I never count my veggies either as long as they are the non-starchy ones and have no dressing. I eat a lot of cabbage and its vertually free of caleries. But thats what works for me, good luck with the veggies!
Just out of curiosity, for those of you that consume 300 veggie calories a day, how do you do it? What types of dishes are you making and how many veggies are you eating? (Always looking for was to up my veggies!)
Good question. I'd like to know this too, of those who say they eat mostly veggies...How do you eat them, prepare them?
I usually do a mixture of steamed or stir fried veggies, or a big pot of veggie soup to get most of my veggies, but I don't want to eat the same thing every day and I am curious how some of you can eat enough eating mostly veggies. You'd have to be consuming vast amounts of veggies every day to fill all your nutritional needs.
I wish I wanted to eat plain veggies more than I do, but to me veggies are just a bit too plain without something on them like salt, butter, sauce, dressing, or something. And it's the toppings that you have to watch out for. If I ate my veggies today like I did before starting this diet, I wouldn't have any calories left for anything else.
Also, for those of you who live on mostly veggies, do you spend all your time prepping them, or do you buy them frozen and ready to eat to save time?
Last edited by recidivist; 01-20-2009 at 06:23 PM.
I get my massive quantities of veggie because I love to eat. I like big, heaping plates of food. Huge. Filling. So I take whatever I'm cooking and pack it with veggies. Meatloaf? Grate in carrots and zucchini. Stirfry? 4 oz of shrimp to 3 cups of veggies. Pasta? Use 1 serving of pasta and toss with 2 cups of roasted onion, bell pepper, zucchini, and eggplant...it triples the portion while adding only a few calories. And you should see my soups! I cook in carrots, celery, zucchini, etc, but then wilt in a green (like chard, kale, or arugula) at the end of cooking.
I prep most/all of my veggies myself. If you invest in good knives, chopping really doesn't take all that much time, or at least it doesn't for me. And chopping is really soothing for me also.
I don't know why, but I also really enjoy the vegetable prep when cooking.
Except for garlic and ginger. If I had a sous-chef, that's all he would do, the garlic and ginger; oh, and peeling onions. And washing and chopping the cilantro ... Hmm, I guess I don't like *all* the prep
But it does all hinge on having a lovely knife and cutting board. I also enjoy prep a lot more now that I'm vegetarian and don't have to work with raw meat. Always hated that.
I don't mind the prep once I get started, but it's hard for me to stand in the kitchen for long, so I dread it and put it off...and that doesn't make it easy to get my veggies in. That's why I like doing a huge pot of soup...it lasts a long time with just one night of prep.
I just discovered something today. Using spaghetti squash in place of pasta helps to thicken up the soup, and it's very good. I just put a cup of cold spaghetti squash in my bowl and topped it with my hot veggie soup (tomato based, so it's almost like marinara), and it seems much more filling. I'm going to have to remember to buy more spaghetti squash.
I get my massive quantities of veggie because I love to eat. I like big, heaping plates of food. Huge. Filling.
Yup, me too. I REQUIRE volume. I also REQUIRE to eat often. I was not willing to give up large quantities of food. I knew my answer would be to turn to veggies.
Today I had Israeli salad (cukes, tomatoes and onions with vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper) 2X. I also had cucumber salad 2X. Today's snack was broiled zucchini with broiled tomatoes and a hit of parmesean cheese - yumm. Another snack was baby carrots and grape tomatoes, dipped in salsa. I munched on lots of raw string beans. Lunch is very often a HUGE salad (romaine hearts, baby spinach, grape tomatoes, cukes, shredded carrots, raw mushrooms, bell peppers) with tuna or a HUGE stir fry (mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchin, spinach, bell peppers & onions) or a HUGE amount of roasted cauliflower and or broccoli. Dinners either fish or chicken with- more veggies & LOTS of them. A combo of roasted brussel sprouts, roasted asparagus & roasted green beans. Sometimes it will be baked butternut squash. Sometimes it's spinach, onions and portobello mushrooms. Sometimes it's spaghetti squash with veggies. I also make a big pot of soup most weeks, loaded with veggies. I LOVE em'.
That's really just the tip of the iceberg, or should I say romaine? I never use iceberg lettuce.
I find that it doesn't matter how many veggies I stuff myself with, they don't fill me up...they leave me feeling weak and hungry. Sometimes the more I eat of them, the hungrier I feel. What does satisfy me is the proteins I eat.
If I ate mostly veggies, I wouldn't be able to eat the things that really fuel my body. Plus I doubt I could afford it.
I find that it doesn't matter how many veggies I stuff myself with, they don't fill me up...they leave me feeling weak and hungry. Sometimes the more I eat of them, the hungrier I feel. What does satisfy me is the proteins I eat.
If I ate mostly veggies, I wouldn't be able to eat the things that really fuel my body. Plus I doubt I could afford it.
I'm fortunate, cause' let me tell you, they fill me. They REALLY fill me. Even my snacks, which are not always paired with a protein. All that fiber, can't be beat in my book. As well as the high water content in many of them.
But they are costly and time consuming. I often think to myself it would be soooo much easier and soooo much cheaper to just cook up some rice or pasta. It's not an option for me, but I am envious of those 2 factors.
It's okay though, it's time and money well spent. But boy I wish they WERE cheaper.
I eat lots and lots of veggie. I will do a stir fry for lunch and use the whole bag of mixed veggie blends. I eat it all!! That can easily be 180 calories in my veggie part of lunch alone. It makes getting 300 calories a day in veggies easy. A few serving of veggies with dinner. I never eat just one serving of any veggies...I have to get full or I will cheat!! I am big on volume also!!!
I don't count non starchy vegetables. In the old WW exchange program they had a list of "free" veggies, and I still follow that to this day. Like Robin and others I have to have "lots" of food on my plate to make this work for me, so vegetables make up the mass. Here is a partial list of my "free" veggies:
Lettuce (all varieties), cabbage, onions, peppers, green bean, cauliflower, broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, radishes, tomatoes, carrots, celery, cucumbers, spinach, garlic...to name a few of my favorites.
I make monster batches of stir fry and use a generous amount of olive oil when I prepare it. So I do count around 50 calories per cup to account for the oil. Sometimes I use Asian seasonings, Italian seasonings, Mexican seasonings...or what ever suits my fancy to my veggies, depending on what the theme of the week is. I store it in the fridge in a 5 quart Ice Cream bucket...lol I've lost 140 pounds in a year, so the "free" veggie systems works for me.
