How To Sneak Veggies Into Your Diet

It’s all about balance amirite? I’ve realised that it’s useless to try and stop my inner hungry girl from having dessert when I’m out to dinner, so I made the following deal with her:

If I eat 90% healthy food at home and at work, I can indulge a little when I’m out to dinner. Making a habit of adding more veggies and subbing out carbs has been a game changer. I haven’t lost much weight, but I feel a lot less bloated and there’s no more menu agony – as in “I SHOULD get the salad but I REALLY WANT the burger”.

Here are a few ways that I sneak fruit and veggies into my diet.

Zoodles

Zucchini noodles. What a miraculous invention. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t experienced for myself, but if you fry these up with butter and salt they are quite the satisfying mouthful.

I picked up a zoodler thing from Big W for about $15, and it takes about 5 minutes to turn my zucchinis into fully cooked “pasta”. Bon Appetite, baby.

Green apple slices and cheese

There’s just no world where I am going to be able to give up cheese, so if I feel the need to have a private cheese platter after work then I swap the crackers for green apple slices. The tang of a smelly blue is especially good with green apple, but creamy Camembert also works a treat.

Cauliflower

I wrote a whole story about why cauliflower should be your new favourite veggie, so I won’t bang on too much about it here. Just think: cauliflower rice, cauliflower pizza base and cauliflower chips.

Carrot sticks and stuff

There’s nothing new about carrot sticks, but I discovered that I can mix them with just about anything. Hommus is a no brainer, but I also eat them with organic peanut butter and Vegemite on the reg.

Kale chips

Again, not a new thing, but I have some key tips. Make sure your kale is completely dry, coat both sides with a spray on coconut oil (available at Woolies) don’t over salt and don’t bake for too long. The last one is crucial. Even a minute too long and the leaves will start tasting bitter.

Lettuce burritos

I always knew this was a thing, but until I got into the habit of cutting down on carbs I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Now I happily fill my Cos lettuce leaves with natural yoghurt, beans, spinach, cheese and delicious taco seasoned mince, and can have thirds without feeling too stuffed.

Grating veggies into spaghetti bolognese

This is probably a trick of mums all over Australia, and it’s an awesome way to make sure that spaghetti is a more balanced meal. Grating a good amount of carrot or zucchini into the sauce not only means that you need less meat, it also means you don’t have to worry about serving a salad on the side. Eat it with the zoodles and you’ve got a double whammy.