If you think eating healthy is boring, restrictive, or a sacrifice, then you’re doing it all wrong. Healthy eating is fantastic and delicious. I LOVE to eat. First, we need to make natural foods delicious. Second, we change our palate along the way. And third, we create habits that make it all second nature without ever thinking so hard about being healthy.
Here are some ways to make vegetables delicious. Personally, I think that steaming is very boring and I rarely eat steamed vegetables. I want flavor in my food!
- Saute. Vegetables lightly sauteed in oil with the right spices are amazing, flavorful, and has just the right texture.
- Roast. Come fall and winter, I love roasting my root vegetables and squashes. It makes for yummy snacks, sides, or part of the main course.
- Creamy soups. I’m not sure why, but sometimes just blending my vegetables and turning it into a creamy soup makes it tastes so much better than chunks of vegetables (and I don’t even add the heavy cream).
- Spirals. Along with that same texture theory, I love my vegetables in noodle form versus chunks especially for zucchinis which I find very bland. If you make it into spirals, for some reason zucchinis tastes so much better. Carrots and beets do too.
- Bread. I love adding carrots, zucchinis, you name it into my muffins or breads that I make for my daughter. I just use rolled oats and add tons of vegetables and fruit, and it always comes out moist and delicious.
- Layers. Another idea is to layer your vegetables and bake it in tomato sauce like lasagne or ratatouille.
- Smoothies. I don’t drink many smoothies but when I do, I like including baby greens (spinach/kale/chard), carrots, cucumber, beets, the list goes on.
- Dips. It’s easy to saute some veggies and add it to some sort of yogurt or bean spread for dips. We don’t do a lot of dips in our house but when we do, we love dipping with Persian cucumbers or sugar snap peas.
- Broth. I wish I make more time to do this but making broth with vegetable scraps is a great way to get more nutrients, and of course delicious.
- Grilled. Grilled anything seems to taste better especially during the summer.
As we learn how to make our foods delicious and lose weight easily, I often hear my clients say “I go back to my favorite junk or treat, and I just don’t like it anymore or I feel sick afterwards. I don’t know how I ever liked this before.” These words are music to my ears because it means that eating healthy is a way of life and there’s no turning back. They are sold, and healthy eating and weight loss is simple.
If you’re interested in more information and learning how to have a great relationship with yourself, food, exercise, and build great habits, then set up a free health consultation at www.HappyFoodHealth.com or (619) 876-2655. See if this is the right match for you. I do things very differently to make health a natural lifestyle and this is not for everyone.
~ Samantha Hua, Nutrition & Holistic Health Coach, San Diego, CA
