Easy ways to incorporate fruit and veg in a diet?

Question

I HATE most fruit and vegetables and find it so incredibly hard to eat enough of them. I lead a very active busy life and need ways to eat more! Like drinking orange juice - i can do that but most fruit and veg feels like a chore. But i need to eat more!

Answer 1

coming from south africa where we grow the stuff...here follows some ideas:

* sliced banana with plain yoghurt and maybe crushed nuts as a topping.
* mango, cut up and also served with yoghurt or cut up with peach / apple / banana as a fruit salad.
* grated carrot and pineapple (as a salad) alongside piece of fish (maybe salmon) and coleslaw
* lettuce, tomato, black greek style olives, crispy bacon, cooked bite-size(fried?) chicken pieces, cubed avocado pieces, with balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing (add crushed nuts for a higher nutritional value and taste or lhave it without).
*eat a curry with this on the side - onions/tomatoes/cucumber chopped up. add a dash of lemon juice to it.
* avocado sandwich (toast with mashed avocardo, seasoned with fine sea salt and crushed black pepper).
*muesli with grated apple and raisins, yummy, top it with milk and yummy, great for bowel movement!
*mince curry with green peppers/red peppers or yellow sliced up and chucked into it, add some nice curry spices and VOILA...

oh the list is endless, do let me know if u want more!

Answer 2

You are just like I used to be (and tend to be every now and then). Eating "healthy" is a chore. This is what I do in order to get my seven-a-day:

Set apart from smoothies, you might want to try to incorporate vegetables and fruits in your cooking as well. Homemade pizzas with vegetable toppings and tomato-sauce is a good start - just go easy on the cheese. Whatever you do not finish, you can always freeze and warm up later. Pasta with veggies is also nice (sautè the vegetables to retain their crispiness), and boil the pasta in water with added vegetable broth.
Other suggestions:

- Green lettuce-salads mixed with orange-filets and roasted sun-flower seeds

- Fruit salads with fruits that you like or at least can stand eating
(Great to pack as a mid-day snack)
- Crisp-bread with sliced cucumber and a dash of pepper on top

- Pasta-sauces with added vegetables and legumes (onions, carrots, bell peppers, corn, peas, squash, kidney beans)

I reckon you already know of all the benefits you can reap from eating more veggies and fruits, so think about the goodness you are doing your body on a whole when eating healthy. You'll see results within a month.

Answer 3

Smoothies are good as they use the whole of the fruit. Just don't add too much sugar to them! lol Orange juice is OK in moderation, but it has no fibre in it which the smoothies do.
Make a veggy mash with chopped up veg in it, whatever takes your fancy.
Look online for vegetarian recepies, you never know some might just grab your attention. Good luck. I personally love my veggies and could eat them all day :D

Answer 4

Orange juice unless it is freshly squeezed is actually not healthy for you. Fruit juices have a lot of added sugar.

Vegetables and fruits can be easy to "hide" in your food or if you get a veggie juicer and a blender you can make veggie juice and or smoothies.

Smoothies are good but make sure you don't make it taste like dessert. Adding too extra sugar or sweetener is unhealthy for you.

Brocoli is actually a very good "hideable" vegetable because you can chop it up and add it to any sauces you make, or put chopped brocoli or spinach (when the ecoli threat passes) on a sandwich easily.

Ultimately you need to just learn to like them then you can get creative with them.

Answer 5

recipe:

I banana, 3 or 4 frozen raspberries, 1/2 tin peaches and some apple juice. Put it all in a blender and drink. Must be at least 2 or 3 portions of fruit and it's gorgeous! Just like an innocent smoothie.

You can change the fruit as well, like add strawberries, blackberries etc.

If you mix it with sparkling wine it's even nicer! :)

Answer 6

Eat a piece of fruit as part of breakfast- like an orange or grapefruit. Then you've gotten 1 out of the way. Then another one around lunchtime, like a nectarine, plum, apple whatever.

If you just make part of the routine like that, you've greatly increased your intake (from zero) without having to think about it much! Overdoing juices isn't the greatest idea, because you get a lot more calories from them than eating the fruit. So don't go on a binge there :)

Answer 7

Have u tried smoothies they are lovely and have plenty of fruit incorporated in them. As for your veg, just try and eat as much as possible, there are now frozed steamed veg that u can buy which you just put in the microwave and they taste just as nice. Good Luck.

Answer 8

Make fruit smoothies, using either apple and orange juice as the liquid base. Orange and strawberry, or orange and raspberry is very yummy. The raspberries can even be frozen solid, which when you whizz it up with a handblender, makes the smoothie nice and cold.

Answer 9

Easiest way for fruit is to make smoothies, if you've got a blender they are so easy to make, put the fruit you want in add some milk and bingo.

Vegetables can be done in a variety of ways, add them to lasagne's, sheppards pies, normal pies, pasta etc ... or make homemade soups using an assortment of vegetables, and herbs and spices to taste.

Answer 10

I cram then in amongst food i already eat rather than replace what i eat. I put raisins etc on my cereal, jacket tatties are fab and easy to eat other veg with. The best recipe for me is lancashire hotpot, my other half hates veg but the taste of meat disguises the veg for him!!! lol

xxx

Answer 11

There are SO MANY fruits and veggies out there, you have to find the ones you like.

Pick up different fruits, one by one, when you go to the market.

Check out the vegetarian cookbooks and websites. The recipes are flavorful because the meat is lacking.

Make colorful salads and add nuts to them.