I have a grill pan for my BBQ. I chop up mushrooms, peppers, and asparagus almost every night and eat a veggie medley with dinner. Sometimes I do zucchini planks directly on the grill. When I'm sick of grilled vegetables, I steam some green beans, broccoli, and other veggies and put a little olive oil and salt on top.

Couldn't agree more. 11 months into phase 4, and I still eat about 4 cups of veggies a day (and sure did NOT before IP!). But since we have to permanently change our eating habits to eliminate all the bad foods, you have to eat veggies or there is not enough food to keep you full.

how about:
break apart cauliflower into popcorn size pieces. toss with EVOO and curry powder. spread on a cookie sheet and roast at 425 until crispy

chop 2 cups of rhubarb (yup, its unrestricted) and sprinkle with cinnamon and a little nutmeg. cover and microwave for a about 90 seconds. Pour a vanilla pudding over it...like apple pie and icecream!

steam broccoli with some fresh ginger in the water, toss with wheat free soy sauce

chop 1-2 cups asparagus into bite size pieces and saute in olive oil until just a little soft. Add to an egg white omlette with some crab meat--dinner!

chop up 2 c. cauliflower and 2 c. celery root into small chunks. Cover and microwave until soft (do in a couple batches, maybe 8-10 minutes each). Put in a blender with some 0-0-0- chicken broth, roasted garlic, salt and white pepper. Better than mashed potatoes! (and leftovers for the next day)

trim ends of brussel sprouts and cut in half. toss them in a bowl with EVOO. Grill on low heat for about 20 minutes--they get carmel-y.

I know what you mean about texture and I'm a crunchy girl myself..try grilling raddichio, romaine, fennel or leeks. All are really good! (just spray with a little olive oil first).

Make 2 c. pico de gallo (tomatoes, cilantro, onion, pepper, lime juice) and use it over 4 lunch salads (covers 1/2 cup of each day's veggies)

simmer 2-3 cups 0-0-0 chicken stock with 2 c. of any one veggie of choice (broccoli or cauliflower, or asparagus) until the veggie is soft--about 10 minutes. Leave the lid off so it reduces the liquid. Throw in the blender until all creamy. Put back in the pan. Mix up 1 pack of soup mix (I use chicken with broccoli or cauliflower, but mushroom might work with asparagus) in your shaker, with about 1/2 cup water. Slowly stir it into the soup. Add seasoning (I use curry or rosemary for cauliflower; ginger or garlic for broccoli, and a little fresh lemon juice with asparagus). serve!

Really, use this weight loss time as a way to learn new foods to buy and prepare, because that is the best way to commit to this being the last diet you will ever be on! :D

I love the pico de gallo and the soup idea. I have really been struggling with the consistencies and flavours of the IP packets. No offense to the people that enjoy them but they are some seriously twisted version of healthy.

Does anyone know if it's worth substituting a V8 every once and awhile? I'm not 100% sure what the function of veggies is...other than to fill my belly and add some nutrients...but I have a really hard time with them. I often have trouble choking them down after a pudding or a shake and I'm worried if I force it they won't stay down. Then I'll have lost the protein from the packet as well.

I'm just trying to decide if it's worse to drink a V8 or only get half (sometimes less) the veggies in on some days. Any suggestions?

I'm slowly trying new recipes and finding I like a lot of the cooked (especially roasted) ideas but I have trouble with quick and easy work stuff as I'm often not close to a microwave at lunch time.

V8 is way too high in carbs, 10 grams. That would be 1/3 or 1/4 of your carbs for the whole day. But more importantly, you need real veggies. It will keep you from becoming constipated, and the fiber helps your system process water, etc.

Here's the deal, if you don't learn to eat veggies now and accept that this will be the way you need to eat for the rest of your life, you may as well quit IP because you are wasting money. Once you get to Phase 4, the majority of what you will eat (for the rest of your life) will be veggies. Or you will go back to filling up on carbs and gain all the weight back.
There are lots and lots of ways to eat them, you just need to find the ones you like.

And like everything in IP, the secret is in being prepared.

If you don't have a microwave, you can find other ways to get them in...Chop up lots of fresh veggies for your lunch salad, so you can get your 2 cups there. Add some spinach or arugula to your morning omelette. Make a salad of cucumbers, onions and vinegarette for your lunch. Snack on baba ganoush (eggplant and garlic and evvo and lemon juice) by dipping in cucumber slices or celery. Lots of good things in the recipe thread that are not just a hunk of vegetable matter:D GOOD LUCK!

V-8 is not going to work - maybe try eating a spinach salad. I've never been a lettuce fan, so I usually use spinch for my salad - it does 2 things - gets your 2 cups of veggies in and gives you the fiber/nutrients needed. If you have trouble with just eating veggies with a protein shake you might try eating 1/2 your meat protein at lunch with your veggies and the other half at night. I have to travel a lot and I did this many times during phase 1. If that doesn't work, try eating a dill pickle as a snack between breakfast and lunch and maybe another for afternoon snack. Unfortunately - for this program to work, you are going to have to learn to eat your veggies! Hope this helps.

I like to chop up cooked cauliflower and mix it with ground turkey. It gives the illusion of rice :)

the chopped cauliflower faux rice also makes a great summer salad. You can cook it just briefly until rice texture, then cool it. Toss with any number of combinations:
--pesto and a couple cherry tomatoes
--a vinegarette, some diced red onion and diced asparagus
etc.

and, black soy beans are unrestricted.
MEXI SALAD
1 can cooked black soy beans, rinse and toss with
lime juice and salt
let sit over night, this will soften the beans to a better texture. the next morning, toss with
cilantro
red onion
2-3 cherry tomatoes cut in quarters
a little cumin
[I use lots of recipes where I use 2-3 cherry tomatoes over the course of the week, so I can stretch out my 2 cups over the whole week as my restricted veggie]


and there are a few recipes for faux potato salad using cauliflower (on the threads) Here is the one that several people last year loved (sorry I cannot remember the person who made it up!). My only change was to use fresh cauliflower, cut into small bite size pieces, cover and microwave (no added water) for 5-6 minutes instead of using frozen. This gave a firmer, potato-like texture.


Take the WF Mayo out of the jar and mix it with enough mustard to give it a nice yellow colour, add some sea salt and put it back in the jar. This makes it more tasty!!! (be sure to count the eggs as your protein)

1/2 bag (2kg) or large bag of frozen cauliflower
4 boiled eggs, mashed
6 radishes diced
2 green onions, chopped
1 stalk of celery, sliced in small pieces
1/2 cup of chopped cucumber
1/4 cup of green pepper, chopped
fresh or frozen dill weed, chopped fine OR
1 tps. of dried dill weed ( or to taste)
sea salt
pepper
1/2 cup of WF Mayo

Cook frozen cauliflower until fork tender, drain and mash. Let cool
Mix the mashed egg and all the veggies with the cooled cauliflower.
Add the WF mayo (that has the mustard added) and mix
Add sea salt, pepper and dill weed (these should be added to your taste)
Mix well and store in fridge.

Hi Susan, I'm originally from New Iberia but I live in Houston now. I heard of the diet from all of the people there who have had so much success. It's great to know that I can go to Fremen's when I am home visiting family to pick up a few things. Thanks for the information.

Lori

Thanks for all of the ideas. I've copied many of them to a document and hope to try many of them over the weekend. I am normally a vegetable eater but for some reason the 2 cups of vegetables with a chocolate or other flavor drink for lunch is throwing me off. I've been adding veggies to my soups but I know that this will get old eventually. I'm only in week one so trying really hard to keep this interesting so that I can stay committed to something for a change.

Thanks for the suggestions. I really am trying with the veggies...and I am determined to learn to eat them. I was just worried that not getting enough might jeapordize the other effort I am putting in to this program. I am definitely eating enough veggies if I count all of the spinach...unfortunately, I realized I was doing the program wrong by substituting this for lettuce. Is the lettuce compulsory or only "as needed?" I do enjoy some raw veggies like cucumber and celery but they're getting boring. I guess it's adjusting from "chef-made" meals (my father was a chef and taught me to cook) to a limited program. It is much healthier but I'm missing a lot of the rich sauces that I used to coat my veggies in and real salad dressing. The WF stuff is not worth substituting for anything.

The lettuce does NOT count into your 2 cups, just verified with my coach this morning.....sorry.

Does the spinach count as a lettuce? I read somewhere else that it wasn't considered free like the lettuce?

Spinach counts as a veggie.

No spinach is not free so you would have to count it towards your 2 cups for lunch or dinner.