Automatic (Healthy) Eating // Tip 2

Fact: Healthy eating can feel like a lot of hard work. (If you're catching up, check out tip #1: stocking up on frozen veggies.) When I have my best success with eating lots of the "right" stuff, it's when I'm not trying to follow any fussy recipes. Instead, I get fresh, unprocessed ingredients and make things like salads or warm veggie bowls. Simplicity with cooking seems to work really well with simple, whole foods.

As a vegetarian, you might be surprised to learn that I sort of hate salad. Well, that's not entirely true, but it takes a LOT for me to enjoy munching on greens. With a little finesse, though, greens become my best weapon in the war against eating entire batches of Peanut Butter Blossoms.

// TIP 2: Buy Greens + Use Them

Greens are versatile, though. There's spinach, kale, collards, romaine, swiss chard, and the list goes on. By tossing in a handful of greens to your meals, you add lots of nutrition, including fiber, vitamins, minerals, and various phytochemicals that are great for your health. And salads don't have to be cold and crunchy, necessarily.

Consider these uses of greens:

• Toss into Green Smoothies
• Crisp into Kale Chips
• Chop into Garlic Rolls
• Top some Spinach Toast + Eggs
• Fill a Veggie Stromboli
• Pulverize into Leafy Green Pancakes
• Throw into Miso Soup
• Cook into Warm Salad Bowls
• Add green to Spinach Hummus
• Blend into Swiss Chard Pesto or Spinach Pesto
• Improve on Hummus Melts
• Add to (Mayo-Less) Egg Salad
• Bake into Spinach Mac 'n Cheese
• Mix in with Spinach Pasta
• Inject into Spinach Black Bean Burgers

If you're still hesitant to stock your refrigerator with this leafy stuff, start with baby greens like baby spinach or baby kale. The stems are what get me a lot of the time, and on the tiny versions, they're just not an issue.

The warm salad in the photo above is:

2 handfuls baby kale + fried tofu + 1/2 avocado, sliced + rehydrated seaweed w/ 1 tablespoon sesame oil + sesame seeds + ginger juice + soy sauce


I also shy from buying greens sometimes because I feel like they go limp before I get a chance to use them. The first defense is just using them up quickly -- adding them to most every meal. But if that's no possible and they tend to get slimy?

Here are some ways to keep 'em fresh:

• Roll into paper towels + store in zip lock bags via Marin Mama Cooks
• Snip, rinse, and dry well via Chocolate and Zucchini
• Roll into a clean bath towel (really!) via The Kitchn
• Keep air flowing around them via Organic Gardening

How do you use greens? Bonus points if you just love a plain salad!

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