Easy Ways to Add Fruits and Vegetables to Your Meals

Yes, yes, yes, we all need to eat more fruits and vegetables. It doesn’t matter how many you eat, you can always add more. But sometimes you (or your family) don’t like the idea of just a plate of broccoli for dinner. Here are five easy ways to add more to your existing recipes:

• Smoothies – You can add almost anything to a smoothie and blend it into invisible deliciousness. An extra handful of blueberries or even a dose of shredded carrots will add sweetness without changing the overall result.
• Breads – There are tons of recipes for yummy treats like zucchini bread or pumpkin muffins that can easily add a dose of vitamins and antioxidants into the snack that they will never even notice.
  Omelets – If you finely chop things like tomatoes, bell peppers, and broccoli then toss them into an omelet or a frittata, they will hardly notice a difference.
• Spaghetti and Lasagna – There are so many things you can do to jazz up marinara-based dinners that it is almost too many. As long as you dice or julienne the additions small enough, they will just blend in with the noodles and sauce and cheese.
• Pasta Salads – This is a go-to meal for our family in the summertime. While you might have to be a little flexible because the vegetables won’t cook down, you can toss a lot of different diced vegetables into a pasta salad. Two of my favorites are Caprese (with fresh mozzarella, diced tomatoes and chiffonade spinach) or southwestern (with corn, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and pepperjack cheese to distract).

This is by no means an exhaustive list but perhaps it has sparked some ideas! Get creative and boost the health content of almost any meal or snack!