hands preparing parsley over bowls with cauliflower, lemons and tomato

You guys know the drill – eating more plant foods will help you fight inflammation, maintain a healthy weight and feel amazing. Perhaps you have been on the plant-focused path for a while now but still have challenges with getting the abundance of plant foods you need to get energized. So, in honour of Vegetarian Month, I want to share five easy strategies to help you get more plants on your plate!

1. Use vegetables in place of processed grains

Slice up kohlrabi into rounds that double as crackers. Wrap up collard leaves instead of sandwiches. Use lettuce cups for instead of flour tortillas and replace white pasta with ‘noodles’ cut from zucchini! Get creative – and look up paleo recipes for more ideas on how to sub veggies for chemical-laden breadstuffs.

2. Add intact whole grains and seeds to salads

Think a salad can’t fill you up? Perhaps you have left out the most energizing ingredient of them all! Adding a 1/2 cup of cooked whole grains – brown rice, barley or wheat berries – or pseudo grains – quinoa, amaranth, millet – will provide extra fibre, minerals and slow burn carbohydrates to elevate your salad to superstar status.

3. Make fruit your go-to dessert

And I don’t just mean nosh on an apple in place of cheesecake! Bake crumbles with double the fruit, so its really just cooked fruit with a bit of crunch. Poach pears in red wine or bake apples with cinnamon. Make fruit the main event…but make it special.

4. Double up the veggies in any recipe…and scoop double the veggie sides to your plate

It’s as easy as that – a stir fry recipe calls for one cup of broccoli? Add two! Looking to ‘pig out’? Get stuffed full of roasted carrots! Make veggies 50% of the bulk of any recipe and 50% of your plate. No big dietary changes to make…just food that fills you up without filling you out.

5. Snack on beans

Roast chickpeas, boiled edamame, blended white bean dips…there are a lot of delicious ways to eat beans as snacks where you might of gobbled high calorie creamy or sugary sweet snacks. And for your trouble, you will get a heaping dose of tummy taming fibre and energizing minerals like iron and magnesium.

What is your favourite way to sneak more veggies into your everyday life? Tweet me @DesireeRD!

 

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