800 g challenge- Join in!

[Bootsie]

Tuesday  B banana 110

Lunch salad with spinach, lemon balm, mint, black beans, corn, tomato, onion, avocado 300g

dinner carrots 100g; pepper and onion 25g; pomegranate 50g

S watermelon 200g  

I'll go grab a few more bites of watermelon to make it to 800 for the day...

 

[Bootsie]

4 hours ago, Grace Hopper said:

Still not counting due to GI flare but I did make soup to freeze. My typical random veggie soup - zucchini, yellow squash, celery, onion, carrot, can of diced tomatoes, veggie broth - all the items weighed pre-cooking (and tomatoes drained). After cooking I portioned it out to 6 containers, first scooping in equal veggie portions and then pouring broth over. Each 1.5 cup mathed out to ~226g per serving. Would have been more but I forgot to add potatoes to the pot. Add some fruit at breakfast and this will get in a big portion of the goal at the start of  the day. 
 

Anyway that’s the method I used, in case anyone finds it helpful. 

I am curious about how small you cut your veggies and how much broth you add to your soup.  I have made a couple of soups in the past week in which I measured the weights of all of the veggies before cooking and I am finding I am falling far below 225g of veggies per 1.5 cup serving.  Maybe I just like a brothier soup?

Or, I haven't used zucchini and squash in soup, so maybe it cooks down differently than the veggies I have used?  If it is about 1 cup raw veggies equal 100g, then 225g of veggies would be 2.25 cups of raw verggies.  If that volume cooked down to 50 percent of the original volume, that would be 1.125 cups and then about 1/3 of a cup of broth would give a 1.5 cup soup serving.  But, I am not finding that the volume of most veggies cook down anywhere near 50%.

[Grace Hopper]

1 hour ago, Bootsie said:

I am curious about how small you cut your veggies and how much broth you add to your soup.  I have made a couple of soups in the past week in which I measured the weights of all of the veggies before cooking and I am finding I am falling far below 225g of veggies per 1.5 cup serving.  Maybe I just like a brothier soup?

Or, I haven't used zucchini and squash in soup, so maybe it cooks down differently than the veggies I have used?  If it is about 1 cup raw veggies equal 100g, then 225g of veggies would be 2.25 cups of raw verggies.  If that volume cooked down to 50 percent of the original volume, that would be 1.125 cups and then about 1/3 of a cup of broth would give a 1.5 cup soup serving.  But, I am not finding that the volume of most veggies cook down anywhere near 50%.

I have a gram scale so I weighed everything. I didn’t measure in terms of cups of veg. I cook it in the pressure cooker, sauté onions and celery, add the herbs for a couple of minutes before adding the other veggies and broth. 
 

I’d guess the onions, zucchini and squash cooked down by maybe half? The carrots and celery not so much, and  the tomatoes not at all because they were already cooked (canned). I used 4c vegetable broth and an 11oz can of V8 for the liquids, plus added back the liquid drained from the tomatoes and a couple of TBSP balsamic vinegar. 
 

oh here you go, I still have the note I made as I measured:

215  onions and celery

624 squash and zucchini 

267 carrots

250 tomatoes can drained

1356 total

6 servings - 226g per serving

 

I make different kinds of soups and you are right, other vegetables don’t cook down as much. I’m thinking okra, potatoes, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, riced cauliflower, broccoli, even mushrooms, asparagus, green beans - those wouldn’t cook down as much as the squashes do. So yeah, probably varies by veg. Now I’m curious what the next batch will add out to. 
 

@Soror sorry to sidetrack with soup talk!

[Faith-manor]

I need to report that when I got the chili made, it was more than I thought. We each ate double helpings that were quite generous, probably a total of 2.5 cups each - it was so yummy - and have 2 cups each left to eat at lunch. So despite the fact that we are having homemade mac n cheese - gruyere - and roast Brussels sprouts for dinner, roughly two cups each of brussels but not planning anything else, I think I will still get 7-8 servings of veg and be in the ballpark of 700-800 grams.

I may make this chili every week because it is so delicious and makes it easy to eat veggies in bulk without always relying on salads. I get so bored eating salad.

We also like tortilla soup with fajita veggies so I may make that on the weekend.

[Toocrazy!!]

I like soups too. My minestrone got a lot of veggies in and I like that I can switch up the veggies every week for some variety towards my 30 plant product goal. I put too many noodles in this time though for leftovers. 

[Soror]

I love soup too! I like to make a big batch for lunch sometimes but usually reserve that for colder weather and it's unseasonably warm this week where I live!

b: 1 cup blueberries- 140 g/ 40g gram pumpkin

l: 40 g zucchini; Whole bell pepper- 100g; whole cucumber- 50g, and large carrot- 70 g

s: large apple- 100g+ clementine- 50 g

dinner: ?? 

approximations based on averages weights using the lower estimates

[Junie]

Yesterday's fruits and vegetables:

Pomegranate arils

1 c. peas

1 c. carrots

1/4 c. peppers and onions

1 c. fruit salad -- oranges, strawberries, kiwi

1 c. broccoli

1 c. mushrooms

1 c. mandarin oranges

 

[Terabith]

Breakfast: somewhere between 3/4-1 cup of blueberries (plus oatmeal and flax and chia seeds)

Snack:  orange (and a handful of almonds)

Lunch: 2 cups densely packed spinach and kale, one red bell pepper, probably 1.5 cups of baby carrots with guacamole (half an avocado and salt), an apple, and half a lentiful bowl (1/3 cup lentils with 1/3 cup water)

Dinner plans:  chicken with broccoli (probably about a cup) and mashed potatoes (do those count if we leave skin on?) and some grapes

Probably too much fruit but a lot of volume of produce.  It’s definitely the foundation of my diet.  
 

If I’m hungry post swim, I’ll have some low sugar Greek yogurt (or maybe chocolate milk), but that just depends on the day.  

Edited November 8, 2023 by Terabith

[Faith-manor]

23 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Breakfast: somewhere between 3/4-1 cup of blueberries (plus oatmeal and flax and chia seeds)

Snack:  orange (and a handful of almonds)

Lunch: 2 cups densely packed spinach and kale, one red bell pepper, probably 1.5 cups of baby carrots with guacamole (half an avocado and salt), an apple, and half a lentiful bowl (1/3 cup lentils with 1/3 cup water)

Dinner plans:  chicken with broccoli (probably about a cup) and mashed potatoes (do those count if we leave skin on?) and some grapes

Probably too much fruit but a lot of volume of produce.  It’s definitely the foundation of my diet.  
 

If I’m hungry post swim, I’ll have some low sugar Greek yogurt (or maybe chocolate milk), but that just depends on the day.  

I do think potatoes with skins on would count. They have a lot of fiber and quite a few nutrients typical to veggies like vitamin A and C plus potassium. But I don't know for sure.

[Toocrazy!!]

Mashed potatoes made at home count. Just like soup, you would measure the potatoes before you add anything, then divide by the number of servings.

[Toocrazy!!]

Wednesday 

b- 250 g fruit mix of strawberries, pineapple, clementine 

l- 200 g minestrone. 100g carrots

d- 150 green beans and tomatoes, 100 salad mix, 100 apple 

[Faith-manor]

LUNCH - 2 cups of the heavy veggies chili - 453 grams

SUPPER - 2 cups of mushroom stroganoff (found a couple pkgs of shrooms pushed to the back of the fridge, still good but needing to be used right away so dinner plans changed) and 1 cup green beans., 278 grams total

Total - 732, not quite there but pretty good

[Junie]

Adding up my late night salad tonight:

mixed greens 80g

bell pepper 113g

cucumber 55g

avocado 86 g

tomato 141g

garbanzo beans 45g

TOTAL 520g

[Bootsie]

21 hours ago, Grace Hopper said:

I have a gram scale so I weighed everything. I didn’t measure in terms of cups of veg. I cook it in the pressure cooker, sauté onions and celery, add the herbs for a couple of minutes before adding the other veggies and broth. 
 

I’d guess the onions, zucchini and squash cooked down by maybe half? The carrots and celery not so much, and  the tomatoes not at all because they were already cooked (canned). I used 4c vegetable broth and an 11oz can of V8 for the liquids, plus added back the liquid drained from the tomatoes and a couple of TBSP balsamic vinegar. 
 

oh here you go, I still have the note I made as I measured:

215  onions and celery

624 squash and zucchini 

267 carrots

250 tomatoes can drained

1356 total

6 servings - 226g per serving

 

I make different kinds of soups and you are right, other vegetables don’t cook down as much. I’m thinking okra, potatoes, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, riced cauliflower, broccoli, even mushrooms, asparagus, green beans - those wouldn’t cook down as much as the squashes do. So yeah, probably varies by veg. Now I’m curious what the next batch will add out to. 
 

@Soror sorry to sidetrack with soup talk!

Thanks for all of the details.  I am going to have to do some experimenting to find out what happens to the different veggies in my soup because I just have not been able to cram that many vegetables into a cup-and-half serving of soup.  When I add more veggies it just makes more servings--not more veggies per serving.  

[Bootsie]

Wednesday

L spinach, black beans, corn, tomato onion, avovacdo 300g

Dinner  Soup with beans, onion, carrot, spinach, bell pepper, celery 180g

Snack  Watermelon 240g blackberries 80g

[Laura Corin]

Wednesday 

Lunch - two cups of cauliflower, one cup of mixed broad beans and edamame beans

Snack - one cup of blueberries 

Supper - 1 1/2 cups of mixed grilled veg and Carlin peas, 1/2 cup of salsify, plus an apple and a mandarin.

[PeterPan]

On 11/6/2023 at 2:47 PM, Junie said:

Oh, I was totally okay with eating junk yesterday! 🙂 Until recently, I had been gluten free for 15 years.  I am allowing myself to indulge a little bit on all.the.things.  So I had a cinnamon roll for breakfast, Burger King for lunch for the first time in over a decade, and spaghetti for dinner.  Spaghetti used to be my favorite food and this was the first time I had had it in 15 years.  I would have eaten a salad for my bedtime snack (which has become the norm) but I just wasn't hungry.

Oh that’s a big shift! I hope you feel ok!

[Soror]

Thurs: 

1 cup pear; 1 cup tropical fruit mix

Planned: 1/2 cup black beans;  1 cup- tomatoes + bell pepper; 2 cups cauliflower+ red onion; 1 cup sweet potato;

 

[Bootsie]

Thursday: B banana 120g

L black beans, corn, tomato, oinion, avocado 350g

S Smoothie with beets, raspberries, and strawberries 280g

D Roasted Sweet Potato 100g

 

[Terabith]

Today was not a banner day for healthy eating.  

Breakfast:  cup of blueberries (with oatmeal)

Snack:  orange (and some almonds)

Lunch at preschool:  2 cups of spinach/ kale and a red pepper.

Staff meeting right after school:  Surprise lunch!  Salad (with lots of veggies, but like salad plate portions aren't huge) and a soup with beef and veggies.  Not bad but not awesome.

And then my daughter had a choir concert so we went to Chick Fil A afterwards because convenience.  

I might eat some carrots later.  Will see if I'm hungry.

Actually, seeing it written out, that's not terrible.  It's not awesome but it's five solid servings.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Terabith

[Toocrazy!!]

I didn’t quite make it today. It’s hard when you eat out. 
 

b- 150 g mixed berries 100 g apple 

l- at restaurant - salad- maybe 100, guac and salsa maybe 100, black beans maybe 50

d- clementine -100 strawberries 150g 

ETA- fruit for dinner. My lunch was gigantic so I skipped dinner, but I don’t sleep well when I don’t eat anything at night. So I had some fruit and got pretty close to 800 grams. 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Toocrazy!!

[Faith-manor]

I have had a migraine today. I haven't felt like eating at all. So I have nothing to report today. The pain is lifting, and I hope to have a good night's sleep, and then be back on track tomorrow.

[Soror]

12 hours ago, Bootsie said:

Thursday: B banana 120g

L black beans, corn, tomato, oinion, avocado 350g

S Smoothie with beets, raspberries, and strawberries 280g

D Roasted Sweet Potato 100g

 

I keep forgetting to use the beet I bought for my smoothie. 

my days keep getting tweaked but I'm still hitting the goal.

breakfast- 1 cup blueberries; 1 cup tropical fruit mix; 1/2 cup raspberries

lunch: veggie spring rolls or tacos or salad mix or a combo??

dinner might be leftovers tonight so whatever I don't eat for lunch will be for dinner

[Eos]

I'm visiting my sister so have not been posting but this thread has continued to guide my choices.  She lives in CA so I'm eating lots of delicious local things: oranges from her tree, pomegranates and figs from the neighbors. Yesterday I made some borscht and three giant bowls later had all my day's goal: two kinds of beets, cabbage, onions, spinach, potatoes, celery, scallions, parsley, cilantro, dill.

[Toocrazy!!]

B- 100 clementine, 150 mixed fruit 

L- 250 minestrone, 150 apple, 150 pico and avocado, 100 clementine 

D- 50 - mixed salad 

[Terabith]

Breakfast:  cup of blueberries

Snack:  orange

Lunch:  2 cups spinach/kale, half a lentiful cup, apple, cup of grapes, one red pepper

Dinner:  curry with lots of onions and potatoes (and some chicken), cup of carrots and guacamole (avocado and salt)

[Faith-manor]

Still not feeling to well today. I ate the sum total of a cup of mashed potatoes, a boiled egg, and a clementine. So ya. Falling off the band wagon. But my head is still pounding.

[Katy]

I don't know how I missed this thread before. I actually don't feel good if I don't eat a couple pounds of plants every day, but I love the thread idea. Especially as extra sugar seems to be sneaking into my diet.

B- small fruit salad with mango & orange.

L- Huge mexican salad with corn and a variety of greens, purple cabbage, and a bit of shredded carrot.

S- Large asian salad with a sort of teriyaki dressing and black sesame seeds.

[Junie]

lunch -- 1 c. grapes

dinner -- 1 c. peaches, 1 c. blackberries and raspberries, 1/2 c. mixed vegetables, 1 c. baby potatoes

 

 

[Bootsie]

Friday  B roasted sweet potato 120g; grapes 250g

L pomegranate seeds 30g

D onion 70g; bell pepper 120g; grapes 120g

I think I am going to fall a bit short of my 800g goal for the day.

[Laura Corin]

Friday didn't work, as we were invited to dinner - lovely meal that featured cabbage and baked apples, but I would have had to eat everyone's portions to meet the challenge. 

Saturday -   planning a ten-mile hike. With luck my favourite veggie restaurant at the other end will not be putting fennel/ tarragon in all their salads, and I'll be able to feast there.

[Eos]

Yesterday was an apple, a fig, and a handful of almonds but dinner was a mountain of roasted veggies: squash, potatoes, beets, cauliflower, and apples covered in pomegranate seeds plus a "heavy" salad of greens and cabbage and chayote.  My sister has a kitchen scale so I will actually weigh today's veg and see how it compares to my volume estimates.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Eos

[Faith-manor]

I am going to report now because we are going to take ride tonight up to the lake in the hopes of catching the Aurora Borealis.

I feel a bit better today. So I am making a chicken vegetable stew with mashed potato dumplings. My mom gave me some leftover rotisserie chicken. It has 930 grams of veggies in it, and there will be enough for Mark and I to eat it for both lunch and dinner. We are also having 2 cups of salad at each meal.

I have estimated the salad contents and masses so I think with half that soup and salad two times, I will be at or just over 800 grams.

[Bootsie]

Saturday:  Bfst banana 130g

Lunch  salad 100g; marinated veggies 100g

Dinner sweet potato 100g; black beans, chili pepper, and onion 100g; avocado 80g Watermelon 390g

Snack Grapes 130g

 

 

[Toocrazy!!]

B - 200 g clementines

L- 500 - beans, peppers, onions, corn, pico, guac. 
 

D- 100 g clementines 

[Junie]

Lunch -- 1 c. broccoli, 3/4 c. sweet potatoes

Bedtime snack -- 2 c. mixed greens, 1/2 c. avocado, 1/2 c. cucumber, 1 c. raspberries

[historically accurate]

I'm jumping in late. Well, probably not jumping, more like slowly stepping in, since no one in my family likes veggies, so I've gotten out of the habit. 

 

Today:

B - none

L - leftover 1/2 sweet potato

S - a cup of grapes

D - we had Sweet Thai Chili chicken. I put mine on lettuce for a lettuce wrap; it has carrots, onions, sweet Thai chili and garlic. I would've added some avocado, but it had died...

Probably 300-400g total. Which is higher than I would've eaten if not for this challenge, so yay!

[Faith-manor]

Today was a light day. We had lunch at my mom's, and I have been full ever since.

Huge baked potato -334 grams

2 cups salad, heavy on vegetables - 100 grams

2 cups roasted broccoli -350

I came close. But, I also just can't eat anymore bulk so 784 is it.

[Soror]

Yesterday I just eyeballed but I think I got it pretty close with-

pear, orange, carrots, cabbage mix, white beans, corn

Today:

pear; sweet potato, red onion, cauliflower, chickpeas, brussel sprouts, cabbage mix, spinach, carrot, and mushrooms

For lunch I had half of a very full sheet pan  with the onion, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and chickpeas on top of 2 cups of the cabbage mix. Dinner was homemade bibimbap with the spinach, mushrooms, and carrots. I didn't measure but I know I at least hit 800 grams.

 

[Toocrazy!!]

My stomach was off today so I didn’t really eat much at all. 
 

b- 200 g clementine 

d- 100 apple 

[Junie]

Today was filled with happy junk food.

I did manage to have an avocado and a mini cucumber somewhere around lunchtime, but that's about it for nutritional value.

On the other hand, I had a jelly doughnut (my favorite!) for the first time since before I went gluten free 15 years ago.  Not healthy for my body, but oh so healthy for my spirit. :)

[Bootsie]

Sunday:  Breakfast smoothie with banana, cranberries, and raspberries 250g

Lunch  French Onion Soup 70g; carrot sticks 100g; bell pepper 120g

Dinner:  bell pepper, onion, celery 50g; cucumber 100g

Snack:  grapes 110g

 

[Toocrazy!!]

Monday 

B- 100 g strawberries,  100 g apples 

L- 300 g curry veggies and garbanzo beans with cauliflower rice, 150 clementine 

S- 150 carrots 

D- 100 g apples 

[Faith-manor]

Monday was not my day. In terms of ratio of what I ate that was veggie to what I ate that wasn't, I did great. But I ran around like a crazy woman after teaching my middle school zoom STEM class, and then took my MIL to a medical appointment. 

Lunch - small side salad, probably 1.5 cups

Dinner - 2 cups Brussels sprouts.

Since a boiled egg on the salad, and a 1.5 cups of homemade gruyere mac in cheese, a lot of what ate was veggie. Just not 800 grams or even 5-7 servings.

That said, the jump to 800 grams has caused some occasional intestinal disturbance. I may back off to 650 and continue to try to get 5 servings, and then slowly increase to 800. I think that will be fine. I just need to adjust to the increased bulk fiber. Plus, I don't want to have this issue while making the 12 hour drive to Huntsville on Saturday!

[Eos]

Closer to 2 cups yesterday and I noticed I was hungrier. Today was easy with many bowls of a thick soup of onions, carrots, celery, acorn squash plus a panful of greens for breakfast.

I'm not on track to achieve the thirty days but it's a great challenge.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Eos

[Bootsie]

Monday  B-sweet potato and spinach 210 g

L-snap peas, carrots, cucumbers 225g; banana 130

D- celery, onion, bell pepper 25g, apple 160g

S- pumpkin and cranberry 50g

[Faith-manor]

LUNCH 2 cups broccoli and red pepper salad

Red pepper sticks and hummus

Just ate 2.5 cups of carrot, potato chowder that also contained leeks, onions, and celery.

Total was 7 servings of veggies. I didn't weigh it all, probably wasn't near 800 grams. I need to make sure I have tummy feeling really good before we make the long drive this weekend.

[Toocrazy!!]

B- 200 g leftovers curry with greens, chickpeas, cauliflower rice, 100g apple

L- 400 g black beans, pinto beans, peppers, onions, corn, salsa, romaine 

D- rest of lunch, 100 g mandarins, 100 g strawberries 

[Terabith]

Monday:  cup of blueberries, two clementines, 2 cups of spinach/ mixed greens, one red pepper, 1.5 cups or so of carrots, half an avocado, about a half to 3/4 of a cup of broccoli, and some "fruit salad."  Mixture of fresh and canned (packed in water) fruit.  Not sure if that counts.

Tuesday:  cup of blueberries, two clementines, 2 c spinach/ mixed greens, red pepper, bunch of carrots, half an avocado, dill pickle (does that count?), sandwich that had lettuce and a good bit of tomato on it.  

Neither one super banner days but not bad.

[Bootsie]

Tues:  B pumpkin and cranberry 50g

L lettuce, onion, tomato on sandwich 50g, snap peas 200g

S Smoothie with orange and cranberry 250g

D bell pepper 160g with stuffing of onion, garlic, spinach, and tomato sauce 165g