While it's actually more nutritionally beneficial to munch on raw carrots, developing a taste for cooked carrots will expand your repertoire of good-for-you veggie sides that can easily be incorporated into your weekly menus. Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A and beta-carotene and taste great when sautéed with a bit of butter and dried herbs, like chives. The key is to boil the carrots until they become tender, but not mushy.

Other flavors that blend well with the taste of cooked carrots include honey, brown sugar and orange juice. Just be sure to use a light hand when adding these sweet accompaniments. Cooked carrots already have a naturally sweet flavor and you don't want to cause a sugar surge by soaking the veggies in a thick glaze of maple syrup.

In addition to their gorgeous (and white fabric staining) purplish-red hue, beets come in golden yellow or rainbow varieties. Beets are high in fiber and have properties that fight inflammation. The purple roots are particularly high in a potent cancer-fighting nutrient. Are you an expectant mother? Pile on the beets; they're loaded with folate, which helps protect against birth defects.

Borscht, a traditional Eastern European/Russian soup of beets is better than it sounds. Or, you could try grilling your beets. If cooked beets aren't your thing, shred fresh, raw beets into a salad or use as a sandwich topping. You may be surprised at how sweet this root vegetable actually is. Try pickled or canned beets on a Greek salad or on their own with a few crumbles of goat cheese. It's a simple and delicious combination.

Spinach

Fresh, raw spinach is an in vogue veggie used in wraps, salads and all manner of trendy meal preparations, but that doesn't mean that everyone has climbed aboard board the green bandwagon. Spinach is one of those "power foods" that deserves a place on your dinner plate, not just in a creamy, cheesy dip.

Like most vegetables and greens, spinach is most powerful when consumed raw. Instead of using iceberg lettuce-which has zero dietary benefits-in your sandwiches, start using fresh spinach or baby spinach. Make a salad of baby spinach, sliced strawberries, slivered almonds, feta cheese and a poppy-seed dressing. If you're not wolfing down the raw stuff like Popeye, you can sneak it into your diet by adding to soups, lasagna or as a pizza topping.