Real talk: food is delicious. More accurately, delicious food is delicious. Things that make food delicious are often things that aren’t super great for us – unhealthy fats, high levels of salt, overly processed foods. But they are delicious. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t eat them, and I wouldn’t have this blog about clean eating, because everyone would already be doing that.

Okay, don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that clean eating isn’t delicious. I’m saying that you can eat clean and still have a less-than-healthy diet.

One of the really big things people have trouble with when it comes to clean eating is getting enough veggies and fiber into their diets to keep their bodies running in top shape. Mac and cheese is delicious, but good energy comes from green things just as much as it does from fats and carbs.

Are you getting ready to click away right now? Because talking about eating more green stuff makes you cringe? Or are you leaning in because you live is a picky eater who won’t eat a veggie to save their life (which it might, actually!)?

Either way, I’ve got some awesome tips for putting more nutrition into your meals with little fuss and certainly no loss of flavour.

Here are five tricks that will supercharge your nutrition without losing the flavour.

1. Process and Stir It In

Processing your veggies is a great way to hide them. Take veggies of similar colour to your food and stir them into the sauce. A great example of this is spaghetti sauce. Puree a mix of broccoli, squash, zucchini, carrots, and bell peppers (or pick two to start) and stir them into your sauce. This is virtually guaranteed to add deliciousness to your food but also make your pasta into a nutritional powerhouse. (You can also do this with cauliflower and mac and cheese. You’ll never even know it’s there!)

2. Smoothie It Up!

Smoothies are an amazing way to get more fruits and veggies into your diet. When you get the right mix you can get really high value nutrition mixed into something with flavour you’ll dream about. Don’t forget that with smoothies, it’s not just the veggies but the fibre and protein, too. My personal favourite is using blueberries and Epicure’s Cocoa Acai Smoothie Booster to keep things super tasty.

3. Bake It In

Blending high fibre foods into quick breads, muffins, or cookies is a fantastic way to get nutrition. You’re probably going to eat some tasty stuff anyway, so they may as well do your body good. Use pureed pumpkin, apple sauce, sweet potatoes, or zucchini to punch up both the flavour and the nutritional value on your tastiest foods. (This is also a good trick if you are vegan or trying to reduce the amount of sugar you’re taking in. Most recipes can be modified to use these foods as natural sweeteners instead of sugar, milk, and eggs. Bonus, right?)

4. Build Your Own Meals

This is less of a “trick” and more of a “let’s make it fun”. Most people are alright with foods like tacos and pizza, even when there are veggies involved. In fact, I don’t know anyone who would eat a taco only with filling and no veggies! I also know people who would never eat a green pepper slice who also won’t eat a pizza without it. Add more foods that can be customized with veggies to your weekly meal plan and let everyone pile on their favourites.

I can’t wait to hear how you add more veggies into your meals. Hop over to my Facebook page and let me know!