Easy and appealing ways to eat more veggies

Instead of suffering through the latest fad diet, you can make one simple dietary change that will reap the greatest health benefits: Eat more vegetables.

Eating a variety of vegetables and fruits "can lower blood pressure, reduce risk of heart disease and stroke, prevent some types of cancer, lower risk of eye and digestive problems and have a positive effect upon blood sugar, which can help keep appetite in check," according to the Harvard School of Public Health.

Not everyone loves vegetables, though. So we've compiled a list of ways you can incorporate more of them into your diet every day.

One of the biggest obstacles to eating vegetables is that they can be time-consuming to prepare. Luckily, food manufacturers are making it easier than ever to skip the prep work without compromising flavor or nutrition. Here are three ways you can use pre-prepped vegetables in your day-to-day cooking:

Buy pre-cut fresh vegetables for roasting or to use in stir-fries. Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, stringless snap peas and Brussels sprouts often come pre-washed and cut. You can even find bagged mixtures of these staples in the produce section of some supermarkets.

For roasted vegetables, simply empty the contents of a bag into a large bowl and season with your favorite spices or seasonings and a little broth or oil, then roast in a baking dish or jelly roll pan at 400 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes (depending on size and type of vegetables).

For stir-fries, dump vegetables straight into a preheated wok or deep sauté pan.

Use pre-washed greens in salads. While nothing tastes as fresh or has as many nutrients as a just-picked head of lettuce, kale or other greens, using pre-washed and chopped greens available in plastic "clamshell" packages or bags can save a lot of time.

Here's a healthy make-at-home meal that takes less than 15 minutes: Into each large salad bowl, toss 3 or 4 cups of greens and add one-half cup of drained, rinsed black beans, six or eight halved grape tomatoes, some cucumber slices and one-quarter of an avocado, diced, and top with fresh salsa. Instant burrito bowl!

If you or other family members don't care for the taste of vegetables, here are four ways you can add them to your favorite dishes without really changing the flavor much.

Blend kale, spinach or other greens into smoothies and shakes. Give your fruit smoothie or protein shake a big nutrient boost by adding a handful of pre-washed baby kale or other power greens. Start with a small amount and increase the size of the handful as your taste buds learn to love those antioxidant-rich greens.

A low-calorie, low-glycemic way to mask the flavor of greens is by adding one-half to 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to protein shakes or berry-flavored smoothies.

Hide veggies in your pasta sauce. In your next batch of spaghetti sauce, do this: Sauté some finely diced carrot, onion and garlic in a large saucepan until soft, then add diced tomatoes or tomato sauce, simmer for 10 minutes and purée with an immersion blender. The flavors of the diced veggies will meld into a complex, rich tomato sauce. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can transfer the sauce to a regular blender and purée right before serving.

Add vegetables your family likes to favorite meals. This sounds obvious, but it's something a lot of people don't think of. While a plain serving of broccoli or zucchini on the side of your plate may not be the most appealing, something magical happens when you add veggies into pasta sauces or onto panini, for example.

Try adding lightly sautéed zucchini half moons, tiny broccoli florets or sliced mushrooms to a red sauce or layer olives, sweet peppers and caramelized onions on a hot-pressed panini.

Some of the biggest dietary damage happens between meals or before dinner, but here are a few ways you can turn your snacks and appetizers into veggie gold mines:

Slice them into chips. Instead of processed crackers or fried chips, spread hummus and other dips onto sliced carrots, summer squash or cucumbers. Cutting veggies on a diagonal gives you a bigger surface area for scooping.

In your refrigerator, keep small containers of pre-washed sugar snap peas and baby bell peppers, carrot sticks or cucumber slices front and center, ready to grab and go. A few minutes spent prepping right when you get home will save you time (and empty calories) when you're hunting for a snack later on.

This article originally appeared on NextAvenue.org.