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Adding Fruits and Vegetable Made Easy
Easy-To-Do Tips Make Nine Just Fine!

These easy-to-do tips will help you get nine servings of fruit and vegetable into your diet each day.

Start your day with two to three servings of fruit. Try this: Each weekend make a fruit-salad base using canned fruit and the juice from the can. (Pineapple, apricots or mandarin oranges make a good base.) Then add cubed fruits, such as melon or apple, that will not spoil quickly. Place the base in a plastic container and store in the fridge. Each morning add a more perishable  fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or banana. Top a bowl of this fruit with vanilla yogurt and some low-fat granola, add a glass of juice and you'll start your day with a score of three!


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Eat vegetarian meals two or three times a week. Even when dining out, it's easy to find non-meat choices. You'll save money and earn two to three serving points.

Shop at farmers' markets. They frequently offer a greater variety of seasonal fruits and vegetable than are available in stores. The selections are fresh and often organic, too.

Drink your vegetable. Serve a glass of tomato juice or tomato-based vegetable juice with a stir stick of celery.

Eat veggies as appetizers. As you prepare dinner, put out some crudités (that's the fancy French word for vegetable pieces you nibble on before dinner). Use raw mini-carrots, radishes, mushrooms, green onions, celery and jicama, all cut into bite-size pieces. You can also serve other vegetable like snap peas, asparagus and French beans after blanching them by dipping them into boiling water for one minute. If you're not watching calories, add a sour-cream dipping sauce.

Keep a good supply of frozen vegetable on hand. They're quick, easy alternatives when you don't have time to shop for or prepare fresh vegetable.

Eat fruit for dessert or choose fruit-based desserts. A juicy orange or height-of-the-season peach can be as satisfying as a calorie-packed sweet.

Chow down on "commute fruit." Keep a small cooler in your car and stock it with fruit and an ice pack. When bogged down in traffic, reach for a healthy snack. Dried fruit and solid, easy-to-eat fruits like apples are the best bets. This is also a great way to satisfy your kids' after-school snack attacks on the drive home.

Make your sandwiches count. Here are two variations that boost your daily veggie quota.

Tuna Veggie Salad Sandwich Mix: Start with tuna canned in spring water. Add plain, nonfat yogurt, a splash of rice wine vinegar, salt and pepper--plus generous portions of grated carrot, finely diced celery, diced onion, chopped-up pickles and parsley. Mix all the ingredients together and serve on whole-wheat bread with sliced tomatoes and leafy greens, the darker the better.

Chicken Waldorf Sandwich Mix: Chop up leftover or canned chicken. Add plain nonfat yogurt, a splash of lemon juice, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and generous amounts of diced apples and celery. Serve on whole-wheat bread with lettuce. (If you like a more exotic flavor, add curry power and/or chopped fresh cilantro to this mix.)


Keep lots of fruit in the freezer. Frozen berries make a quick dessert with ice cream or yogurt on top. Frozen grapes and peeled, frozen bananas, individually wrapped in plastic wrap, are a nutritious, easy snack.

Drink your fruit. Throw frozen fruit plus milk, juice and/or yogurt into the blender to create your own smoothies. Add a bit of vanilla or a pinch of ground spice to make unique blends. (Cinnamon goes well with frozen blueberries!)
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