9 Ways to Increase Your Daily Intake of Fruits and Vegetables: Smoothies, Baking, and Side Dishes.
Written by Lisa Grentz, MS, RDN, CD
* To go with our Healthy Highlights series this month, we have a Cookbook Expansion Pack availabe, with nine new recipes that will help you increase your daily intake of fruits and veggies! Find all the info at the bottom of the page.
Fruits and/or vegetables should be served with every meal, targeting 5 or more servings per day. Fruits and vegetables not only add color to your plate, but they are full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, dietary fiber, and water. Each blog post this month will feature 3 ways to enjoy more produce in your diet. Our first three featured suggestions: smoothies, baking, and side dishes.
Please note these are family friendly ideas and not all of the suggestions provided may be suitable for your child based on their eating age. Please consult with your team if you are questioning if a food suggestion or recipe is texturally appropriate based on your child’s feeding skills.
Smoothies
Smoothies are a great way to boost your fruit and vegetable intake. Try adding fresh or frozen fruit like banana, berries, peach, mango, pineapple, or pear along with a handful of leafy greens, a few spoonful’s of sweet potato or pumpkin puree, shredded zucchini, or some riced cauliflower and blend. Freeze any leftover smoothie into popsicle trays for a special snack. Some fun flavor combinations to try include:
· Beet Mango Smoothie
· Mango Cucumber Lime Smoothie
· Strawberry Kiwi and Kale Smoothie
· Blueberry Cauliflower Smoothie
· Red Cabbage Blueberry Smoothie
· Berries and Beet Smoothie
· Apple Carrot Smoothie
· Spinach Pineapple Smoothie
Baking
The next time you make muffins or quick bread, consider adding diced fruit and/or shredded veggies to the batter.
· Add shredded carrots or zucchini
· Add mashed banana, diced fruit, or dried fruit
· Add sweet potato or pumpkin puree
· Try making a batch of chocolate veggie muffins using ingredients like sweet potato, golden beets, and spinach
· Make “carrot cake” French toast casserole
· Bake banana French toast
Side Dishes
Fruits and veggies are a nice compliment to any meal and can be eaten on their own or incorporated into a side dish. Some side dish suggestions include:
· Top a baked potato with salsa
· Add grated or chopped veggies to soup, pasta dishes, casseroles, curries, and stews
· Stir riced cauliflower into rice dishes
· Add chopped zucchini and carrots to rice pilaf
· Add cauliflower or parsnip puree to mashed potatoes
· Try homemade baked sweet potato, yam, or parsnip fries
· Make rainbow fruit kabobs by layering bite-sized pieces of strawberry or watermelon, mandarin orange slices or cantaloupe, pineapple, kiwi or honeydew melon, and blueberry or blackberry on a skewer
· Grill peaches or pineapple rings
· Toss together a fresh fruit salad
· Make coleslaw with green and red cabbage, carrots, and green onion (Find this recipe in our Cookbook Expansion Pack!)
· Try a caprese salad
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