Vegetable-based meal boosters to serve with pasta and rice

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Canadian adults spend an estimated 580 minutes or 9.7 hours each day in sedentary activities – we drive to work, sit most of our day while work, race home and then feel like we want to just relax for the evening. As we hit midlife, our lives get busier with work, family and life commitments. More is demanded from our finite (and often shrinking) energy pool. We move our bodies less. Our mobility often suffers. We lose strength and flexibility. As we age, our nutritional needs also change.

If this sounds like you, it becomes important to look at what and how we eat so that we can better attune our eating with our stress and less-active lifestyle.

If coming home at the end of a busy day means heading straight for the couch, it may be helpful to relook at your supper-time food choices and proportions to attune to your body’s changing energy needs.

Have you ever thought about incorporating a vegetable-based meal booster to pasta and rice, NOT to replace these grains, but to actually increase the veggie portion of your meal? Our meal-time inspiration rapidly shrinks as our stress levels increases. Our bodies love and want carbohydrate-rich foods to help sooth our stress. Veggies are often the first part of our meal to shrink when we are tired and fatigued. And yet, when we include them as part of our meals, we usually feel better.

For myself, plain pasta is more of a vehicle on which to deliver my pasta sauce. There are certain vegetables that make for a tasty canvas, alongside our grains, on which to place a pasta sauce.

Vegetable-based meal boosters to serve alongside pasta and rice

• Spaghetti squash (cooked)

• Zucchini “noodles” – zucchini can be made into ribbons, using a vegetable peeler or mandolin. Zucchini can also be spiralized*.

• Cauliflower rice

• Cabbage ”noodles” – shredded and lightly sautéed cabbage.

* A spiralizer is a kitchen gadget that turns vegetables into noodles. You can also spiralize sweet potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, apples.

Nutrient comparison of whole grain whole wheat pasta vs vegetable-based meal boosters:

Grains and whole grains provide our body the carbohydrates that our bodies need, not to mention, all kinds of micronutrients including B-vitamins (important for energy), folic acid, magnesium and iron. So don’t scrimp on them. Intentionally including grains in your meal not only provides nutrition your body needs, it also creates satisfaction with your meals, helping you avoid filling your meal-time void with other less nutritious snacks.

Many of us don’t get enough vegetables in our day, so these vegetable-based boosters to serve alongside pasta and rice can elevate your body’s nutrient intake.

I am not saying that you should replace pasta or rice with vegetables. But many of us haven’t even considered these vegetables as a way to boost the nutrient intake of our meals, when served alongside pasta and rice.

As our lives change, our nutrient needs also change. Boosting the veggie component of your meals is usually something that most of us benefit from.