Here is an interesting article. My comments are in red. ~Kim
"The Menu Mom"
http://www.kidapprovedmeals.com/
Christine Steendahl
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 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. This has been an issue with me. I am trying really hard to incorporate more fruits and veggies. It is really hard since I am not a huge fan of either. However, I have been working on it. One thing I have done is have broccoli and carrots on hand most of the time with a tasty salad dressing.
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. I try to avoid the ice cream part of this as a 100% fruit smoothie is something my girls love. It is hard for me to consider this very healthy when their is ice cream in it. We have made smoothies for years and we often add peanut butter for the protein. I also add some olive oil (no, you can't really taste it but it gives it a slight nutty taste), flax seeds (whole and ground as our body doesn't bread down the whole flax seeds) and a small amount of powdered vitamin C. The main thing is you need a GOOD blender. That reminds me. I need to replace a small part on mine as we haven't had smoothies in a while because of that. Time to go to froogle.com! ;-)
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. A bit of a side note: Making your own granola is really easy and yummy. You can add any kind of dried fruit to it. Don't tell anyone but adding a few chocolate chips is pretty good too. If you want our easy granola recipe feel free to ask and I will send it to you.
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. I always try (notice I said TRY-some family members Sheesh!) to get lettuce on the sandwich. Green and red leaf lettuce is much better for you by the way. Remember the darker the veggie the better it is for you.
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. I love peas on my salad!
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 every body's day went. 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. 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). The apples and peanut butter idea works well around here. I am a little torn with the juice suggestion. When talking to a nutritionist recently she pretty much talked against drinking juice. She said that the process used to bottle the juice uses heat. She said the heat kills so much that it isn't worth drinking anymore. She compared it drinking pop! Yikes! However, she did mention tomato juice being good for you. Apparently, heating that gives it other good qualities. That is nice and all but nobody in my family likes that kind of juice. I also know from personal experience that cranberry juice has great qualities when it comes to infections. I have used that and Vit. C and/or Echinacea to skip a trip to the Dr.'s office when I had a urinary tract infection. God really knows what he is doing doesn't HE? Of course, that should be expected since he created us. :-) Also, I am not sure what she said applies to frozen juice. That is what we drink. It is usually either 100% OJ, grape, or orange/pineapple.
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. This is a good idea!
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. I can't bring my self to do this one because I do not like vegetable soup. Now Beef Stew is a whole other story! ;-)
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 loose 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.
I hope you have enjoyed this article and it has given you some good ideas. Feel free to share your ideas too. ~Kim
"The Menu Mom"
http://www.kidapprovedmeals.com/
Christine Steendahl
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 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. This has been an issue with me. I am trying really hard to incorporate more fruits and veggies. It is really hard since I am not a huge fan of either. However, I have been working on it. One thing I have done is have broccoli and carrots on hand most of the time with a tasty salad dressing.
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. I try to avoid the ice cream part of this as a 100% fruit smoothie is something my girls love. It is hard for me to consider this very healthy when their is ice cream in it. We have made smoothies for years and we often add peanut butter for the protein. I also add some olive oil (no, you can't really taste it but it gives it a slight nutty taste), flax seeds (whole and ground as our body doesn't bread down the whole flax seeds) and a small amount of powdered vitamin C. The main thing is you need a GOOD blender. That reminds me. I need to replace a small part on mine as we haven't had smoothies in a while because of that. Time to go to froogle.com! ;-)
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. A bit of a side note: Making your own granola is really easy and yummy. You can add any kind of dried fruit to it. Don't tell anyone but adding a few chocolate chips is pretty good too. If you want our easy granola recipe feel free to ask and I will send it to you.
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. I always try (notice I said TRY-some family members Sheesh!) to get lettuce on the sandwich. Green and red leaf lettuce is much better for you by the way. Remember the darker the veggie the better it is for you.
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. I love peas on my salad!
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 every body's day went. 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. 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). The apples and peanut butter idea works well around here. I am a little torn with the juice suggestion. When talking to a nutritionist recently she pretty much talked against drinking juice. She said that the process used to bottle the juice uses heat. She said the heat kills so much that it isn't worth drinking anymore. She compared it drinking pop! Yikes! However, she did mention tomato juice being good for you. Apparently, heating that gives it other good qualities. That is nice and all but nobody in my family likes that kind of juice. I also know from personal experience that cranberry juice has great qualities when it comes to infections. I have used that and Vit. C and/or Echinacea to skip a trip to the Dr.'s office when I had a urinary tract infection. God really knows what he is doing doesn't HE? Of course, that should be expected since he created us. :-) Also, I am not sure what she said applies to frozen juice. That is what we drink. It is usually either 100% OJ, grape, or orange/pineapple.
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. This is a good idea!
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. I can't bring my self to do this one because I do not like vegetable soup. Now Beef Stew is a whole other story! ;-)
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 loose 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.
I hope you have enjoyed this article and it has given you some good ideas. Feel free to share your ideas too. ~Kim
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