sup. random question/poll/survey/whatever time. if you had to throw a bunch of vegetable foods together, what would they be? (note: i use the term 'vegetable foods' because i'm including all foods made out of vegetable matter*, not just greens). alternatively, what would you consider to be your essential "staple" vegetables, and why? i'd probably go for a mix of spinach, broccoli and chard as far as greens go, mainly because the mainstay of my diet is meat, cheese, eggs and milk, most likely leaving me with a woeful lack of plenty of important micronutrients, as well as fiber. all three of the aforementioned veggies are full to bursting of useful stuff, fiber, and interestingly enough protein, which also makes them very useful to me given that i lift weights (and along with lentils, they'd be the four things i'd recommend a physically active vegetarian or vegan stuff his face with if hitting the gym). i'd also add lentils to the group, but i wouldn't be sure of how palatable the result would be (in any case, lentils are another favourite of mine when i take breaks from obsessively devouring my fellow animals and their assorted edible products). outside of greens, potatoes, green peas, carrots and tomatoes are always good for tasty meals, mainly because they're tasty, and anything spicy can find a place in my abominable eclectic bowls of mixed bits of random foodstuffs, so a mix of all of the above would not be out of place mixed in such a bowl with ridiculous amounts of ground beef and molten cheese. i'm not much of a fruit guy, less so within meals, but i'll have an apple or a banana every now and then (particularly bananas for the potassium. no idea if i need it, but given my penchant for lack of sleep and how much i sometimes train, i reason that it can't hurt), so we can drop one or two in for dessert as well *and by this i specifically mean anything that falls into the plantae realm. fruits ARE vegetable foods, because they're part of plants, and are therefore made from vegetable matter so what about you guys? which defenseless innocent sessile life-forms usually find their way into your plates to be mercilessly consumed in a flurry of mastication? what are your reasons for inflicting such torture upon the poor little plants who want nothing more than to recycle your oxygen so that you can continue to breathe? and above all, why won't anyone think of the garden-kittens???
Well, my reasoning for eating them is that I'm vegan. As to what I eat, well, I eat a lot of fruit (usually trying to get what is seasonal). My mainstays are bananas (potassium, calories), peaches (just love the taste), Apples, oranges in the winter (taste and vitamin C) and papaya. Other fruits that I eat less often include the various berries (blue, black, rasp and straw), dates, cherries, cherry tomatoes, kiwi (just bought a bunch of kiwi today). I eat a fair few avocadoes, too. I also eat various greens: romaine, green leaf and red leaf lettuces, spinach, arugula, radicchio, occasionally some bok choy and fennel, kale and chard. This is just off the top of my head. I know there are some things that I've missed. Moreover, this thread is further motivation to get my eating right as I've eaten some crappy meals and vegan takeout of late due to the stresses and time consumption of grad school. I used to log my daily eating in my log here on MAP. I'll have to get back to that once the semester starts back up in a week.
The Kumara! I'm an odd ball, I love vegetables about as much as I do meat. I'm very big on home grown and organic veg. I'll eat just about all greens, kale chips being one of my go to snack foods. Carrots, broccoli, sprouts, green onions, and mushrooms always seem to make it to my dinner plate. I also supplement my diet with almonds, pine nuts, and cashews if I'm laying off meats for a while, good addition to salad as well as dried cranberry. Then there was the sweet potato, goog god, I could live off the stuff and what surprised me even more, I have a friend who is on the juice diet and he juiced a sweet potatoes for me. Someone needs to market that stuff, it was surprisingly good, I would gladly go on a juice diet now that I know how good juiced kumara is.
I try to eat at least 4 vegies every night, with the staples being potatos, sweet potatos, pumpking and carrots. I also have peas, grean beans, snow peas, broccoli, cauliflower and corn on a regular basis. It's not really a vegetable but I do like mushrooms every now and then. Strangely enough I can't stand tomatos whole, but I love them in pasta. I eat far less fruit than I do vegies, but it usually comes down to apples, bananas, strawberries and green grapes. Occasionally I might have some blueberries, cherries or apricots but this is quite rare.
Broccoli and Cauliflower. Because they come cheap in frozen bags and I can zap them in a jiffy. Fruit whatever is in season. Currently my favourite time of the year as it's stonefruit time.
Onions, lots of onions tomatoes, carrots, celery. Guess they're staples in lots of things. Garlic & ginger in curry too. Potatoes, always in chips (twice cooked) or crushed with butter (posh & lazy ) Runner beans & sugar snap peas as they're available as well as frozen peas Lots of rocket, I love it's peppery taste especially with steak Tend to have those individual frozen bags of mixed veg in now for convenience Cauliflower needs a good cheese sauce Fruit? Always bananas (well I did buy a metal fruit bowl with a banana hanger) Always apples, usually the deep green ones. Then peaches, plums and oranges but not all the same time. Grapes too, both whe & fermented
Apples(frequent), bananas, tomatoes or tomatosauce(very frequent), broccoli(frequent), cauliflower, peas, brown and white and green beans(frequent), lentil, zucchini/courgette(frequent), eggplant(very frequent), onions, bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms. I used to eat spinach quite frequently, but I just couldn't get used to its awful taste so I told my parents, no more. I eat honey baked muesli with yoghurt every morning. Evening dinner, aside from the vegetables, tends to always consist of rice or pasta and chicken or steak or salmon. I'd be insanely healthy if I didn't have such a horrible sweettooth.
Whenever I cook something, my base veggies are onions, mushrooms, carrots and peas. I hate tomatoes but I forcibly eat them. (Only raw ones though)
I eat a crown of broccoli every day, it doesn't get cooked too much either, more like blanched, so it'll all nice and crunchy. Broccoli, kale and cauliflower are IMO the cream of the crop for veggies as they're anti cancerous, reduce oestrogen any have an awesome vitamin profile. Being an ex chef most things I make have an onion base, and since I'm keto at the min I'm eating a fair bit of avocado. Fruit I don't eat much of, not for any reason I just tend to eat veggies before fruit, I eat green beans raw rather than an apple. I still drink a baroca if I feel a bit down and take a handful of liver tablets very few days too,
I eat mostly 'veg'. Mostly in the form of a veg fruit shake which i take twice a day. The contents of said shake are mostly bananas, carrots, cucumber, spinach, mangos, and whatever else is lying around. I take two bananas a day as well. I have a sautéed or steamed veg dish once a day. And my 'meat' meal (which is most of the time seafood) is accompanied with a veg dish. If i snack, i usually have my frozen rolled oats - fresh peanut-butter- banana balls. Or i make sweet potato crisps ( or just steam it and eat it that way). I cannot go vegetarian. Call it lack of will or the fact that I am filipino and we love pork.
One of the smartest moves I made last year was buying a machine called a 'vitamix' basically it's an extremely powerful blender. The advisement is we eat 7 fruits and veg a day. I don't mind fruit, but never been a fan of veggies..... Boring rabbit food! Chomping away on some half cooked broccoli 'because its good for you'. Yuk!! However first thing in the morning, every morning I load that thing up; spinach- strawberry - pineapple- tomato- capsicum ( masses of vitamin C) celery- carrot....... You get the idea! A little bit of variety each day, but always at least 7 different combos. At the end I always add some goji berry- aciai berry- mixed nuts and blitz it!! whatever you put in that blender, you drink! Not like a juicer where much of it is chucked away ! I also use it at night to make soup, makes a lovely tomato! Or a base for a curry.
