No Mutiny on THIS Bounty!

“We should eat more fruits and vegetables.”

Oh groan.   Tell me something I don’t already know.  Study after study correlates robust health with the consumption of LOTS of fruits and vegetables.  Sometimes, though, it a challenge getting them all in, isn’t it?

Mike Rosenberg to the rescue!  Mike is one of our wise and experienced Healthy Eating Adventure coaches and is a strong Dr. Joel Fuhrman advocate.  She recently gave me an easy tip list for increasing the daily consumption of the garden and orchard bounty available to us.  I now share Mike’s wisdom with you:

Easy Tips for Reaching the Ten-Servings-A-Day Goal

• Buy many kinds of fruits and vegetables when you shop so that you have plenty of choices in the house.
• Stock up on frozen vegetables for easy cooking so that you can have a vegetable dish with every meal. You can easily steam frozen vegetables.
• Use the fruits and vegetables that go bad quickly first (such as peaches and asparagus). Save the hardier varieties (such as apples, acorn squash and frozen goods) for later use if you do not shop frequently during a week.
• Keep fruits and vegetables where you can see them. The most often you see them, the more likely you are to eat them.
• Keep a bowl of cut-up vegetables on the top shelf of your refrigerator.
• Make a big, tossed salad with several kinds of greens, cherry tomatoes, cut-up carrots, red pepper, broccoli, scallions, and sprouts. Refrigerate in a large bowl with an airtight lid so that a delicious, mixed salad will be ready to enjoy for several days.
• Add fruits and vegetables to lunch by having them in a soup, in a salad, or cut up raw.
• Increase portion sizes when you serve vegetables.
• Add extra varieties of vegetables when making casseroles or sauces.
• Add grated carrots and zucchini to spaghetti sauce.
• Choose fresh fruit for dessert.
• For a special dessert, try a fruit parfait with low-fat yogurt or sherbet topped with lots of berries. (Judy’s suggestion: try substituting a vegan yogurt and a healthy “from scratch” blender sorbet)
• Freeze blueberries and grapes. They make a great replacement for ice cream, popsicles and other sugary foods. (Judy’s suggestion: soft ripe summer fruits–such as peaches–are a great frozen treat, also!)