You need way more than an apple a day to keep the doctor away. Photo from sxc.hu
The old maxim is that “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but the trouble is that an apple just isn’t enough. Everyone knows that they need to eat more fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables fight disease! Even cancer! There is no shortage of research on the subject and no doubt the thought has already been drilled into your head. And yet many women still don’t get the 2-2.5 cups of vegetables and 1-1.5cups of fruits per day that are recommended by the government. I am just as guilty as the next woman, so let’s take a look at some easy ways to get a few more fruits and vegetables in our day.
Add fresh fruit to your morning bowl of cereal or oatmeal. Dried fruit is ok too, but stay away from candied fruits or anything with extra sugar added. The sugar in fruit is natural and your body knows how to deal with it.
Add fruit to your yogurt or ice cream. Or better still, make a fruit smoothie with some frozen fruits and a little bit of juice or milk/yogurt. In the blender you can throw in as many fruits as you can handle!
Add tomatoes, onions, red or green peppers and spinach to your omelets. Sautée some garlic and onions in a little extra virgin olive oil and you have the delicious-smelling beginnings of any number of meals and cuisines.
Don’t drown your salads in fat and calories from the dressing. Add raisins, apples, grapes, kiwi, dried apricots, carrots, etc for flavor.
Learn to make your own vinaigrette. To go along with the above suggestion, use your own vinagraites instead of those thick dressings. I promise the versions you make yourself will be better than what you can buy in a tube. Try this one:
- 2 T of balsamic vinegar
- 1 T of natural honey
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp group pepper
- ¼ c Extra Virgin Olive Oil (full of the good fats)
When ordering at a restaurant ask for mixed vegetables instead of fries or baked potato (atleast the majority of the time). Add every vegetable you can to sandwiches.
Discover vegetable soups. There are some really amazing vegetable soups out there and that is saying something when as a kid I couldn’t even look at vegetables. Soups are brilliant in the winter for warming you up from the inside. They can be made in huge batches and then eaten during the week when you might be too busy to cook a proper meal. And you will hardly even notice you are consuming so many vegetables. Soups are a win, win, win!
2 Comments
I’m going to have to make that dressing, it sounds soooo good. One quick question though, you labeled “tsp” correctly. So I’m assuming T is for tablespoon?
T is indeed for tablespoon. oh and you can’t really go wrong in adding some freshly minced garlic to your vinaigrette.