Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables!
Creative ways to get more fruits and vegetables in your diet.
There are many health benefits to having a fruit and vegetable rich diet.
Weight control, protection form heart disease and some cancers are only some of the benefits. So, if you are looking to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet, here are some ideas to get you there.
- Have a smoothie for breakfast. This can be anywhere from three to five servings of fruit. Make one at home or go to one of those smoothie places. Just stick to all fruit smoothies. Avoid the “light” smoothie. It is probably filled with artificial sweeteners.
- Drink vegetable or tomato juice before meals. They curb the appetite and the five ounce can adds half a cup of vegetables to your diet.
- Make a big pot of vegetable soup for lunches all week. One of the best recipes is at the website Saving Dinner. Click on the “Body Clutter” free menu, scroll down until you see “Veggie Soup”. You can also try a basic minestrone soup. Avoid canned soup. They are too salty, lack in nutrition, and in flavor.
- At dinner, make your sides vegetables and skip the starchy sides like pasta and white rice.
- If a meal is not a meal with out dessert, make dessert a cup of mixed berries, a dollop of vanilla yogurt and a tablespoon of granola. You can change this up with anything from pineapple, baked apples to peaches.
- The tried and true fruit bowl. Just get a fruit bowl and fill it with organic apples, oranges, bananas, kiwi and peaches. This makes fruit as snack healthy, truly convenient.
- Snack on fruit and cheese. It is a winning combination. Mix it up- Apples and Parmesan, pears and cheddar, peaches and cottage cheese, berries and mozzarella.
- Everyone knows that raw veggies make a good snack but, try them cooked as a snack. This can be especially helpful if you get gas from raw veggies. Lightly steam carrots, sugar snap peas, green beans, and broccoli lightly and spray lightly with butter. You can also dip them in a low fat cheese sauce or ranch. They are great warm or cool!
- Make a salad as your meal. Go light on the dressing and add some tofu or a chicken breast.
- Go vegetarian for a week and find new ways to eat your vegetables!
- Mash cauliflower and turnips into mashed and twice baked potatoes. Your family will not even know they are there.
- Grate vegetables such as zucchini, carrots, parsnips, turnips and squash. Add them to red sauces, pizza, meatloaf and chili. No one will notice and you'll get the all the nutritional benefits.
Getting creative with your diet and your fruits and vegetables is a sure fire way to get more into your stomach. Hopefully, the above ideas will spur on a few of your own.
The copyright of the article Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables! in Balancing Meals is owned by Samantha Rufle. Permission to republish Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables! must be granted by the author in writing.
