You Need Fruit, Veggies, So Eat Them

If you or your children aren’t getting the daily five half-cup servings of fruits and vegetables recommended for optimum nutrition, try these tips from the Tufts University Diet & Nutrition Letter:

Add pureed, cooked vegetables, such as carrots, corn and zucchini, to ground meat dishes such as meat loaf and burgers.

Try pureed, cooked apples and pears as a sauce for turkey or other fowl, and whole pineapple chunks, rings or apricot halves as a topping for baked or grilled chicken breasts.

Serve apple, pear or banana slices topped with peanut butter.

Add pureed or shredded bananas, carrots, pumpkin, squash or prunes to homemade muffins, cookies, cakes and quick breads.

Substitute shredded carrots, zucchini and chopped spinach for some - or all - of the ground meat in your next lasagna or casserole.

Mix unsweetened applesauce or fresh apples into hot cereal.