Is V-8 a good substitute for whole veggies? I’m guessing no, because it has less fiber and more salt. But I don’t have the time to shop for fresh food every day, and I don’t want to pay salad bar prices at lunch.
Do any of you make your own? How long does it keep in the fridge?
You don’t have to shop for product every day. Produce will stay fresh for a a few days in the refrigerator. Buy your stuff on Sunday, and spend 30 minutes washing, peeling and chopping everything and put it into plastic containers in your fridge. In the mornings, just grab a container and go.
I prep meals on Sundays to eat during the week. Yesterday, I made:
chicken and sweet potato curry (more dry than saucy)
Grilled chicken thighs that I marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes
salads with romaine, red onion, cucumber, crumbled bacon and blue cheese dressing (in a separate dressing container). I also made a couple with romaine, grilled chicken, red onion, cucumber, olives, and red wine vinaigrette
hardboiled a dozen eggs – good for breakfasts and snacks
I pack everything into containers as meals so they are ready to go right out of the fridge.
V8 is a vegetable juice, but it’s not a replacement for eating fresh fruits and veggies.
The red onion, cucumber and romaine lettuce sound good and would probably keep longer than other veggies. The one method that I do use is storing celery sticks in a bowl of water in the fridge. They keep for at least a week.
I buy all my produce a 7-9 days at a time. Rarely any issues with it going bad. If your produce is going bad within a couple days, something’s wrong. I’ve got a bunch of celery in my fridge from 3 weeks ago and it’s still ok. No glass of water involved.
Yeah, the salt in V-8 would not make it a great alternative in my opinion. Plus you get none of the fiber that you would get for eating the actual veggies themselves. And low sodium V-8 is plain gross.
I normally hate pre-chopped salad ingredients but I buy pre-washed lettuce mixes, since I prefer to have variety of greens. My recommendation is to go for the one in the boxes vs the bags. The bagged greens always seem moist to me which makes them go faster. A good grocery store should have salads that last at least a week – I always double check the date, and tend to go for the mix that has the longest freshness date available. Once you get into the habit of making salads, you’d be surprised how fast it can go. I’ve also learned not to overdo my salads - keep it to 3-4 of your favorite ingredients and don’t try to add every single thing you like. I tend to keep it to lettuce/greens, tomatoes, cukes, and peppers. The real difference to me is the dressing - I make my own vinaigrette or splurge on a good dressing. I vary a little with mushrooms, onions/shallots, or some other leftover protein when I have that around.
If you like baby spinach or baby kale, some times I buy those so that I can make a salad or also toss some into a pasta or saute dish. Helps me to use up the greens more quickly.
V-8 is better than soda, but V-8 cannot substitute fresh vegetable. I think those are two take home messages for you.
Some vegetables will stay fresher than others. Some stay fresh for about a week, while some can stay fresh for 2-3 weeks. So really don’t need to shop every day.
As for time, … you can always make time for something important. The only reason we don’t do something is not because we don’t have time. It is because we don’t think it is important.
Even reduced sodium V-8 is highly salted. It’s also an expensive alternative to fresh produce, not to mention inferior.
Pickling vegetables will preserve them for weeks. Shred your choice of fresh vegetables (you can add apple or pear, too), including onion, add a little salt and pepper, and sweetened white or rice vinegar. Water isn’t needed because the vegetables will exude enough.
I am partially disabled, so the most I get to the supermarket is once a week, usually every 2-3 weeks. Therefore, I also keep canned and dried fruit, and canned and freeze-dried vegetables, on hand. I get the latter via Amazon and other websites. Used in soups, they are indistinguishable from freshly-diced. Before someone objects, you don’t realize how much dried produce goes into commercially-prepared foods. Granted, a lot of it is grown in China, so the spectre of soil quality issues looms.
Thanks for all the replies. I will make an effort to buy fresh veggies and store them properly.
Pickling was mentioned. I love anything pickled! I just never thought of them as vegetables, but I guess they are!
I make my own veggie juice most days, but it really need to be had the day you make it. Even a day later it’s significantly less tasty.
V8 is certainly not a substitute for veggies but it’s certainly a better option than nothing. I have zero sodium issues and in the winter i enjoy it heated and sipped from a mug in the afternoon.
Also note that you can get veggies from more than just a hohum salad. Veggie soups like a good minestrone, or carrot ginger among many others are great to make a big batch on a weekend.
If you want to go the salad route massaged kale salad gets even better the next day and is delicious for a good 3-4 days, so you can make a big batch of basic massaged kale and then switch up the toppings day to day to bring for lunches. This recipe gives you a good idea
http://nutritionstripped.com/massaged-kale-salad-three-ways/
You can also easily get extra veggies into your life by doing simple things like just adding a few extra chopped tomatoes and a bell pepper into a basic spaghetti, layer a roasted red bell pepper from the jar onto a sandwich, add a few more veggies into a stir fry…
V-8 juice is a perfectly acceptable substitute for vegetables, provided you add vodka. The vodka helps our bodies process the nutrients in the V-8 juice.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. 
I’m kinda missing V-8, I can’t find it easily here. If I want to make it make my own version, what vegs do I need?
I vaguely remember there is tomato, celery, carrot.
Are they tasting the same in every part of the world? (using the same vegetables?)
Here are the ingredients.
INGREDIENTS: RECONSTITUTED VEGETABLE JUICE BLEND (WATER AND CONCENTRATED JUICES OF TOMATOES, CARROTS, CELERY, BEETS, PARSLEY, LETTUCE, WATERCRESS, SPINACH), CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF: SALT, VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID), NATURAL FLAVORING, CITRIC ACID.
Lots of tomato, lots of spinach, tiny bit of celery, maybe just one beet, a few carrots, half lemon, and a really good pinch of salt (i swear that’s why it’s so much better than most veg juices)
At home i like to add a good grind of fine black pepper or sometimes a bit of horseradish