junk food junkie needs help adding greens to diet

[coop_mom]

hello folks

I am in desperate need of a nutritional overhaul to my diet.  I am addicted to sugar and am trying to reduce the junky food that I eat. 

One of my top goals is to add greens to my diet.  I'm particularly interested in greens such as swiss chard, collard greens, bok choy, mustard greens, kale, spinach etc?

Can anyone recommend some favorites or tried and true recipes? 

thanks :)

[Quaniliaz]

How about green smoothies?

I use a little bit of juice instead of water + agave (too much fructose) or stevia (don't really like the taste). But it is a great way to get lots of greens in!!

[BetsyS]

One of my favorites is burritos made with collards, sweet potatoes, and black beans (or meat--either is good). 

Roast the sweet potatoes in cubes.  Saute the collards in olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  build burritos with black beans, sweet potatoes, collards, cilantro, chopped white onion, and chopped jalapeno.  Add hot sauce to taste.

These are really good.  I could eat them every week.

[la mamita]

Most of those would be pretty easy to just saute in some olive oil or sesame oil and serve with tamari and sesame seeds. Or, southern-style, in lard

I like to add greens to quiches or spaghetti sauces, it hides them nicely...

Kale chips are a very popular way to do kale, although I've never tried it myself. Google and you'll find all the trendy food blogs are talking about them.

Spinach and some of the other lettuce-like greens are good for salads, as a side or as a big salad with protein (fish, beans, or chicken) as a meal. I wouldn't eat kale or chard this way though.

[Llyra]

Greens hide nicely under the cheese on a pizza. Steam them lightly first, and chop. I also sometimes steam them, and then puree the heck out of them in the blender, and hide them in sauces. You can also chop them finely, and stir them into rice to make a pilaf.

[homemademom]

You can saute them and then toss into a food processor to add to pasta and pizza sauces or mix into hamburger patties or meatballs. I like green smoothies, too. I do mine with frozen fruit of some kind (banana, strawberry, blueberries), greens of some kind, ice and milk of some sort (I don't eat dairy, so I use almond milk).  Simple and healthy. 

[Koalamom]

I am a basic kind of person, and we loves greens all prepared the same way.  Chop them up, steam them well, and cover them with butter or oil and a little sea salt.  I serve them as a "first" course thing cause if I feed my kids the meat first, they will never touch the greens.  I am more of a salad person when it isn't so cold.   And to not get bored with the greens, I don't serve the same one twice.  So since yesterday we had kale, today will be swiss chard.

[Bekka]

Recently I've had a great time adding a whole large bag of frozen choppen spinach to quiche mix.  I chop 1 onion, 1 bag of frozen chopped spinach, and dice one red pepper, about 6 eggs, 1 C flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder,  1 C plain yogurt or cottage cheese, 1-2 C milk (depending on consistency), mix it all well, pour into 2 greased pie plates or 9x9 pans and top with cheese of your choice--I like cheddar or swiss.  I can eat 1/2 of one of these quiches easily for lunch; quite lean and has a LOT of veggies in it.  Also, grated carrot, mushroom, other kinds of peppers, some people like tomatoes, Swiss chard is great, broccoli, asparagus, in quiche.

[coop_mom]

thank you all for your advice!

I often forget that veggies are still veggies even if they're *in* stuff, that I don't have to just eat them as a dish on their own (can't wait to try the quiche!)

I bought a blender this weekend and am looking forward to making smoothies, too!