you feel sluggish. The easiest way to lighten it up is to increase its vegetable content while decreasing meats, diary, and carbohydrates. This is something you should also keep in mind while going out to eat. Consider visiting a buffet, or a restaurant with a salad bar. There are usually lots of different vegetables available, raw as well as cooked. It is a good opportunity to try some vegetables that you've never had before.

Snacks

You can serve either raw or steamed veggies accompanied by one or more different dips. The best raw vegetables are sliced cucumbers, zucchini, squash, cherry or grape tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, celery and carrots, pea pods, and peppers. For the steamed vegetables you can choose sliced zucchini, squash, cut up broccoli, cauliflower, pea pods, carrots, or green beans. For a dip you can either

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