How to eat 5 servings of vegetables a day

Melanie asked about the practicalities of eating five servings of vegetables per day. Most often I eat one for breakfast, two for lunch, and two for dinner. 

About five days a week I have a pumpkin smoothie for breakfast. You can find a lot of frou-frou pumpkin smoothie recipes if you go looking, recipes that tell you to add three kinds of spices and whipped cream on top. Before breakfast? I think not. My recipe is easy and delicious: half a cup of pumpkin, one frozen banana (or an equivalent amount of whatever fruit we have in the freezer, or a fresh banana with some ice cubes), plain yogurt, and coconut milk to blend. It fills me up until lunchtime and it is not overtly vegetable-y. My daughter enjoys it, and she is the queen of picky eaters. 

At lunch I'll often eat a big salad with some protein. A serving of lettuce and other raw leafy greens is one cup. A cup of lettuce topped with various other veggies (tomatoes, carrots, peppers, cukes) and something meaty makes for a satisfying lunch. I'll also often scavenge in the fridge and reprise our dinner from the night before.

At dinnertime we usually have something salad-y (sometimes green salad, sometimes slaw, sometimes carrot salad or broccoli salad or similar) and something steamed. It's not hard to eat a cup of salad and a half-cup of steamed veggies along with something main-dish-y. We often incorporate veggies into our main dishes-- the broccoli thing I mentioned last night, or the pasta bake with red sauce we had tonight, or a speedy soup made from greens and potatoes. If I pay attention to the greens/potatoes ratio and offer bread for dipping, everyone but Stella will eat green potato soup.

If I'm running behind on the servings count, we usually have snackable veggies in the fridge. Baby carrots are our standby (my husband buys pounds and pounds of carrots every week-- babies for snacking and full-sized for cooking and salads, but olives are good too. This one is kind of quirky, but a favorite snack at our house is frozen peas. Not microwaved, just straight out of the freezer and into a bowl. Weird, but it works. 

I use the USDA portion size info, but I don't worry about counting the occasional serving of fries (like, once a month or so). Potatoes are vegetables too, and I'm not fussed about fat.

Comments

[Svetlana]

I started reading your blog about the time you started the original vegetable project. Wow.

[Beth]

Frozen peas are a treat around here, enough that if I'm putting frozen peas in a soup or something I'll reserve some to serve (frozen) on the table.

[mary]

We love the frozen peas at our house too. MY BIL once implied that I wasn't trying very hard, but my kids prefer them frozen!

[Kate]

How do fruits fit in to the veggie project? Are they out because of too much sugar?

[Melanie B]

Thanks, Jamie.

I could see myself doing the two at lunch and two at dinner, but I was at a loss as to how to do breakfast. Pumpkin smoothie. I might have to try that sometime. Do you use canned pumpkin?

My kids all love frozen peas too.

I am on again off again with baby carrots.

Very interesting. I'm going to have to think about this....

[Jamie]

Kate, I don't pay much attention to the sugar in fruit, though I never drink juice. I probably eat a couple of servings of fruit each day. Maybe I'll pay attention over the weekend and report back.

Melanie, I do use canned pumpkin. You can also try V8 for breakfast if you like it (I think Bearing-Erin uses that trick) or make a speedy frittata with frozen spinach or peas. Let me know how it works for you!

[Bearing]

Yes, tomato juice with breakfast! So easy and it totally counts as a vegetable. Also, veggie-ful omelettes, Spanish style (the kind where you cook minced vegetables, then beat them into the egg, then fry the mixture into a sort of egg-vegetable pancake.) Green peppers and mushroom is my favorite combo.