Easy Ways to Eat More Greens

Try these easy ways to eat more green vegetables – that don’t involve salads.

Add greens to breakfast.

• Add chopped fresh or frozen spinach to scrambled eggs or omelets or try a batch of easy egg muffins.
• Sip a green smoothie or enjoy last night’s veggie leftovers.
• Make a breakfast salad. Oops. I said no salads. But oh well!
• Top boiled eggs with homemade pesto.

Blend greens into a smoothie. 

Add spinach or kale to your smoothie – every time. Whether you’re doing a green smoothie or beet red one, greens are ready to go and don’t change the flavor much. I promise.

Put greens on a pizza.

My Kale Pesto Naan Pizza can be ready in just 10 minutes. If you already have a frozen pizza on hand, add fresh or frozen spinach or kale for a nutrition boost.

I am also a fan of adding roasted broccoli to pizza and using up that last bit of baby spinach in the crisper on a flatbread.

Make a wrap or sandwich.

• Try a chard or collard green wrap instead of a flour tortilla. I recommend blanching collard greens before using for a wrap. They can be rather tough to chew otherwise.
• Swap in arugula, spinach or kale for basic lettuce on a sandwich. Think fresh spinach on a turkey and Swiss sandwich or arugula on roast beef.
• Stuff some cabbage or grape leaves. Add lentils or your favorite lean ground meat and rice for a delicious handheld meal.

Top things off. 

Add shredded cabbage or collard greens to tacos and burgers for extra color, flavor, and fiber.

My BBQ Salmon & Kale Tacos are ready in just 15 minutes. Buy a bag of shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix and make a batch of Crispy Cod Tacos with Crunchy Honey Cilantro Slaw!

Sneak greens into sauces and soups.

• Add chopped kale to a soup or stew or a big handful of spinach to a marinara sauce during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
• Any quick-cooking leafy green will work in my Pumpkin Lentil Curry.
• Swirl greens into soup. Greens go well in almost any soup from tomato and broth-based soups to creamy ones. Try adding some to my Easy White Bean Stew.

Add green vegetables to pasta.

• Add broccoli or frozen peas to the pasta water shortly before it’s cooked. The more tender you want them, the earlier you’d add them. Or make vegetables the star.
• My Roasted Broccoli and Walnut Pasta takes only 20 minutes to whip up. You’ll want to eat it the same day!
• The Pumpkin Walnut & Spinach Pasta (above) has been super popular. And you can easily add more to the dish.

Explore new vegetable options. 

Try chard, beet greens, and turnip greens or go bold with arugula, watercress, parsley, and mustard greens which are spicy and full of flavor. Add them to other greens for extra flavor or mix them into bean dishes.

Buy precut and prepped greens.

Cleaning greens can be the biggest barrier. Go for the pre-washed, pre-cut baby spinach, baby kale, and other mixes. Baby greens are more tender and tend to be less bitter. Yes. the prepped ones will cost more but if you’re not willing to do the prep, it’s worth it.

Make your own veggie chips.

These easy Cheezy Kale Chips from Sally at Real Mom Nutrition are a fun and healthy snack. If you haven’t tried making kale chips at home, this is a good place to start!

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