Making lists and eating things

Happy Sunday!

Are you getting all of your fruits and vegetables in? My first goal for 2012 is to cook more and try to eat five servings of fruits and veggies each day. I've been doing pretty good, but I slacked a couple days this past week. One of the things I am trying to keep in mind as I move forward is that it's okay to not be perfect. Just because you drink a lot of champagne on New Year's and dive into a bowl of nachos (who would ever do that...), doesn't mean that you can't get up the next day and prepare good, healthy meals. Similarly, if I have a lazy day and don't eat anything fresh or green, it doesn't mean that I've failed.

Here are some things that are helping me:

• Making a list of the produce that I have on hand each week - I am horribly guilty of buying food and then forgetting about it until it already goes bad. I've started keeping a list on my magnetic dry-erase board that I have on my fridge. It helps me know what I still have to use and let's me plan out what to eat without staring endlessly into my fridge. 

The list of greatness

• Pre-chopped vegetables - I was so excited when I discovered that my grocery store opened a Veggie Market, where you can create your own package of washed and chopped vegetables. It may be a little more pricey, but it's worth it to me if it encourages me to buy and eat different things. It helps me to eat a wider variety of vegetables, because I can choose a little of everything instead of just buying a whole pepper or bag of carrots, for example. Also, I hate to say it, but I'm 10x more likely to eat the vegetables if they're already chopped and sitting in my fridge for me.

• Roasting vegetables - Hands down, my favorite way to prepare vegetables. I like to roast broccoli, brussel sprouts, and sweet potatoes the best. I just toss them in a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roast them on a baking pan at 400 degrees until they are nicely browned.

My roasted sweet potato fries with a cilantro/spinach soup that my mother made this week

• Eating fruit with breakfast - It's easy to sneak an apple or banana in with breakfast, and you start your day off feeling great. I like to put bananas in oatmeal or on an english muffin with peanut butter. I always consider buying berries to put on top of oatmeal or in smoothies, but they are expensive and out of season now. I do want to work on eating more fruits. Any suggestions?

• Adding salad to everything - Even if I'm just making a veggie burger for lunch, I try to squeeze in veggies and make it a bigger meal by adding a nice salad. It's ridiculously easy if you stay stocked up on produce, and even easier if you buy them pre-chopped or chop them as soon as you get home from the store.

Veggie burgers and salad = BFFs

So, those are some of things that have been helping me to stay on track with eating healthier. I've also been searching for some new recipes to try out, so stay tuned! I want to work on having a few good soup recipes that I can make on the weekend to eat during the week. I got a Crockpot for Christmas and haven't even used it yet - oh, the shame!

Next Sunday, I'll be talking about running and staying motivated with exercise.

Hope you have a great week!