Yes, a balanced diet should be the first step in anything. Whole foods are the best over supplementing everything. Adding food requires your body to process it, if you add some more exercise or cardio to burn off some of those calories you're boosting metabolism from digestion but still burning the extra calories. I think you're under estimating your calorie needs to be honest. I'm 5'9 maybe 5'10 and was losing weight on over 2,000 calories when I started at 205lbs and if you're on a cycle you should be able to add even more to get better out of your exercise.
Broccoli and spinach are probably the most common green veggies to add to meals. I put red onion and mixed peppers in my eggs every morning. Personally I think you should add different sources for everything to change it up, keeps your digestive system working on different things and introduces micro-nutrients and probiotics into your diet that you'd either be missing or depending on supplements for. Cheap sources of protein would be ground turkey, round steak, and pork chops.