90% of Americans don’t get enough vegetables on a typical day. Yet most of us want to eat more veggies than we do.
Here’s a 2-step plan that can make it happen.
Grab a friend
Think of your favorite vegetable. Go ahead and buy some at the grocery store. Who’s more likely to eat a vegetable, after all: the person with a cucumber in the kitchen, or the person with no cucumber? Slice it up so it will be ready to put on your plate. Go ahead and eat it a couple of days in a row. It’s no trouble, and you’ll get in the habit of adding veggies to your plate.
Step it up
Here’s step two. Do something new and different with your vegetable. Add oil and vinegar and sliced onion, for example, and your cucumber will turn into a salad.
Find a new friend
What’s great with cucumber? Tomato. Slice cherry tomatoes, add them to your cucumber salad, and you have a classic cucumber and tomato salad. Now you have three ways to eat your cucumber. And you have a new step one with sweet, delicious tomatoes.
Step it up
Now you can focus on your tomato. Roast tomato in the oven with olive oil. When your tomatoes burst and soften, spread them on some crunchy bread. It’s a new idea for your tomato, and it’s very tasty.
Grab a new friend
What’s great with tomatoes? Try frozen corn. Mix corn and tomatoes. Add onions if you still have some. Now you have something awesome to add to a taco or quesadilla.
Now it’s time to use corn as a favorite vegetable. You can just heat it up and put it on the plate next to a main dish.
Step it up
When it’s time to step up your corn, use YouTube, Google, or your favorite cookbook to get a new idea. Ask your friends. We mixed up half a cup of milk with 1 beaten egg and some grated cheese. Add the corn, pop it in the oven, and bake it at 350 degrees while your main dish cooks.
Grab a friend
Want to make a corn casserole again? Think of another vegetable that would match perfectly with the corn. A fresh bell pepper would be great.
What’s next?
Just by following these simple steps, you’ve eaten 5 different vegetables in a week. Grab a vegetable you like and fix it in a simple way. Fix it in a new way the next day — then grab a new veggie that will work with your new idea.
Each day you can come up with something new till you’re eating lots of different vegetables, working your way up to kohlrabi and carrot fritters.
Or develop a few favorites and enjoy them every week. Soon you’ll have the habit of eating vegetables every day. Any time you want to, you can Grab a new friend and Step it up to keep expanding your options.
Instagram it to share with your friends and get some accountability, or pass it around within your family and enjoy making it into a game. In a month, you’ll have a game-changing new habit.