10 Ways To Sneak Some Extra Fruits And
Vegetables In Your Family’s Diet
We all
know by now that we should be eating at least five servings of fruits and
vegetables each day. But knowing and doing this are two different things, aren’t
they? Sometimes it's not easy to get them all in. We are constantly
tempted to fill up on convenience and junk food, that is very easy to do. If your family is anything
like mine, they’d much rather fill up on a bag of chips or a bowl of rice or
pasta instead of trying an apple or a plate of steamed broccoli. So we’ll have
to get creative. Here are a few ideas to “sneak” some extra veggies and
fruits in your family’s diet.
1. Start the day with a breakfast smoothie. All you have to do is throw some fruits, low-fat yogurt and ice in a blender. You may also want to add a scoop of protein powder for good measure. Just blend for a few seconds and you have the perfect breakfast ready to go. I like to sip mine in a thermal cup on the way to work. To make it even more appealing for your kids, use some frozen yogurt or a scoop of ice cream in the smoothie. They won’t believe that you are letting them have ice cream for breakfast.
2. Dried
fruit makes an excellent snack any time of the day. Add some small cartons of
raisins to your child’s lunch box, pack some yogurt-covered raisins in your
husband’s briefcase or lunch box and keep some trail mix sitting around for snacking. You
can also add dried fruit to oatmeal and cereal in the morning. My family loves
banana chips in their breakfast cereal.
3. Add
some fruits and vegetables to your family’s sandwiches. You can add some
banana, sliced apples or strawberry slices to a peanut butter sandwich. Top a
turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and anything else they will eat.
You can even make a sub shop style vegetable sandwich by combining several
different vegetables with some mayonnaise and cheese on bread.
4. Have a
salad bar at dinner. Set out a variety of chopped vegetables, some cheese and
croutons as well as several choices of salad dressing along with the lettuce
and let everybody create their own perfect salad.
5. Let
them drink their fruits and vegetables. Keep an assortment of fruit and
vegetable juices in the fridge and encourage everyone to drink them as a snack.
Get creative. You could start “family cocktail hour” by pouring everybody a
glass of his or her favorite juice over ice. Add some straws, cocktail umbrellas
and sit together to talk about how everybody’s day went.
6. Try
this for dessert. Put a small scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt in a bowl and
top it with lots of fresh or frozen fruit. I love strawberries and this makes a great snack.
7. Offer fruits and vegetables as snacks. You can cut apples into slices and top them with peanut butter or cheese. Cube cheese and serve with grapes. Cut up some fresh veggies and serve them with ranch dip. And of course there’s ants on a log. Spread some cream cheese or peanut butter on the inside of a stick of celery and sprinkle raisins on it (wow, fruit and vegetable in one snack).
8. Try
some new fruits and vegetables. Pick something exotic to get your family’s
curiosity. With a little luck their curiosity will outweigh their initial
apprehension to trying something new. You could try artichokes, plantains,
papaya, mango, star fruit, or anything else you can find in the produce
department of your local store.
9. Make a
pot of vegetable soup or a stew that’s heavy on veggies and easy on the meat.
Both of these make some great comfort food when the weather gets cold.
10. Start
“My Veggie Day”. Each family member gets to pick a vegetable one day of the
week. They qualify to pick a vegetable as long as they tried each vegetable the
week before, otherwise they lose a turn and Mom gets to pick.
Incorporate a few of these ideas and you will have everyone in your family eating more fruits and vegetables in no time.
Now that everyone in the family has gotten a taste for it, make sure you always have plenty of fresh fruits and veggies available and ready to snack on.
Kim
