# Alternatives to leafy veggies?



## blackpepper (Dec 26, 2016)

New cook here. I don't really mind the taste, but so far I find them impossible to prepare and store, and really I have no idea what they look like when they spoil.

Currently I have eggs, tomatoes, bell peppers, lentils, and apples and bananas as part of my regular diet. What can I add that may substitute the nutrients in leafy vegetables that I'm not getting from listed above?


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## CakePoet (Dec 27, 2016)

Well if   the leafs  flop and is wilted  then it is spoiled. You can buy frozen chard, kale, spinach, collards green instead and use them in pies  and stews, there is lots of recipe on the net  using frozen leafy greens.


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## medtran49 (Dec 27, 2016)

When you buy bags of spinach or ready to use collard greens, you want to look for bags where the pieces are all pretty much the same color.  You don't want to buy bags that have a lot of darker colored/wet looking pieces than the rest.  

When you buy bunches of greens, like CakePoet wrote, if it's wilted and floppy, then it's going/gone bad.  

When I was learning to buy stuff on my own, I'd watch for a person that was carefully picking out a variety of produce for their shopping cart and would ask them for advice if I wasn't sure about something.  I've paid their favors to me forward many times since by anwering questions and have even offered to help when I see someone standing around and looking lost in the produce department.


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## buckytom (Dec 27, 2016)

Is that how you met Craigsy, Med? He was wandering around aimlessly in the produce aisles, looking for "help"?


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## medtran49 (Dec 27, 2016)

Nope, he had already started teaching himself how to cook long before.  His mom thought frozen dinners were a great thing.  His father had passed years before, so I never met him, but some of the things he cooked that Craig and his oldest brother told me about make me sort of glad I never had to eat a meal he cooked, as he apparently thought hecooked very well.


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## GotGarlic (Dec 27, 2016)

blackpepper said:


> New cook here. I don't really mind the taste, but so far I find them impossible to prepare and store, and really I have no idea what they look like when they spoil.
> 
> Currently I have eggs, tomatoes, bell peppers, lentils, and apples and bananas as part of my regular diet. What can I add that may substitute the nutrients in leafy vegetables that I'm not getting from listed above?



Vitamin K is an essential nutrient that is abundant in leafy greens but difficult to get in sufficient quantities without them. 

Others have described how to tell when leafy greens are going bad. When they're floppy but not wet or slimy, they can be used in soups, stews and curries. Softer greens like romaine and spinach can be used to make salad; heartier greens like Swiss chard, kale and mustard and collard can be sautéed or braised. 

Most keep for at least a week in the refrigerator, wrapped in paper towels to keep moisture away from the leaves, and then in a plastic bag or container. 

If you tell us the kinds of foods you like to prepare, I'm sure we can suggest ways to incorporate greens into what you're making


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (Dec 27, 2016)

asparagus
brocolli
brussels sprouts
carrots
cauliflower
green beans
lima beans
yellow wax beans

Just remember that peas and corn are not vegetables, they are carbohydrates.


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## CakePoet (Dec 27, 2016)

No peas are a fruit and   corn is grain, they might contain carbohydrates  but they arent  carbohydrates.


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## GotGarlic (Dec 27, 2016)

CakePoet said:


> No peas are a fruit and   corn is grain.



Peas are actually a seed, and corn is the fruit wall attached to the seed of a grass, but they are both made up primarily of carbohydrates.


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## CakePoet (Dec 27, 2016)

Gotgarlic: Well the peapod is botanically a fruit... and bananaplant  is a herb. The world is weird.


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## GotGarlic (Dec 27, 2016)

CakePoet said:


> Gotgarlic: Well the peapod is botanically a fruit... and bananaplant  is a herb. The world is weird.



A fruit is a plant part that contains seeds. So the pea pod is a fruit, but the peas are seeds.

And a banana tree is an herbaceous plant, but it is not an herb  An herb is a plant whose edible leaves are used for seasoning.


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## CakePoet (Dec 27, 2016)

GotGarlic, You are right and lets agree on that they contain carbs but are not carbs.


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## GotGarlic (Dec 27, 2016)

CakePoet said:


> GotGarlic, You are right and lets agree on that they contain carbs but are not carbs.



You are absolutely right!


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (Dec 27, 2016)

*car·bo·hy·drate
*ˌ
kärbəˈhīˌdrāt

noun

Any of a large group of organic compounds occurring in foods and living tissues and including sugars, starch, and cellulose. They contain hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as water (2:1) and typically can be broken down to release energy in the animal body.

*A food consisting of or containing a lot of carbohydrates.*

I say again "peas and corn are carbohydrates"


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## CakePoet (Dec 27, 2016)

Then you are water.


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## GotGarlic (Dec 27, 2016)

CakePoet said:


> Then you are water.



"ugly bags of mostly water..."
~ The Crystalline Life Form, Star Trek: TNG


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## CakePoet (Dec 27, 2016)

GotGarlic: You read my mind!


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## msmofet (Dec 27, 2016)

Aren't Lima beans carbs also?

"Ugly bags of water..."


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## GotGarlic (Dec 27, 2016)

msmofet said:


> Aren't Lima beans carbs also?
> 
> "Ugly bags of water..."





Yup - all pulses are mostly carbs.


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (Dec 27, 2016)

CakePoet said:


> Then you are water.



[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXzITuHWBCU[/youtube]


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## Flour (Dec 28, 2016)

I dislike dark greens, myself but I hide them in things, baby spinach goes in my wraps. Brussels and a lot of other things get cut into bite-sized pieces, tossed with a tiny bit of oil, thrown on a pan, seasoned and baked for 20 or so minutes until they are cooked- with brussels, I like to let them start to turn brown and crispy. Spinach hides well in salad, quiche, lasagna, and omelettes.


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