For those of you joining us for this 7 day New Year Slim Down series today please make sure you check day the New Years Slim Down – Day 1 Here.
This year I wanted to do something a little bit different on the blog, by focusing 100% on setting that New Year’s intention correctly and making the most of your New Year’s motivation to really make a change so that it becomes a lifestyle change rather than something that you do for a few weeks and then give up, feeling bad for quitting but knowing that everything will be okay as you’ve quit every other year as well and things worked themselves out.
Today’s New Year’s Slim Down is all about getting us to eat Healthier Main Meals, and by healthier I want you to realise that it doesn’t have to mean tasteless or boring food at all! There are so many amazing things you can make that contain 100% nutritious foods! We are even giving you a FREE recipe book with 7 healthy main meals at the end of this post so make sure you remember to download your copy!
I’ve written so many different posts about eating more vegetables and protein however I feel as though I should repeat some of the tips in this post as it’s super easy to forget about adding vegetables to your diet.
- Use alternative carbohyrates sources like potato, sweet potato or pumpkin as your carbohydrate of choice with dinner (and lunch). Swap the rice, bread or pasta in some of your meals to vegetable carbohydrates and you’ll be bumping up your vegetable content without feeling as though you’re missing out.
- Make vegetables more fun (easier said than done some may say), chop the vegetables into different shapes. I enjoy chip shape food so often make homemade kumara (sweet potato) fries and carrot chips.
- Make use of herbs and spices to make things more interesting! Herbs and spices can completely transform a dish!
- Have a serving of vegetables with every meal! Add vegetables to your morning smoothie or omelette and take leftovers for lunch.
- Move the vegetables to the top shelf of the refrigerator, if you can see them you are more likely to eat them!
- Make friends with meal prepping! Cut the vegetables up on your days off so they are ready to go. It’s a lot easier to grab a bunch of carrot sticks and eat them if you don’t need to peel and chop them right then and there.
- Try the vegetables in a different form to what you usually have. This works well if you don’t like certain vegetable, for example I can’t stand boiled broccoli but I tried it when it was only just cooked so still a little hard and I didn’t mind it. I’ve also heard people rave over roasted brocolli! Another example for me is pumpkin, I can’t stand pumpkin by itself but I don’t mind my pumpkin soup recipe!
- Use vegetables as the vessel to hold your food – an example is a capsicum or eggplant! Hollow out the capsicum and serve your dinner in it, eating the bowl as you go.
- Try to incorporate some vegetarian meals into your diet. Meat free Monday anyone?
- Make a home made salsa and use it liberally on your meals! Salsa is made out of vegetables! Just make sure you don’t make one full of sugar.
- Roast your vegetables! I don’t know about you but I much prefer roasted vegetables to boiled or mashed. On the weekend I make a roast one night and do enough extra vegetables for a few nights dinners so we come home to roast vegetables each night!
- Make friends with your slow cooker – seriously add a tin of tomatoes, some meat and any other vegetables of your choice with a few herbs and spices and you will have a delicious vegetable filled meal – and it’s ready for you when you get home from work!
- Stir Fries are a great friend of the vegetable eater, just add in whatever vegetables you like and keep the ones you don’t out (I’m looking at you onion and mushrooms!), for bonus points serve over cauliflower rice!
Some other articles you may get value out of reading are below:
7 Ways to reduce food wastage by using your scraps
Stock a smarter kitchen [packaged goods for a healthier you!]
10 Recipes to increase your vegetable consumption
6 Ways to reduce mindless eating
7 Day Slim Down, Day 2 Homework
- Download our 7 Healthy Meals Recipe Book by filling out the form below
- Plan your evening meals for the next 7 days
- Commit to your plan
Let us know which recipe you are planning on making this week out of the recipe book…..
[lab_subscriber_download_form download_id=1]