Easy Ways to Sneak More Vegetables Into Your Everyday Life (and your family’s too!)

Get more Greens

Everything I teach is designed to make it as easy, stress-free and enjoyable as possible for you to get to the health of your dreams… and stay there – without feeling like you’re ‘on a diet’ for the rest of your life.

Experiencing wonderful health & abundant energy should simply be what we all experience – not something that should come with sacrifices and stress.

But something that is the ‘norm’ for us – effortless and easy.

But is this realistic? Well, to be frank…yes, yes it is.

I’ve seen it with thousands of my clients and students over the years and with hundreds of the members in my Alkaline Base Camp members group.

And here is how to get started!

This is important – read this twice if necessary:

No matter what your goal – to lose weight, gain muscle, get more energy, beat a specific condition, better digestion, clearer skin – when it comes to your health and getting the best energy of your life there are always a small number of (often simple) changes that will have the BIGGEST impact.

It’s called 80/20 or Minimum Effective Dose – the small number of key actions that if you change JUST THOSE you’ll see huge results.

And once you’re rocking and rolling with achieving 80-90% of your goal – getting the other 10-20% of the goal is a piece of cake.

This is something we’re always discussing in the member’s area of my Alkaline Base Camp membership – how to make alkaline living and eating easier and to put it, in essence, on autopilot – so it happens without you even thinking about it!

In fact, through sheer experience of living it yourself, you will find ways along the way to make it easier. I’m sure you can think of times where you’ve discovered a little idea or tip that makes your healthy lifestyle easier for you. Experience is everything.

It’s one of the reasons why the Alkaline Base Camp is so powerful and the members get such amazing results, is that we’re all getting the benefits of the collective experience of 500+ people in the group contributing, sharing ideas and so on…

And the specific discussion on “how to easily get more greens in our daily life” has led to a lot of us sharing our ideas and chatting back and forth with ways to make this happen…

This guide is a result of that exact conversation between members that we’ve had and I believe that this guide will help you a LOT.

It’s not just a list of recipes with vegetables in (which is what 90% of the posts similar to this seem to be from my research) – these are actionable, real-life tips, from me and the members of the Alkaline Base Camp:

The Top 13 Ways to Sneak More Vegetables Into Your Daily Life (and your family’s too!)

These are the absolute best ways to get more green veggies in – without breaking sweat or feeling like you’re really having to change anything.

This is especially awesome because you can use these tips on your family too – to alkalize and green ‘em up without them knowing!

1. Have a Side Salad with Every Dinner or Lunch:

This is probably the easiest of them all. If you do it right. I’m not talking a Tuscan Kale Salad with Sprouted Mung Beans, Activated Almonds & Cranberries with a Citrus Dressing – as delicious as that sounds. I’m talking you grabbing two handfuls of pre-washed leaves and dressing them with either a simple lemon and olive (or flax) oil dressing – or a pre-made dressing. Simple as that. Leaves and oil basically.

Each handful is effectively a ‘serve’ of spinach (or any other leafy green).

Back in 2010 I made a photo guide to ‘what does a serve of alkaline vegetables actually look like’ and you’d be surprised at actually how small a ‘serve’ is:

This is a serve of spinach:

So try this one – it will add 2 serves to each mealtime (i.e. 4 extra serves of leafy greens per day)

2. Dips & Sauces

Such an easy way to ‘veggie up’ any mealtime. You can easily whip up a raw, flavour-packed sauce to dress any dish in under five minutes. I’ve included a few of my favourite recipes below (all under a 5-minute make).

The beauty of this is that it makes simply having steamed vegetables for dinner a delicious dish! Thus giving no excuse to not eat healthy and alkaline.

You can simply blend up in a food processor or high-speed blender things like tomatoes, beetroot, garlic, herbs, oils, spinach, lemon, nuts like cashews and almonds, pine nuts and so much more (obviously not all of these together, although that could be nice!) – these types of ingredients can all work to make a raw, nutrient-rich, alkalising sauce to serve over pretty much any dish.

Again – there are a couple of recipes below to get you started.

3. Shave a Head of Broccoli into Dinner:

Heh, I love this one. This is such a sneaky one.

All you have to do is take a head of broccoli and quite literally just run a knife over it to shave the tiny little bits of broccoli into any salad, sauce, pasta dish, soup, veggie dish, casserole – ANYTHING!

what shaved broccoli looks like

Again, from my photo serves of each of the most alkaline veggies – this is how much a ‘serve’ of broccoli is:

Not a lot – and you can easily add this in. Plus of course broccoli is just absolutely ridiculously good for you. Sweet.

4. Wilt Spinach into Sauces:

Spinach has to be my favourite vegetable, not just because it’s so alkaline-forming and nutritious, but because it’s magical – it just disappears!

If you’re making a pasta sauce or a curry sauce, you can wilt a serve per person into it, again, without anyone really noticing! It’s a great way to sneak it in…

You can basically take a whole packet of spinach (say 200g) and turn it into about a mouthful!

Well, not quite a mouthful, but you can take a lot and make it a little. And you can take a lot and hide it in a pasta, soup, casserole, sauce, curry and so on really easily.

Again, another easy way to get at least one extra serve of greens into your daily diet.

5. Lettuce Instead of Wraps:

This is a super-winner because it can replace a gluten-containing ingredient too – simply replace your wrap with a big lettuce leaf and wrap up your salad wrap in lettuce!

It adds freshness, variety and really a lot of flavour. You can always get funky and make a veggie San-Choi Bow, which is where the inspiration for this came from, but it’s a super simple way to get another serve in, while getting something acidic out.

6. Blend into Soups:

One of my current favourites and here’s how it works:

Yep – you can easily add 2-3 extra serves of veggies per bowl with pretty much zero extra effort. Why wouldn’t you do this?

7. Vegetable Juices:

Of course, almost goes without saying.

Adding a green juice to your daily diet can instantly increase your greens intake by up to as much as 6 or 7 serves in one single hit!

My main alkaline veggie juice ingredients would include spinach, kale, ginger, turmeric, cucumber, celery, lettuce, watercress, arugula and so on. Does it get any better or more nutritious than this?

And because it’s juiced and the fibre removed your body can access the nutrients and use them much more easily and efficiently. Don’t get me wrong – fibre of course is fantastic and utterly necessary – but adding in a green juice where your body can get the maximum amount of nourishment from the nutrients is just awesome for your energy.

Not loving the idea of a 100% vegetable juice? Well, if you need your veggie juices a bit sweeter (and fruit is banned for all the reasons Mercola points out here – just stop juicing fruit) – add coconut water instead of water, increase the amount of carrots/beets which are slightly sweeter, add a squeeze of lime or lemon (which takes out the main veggie tang), include mint (does the same), or just water it down a lot more. You can even mix your juice 50/50 with almond or coconut milk if you really struggle – this makes it much more smoothie-like and less veggie-dense.

8. Vegetables into Smoothies:

Of course you can have a green alkaline smoothie that packs as many veggies as any juice – but you can also just sneak some green veggies into your non-veggie smoothie without too much drama or taste-changing.

Try adding cucumber, a little kale (no stalks), some spinach etc. Beetroot goes great in a cacao/chocolate based smoothie too.

Experiment and see if you can get in an extra serve this way.

9. Breakfast Scrambles:

This is a great way to have a warm, alkaline-forming breakfast that’s got a lot of vegetables in too!

If you’re making a scramble for breakfast (I like to use tofu – I don’t eat a lot of soy but have it here and there) then scrambling spinach and kale into your tofu scramble is a great way to get greens at breakfast.

If you’re including eggs in your diet and enjoy scrambled eggs or omelettes, you can still scramble greens in to make it that much more healthy. In fact, an addition of kale and pesto (which can be another serve if you use a recipe like this spinach and basil pesto) – makes for a delicious scramble!

10. Zoodles:

This is a ridiculously great way to add vegetables – and raw ones at that – to your meal. It’s delicious, easy and I absolutely love it – simply spiralize zucchini (courgette), carrots, beetroot, squash or sweet potato (although I find zucchini works best) and use this instead of regular pasta or noodles.

You can get a pretty low-cost spiralizer on amazon and you’re away – it’s just a smart move that I highly recommend.

And even with no spiralizer you can still use a vegetable peeler like this:

Again, there are a few recipes below, but I LOVE a raw tomato sauce on raw zoodles for a ridiculously nutritious, light, energising lunch.

Click here to get this recipe

11. Sliced Ribbons of Carrots, Beets etc into Curries

Another variation on this is to have thin sliced carrots, beets, zucchini etc in curries. I find this works really well. All you do is simply use a vegetable peeler to slice the vegetable, and then a sharp knife to cut it into ribbons.

Adding this in to curries, stir fries etc is another great way to get raw vegetables into your meal and extra serves into your everyday life.

Check out Method #4 in this vid to see how it’s done:

And check out my recipe for my Raw Alkaline Pad Thai here.

12. Cauliflower Rice

Mind-bogglingly simple and a great way to replace a grain (albeit not a gluten-containing grain) with a veggie. All you need to do is break up your cauliflower into small pieces and pulse in your food processor or blender until it’s at your desired size!

Cauliflower is full of vitamin C, vitamin K, protein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, fiber, vitamin B6, folate, pantothenic acid, potassium, and manganese plus the antioxidants beta-carotene, kaempferol, quercetin, rutin, cinnamic acid, and much more.

People often overlook cauliflower as a powerful food, but it really is awesome and this is a great way to get more in.

See more here and here.

13. Easy Veggie Sides to Mix it Up!

Finally, there are so many awesome, simple and easy but mind-blowingly delicious side dishes you can make to have with your regular meal that will include a few extra serves of vegetables for you.

Just check out some of the recipes below in my resources and make your dinner more vege-licious and yum. And to kick you off and get started here’s an awesome one:

It’s so easy to get more greens in with a few simple sides up your sleeve.

Of course, one of the secrets to this IS having recipes that can get you kick started too – and below I’ve listed a few that can get you started.

But a powerful way to make this happen is to FOCUS…

Focus on just one or two of the tips each week, get it ingrained and something you do on autopilot.

For instance, this week, actively see how many times you could shave broccoli into your meals without anyone noticing or the taste altering. Or try to find at least 3 recipes where you could try out cauliflower rice instead of couscous or regular rice (see a couple below).

It’s all about having these easy, big-impact steps on autopilot

So rather than thinking about achieving your health goal with a to-do list of:
giving up sugar, alcohol, chocolate, processed foods, going to the gym 5 times a week, meditating, doing yoga, giving up coffee and dairy, having a healthy breakfast every day, drinking lots of water, eating out less, taking packed lunches to work, giving up bread, making your own granola, going raw til four, eating organic only, making your own grain-free breads, giving up sweeteners…

And more…

Don’t do that. That’s overwhelming. And you’ll probably get stressed out, grumpy and hungry.

Instead, just focus – to begin with – on the core actions that are going to get you results fast, get the ball rolling, and get you feeling awesome, energised and thus make it a whole lot easier to kick on to the next goal or action.

Once you’ve got a bunch of these tips integrated into your life, on autopilot -so to speak- you will literally be getting an extra 3-5 serves of vegetables every single day.

And this WILL give you heaps more energy. You will have ticked that box.

If you’ve got heaps more energy are you more likely to want to work out? Yep. Are you more likely to be able to (or want to) wake up a little early so you can make a juice every morning (or a few mornings a week at least)? Yep.

And from there your results will begin to snowball – I promise.

I hope you’ve found this useful! As ever please feel free to share, and #tag someone who might find this useful too – even if just one of the tips could help them.

And if you have questions – any at all – please do ask below in the comments.

Ross

Recipes & Guides to Get You Started

Side Salad (Delicious): Alkaline Rocket & Watercress Salad

Side Salad Dressing:Coriander & Mint Dressing

Sauce with Spinach/Greens: Alkaline Green Goddess Sauce

Lettuce Wraps: Alkaline Wrapless Wraps

Green Juice: Big Bad Green Drink (the greenest drink you’ll ever see)

Green Smoothie: Antioxidant Green Smoothie

Breakfast Scramble: Brekkie Tofu & Spinach Scramble

Soup with Lots of Raw Veggies Blended In! My Immune Boosting Vegetable Soup

ross bridgeford - leave me a comment

P.S. Take a look at the Alkaline Recipe System. With hundreds of easy-to-prepare Alkaline recipes PLUS 7 goal-based meal plans each with itemized shopping lists (for goals including weight loss, more energy, better digestion, clearer skin and more) – it makes reaching your health goals SO easy!

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Ask Me a Question or Leave a Comment Here - I'd Love to Hear from You

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  1. Genevieve Forde Reply

    Thanks Ross!

  2. fiona mowlem Reply

    Do you have a list of alkaline creating foods. You give the theory, but not the detail. I have a friend who has just been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and we are trying to prepare some meals for her and its so confusing with lists being so different.
    If you could email me a list that would be great .

    • ross Reply

      Hi Fiona

      There is a rather large banner to the right of this page giving you exactly that 😉

      Usually the feedback is that I give too much detail!

      R

  3. Karen Anderson Reply

    Thanks Ross. Some great tips here. Will definitely be trying a few of these sneaky moves on my kids 🙂 the Zoodles and Cauli rice should be a winner!

    • ross Reply

      My boy LOVES them! Good luck 🙂

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