10 ways to improve your meals with fruits and vegetables

Discover the many benefits of adding vegetables and fruits to your meals. Fruits and vegetables not only contain low levels of fats and calories, they are also great sources of fiber and other nutrients.

Most people should have more than 3 daily servings, or even 6, of fruits and vegetables. Besides nutritious value, these foods add color, taste and texture to each meal as well. Explore the following tips to bringing healthy food to your table.

1.- Get the grill going!: use it to cook fruits and vegetables. Try grilling mushrooms, carrots, peppers, or potatoes on a skewer. Spread oil over them so they don’t dry out. Grilled fruit such as peaches, pineapple, and mango add a world of flavor.

2.- Maximize the flavor of your casseroles: mix vegetables like sautéed onions, Green peas, pinto beans, and tomatoes, to your favorite dish to increase flavor.

3.- Feel like Italian food?: add more vegetables to your pasta. Throw some peppers, spinach, read beans, onions or cherry tomatoes into your original tomato sauce recipe. While vegetables provide texture and body to meals, they are also very filling and low in calories.

4.- Creative salads: adding grated carrots, strawberries, spinach, watercress, oranges, or green peas, will make your salads that much more delicious and colorful.

5.- Vegetables aren’t the only option: if you eat out, try having fruit salad as dessert. That way you’ll avoid those high-calorie, baked desserts.

6.- Sautee and enjoy!: try out something fresh! Sautéed vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, sweet peas, mushrooms, or green beans, make easy additions to any meal.

7.- Add them to your sandwiches: whether it’s a sandwich or a fajita, vegetables mix great with both. Try adding sliced tomato, romaine lettuce and avocado to your daily sandwich for that extra flavor.

8.- Creative baking: apples, bananas, berries and pears, will add a lot of flavor to your favorite cupcake recipe.

9.- Tasty smoothies: choose a delicious smoothie made up of strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries, and frozen bananas and fruit juice as your dessert.

10.- Brighten up your omelets: add veggies to bring out the color and flavor in your morning omelet. All you have to do is slice, sauté, and add them to your eggs while fixing the omelet. Play with different combinations of vegetables, like mushrooms, spinach, and sweet peppers.