Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to make vegetables more interesting. Many of us
Speaker 1: eat less produce than we think we should because veggies
Speaker 1: on their own can be pretty bland, But a few
Speaker 1: little strategies can make them far more exciting to eat.
Speaker 1: So a few weeks ago, my daughter got a hankering
Speaker 1: for the Olive Garden Salad a last there was no
Speaker 1: good spot in the schedule for us all to go
Speaker 1: to Olive Garden, so she decided to make a version
Speaker 1: of the Olive Garden salad, and particularly their version of
Speaker 1: Italian dressing. We had that on lettuce that night, and Wow,
Speaker 1: I was a lot more excited about eating lettuce than
Speaker 1: I have been in a while. I ate a lot
Speaker 1: of lettuce. That is probably a good thing. One of
Speaker 1: the things restaurants often do right is adding spice or
Speaker 1: kick to their dishes. People tend to under season food
Speaker 1: at home, and that's a reason that restaurant food often
Speaker 1: tastes better. But it's not like they have some special
Speaker 1: magical secret that is unavailable to the rest of us.
Speaker 1: Anyone can add hot peppers and other such things to
Speaker 1: normal dishes, particularly with salad dressings. This can make eating
Speaker 1: vegetables in general a lot more fun. So if you
Speaker 1: are looking to add more veggies to your life, one
Speaker 1: easy way to do this is to come up with
Speaker 1: a salad dressing that you really like. They are not
Speaker 1: that hard to make. Usually there's oil and vinegar involved,
Speaker 1: maybe things like garlic. Make enough for a few meals
Speaker 1: and put the dressing in the fridge. Buy some bag
Speaker 1: lettuce at the grocery store, and now you'll be motivated
Speaker 1: to eat it now. Obviously, you can buy salad dressing
Speaker 1: at the store too, but this is a category where
Speaker 1: fresh is often significantly better and that hard to pull off.
Speaker 1: You can also, in general, try making better salads. Not
Speaker 1: all salads have to be lettuce based. There are some
Speaker 1: cool ones out there featuring beets and a grain or tomatoes.
Speaker 1: I've been working my way through a tuna bean salad
Speaker 1: with a rugela and it's been quite good. Try making
Speaker 1: a batch of a salad that sounds appealing some night.
Speaker 1: Maybe just check out a cookbook from the library with
Speaker 1: lots of them and make enough for leftovers. Now you've
Speaker 1: got a veggie forward lunch. For the next two days,
Speaker 1: I will also sing the praise of roasting veggies. This
Speaker 1: has been one of my resolutions this year to do
Speaker 1: this more frequently. You can chop up cauliflower and broccoli,
Speaker 1: or buy them pre chopped if you like, put some
Speaker 1: olive oil and salt on them, and then roast it
Speaker 1: four hundred degrees for a bit, maybe around fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: depends on your oven. Some people might add pepper for
Speaker 1: more kick, or you could eat the roasted veggies with
Speaker 1: a chipotle eoli and get creamy and spicy flavors in
Speaker 1: there too. Roasting things that are covered with olive oil
Speaker 1: and salt gets you fat, salt, and sugar flavors when
Speaker 1: the veggies caramelize. Those are the exact flavors of junk
Speaker 1: food that keep us hooked. Now. I am not saying
Speaker 1: that veggies will be exactly as good as junk food,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people use phrases like eat your
Speaker 1: spinach to imply doing something necessary but unpleasant. The idea
Speaker 1: is that it must be gotten through because it is
Speaker 1: good for you, and that may sometimes be true, but
Speaker 1: in a great many cases in life, things that are
Speaker 1: good for you can be made infinitely more pleasant through
Speaker 1: a few wise choices. Exercise can be more fun when
Speaker 1: you're doing it with a friend, or taking a class
Speaker 1: with an amazing instructor, or working out within an encouraging trainer,
Speaker 1: or running somewhere beautiful. Studying with a group of smart
Speaker 1: and encouraging classmates is more fun than hitting the books
Speaker 1: on your own. Good teachers know how to make material
Speaker 1: that people need to learn more engaging. If you're leading
Speaker 1: a meeting, really thinking through how to keep people interested,
Speaker 1: maybe even with moments of delight can make that hour
Speaker 1: feel a lot less like eating spinach and maybe a
Speaker 1: bit more like eating roasted coliflower with sriracha aoli ra.
Speaker 1: Spinach is tedious. That couliflower, well, that's something we might
Speaker 1: actually look forward to in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows,