Including vegetables in your daily diet is absolutely necessary. Vegetables are packed with vitamins, nutrients, fiber and other trace elements that are essential for various physiological activities that aid in many things, including weight loss.
While Ideal Protein restricts certain vegetables due to their carb content, it mandates that you consume the ones that are allowed as per the sheet (download here). Fortunately, there are ways you can complete your daily veggie intake needs without feeling bored. Here are some tips, tricks, recipes to turn your foods greener and tastier.
Meal prep tips
1. Buy pre-cut veggies
One of the laborious tasks of meeting your daily vegetable needs is preparing them and to be honest, almost no one enjoys that part. The very thought of dicing, deveining, de-seeding could feel like a tiring job that could indirectly deter your interest of eating healthy.
One good way help lessen prep work is to buying pre-cut vegetables. Having already cut vegetables at hand means you can prepare dishes faster and have a quick healthy snack to help overcome the hunger triggers.
2. Cook in big batches
If you already know what you are going to eat for the next few days or the whole week, it’s helpful to cook the vegetables in big batches. This will help you cut time on cooking in the coming days. Again, you will be able to prepare your foods faster and have healthy snacks ready at hand. This is a great way to stave off bad food decisions. Here are a few ideas to help you out:
Bake some vegetable muffins
Make Ideal Protein compliant chips and store them for instant snacking
3. Keep some frozen veggies on hand
While fresh vegetables are the best to eat, it is a challenge to always have them close. Besides, there’s always a concern of using them up before they go bad.
One helpful alternative is to have a stock of frozen vegetables so that you can store them up for a longer time and use them for cooking whenever needed.
4. Roast large sheet pan of vegetables
Another way to store veggies for a longer time is to roast them using a large sheet/pan. Once cooled down, store them in the fridge in a glass container.
Now you have ready-to-snack veggies on hand and you can also combine some leafy greens to prepare a quick salad for meal planning. Here are some tasty recipe ideas.
- Roasted Radishes
- Roasted Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
- Air Fryer Broccoli
- Roasted Mini Peppers
- Roasted Cauliflower Steaks
5. Combine vegetables to your Ideal Protein Product
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Ideal Protein always encourages eating vegetables along with your IP foods. You can even level up your Ideal Protein experience by adding some vegetables with the packaged foods. This will greatly enhance the taste profile and ensure satiety.
Blend spinach into smoothie mixes
Spinach is packed with vitamins & nutrients such as vitamin A, C, K, iron, folate, and potassium. It’s also an excellent source of fiber that helps with bowel movement during Ideal Protein phase 1. Spinach is unrestricted in Ideal Protein.
Unfortunately, this healthy green vegetable is somewhat bland in taste which is why some people keep it off their palate.
One easy way to get a few cups of your daily veggies in is to blend spinach into the Ideal Protein drink mixes. You can get creative with this and try Ready to Serve Mango Shake, Vanilla Smoothie Mix, Berry Breakfast Smoothie Mix etc.
Ideal Protein has some amazing spinach recipes too that you should absolutely try.
Add cauliflower rice to oatmeal
Cauliflower rice is an excellent low-carb alternative to regular rice and can be used for a variety of meal planning. One great way is to add cauliflower rice with Ideal Protein Maple Oatmeal or Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal to make a more fulfilling meal.
Bake items using vegetables
Zucchini is a versatile vegetable and can be used for many baking ideas. Here are some baking recipes.
- Eggs and Vegetables Baked in Bell Pepper
- Baked Zucchini Apple Spice
- Ideal Protein Zucchini Apple Crisp
- Chocolate Zucchini Pie Square
- Zucchini Apple Pie
- Choco-Chip Zucchini Bread
- Yummy Vegetable Frittata
Add to your omelet mix
Ideal Protein Omelet Mix can fit very well for such experimentation or you can simply use store bought eggs.
Create a rotini pasta salad
Try these Ideal Protein friendly rotini salad recipes.
Add to Ideal Protein soups
Add roasted vegetables to the Ideal Protein soups
Combine with Bolognese and risotto
Idea Protein offers delicious low-carb alternatives to bolognese, risotto etc. that you can prepare with vegetables at hand. Try Vegetable Bolognese Spaghetti Mix, Konjac Spaghetti, Vegetable Chili Mix, Creamy Parmesan Mushroom Pasta (Mushroom and Parmesan Risotto) with your favorite veggies. Here are some recipes.
- Ideal Protein Noodles – Ramen Style
- Vegetable Bolognese with Cauliflower Rice
- Vegetable Bolognese with Tomatoes and Tofu
Dip & dorados
Some veggies can be turned into delicious dips, salsa or Pico de Gallo that fits just right with Ideal Protein Dorados. Here are some dipping recipes.
- Cheesy Cauliflower Buffalo Dip
- Herbed Eggplant Dip (Baba Ganoush)
- Ideal Protein Salsa
- Cucumber Salsa
Some more creative ideas
1. Use veggies as a bun
Certain veggies come in a shape that can be used as buns. For example, portabella mushroom tops, tomatoes or grilled eggplant halves can act as buns. Using vegetables as buns is a great idea since breading is not allowed in the Ideal Protein phase 1.
- Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps
- Thai Steak Lettuce Cups
- Beef Zucchini Burger
- Salmon Burgers
- Buffalo Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
- Crab Stuffed Mushrooms
- Mushroom Bun Sliders
- Grilled Turkey Burger
2. Add veggies to your meat-based meal
Add zucchini, diced bell peppers or mushrooms into hamburger meat patties or meat based meals. See the flavors blast in your mouth.
- Ground Beef Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast
- Pan Chicken and Veg
- Zucchini Noodle Chicken Pesto Bowl
- Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus
- Baked Chicken Fajita Roll-Ups
- Turkey and Zucchini Skillet
- Pan Steak with Broccoli and Radishes
- Air Fryer Chicken Fajitas
- Ideal Protein Beef Stew
- Asian Chicken with Snow Pea Slaw
- Air Fryer Chicken and Broccoli
- Roasted Chicken with Turnip and Lemon Thyme
- Garlic Shrimp and Veggie Foil Packs
3. Turn them into fries and chips
If you like crispy and snack-able vegetables, then fry up turnip, rutabaga or kohlrabi with approved seasoning. Alternatively, you can roast sliced radishes, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, green beans or kales into chips for an easy snack.
- Air Fryer Eggplant Chips
- Fried Garlic Chips
- Candied Sweet Radish Chips
- Crispy Jicama Chips
- Baked Okra Chips
- Baked Cucumber Chips
- Ideal Protein Zucchini Chips
- Turnip Fries
- Zucchini Fritters
- Crispy Green Beans
- Chili Lime Jicama Sticks
- Spaghetti Squash Hash Browns
4. Stir fry
Stir fries a are great choice for a quick one-pan meal planning to easily add more vegetables to your dinner.
- Stir-Fried Lemony Chicken with Asparagus
- Stir-Fry Cauliflower Rice
- Stir-fried Tofu with Bean Sprouts
5. Veggie noodles
Use veggies like palmini, zucchini, spaghetti squash or kohlrabi to make noodles.
- Kohlrabi Linguine with Tomato Basil Sauce
- Chicken Pad Thai
- Easy Zucchini Noodles
- Olive Oil Hearts of Palm Pasta
- Zucchini Noodle Chicken Pesto Bowl
6. Soups
As said above, soups are an amazing way to complete your daily vegetable intake. Here are some more recipes.
- Lemony Chicken and Spinach Soup
- Spaghetti Squash Soup
- Spicy Chicken Zucchini Noodle Soup
- Mushroom Soup
7. Stuffing
Bell peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers are a creative way to enjoy vegetables. These can also be made in large batches and frozen for days. Here are some recipes.
- Ground Beef Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Buffalo Chicken Celery Sticks
- Zucchini Boats
- Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
- Crab Stuffed Mushrooms
8. Bonus vegetable and salad recipes
Take away
Vegetables are an inseparable part of daily diet and Ideal Protein has many delicious recipes to make your meal preparation exciting. Check out all of our Ideal Protein recipes here.
If you are still struggling to complete your daily veggie intake or have a few questions, simply set up a complimentary consultation with us.
