1. Mask the Flavor with Cheese
Cheese dishes are a tasty way to mask the flavor of vegetables. Lasagna and casserole fans can add healthy vegetables, such as zucchini, broccoli or cauliflower, to your favorite dish. Layer some thin slices of zucchini into a baked lasagna. The flavor of the cheeses and sauce masks the natural flavor of the zucchini. Steamed broccoli added to macaroni and cheese will give you all the nutrients and none of the natural bitter flavor of broccoli alone. Try adding some chopped bell peppers, a few bits of chopped onion and a slice of tomato to a cheese omelet. If you are counting calories, use a low-calorie, low-fat cheese.
2. Add Vegetables to Soup
Try adding a few fresh carrots, peas, corn and potatoes to your favorite soup, such as chicken noodle soup. Add carrots to most any flavorful bean soup. French onion soup is a rich, pungent soup that lends itself well to adding a few potatoes. Keep some bags of frozen vegetables in the freezer and add a few spoonfuls to a can of ready-to eat soups like cream of mushroom or cream of chicken and simmer until the vegetables are tender.
3. Try Your Least Favorite Vegetable in a Salad
Raw vegetables are especially healthy. Cooking can remove many vitamins and minerals, but over-cooking vegetables can destroy nutrients. Slice your least favorite vegetable thin and slip a few slices into your salad. Mix lettuce with a few spinach leaves and some finely shredded cabbage or carrots. A flavorful vinaigrette dressing will mask the flavor of most vegetables without adding a lot of extra calories.
4. Add Vegetables to Spicy Foods
Finely chop mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant or broccoli and stir them into your spaghetti sauce. Simmer until the vegetables are tender and then serve the vegetable spaghetti sauce over a big plate of whole wheat pasta. You can even add some finely chopped carrots or some whole kernel corn to the sauce. The spices and tomato-base used in spaghetti sauce will cover the taste and the vegetables will add interesting textures to the sauce. Add some thin slices of zucchini or eggplant to a spicy pizza and bake it as you normally would.
5. Juice Vegetables
Add fresh vegetables to your favorite juice drink. Use a juice machine or a blender to juice some carrots, beets, cucumbers, an apple and some broccoli. Strain the pulp and add it to a glass of orange juice. You won't taste the vegetables, but you will get plenty of valuable vitamins and minerals. Any vegetable can be juiced with fruits and blended with your favorite fruit juice. Try a fruit juice and vegetable smoothie by blending the juice with ice.
Robin Reichert is an AFPA certified nutrition consultant, AFPA
certified personal trainer and freelance writer, specializing in health
and fitness. She has been involved in the health and fitness industry
for over 10 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the
University of San Francisco and a Master of Science in natural health.
Robin's goal is to make every personal training session fun and
effective for her clients. Her services include both in-person and
online personal training at
http://www.trainwithmeonlinetoday.com
http://www.trainwithmeonlinetoday.com
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