4 Ways to Painlessly Get Your Greens

 

January 13, 2012

By Deb Gleason

 

Leafy greens like spinach, kale, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, collards, mustard green and bok choy are superfoods. They are loaded with disease fighting phytonutrients, protein, calcium, antioxidents and fibre. Although salads have their time and place, it is easy to get greens into your body everyday without chowing down on lettuce in a bowl. The key is to add the greens into things you are already eating. It so easy to do and will change the way your body looks, feels and functions in no time.

Here are 4 ways to painlessly get your greens:

1) Add them to your smoothie: Start with adding a few leaves of romaine lettuce, the mildest tasting of them all to your smoothie. The taste will not change but the colour will. You might need to close your eyes but you won’t need to hold your nose. Graduate from a Bachelors in romaine lettuce to a Masters in baby spinach and eventually get your PhD in kale. The more green the veggie the sweeter the fruit should be. Use fresh pineapple or mango to distract your taste buds as you add more and more of the green goodness to your smoothie.

2) Add them to your soups and stews: Cut up greens like kale or swiss chard into bite sized pieces and add them to your soup or stew recipe in the last 10 minutes of cooking. They will melt into the pot and virtually disappear but their nutrient dense goodness will remain.

3) Add them to your stir-fry: In the last minute of cooking your stir-fry add in handfuls of chopped leafy greens. You will benefit immensely and your meal will more colourful and flavourful.

4) Load up your Lasagna: When preparing a lasagna or any casserole layer in baby spinach leaves. You can go crazy and add up to 4 cups of the little power packed leaves and they will shrink right down in the cooking process.

Wherever you can, whenever you can do your body a huge favour and add in your greens.