10 new ways to get your family to eat more Fruits & Vegetables
We all know by now that we should be eating at least five servings
of fruits and vegetables each day. But knowing and doing are two
different things, aren’t they? Sometimes it is just not easy to
get them all in there. We are constantly tempted to fill up on
convenience and junk food. 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 vegetables 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 in there 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 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.
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.
Here is another tip:
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.
