Tired of Salads and Smoothies? Try This Instead

Healthy foods have an image problem. In most people’s minds, the word ‘healthy” is synonymous with blandness, boring!

It’s no surprise that many people only eat healthy food when they’re on a diet. They eat unhealthy foods most of the time and only have a salad or chug a green smoothie every once in a while to atone for their bad eating habits.

The truth is that there are just as many tasty health foods as bland ones. Eating healthy doesn’t mean your taste buds need to suffer. Put the green smoothie down, and try these three foods instead.

Stir-fried Veggies

Do you struggle to eat the recommended three to five servings of vegetables daily? Try stir-fried veggies.

With a frying pan, a little oil, and a lot of patience, you can make any fresh vegetable taste good. The dry heat removes excess moisture and brings out the delicious caramelized flavors.

Due to the differences in sugar content, some vegetables, like onions, carrots, and beets, caramelize much faster than others. It helps to have such vegetables as a base for your stir fry, and then you can top off with other vegetables such as broccoli, mushrooms, cauliflower, spinach, and zucchini.

Veggie / Whole-Grain Soups

Soups are some of the healthiest comfort foods; and healthy too, which is why they’re often given to you when you’re not feeling well.

Care to know a simple way to make your soup even healthier? Use a blender during preparation to “sneak in” vegetables and whole grains that you probably wouldn’t eat otherwise (you’ll barely even taste them).

If you don’t like the texture of whole grain rice, you probably wouldn’t look forward to having it on your plate. However, blending it into a soup with other ingredients gets you past that mental block.

Whole Fruits

Before you reach for a glass of your favorite fruit juice because you think it’s a healthy choice, you should know that the health benefits only apply to whole fruits. Drinking fruit juice every day actually increases your risk of becoming diabetic by 21%, whereas eating whole fruit reduces it by 23%!

To put this into perspective, you need three medium-sized apples to make 1 cup of juice. Most people wouldn’t eat three apples with breakfast, but they don’t think twice about downing a glass of apple juice.

The easiest way to enjoy fruit without exceeding the recommended two servings a day is to eat it whole. This also ensures that you don’t miss out on the health benefits of the fiber in the fruit pulp.

Healthy eating can be really enjoyable, but most people don’t give it a fair shake. They probably don’t realize that stir-fried veggies, soups, and whole fruits can be just as healthy as raw salads. Plus, they add variety and are delicious!

Photo by Ella Olsson on Unsplash