This Week's Meal Planning Tip: Simple Ways to Add More Daily Veggies to Your Meals
I hear a lot of people say they wish they could add more veggies to their meals, but don't know where or how to fit them in. So, I've rounded up some ideas for you:
Breakfast:
Instead of plain scrambled eggs, make an omelet, add chopped onions, spinach, mushrooms, and peppers. Serve with a drizzle of hot sauce.
If you have some leftover yams or sweet potatoes from supper, mash them up and cook them in with your morning oatmeal. Maybe that sounds strange at first, but add some pumpkin spices and you won't know the difference from a pumpkin spice oatmeal.
Avocado (ok, it's a fruit...) but it goes with almost everything and it's so good for you. Mash it on toast, slice it beside some eggs, chop it up in a fruit salad.
Lunch and Supper:
Instead of making a salad, offer a platter of help-yourself sliced cucumber, quartered tomatoes, carrot sticks, celery sticks, sliced peppers, and/or mushrooms as a side to any meal. Leave the plate available for snacking and see how fast it disappears just from family members grabbing something as they walk past. A little dip won't hurt, like my Dill & Hemp Seed Dressing. (Recipes are available for download with the button below.)
Dill & Hemp Seed Dressing
You can add spinach to almost anything. Spinach is so mild tasting, it takes on the flavour of almost anything you add it to, chop it small no one will even notice you've added "greens" to their supper. You can add spinach to soups, stews, chili, pasta, and so on. Spinach may be mild in taste, but it packs a punch in nutrition.
Bagged salads are super quick and convenient. It saves meal prep time with only taking a minute to toss together. Sure, there's discussion over the overall health of the dressings and other additions included with these, but if it's the difference of having some veggies or not, I take having them for the win. For instance, Mondays are so busy in our meal prep kitchen and we often add two bag salads to the groceries so we have a very fast meal available along with either a can of tuna in olive oil or a rotisserie chicken.
Make a double recipe of soup in your slow cooker as part of your meal prep. Soups are a great place to add in extra vegetables. Prep a soup to use for lunches or a coming-in-from-the-cold warm up. Like this Curried Red Lentil Soup, feel free to add a few more veggies in here like yams, potatoes, or celery. (Recipes available through button below.)
Slow Cooker Curried Red Lentil Soup
Replace pasta with zucchini, carrots, or yams, either completely or by 25-50% veggie noodles and regular pasta. Zucchini strips make great layers in lasagna instead of noodles. Using a spiralizer is great fun to make veggie pasta, however, using a vegetable peeler or mandolin to make ribbons or different shapes also works. Spaghetti squash is also a great pasta replacement. Just roast and scrape the flesh into stringy "noodles". It's fantastic with spaghetti sauce.
Shift your relationship with sugar. Join Living Simply Kitchen’s 5-Day Sugar-Free Challenge and the best part – invite a friend to join you.
The challenge runs from March 3 – 7, 2025, and is completely FREE! Improve your health, reduce your sugar tolerance, and make lasting changes that make you feel great. Follow the Sign Up Now button to register.
There's nothing to lose when you join this challenge and the supportive, private Facebook community, and learn to nourish yourself while reducing your sugar intake.
Challenge a Friend: This year, lift up a friend in well-being along with you! Simply forward this newsletter, or the email you receive after you register, to invite a friend to join you!
We are proud to serve good mood food to the Brandon, Manitoba 🍁, area with our whole foods meal prep service.
Join our exclusive holistic and delicious meal prep service. Our meals are served in non-toxic, returnable glass containers through our award-winning Reusable Glassware Exchange Program.
Receive our weekly menu directly to your email and make your selections.
We lovingly prepare and portion your food, ready for pick up at your designated time. Say goodbye to wasted food and money.
Enjoy your ready to go meals and feel great that you are nourishing your body with good mood food!
Please click REPLY and let us know what you loved or how we can improve. We appreciate your feedback!
Do you love our content? Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think would benefit! It helps us spread the word about our small (but growing!) Canadian 🍁 business. If this email was forwarded to you, please click here for a free gift and to sign up for Sunday morning menu planning tips and inspiration to bring more nourishment using whole foods.
Hi Reader, I want to share some exciting news with you! Living Simply Kitchen has a new home online at www.livingsimplykitchen.com. I am delighted to have a designated space to share my recipes, prairie-focused food writing & adventures, and post events & courses. The website remains a work in progress, but there are some great resources already available. Check out my favourite page: Simple Stuff: The Easiest, Most Doable Real Food for Any Day which showcases 5 nourishing, everyday recipes....
