As I shared in THIS POST, I have been eating whole foods and walking at least three miles daily to improve my overall health. So far, I’ve lost just shy of 30 lbs, but as I also shared, I am striving for a goal lifestyle, not a goal weight.  The process is the goal and the results will be whatever they are.

As I’ve shared some snapshots of what I’ve been eating (because people asked), I decided to share some of my favorite veggie-forward meals that are in my normal rotation.  I don’t do meal planning, but I do make big batches of things that we can eat off of during the week.  Here are some typical staple items I make weekly…

• Chicken patties (recipe HERE.)  I make these because they don’t dry out like chicken breasts and they are a protein that reheats well.  Jeff gets a little tired of them, but Marshall and I eat them all the time.
• A container of brown rice.  Since whole-grain brown rice can take about an hour to cook, I’ll make a big batch of it at the beginning of the week and will have it with vegetables, chicken, etc.
• I’ll bake off a few Russet potatoes to make veggie-loaded baked potatoes or a breakfast scramble.
• When I saute red peppers and onions, I’ll cook up a large batch so I have some ready to add to eggs, a scramble, a potato, homemade pizza, or a burrito bowl.
• I’ll also steam up a large batch of broccoli crowns to mix into scrambles, serve over a potato or grits, or just have as a snack.
• When the weather isn’t too hot, I’ll make a batch of soup.

While I will link to some specific recipes, none of these are really “recipes.”  I just put thing together that I like, that taste good, and that fit within my “food rules.”  You can read those HERE if you missed them.  Of course, you can make adjustments to any of these to fit your tastes, restrictions, rules, allergies, and preferences.  If you prefer a different veggie, swap it out.  If you like your vegetables roasted instead of steamed, do that.  If you don’t like an ingredient, swap it for something you do like.  As with all things, I think it’s important to start where you’ll start.  Eat what you like and what you know you’ll actually make and eat.  You can always explore from there.

Vegetable- Forward Breakfast Ideas

Avocado Toast & Salad – I know salad for breakfast seems strange, but I had it at a French bakery in Minneapolis and then again in Paris.  The freshness of the salad and bite of the vinaigrette works so well with savory egg dishes.  I combine it with any sort of omelet, breakfast sandwich, scramble, or baked egg dish.  I also might change up an open-faced avocado toast for a breakfast sandwich and have a sprinkle of cheddar and some lean center-cut bacon instead of the avocado.

• 1 egg
• 2 pieces of fresh sourdough/whole grain bread or English muffin
• 1/2 small avocado smashed
• 2 cups of baby salad greens
• homemade vinaigrette (sherry vinegar, olive oil, pinch of salt and sugar)

Here is a variation on that with a breakfast sandwich on fresh sourdough bread…

Quick Cheese Grits & Broccoli – I thought I was a little crazy when I tried this, but it is one of my favorite breakfasts now.  If you like cheesy broccoli rice situations, you’ll like this.  If you like cooked greens, I think this would also be good with spinach, top it with a runny over-easy egg, sprinkle with lean sausage for more protein, etc.

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup 5-minute grits
• 1 cup steamed broccoli
• 1 pat butter
• 1 ounce cheddar cheese (I grate it off of the block so there aren’t additives)

Sweet Potato & Eggs – Admittedly, this one is a plate of mushy-textured foods, but they are all super-foods and taste really good when eaten together.  I’ll put a little bit of each on the fork at one time and it’s tasty.

• 1 sweet potato microwaved until soft (5-8 minutes, pierced & wrapped in a damp paper towel)
• 1/2 avocado smashed
• 2 eggs scrambled
• butter

Vegetable Egg Scramble – This is a great way to mix in vegetables for breakfast if you’re new to that idea.

• leftover vegetables from dinner (or steam some up in the pan to soften.)  I like broccoli and asparagus for this the most.  Sometimes I add 1/4 of a baked potato I cooked previously.
• onions & peppers
• splash of olive oil and/or pat of butter
• 2 eggs scrambled or over easy
• 1/2 cubed avocado

I’m pretty happy with this rotation, but I’ll play with different combinations or ways to cook my eggs.  Sometimes I’ll add in some center-cut bacon, and fruit, or I’ll treat myself to some homemade wholewheat waffles with strawberries and I’ll skip the vegetables that one morning.

Vegetable-Forward Lunch Ideas

I prefer to eat a big breakfast and then keep it very simple and quick for lunch.  I’ll often make “snacky lunches” or reheat some leftovers.

Soup & Sandwich – This is probably my favorite lunch!  Since sandwiches can be high in calories, I usually make them vegetarian sandwiches with a healthy bread.  Per my “food rules”, I won’t have a sandwich for lunch if I have bread with breakfast.  For this lunch, I had a cucumber sandwich and carrot soup.

Cucumber sandwich

• Thinly sliced cucumber
• salt & pepper
• matchstick carrots
• green leaf lettuce or spinach
• Vegetable cream cheese or Allouette Garden Vegetable Cheese
• fresh herbs like dill and parsley if you have them
• Whole grain bread

Here are some of our favorite soups that I make regularly

• Carrot White Bean Soup
• Lentil Soup
• Potato Ham Soup
• Potato Corn Dill Soup

Personal Charcuterie Plate – Obviously, these can be made up of whatever you like and have on hand.  You can also shift the ingredients depending on the way you want to eat (low-carb, high protein, gluten-free, etc.)  I usually do a mix of fruit, vegetables, spreads/dips/hummus, cheese, nuts, and maybe crackers and/or meat.  I pretty rarely add meat, though, and I try to keep crackers limited so I can fill up on things that offer more nutritional benefit.  I just love crackers, though.

Apple honey mustard salad – This has become one of my favorite salads.  It’s simple and I like the sweetness an apple brings to the salad.  Of course, you can have any kind of salad with ingredients you like.  I mix it up depending on what I’m in the mood for and what I have in the fridge.

• 1 apple, diced (I usually only use 1/2 of the apple in the salad and eat the rest on the side.)
• 2 cups mixed greens
• matchstick carrots
• 1 ounce chopped cheddar cheese (I like to chop my own off the block instead of using grated so it doesn’t have additives.)
• 1 T sunflower seeds
• Honey Mustard Dressing (Homemade or bottled.  Just look at the ingredients to make sure you’re happy eating them.)

Vegetable-Foward Dinner Ideas

I’ll share more dinner ideas in a follow-up post once I get more pictures of our regulars.  Here are a couple that we eat pretty regularly, though.

Chicken patties, brown rice & vegetables – Since I made chicken patties each week, we have these a lot with rice or couscous and a vegetable.  It’s just simple, healthy, and satisfying so we eat it a lot.  We’ll eat them as a main protein or as a “burger”, over a salad, or mixed in a veggie bowl.  Here is showing a variation…

You can see the chicken patty peeking under the broccoli, over a bead of brown rice topped with parmigiana shavings.

Naan Margherita pizza – Really good artisan pizza is one of my favorite things, so we make pizzas on Naan bread at home.  I change up the toppings, but I always have it either with a salad or lots of veggies on top.  I cook them in a 400º oven directly on a pizza stone to make the crust crispy and they take about 8-10 minutes.  I always use fresh mozzarella and either fresh tomatoes or tomato sauce with whole ingredients.

I’ll share more in a future post as I collect more pictures and recipes.  For me, it’s important to keep it simple or I get overwhelmed.  It’s also easier for me to log my food if I’m rotating my favorite meals instead of trying new things all the time.  We’ll mix some new things in here and there, but we pretty much stick to the same stand-bys.