Make vegetables more interesting

Eating your spinach (literally or metaphorically) doesn't have to be unpleasant 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to make vegetables more interesting. Many of us
eat less produce than we think we should because veggies

(00:23):
on their own can be pretty bland, But a few
little strategies can make them far more exciting to eat.
So a few weeks ago, my daughter got a hankering
for the Olive Garden Salad a last there was no
good spot in the schedule for us all to go
to Olive Garden, so she decided to make a version
of the Olive Garden salad, and particularly their version of

(00:46):
Italian dressing. We had that on lettuce that night, and Wow,
I was a lot more excited about eating lettuce than
I have been in a while. I ate a lot
of lettuce. That is probably a good thing. One of
the things restaurants often do right is adding spice or
kick to their dishes. People tend to under season food

(01:08):
at home, and that's a reason that restaurant food often
tastes better. But it's not like they have some special
magical secret that is unavailable to the rest of us.
Anyone can add hot peppers and other such things to
normal dishes, particularly with salad dressings. This can make eating
vegetables in general a lot more fun. So if you

(01:29):
are looking to add more veggies to your life, one
easy way to do this is to come up with
a salad dressing that you really like. They are not
that hard to make. Usually there's oil and vinegar involved,
maybe things like garlic. Make enough for a few meals
and put the dressing in the fridge. Buy some bag
lettuce at the grocery store, and now you'll be motivated

(01:51):
to eat it now. Obviously, you can buy salad dressing
at the store too, but this is a category where
fresh is often significantly better and that hard to pull off.
You can also, in general, try making better salads. Not
all salads have to be lettuce based. There are some
cool ones out there featuring beets and a grain or tomatoes.

(02:13):
I've been working my way through a tuna bean salad
with a rugela and it's been quite good. Try making
a batch of a salad that sounds appealing some night.
Maybe just check out a cookbook from the library with
lots of them and make enough for leftovers. Now you've
got a veggie forward lunch. For the next two days,
I will also sing the praise of roasting veggies. This

(02:34):
has been one of my resolutions this year to do
this more frequently. You can chop up cauliflower and broccoli,
or buy them pre chopped if you like, put some
olive oil and salt on them, and then roast it
four hundred degrees for a bit, maybe around fifteen minutes,
depends on your oven. Some people might add pepper for
more kick, or you could eat the roasted veggies with

(02:54):
a chipotle eoli and get creamy and spicy flavors in
there too. Roasting things that are covered with olive oil
and salt gets you fat, salt, and sugar flavors when
the veggies caramelize. Those are the exact flavors of junk
food that keep us hooked. Now. I am not saying
that veggies will be exactly as good as junk food,

(03:16):
but a lot of people use phrases like eat your
spinach to imply doing something necessary but unpleasant. The idea
is that it must be gotten through because it is
good for you, and that may sometimes be true, but
in a great many cases in life, things that are
good for you can be made infinitely more pleasant through

(03:38):
a few wise choices. Exercise can be more fun when
you're doing it with a friend, or taking a class
with an amazing instructor, or working out within an encouraging trainer,
or running somewhere beautiful. Studying with a group of smart
and encouraging classmates is more fun than hitting the books

(03:58):
on your own. Good teachers know how to make material
that people need to learn more engaging. If you're leading
a meeting, really thinking through how to keep people interested,
maybe even with moments of delight can make that hour
feel a lot less like eating spinach and maybe a
bit more like eating roasted coliflower with sriracha aoli ra.

(04:24):
Spinach is tedious. That couliflower, well, that's something we might
actually look forward to in the meantime. This is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

(04:48):
got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to

(05:10):
your favorite shows,