Need more vegetables? Try hiding them in a sandwich

Today is the Chinese New Year; the Year of the Dragon. The choices are all animal-related, a celebration for carnivores.

While 2012 won't be the Year of the Vegetable for most people, I am trying to make that true in my world.

We never seem to have trouble getting ourselves to eat carbohydrates. Protein isn't an issue, even for vegetarians and vegans. Fats are as easy as pie, or cake, or cupcake. And getting fruit into our diets doesn't require much of an effort, even if we need to do better about eating actual fruit instead of juice.

Our problem, mine included, is getting enough vegetables.

Any diet that you are on, or if you are on your own — every healthy approach to food allows for virtually no limits to non-starchy vegetables (i.e., no potatoes, corn, or beans). Getting them into our diets has been the problem.

If the standard American meal is a hamburger, French fries, and soft drink, or a huge plate of mac and cheese, this doesn't leave much room for vegetables. McDonald's became the most successful fast food chain while having a disdain for simple vegetables such as lettuce and tomatoes. If you remember the McDLT (see above), you are definitely old enough to legally drink.

In the fast food mentality, vegetables are onions (though not many), cucumbers (as sodium-laden pickles), iceberg lettuce, and tomatoes that were picked far too early to have much taste. Yes, Wendy's new burger has red onions, an unusual twist, though its lettuce was white on the sandwich I got, not the green one in the picture.

In the days when I ate Subway, you could get lots of vegetables to put on a sandwich, even if the lettuce was whitish with sprinkles of light green, and the tomato slices were sickly. Is it obvious that I don't eat there much anymore?

Getting vegetables into sandwiches is a great way to appeal to our American sensibilities, yet eating slightly better. Though I don't have much experience with banh mi, the idea of Asian slaw on a sandwich sounds better than it might have a few years ago.

When I was researching the Dagwood sandwich, I was pleasantly surprised as to how many vegetables were in the sandwich. If we want good vegetables on a sandwich, we have to work a little harder to do so, especially if we choose to do it ourselves.

Back in the days when I did Subway, in the summertime, I would bring sliced tomatoes to work and put them on a Subway sandwich. Given the domination of the sweet-laden bread and not-so-great cold cuts, the difference wasn't huge, but I could tell the difference. Vegetables, when done well, can be a sandwich really good.

If we don't have to look at the vegetables, if they are hiding between in a bun or two slices of bread, as long as the vegetables get into our system, we're in better shape.

photo credit: McDonald's

Comments

[groundhog.judy]

When I take a sandwich to work I use the thin sandwich buns and stack plenty of tomatoes and lettuce next to my turkey. I have vegetables and less carbs.