Veggies or Vegetables Three Times Daily

I don't know about you but I could really eat vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And heck, when you're supposed to eat 9 to 11 servings each day, this is a great way to do it. I've written before about my new, unusual breakfast but I just keep remembering how good it makes me feel to eat tofu and mixed veggies early in the day. This morning I switched to a new breakfast and I might need to stick with it for a while and see how I feel.

I had a smoothie with Nutiva hempseed protein powder (this is kind of like a vegetable, isn't it?), grated ginger, half a banana, a little soy milk and a smaller amount of juice. It was only 8 ounces and it was a great beginning, along with some Earthseed Essene bread with a bit of nut butter. And that lasted a few hours until I was ready for my early lunch of yummy leftovers -- all veggie based plus some leftover tofu. It was a large bowl of veggies+, and as I savored it I realized that if I eat veggies often, I can eat more. And that's really why I eat so many vegetables. I can eat a lot. Don't you like that?

A book called Volumetrics by Barbara Rolls, Ph. D. goes along with this theory about eating what we call "nutrient dense" foods that provide a lot of nutrition along with foods that don't contain a lot of calories such as vegetables, fruit and soups. Did you ever think about how soups fill you up, especially if they are brothy?

Sorry to say that I prefer thicker soups such as my Roasted Squash and Pear or Shane's Fabulous Lentil but since this is a great time of year for soup, any will do. In fact, the other evening I cooked some onion and garlic and threw in a half cup of leftover cooked black beans with a can of Amy's Southwestern Vegetable Soup. My husband really liked it.

Using processed foods occasionally is OK, especially if you are adding more veggies to them to make them taste fresher and help decrease the overall sodium content by increasing the volume. Once again, many food issues often relate to volume.

And with that, it's time to put together my farmer's market shopping list for my Wednesday night class and then for Thanksgiving.