1 Hour = 25 Vegetable Servings

On average, American adults consume 1.6 servings of vegetables a day. That’s equal to 3/4 cup of mashed potatoes. Pretty sad, huh? Even sadder – kids (who need vegetables for all those nutrients even more to grow and develop) only eat 1.3 servings a day. Here’s a map of vegetable intake by state:

Source – CDC State Indicator Report on Fruit and Vegetable Intake

The two most common reasons people tell me why they don’t eat enough vegetables are:
1. They don’t have time to cook vegetables
2. They don’t like vegetables

This post is about #1. If you want to solve #2 – spend some time on the site; I’m sure you’ll find a few recipes that totally change the way you think about vegetables.

A quick search will show you that there are tons of tasty vegetable recipes, but they often include ingredients you don’t have on hand or fancy cooking techniques that can take hours. This is great for a special occasion, but most days, we don’t have time for this. I know when I get home from a long day, all I want is something quick and easy (and preferably already prepared). to solve the problem, I usually make meals in advance. What’s my go-to for vegetables? Roasting. It requires minimal time and the roasting brings out vegetables flavors like you wouldn’t believe. One Sunday I spent an hour in the kitchen – 20 minutes prepping vegetables and 40 minutes roasting – and I ended up with 25 vegetable servings. 25! That is almost two servings a day for 2 people, for an entire week. I usually roast vegetables every weekend. I change-up the ingredients based on what’s on sale or what I plan to use them in. I will serve them over rice, toss with sauce over pasta, add to an egg bake, stuff into a wrap or just serve as a side dish. The options are endless and the results are always great. Don’t like eating the same thing every day? Prepare a few large pans and freeze the extra for later.

Roasted Vegetables

1. preheat oven to 425F

2. Chop of vegetables of choice and place in a large baking dish. Toss with canola oil and seasoning.

3. Cook for 10 minutes – stir – repeat. Do this until the vegetables are you desired texture.