7 Packaged Foods That Make It Easy To Sneak In More Veggies
Hitting your daily carrot and kale quota has never been easier.
Perhaps you have a frequent-buyer card at your local salad shop. Or maybe you have a CSA that you love to cook your way through. Regardless, we know you’re not new to the concept of aiming for five-a-day. Still, it’s not always very quick or convenient to roast up a sheet pan of sprouts or sit down to a mountain of salad.
Enter: these convenient groceries, all hand-selected by Manhattan-based registered dietitian Rebecca Ditkoff, R.D. They make it easy to boost your vegetable consumption when it’s not feasible or appetizing to nosh on them in their OG form. Each product below can be purchased at major supermarkets or online, has a long shelf life in your pantry or freezer, and sneaks in a surprising amount of nutrition. (Oh, hey, vitamins, minerals, and fiber!) Stock up, and enjoy.
Skip the vending machine or candy jar run mid-afternoon, and instead, grab ZENB Veggie Bites. Each serving is equivalent to a full cup of veggies.
“These are great for those that don’t love the flavor of traditional veggies, but still want to enjoy their nutritional benefits,” Ditkoff says.
Snack your way through the carrot, corn, beet, edamame, red bell pepper, and sweet potato varieties for 120 to 190 calories each.
Rather than ordering a drive-through pastry with your morning coffee or indulging in a croissant from your corner bakery, heat up one of these moist chocolate muffins. These 110-calorie treats feature zucchini and carrots as the first two ingredients, key because ingredients are listed in order by what ingredient is highest in weight, explains Ditkoff. That’s the giveaway these muffins are legit stacked with good-for-you veg. The best part? They taste like pure chocolate.
By swapping out pasta for cauliflower, Ark Foods makes this comfort food classic way less carby. Plus, the “cheese” sauce is cashew-based, so it’s vegan-friendly, too.
“I love this as an easy and tasty side dish,” Ditkoff says, who’s a fan of the brand’s other “creative veggie” products, too. Some of the standouts: General Tso’s Cauli, Veggie Spaghetti, and the Honeynut Squash Snack Pack.
Break up with delivery and give a rose to these freezer-friendly pies built on a crust that lists cauliflower as the first ingredient.
“This is a good alternative to traditional pizza, especially for those that require a gluten-free diet,” Ditkoff says. “It also contains 3 grams of fiber per half-pizza serving.”
Just be aware that that serving also includes almost a quarter of your daily sodium quota, so keep a keen eye on your salt levels for the rest of the day.
Dress up pasta night with this no-sugar-added tomato sauce that features carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, bell pepper, and beets.
With all those veggies, each ½-cup serving of this 90-calorie sauce covers 20 percent of your vitamin A needs and 10 percent of your daily fiber goal.
Upgrade your grill game with these burgers that Ditkoff says are a good source of fiber.
Every 120-cal patty is loaded with a surprising 11 grams of protein and a fairly-low-for-frozen-food 135 milligrams of sodium (just 6 percent of your daily allotment). Besides water, soy protein flour, and chickpeas, onions, beets, and carrots are the most prominent players in these patties.
Veggie-infused desserts can go beyond carrot cake and zucchini bread. This unique vitamin-C rich pint is packed with strawberries and carrots, plus cream and milk powder, to lend a luxurious, creamy texture.
A ½-cup serving has 170 calories and offers 4 grams of protein and one-fifth of your daily vitamin C. It’s not exactly a multivitamin, but it’s a nice alternative for when you really want to spoon a pint.
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