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Veggie-A-Day Challenge for the SUPER VEGGIE-CHALLENGED!!!!! A Week At A Time!!!!

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#1

Amarantha2 , 05-29-2005 08:25 AM

Hi, Non Veggie Folks! I just found this section of the forum, maybe it's new, dunno!!! Anyhow, it's nice to see that others have trouble eatin' veggies, though WE DO TRY!!!

Thanks to an idea by another poster (Vegan Vixen) who's posted a veggie challenge on the miscellaneous club thread that's a bit too rich for my Veg-Negative Soul, I'm embarkin' on a VEGGIE A DAY challenge for myself and anyone out there who cares to join me!!!

I HEREBY CHALLENGE ME AND ANY LIKE-MINDED VEGGIE WANNABEES TO EAT A MERE ONE SERVING (or more, gasp!!) OF ANY VEGETABLE EACH AND EVERY DAY FOR ONE WEEK (just seven days)!!! I WILL REPORT MY VEG EFFORTS EACH DAY HERE ON THE THREAD AND HOPE SOMEONE WILL JOIN ME, BUT IF NOT, WELL, THAT'S THE WAY THE OL' BRUSSELS SPROUT BOUNCES!!!

No, bananas don't count because they're a fruit, not a vegetable. Tomatoes are a fruit, too, but they count.

Mushrooms don't count (they're a FUNGUS); popcorn doesn't count !!! No, really, it doesn't count!

All those vegetables out there better be careful, 'cause here I (or we, if anyone joins me) come!!!

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#2

Solus , 05-29-2005 12:19 PM

Do potatos count?

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#3

Solus , 05-29-2005 12:28 PM

I will join...I like SOME veggies...cucumber, belpepper, carrots, tomatos...but only RAW. I can stand steamed squash if it has plenty of lemon on it.

Perhaps if we try a veggie and like it, we should post the recipe of how we prepared it?

Here's my tolerable squash recipe:

Cut squash
Spray butter
lemon juice
Powdered garlic
Nature Seasoning
salt

I cut the sqaush in strips and spritz them with FF butter spray. I sprinkle garlic powder, nature seasoning and a little salt on top and toss veggies to coat. Put them in the steamer and sprinkle lemon juice directly on the veggies and squirt some in the water below. Cover, steam until veggies are JUST tender. The trick is to get them before they're totally mushy or they lose a lot of flavor and have an unpleasant texture. DON'T steam in the microwave.

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#4

Suzanne 3FC , 05-29-2005 01:22 PM

Tolerable squash It actually sounds pretty good!

I had a sandwich for lunch. I fixed a Morning Star farms basil pizza veggie burger on a bun with a dab of light mayo. I included fresh spinach leaves and roasted red bell peppers, and a super thin slice of onion.

GOOD veggies

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#5

Amarantha2 , 05-29-2005 01:24 PM

Hmmm, Solus, that's a good question! Welcome and thanks for joinin' in!!! I don't eat white potatoes (high glycemic) but I do eat sweet potatoes and yams occasionally and for me, yes, I'd consider that a vegetable, although on my Sugar Busters diet it is more of a starch and not thought of as a vegetable, but really potatoes are root vegetables and so ...

I'd think it'd be up to each poster what counts (except not bananas), don't you?

I like your recipe idea and the steamed squash looks good. I'm going to have my Brussel sprouts for lunch steamed in microwave with some mustard (I like mustard) and a crumb topping made with almond meal and a spritz of butter spray.

See ya ...

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#6

Amarantha2 , 05-29-2005 04:15 PM

Hi, Suzanne, thanks for postin' and for havin' this forum. Hey, I never thought of it, but a veggie burger COUNTS as a vegetable, doesn't it? Hooray!

Your sandwich with spinach made me think of a chicken salad I used to make in the mini blender, right after starting to eat meat again (believe it or not, I was ovo-lacto vege for years ... just didn't eat the vegetable part of it very often). I put fresh baby spinach leaves, diet mayo, chicken and corn in there with curry powder ... I don't eat corn or diet mayo anymore, but may make a different version. This was inspired by a restaurant in one of the towns I used to work in (where the movie Murphy's Law was made); it's not in biz anymore, but the owner made the most fab egg salad with the special addition of grated spinach ... tasted so fresh.

Hmmm, but I digress. Reporting that I had a kind of "gratin" for lunch as described above, though gratin means cheese I think and I didn't use cheese. Got this idea from Jacques Pepin's cooking show ... he made lots of gratins with various stuff. Mine was pretty good, but (sigh) still vegetables. I had 14 of the little round sprouts, that's a serving. So Day 1 is in the bag!

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#7

Solus , 05-29-2005 04:55 PM

Oooo Veggie burger. That's an easy serving. I know what I'm having for dinner!

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#8

Solus , 05-29-2005 11:07 PM

I had my veggie burger with lettus, onions, tomato and pickle on top so I think I am on top of the veggie challenge for today.

I also had a roasted sweet potato. I peeled it and sliced it into rounds and sprayed a little FF butter spray on them and put them in the oven @ 350 for an hour. They weren't crunchy as I hoped, but they were chewy and ohmygod sooooo good. I was intending to save some for my fiancee but instead I ate the whole potato myself.

Do sweet potatos count as a veggie? I sure hope so!

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#9

Amarantha2 , 05-30-2005 12:12 AM

Good job, Solus!!! You way exceeded the challenge! Your dinners sounds delish!!!

IMO a sweet potato is a veggie! Also I think I was wrong about mushrooms ... okay, they're a fungus, but hey a fungus grows in the ground, so ... personally, I consider both as vegetables. But I won't use mushrooms in my personal challenge as I eat lots of 'em and I need to eat something else.

Thanks for the sweet potato recipe. I'm looking for ways to eat 'em. When I have 'em, which isn't often, I just micro 'em and put on some ff spray or some low fat spread (or sometimes butter ... the saturated fat isn't good but it blunts the glycemic response and that's my major goal) with a tiny bit of salt. I like the kind that's in a little individual wrapper that you just stick in the microwave without opening. Very handy on the job.

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#10

Solus , 05-30-2005 02:48 PM

How much lettuce is needed to make up a serving? My sister expressed concern over the lack of leafy greens in my diet so I got creative with lunch. I made a batch of LF Tuna salad and put in tons of onions. Then I put a small dollop on a large leaf of lettuce and rolled it up like a burrito. I used 2 different types of lettuce. They looked so pretty there on the plate and it tasted so good I think I will use that technique next time I have to serve food to guests. It's certainly cheap! Anyway, all total I got 8 LARGE leafs of lettuce. Does that count as a serving?

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#11

Amarantha2 , 05-30-2005 05:55 PM

Dunno exactly, Solus!!! Sounds like a serving to me ... I like that rollup idea ... sounds good.

I'm on deadline now but wanted to note that I'm planning to eat broc in some form for dinner!!! It will involve cheese! I'll let ya know tonight or tomorrow how it went.

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#12

breakfastsurreal , 05-30-2005 08:38 PM

wow I'm so glad i found this post! I think the reason I have hated dieting in the past is because of my very limited choices when sticking to a diet...I am a very picky eater, and the only veggies I like are green beans, lettuce and corn, and..i think that's it...I can eat others if they are in casseroles and stuff, but those are the only ones I can just chow down on...so today after reading this post, I decided I would MAKE myself try a new one...I haven't started dieting yet because I'm really unsure which diet will meet my picky eating needs most...or which I will stick to most likely. So tonight, my BF wanted Quiznos...instead of getting the Steakhouse Beefdip Large sub, I got a small wheat sub with tuna, lettuce and tomatos on it, and a small salad. My veggie of the day is TOMATOS! The ones in the sandwich I actually enjoyed! I was sooo psyched about it! But, when I got to the salad, I bit into the cherry tomatos and painfully swallowed them...on the second one I gagged...they were just too...i dunno how to describe it..the taste was just too strong and alarming I think. But, now I can put regular tomatos on my WILL EAT list! Any ideas/suggestions for tomorrow's veggie? I'm a horrible cook and anything I can get on a sandwich would be good...until I actually decide what diet I'm going to go on I'm going to eat salads and healthy subs.

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#13

Amarantha2 , 05-30-2005 11:06 PM

Welcome to our little vege challenged corner o' the world, breakfastsurreal!!! Thanks for joinin' in!!! This is great ... it's great to find I'm not the only one who finds veggies "strong and alarming." Good job on the sub AND the try at the salad.

Hmmmm, ideas ... do you like onions on your burgers (if you like burgers)? If so, maybe that with some lettuce and pickles would count as a vege serving ... if you made it a veggie burger, you'd be even further ahead! There's also "club" sandwiches with turkey or chicken, bacon AND lettuce and tomato ... could make your own on whole wheat bread and use lite or diet mayo?

Reporting on my Day 2 ... had to force myself (sigh, this is crazy, veggies are GOOD, right?) to steam a little chopped broc (I've been on deadline all day and made myself stop work and do this) in microwave ... I then added a number of grams of saturated fat to that healthy vege in the form of Velveeta cheese ... micro'd that and it tasted somewhat like the broc and cheese of my childhood.

Actually I have trouble eating veggies for a number of reasons and even the chopped broc was challenging. Had the idea of making one of my mini blender soups with broc and cheese so it would be easier for me to eat. Think I'll try that tomorrow.

Onward to Day 3.

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#14

Solus , 05-31-2005 04:09 PM

Yeah, blender soups are a good idea. I think I may try that with some of the veggies that are hanging around that I've been reluctant to actually, you know..eat. Post any recipes you come up with so we can try them. I may do that tonight with some spinach. I am feeling kinda bloated from a heavy lunch and want to do it light this evening. A Veggie soup would probably do the trick.

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#15

Solus , 05-31-2005 08:10 PM

OK, I had the veggie soup! How's THIS for a serving of veggies??

I put in my blender:

2 tomatos, a large handful of spinach, some leftover cucumber, some baby carrots, and half an onion. Then, since I wanted some flavor I went out to my herb garden and gathered some basil, oregano, lemon balm, thyme, and rosemary and threw it in too. Then, for protien I added a serving of LF cottage cheese and a serving of plain LF yogert. Next, some salt, fresh ground pepper, paprika, and a few cloves of garlic. Then I added 2 cups of water and blended the whole mess together. I put it in a sauce pan and simmered it on medium for about 5 minutes. It was actually pretty good! And there was a TON so I have lunch for tomorrow.

Not bad, eh?

I really HATE vegtable soups where there are large chunks of limp, over-cooked veggies. The texture is terrible and the, ugh, the taste is awful too. I enjoyed what I made tonight.

If you try it out yourself, use fresh herbs if at all possible. They really make all the difference.

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