It’s St. Patrick’s day and my family has Irish heritage. Since I’m probably not going to get out to celebrate the wearin’ of the green since it’s the middle of the week, the least I can do is some eating of the green.

“Eat more vegetables” goal is high on my list. It’s not always easy. I work full-time at my day job and I’m always trying to carve out more time to write, so I do things to make it easier on myself.

Close up of baby bok choi cabbage.
Bok choi makes a great substitute for a head of cabbage in colcannon.
Just sayin’

Cook at home.

It’s easier to add more vegetables to your meals when you’re in control of every aspect of meal production.

Plan your meals before you go to the grocery store.

The circulars with the specials in them come out on Wednesdays in my area, so I make sure to sit down and do my meal planning on Wednesday or Thursday evening, before heading out to the grocery store. I look for any veggies on sale and try to plan meals around them.

We also have the good fortune to have an Aldi nearby, so we shop there. The produce is generally good and it’s well priced.

Clean and chop any vegetables that you’re going to need for recipes for the week ahead.

I try to do this on Sunday. Sometimes the weekend gets away from me and I end up doing it Monday night as part of Monday night’s meal preparation.

It’s harder to make an excuse to not use veggies when they’re already cut up and ready to use.

Precut bok choi, red peppers, and purple onions, ready for mid week meal making.
These colors make me happy.

Don’t have time to prep veggies? Check out the frozen veg.

There are all kinds of frozen vegetables on the market. The store brands are very often the same quality as the name brand products, or even better. Throw them in a soup or just warm them up for a quick side dish.

Snack on vegetables

Mamá kept carrot sticks in the fridge for snacks. I’ve started doing the same thing myself.