Pumping Up Your Meals with Nutrition

Last week we talked about amping up your nutrition by filling out your meals with vegetables on the side. But what about those of us with family, significant others or children who think vegetables are kind of icky? Here's a few creative ways to get extra servings in painlessly, sometimes without them ever knowing!

Burgers and Meatballs

Whether you use ground meat or a meatless protein for your meatballs, it's easy to hide a few extra servings of veggies in these. Use a food processor to grind up onions and whole tomatoes to a fine paste, and swap some of the meat for ground up zucchini, yellow squash or even cauliflower. Mushrooms will make your meat even more savory. Mix these in with your meat and spices, form into balls and cook as usual. This meat mixture also works great in lasagna, and leftover "burgers" are good to put on a nice plain bed of lettuce with dressing for those who usually pick out everything but the meat.

Soups

Add extra nutrition to your broth by adding steamed and pureed vegetables like carrots, butternut squash and eggplant. The blended veggies will add a creamy texture and loads of extra fiber.

Baking

Swap out some or all of your flour in cookie and cracker recipes with almond flour, brown rice protein, pea protein, coconut flour or cashew flour. If you make your own nut milk, you can dry the leftover ground nuts you strain from the milk in the oven and use it in place of flour. You can also buy flours in bulk online or at your local market (though online is usually cheaper).

Batter

Lots of veggies are great breaded and baked or fried, my favorites being zucchini and broccoli. To eschew the eggs in the batter, combine one tablespoon of ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons cold water for every egg you need to replace and stir. Let this mixture sit and stir occasionally while you're preparing the rest of your food, and in a few minutes you'll have a gel with the same texture and binding qualities of an egg. Use coconut or cashew flour in place of wheat flour in your recipe and you have a much more nutritious meal.

Smoothies

Adding an avocado or fresh coconut to the base of your smoothie instead of a banana makes for a creamy and rich start to your day (or after meal dessert!). A couple handfuls of fresh sweet romaine lettuce or spinach, or even steamed vegetables like carrots or cauliflower will bulk up a smoothie while still leaving it tasting fruity.

Chips

Baked vegetables seasoned just right will come out crispy and delicious like chips. For kale, remove the middle stem and break into chip-sized pieces. For zucchini or squash, slice thinly. For a simple chip, marinate the "chips" lightly in coconut or olive oil, place evenly on a cookie sheet, dust with your favorite seasonings and bake. For more robust chips, marinate in salad dressings like tahini and soy sauce, lemon and orange, salt and vinegar, or even a cheesy dressing. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes or until crispy. And remember to flip them!

Dips

For creamy dips like ranch or yogurt, squash and cucumbers blend nicely and add a crisp fresh flavor. For salsas, try something with more crunch like celery or bell peppers.

Adding in and replacing your traditional ingredients with veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds will help immensely in making you and your family healthier. After they eat it and see how delicious it is, teach them about what ingredients you're using next time they cook with you. Trying new colorful fruits and vegetables will be much easier for them to swallow. And until next time, keep it clean!