Making it work

By Susan Davis, Cooking Light Birmingham Ad Sales Representative

I thought it would be a real struggle to add 3 servings of vegetables to my diet each day, but it has actually been an eye-opening experience! I started slow but got myself prepared:  baby carrots, broccoli florets, and bagged salad in the fridge drawer became my “go to” items. No more tossing out unused produce. My husband and I are eating what we pick up at the store within a day or two. I am more of a fruit girl and not excited about veggies, but I realized I don’t always need something sweet.  

The other thing for me was getting my husband to eat something (anything!) green. We’ve been married almost 14 years, and I have tried before to get him to eat healthier.  I knew that he liked kale, mustard greens, broccoli, and iceberg lettuce.  He prefers green beans in a casserole and really abhors spinach (fresh or cooked).

We have eaten a LOT of broccoli and salad, but we have also explored a rainbow of vegetables from potatoes to homemade vegetable soup. Until this challenge got underway, I had gotten complacent. I don’t expect my husband to become a vegetarian, but people’s tastes change over time. The good news is that we have both gotten more creative with ingredients and sometimes throw in something prepared a different way.  Sometimes we are both surprised, and it’s a lot more fun when we can compromise and eat the same things, together.