Healthy Eating FoodsEat your vegetables! That’s what mom always said. Healthy eating foods are literally about eating your vegetables in all their different colors, sizes, shapes, and textures. Was mom right about vegetables being healthy? Do you have a favorite veggie? We all have a favorite veggie or two and we tend to only eat those ones we favor and leave the rest alone. But is that such a good idea? Let’s take a look at how we can make any vegetable taste good, even for the pickiest of eaters.
Healthy Eating Foods: Broccoli and CauliflowerBoth of these vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet. They belong to the cabbage family of vegetables and offer much valuable nutrients. In fact broccoli packs twice the amount of vitamin C than the orange! It also has as much calcium as a glass of whole milk! Wow, pass the cauliflower please.Broccoli and cauliflower can be chopped small and added to salads and eaten raw, or lightly steamed. To make these vegetables taste really good, sauté a couple of garlic cloves in some olive oil. Toss the vegetables and add spices and herbs of your choice.
Healthy Eating Foods: Kale, Swiss Chard and Mustard GreensDark leafy greens are packed with life-giving nutrients. Here’s a nutrition fact that mom probably forgot to tell you. Dark greens are loaded with calcium, vitamins A and C, and chlorophyll. Maybe mom was right after all.Mustard greens and kale can be made into a salad and eaten raw. Swiss Chard is slightly bitter and needs to be steamed, but it tastes better than spinach. After steaming the Chard, quickly sauté in garlic and olive oil. Adding the juice of one lemon or lime brings out the flavor of this wonderful green. Swiss Chard also makes a great substitute for spinach in any recipe such as lasagna and stuffed Italian shells with Ricotta cheese. Eating your vegetables greens on a consistent basis, steamed and raw at least once a day would benefit your health greatly.
Healthy Eating Foods: Peas, Carrots and Sweet PotatoesFrozen peas are great to have on hand for many recipes. Add about a half of a cup of snow peas to salads just the way they are. They give the salad a boost of flavor.Peas are great added to vegetable stir-fries at the last minute. And no pop pie is complete without peas. Snow peas are the ones that grow in pods, usually three peas to a pod. Carrots are a good source of beta-carotene. And they really are good for the eyes, but you have to eat them every single day to really notice a difference in eyesight. Carrots can be used grated in salads, added to stir fry’s, or just munched on the way they are, raw. Carrots also make good vegetables to juice in the morning with apples. Carrot juice drinks are really sweet and refreshing first thing in the morning, and oh so healthy. Sweet potatoes are a staple in the south. They take the place of pumpkin puree in pie during the holidays. And once you’ve eaten a sweet potato pie you will never want to eat pumpkin pie again. Sweet potatoes can be fried, baked, broiled, and boiled. You can also grate them into salads and eat them raw. They taste good prepared in any recipe and they are so versatile. They have more beta-carotene than carrots. They are also chuck full of calcium and vitamins A and C. This article certainly does not even make a dent in the variety of vegetables we can prepare and use in recipes. It is a good idea to experiment with different vegetables and eat a variety of different colors. Each color has its own nutrients. I guess we should remember what mom said if we want to have a well balanced diet. It's all about healthy eating by eating your vegetables!
|
