Incorporating More Fruits and Vegetables

Everyone knows we don't eat enough fruit and vegetables, but we don't always take steps to improve our consumption. Eating a rainbow of colours ensures that we hit many different nutritional markers, but sometimes we tend to eat our favourites and ignore the rest. Following are a few suggestions on how to improve your diet, one meal or grocery trip at a time.

Breakfast:

• Slice fresh fruit into a bowl of cereal or a cup of yogurt.
• Add fresh or frozen fruit or vegetables into a blender drink.
• Load an omelette up with diced peppers, mushrooms, and zucchini. Add a handful of baby spinach.
• Add (overnight) slow-cooked applesauce to your bowl of oatmeal
• Skip the juice, and eat a whole apple or orange instead. Juice counts as a serving- but all the fibre is removed.
• Don't forget about canned fruit, canned in juice- not syrup. Pineapple tidbits are delicious in a breakfast parfait with granola, coconut, and yogurt

Lunch:

• If you like salad, but not soggy, consider salads-in-a-jar. Check out this excellent resource!
• Fruit salad is sweetly satisfying. Try combining your favourite fruits into a salad, and enjoy with a serving of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of chia seeds.
• Instead of choosing regular dip for vegetables, try using tzatziki- it's made out of cucumber!
• Bring a couple of portions of sliced vegetables- baby carrots, snap peas, sliced cucumbers- and enjoy them first.
• Take a partial cue from SUBWAY®- load up on the vegetables when you make yourself a sandwich, but go beyond the fast food joint. Think leafy greens, bright tomatoes and peppers of many colours, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and so on. If you're worried about soggy, store your vegetables separately and build your sandwich right before you eat it.

Dinner:

• Keep "clean" vegetables on hand for snacking on-the-go: baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and sliced bell peppers make for non-messy snacks when you're out and about.
• Have vegetables prepared in your fridge so that when you're hungry, they're easy to reach for.
• Keep "clean" hand fruits on hand to grab and go. Examples include apples, grapes, bananas, and mandarin oranges. I don't go anywhere without an apple in case I'm hungry while I'm out.
• Use pureed vegetables and fruits in homemade baking- you can add them to muffins and loaves.
• Blueberries and grapes are an easy food to snack on, and easy to clean. Place them in a bowl with a splash of vinegar and fill the bowl with water. Swish them in the water, then drain and rinse again before eating.
• Have fruit salad ready to eat for a healthier desert- even if you pair it with a small scoop of ice cream!
• Smoothies make easy and satisfying snacks between meals, and are easy to take on the go if you know you'll be on the road during a meal.
• Click on that rainbow picture above- it will take you to a page that has lots of kid-friendly recipes that incorporate fruit and vegetables.

Try to be mindful of hunger when you plan a day of errands. If you plan ahead a little, you might be able to skip out on the fast food stops. If you must stop, though, ask for vegetable or fruit sides. For example, at a place like Montana's, eat a salad instead of fries. If you're at a fast food place like Wendy's or McDonalds, ask for apple slices or carrot sticks (depending on where you live!) or a side salad instead of fries.

• Think "half your plate". Mentally divide your plate into quarters, then be generous with your vegetables and fruit servings, and eat them first!
• Add pureed vegetables to many of your main meal staples- foods like spaghetti sauce and chili hide vegetables nicely.
• Finely grated carrots or zucchini in your meatloaf and meatballs add fibre, colour, and nutrition.
• Consider making your main meal vegetable based. Some of these meals include stir fry's, stuffed peppers/zucchinis/eggplant, and soups.
• Add pureed spinach to lasagne's meat sauce. Or try vegetarian lasagne!
• Make vegetables more interesting than raw: steam them, roast them, or grill them. Watch the added seasoning and sauces for excessive sodium and fat, though!
• Once a week, go meatless. Consider vegetarian or vegan meals.

Snacks

Grocery Shopping

• Commit to trying one thing new each time you shop. Whether it's a new vegetable or fruit, buy a small quantity, go home, and google a recipe that same day, then plan to eat it within the next day- and follow through.
• Fill your cart with a rainbow of colour. All those different colours mean different nutrients available to us. Nutrition derived from real food is generally better for us than taking a pill, with a few exceptions. See this article here for more information.
• Shop the freezer section. While frozen fruit and vegetables don't taste quite the same as fresh, it's a handy way to store fruit and vegetables if you're low on fridge space or not sure you'll be able to eat them before they go bad. 
• Just because something says "fruit" or "vegetable" doesn't mean it's actually got any significant amount of nutrition in it. A couple of things that come to mind are Fruit Snacks and Veggie Straws.

• The same caveat applies to fruit flavoured anything. Strawberry yogurt doesn't really have any nutrition from the strawberry goo they add to flavour it, but it does have a lot of sugar. Just be aware, and read your nutrition labels.
• Shop with intention. Loading up on fresh fruit and vegetables but throwing it away after a few weeks of wilting and going off in your fridge isn't making you any healthier, nor is it helping your pocketbook or our landfills. Meal planning is key, here. Whether you hire someone like me, or not, is your choice. But DO plan on when you will eat what you put into your cart, even if it's a simple thought like "I can eat that for dinner tomorrow, and this for breakfast on Wednesday".

​Above all, be patient with yourself and your family. Expecting immediate acquiescence to drastic change isn't realistic. Small changes are easier to accept and lead to better long-term follow through.

For example, start with adding extra vegetables and fruit to daily snacks.

• When you know your children are starving after school, or you know you snack when you're making dinner, have a plate of vegetables washed and ready to go.
• Encourage yourself and your family to eat an apple before they have a second helping of pasta or popcorn
• Try a theme like "New Food Friday"
• Experiment with fruit and vegetable salsas for dipping

​I would love to hear some of your ideas! Feel free to share your comments with me here, or hop on over to my Facebook page!

Enjoy your day, friends!
Stacy

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You may also like:
School Lunch Series: Fruits and Vegetables
​What do you do with a Pineapple Core?
​Diet Schmiet!