Vegetables are filled with fiber and fiber is great for your system. When everything moves along (so to speak) your body is processing your food, not storing it. There’s got to be an easier way to eat better so I’m blogging How to get more vegetables on your plate.
Here are 3 very simple tricks I use:
First of all, I see my plate as a PLUS sign.
+ In one section, there’s a protein, one area vegetables, next area carbs and 4th area vegetables again. If you do that, you will DOUBLE your vegetable intake. Easy huh?
YES CHEF!
Alrighty then….. Number 2 on the best way to get more vegetables into your system is: Learn how to use them. For example: when the weather is cold there’s an amazing quick soup you can make. Simply throw cut up broccoli into vegetable broth. You will be amazed at how delicious that soup is because all the flavor gets concentrated and the broth brings out all the great flavor in the broccoli. Speaking of broth, vegetable broth helps flavor pasta. Have you ever considered cooking pasta in broth? Well I do that all the time and it’s YUM.
My third trick (actually the 4th, but who’s counting) is learning to turn vegetables into art. 
In this picture from Edible Art we have turned carrots into flowers. Or even mushrooms (link from a different artist on YouTube). People eat with their eyes.
I hate to send you away from me to vegetable carving sites so do me a big flavor and wait till you finish reading this blog, to click on mushrooms to see what I am talking about. It’s fun and easy to carve vegetables and not only will it be rewarding to see people you are feeding amazed at how their plate looks, but it really makes eating more fun.
My final comments about “How to get more vegetables on your plate” is be creative. Our tongue registers the different flavors and certain combinations provide a great foundation, great layers of flavor we can start most dishes with. It gets more vegetables into your life, but more important, more flavor!
Here are some kitchen basics:
Mirepoix (prounounced meer-a-pwah) is the classic and most common French combination of onions, carrots, and celery, typically in a ratio of 2 parts onion to 1 parts each carrot and celery. The Holy Trinity is the Cajun/Creole version of mirepoix which still uses onions and celery but substitutes green bell pepper for carrots. It is typically used in equal proportions or in the same ratio as mirepoix with 2 parts onion to 1 part each celery and green bell pepper.
Michael Pollan who is a great writer and cookbook author in the vegan world says: It is the precise combination of these chopped-up plants that usually gives a pot dish its characteristic flavor and cultural identity.”
I think it’s great to understand what spices to use as well and this info comes from the kitchen basics:
Southern Italian food is also associated with the flavor trio of garlic, tomato and basil. Jamaica: Jamaican cuisine has a distinctive flavor marked by its own holy trinity of garlic, scallion and thyme.
Healthy Happy Eating,
