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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.
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 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.
Alas, 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 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 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 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 bagged lettuce at the grocery store and now you'll be motivated 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 not 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.
I've been working my way through a tuna bean salad with arugula, 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 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 400 degrees for a bit, maybe around 15 minutes.
Depends on your oven.
Some people might add pepper for more kick.
Or you could eat the roasted veggies with a chipotle aioli 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, 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 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 with an encouraging trainer or running somewhere beautiful.
Studying with a group of smart and encouraging classmates is more fun than hitting the books 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 cauliflower with sriracha aioli.
Raw spinach is tedious.
That cauliflower, 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 got questions, ideas or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at LauraVanderkam.com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.
For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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