Fruit and Veggies Challenge

Laura has been running this great challenge for upping your consumption of those delicious fruits and vegetables! This has been particularly helpful for me... especially around snack time! I can easily hand out fruits and veggies as a snack to others, but then quietly eat my carbs instead.

Eating fresh fruits and veggies for me is a challenge due to oral allergies -- but bake 'em, or steam 'em and they work for me.

I love eating veggies as the main portion of our meals, so we typically have our dinners full of vegetables... fruits are a little harder, but we do like them in desserts :) (does that ruin the whole eat more fruits and veggies thing...?)

Some of my favorite ways to have fruits are:

1) Applesauce
2) Baked Apples (I bet you can do peaches too)
3) Dried Fruit (apples, peaches, pineapple)
4) Fruit Leathers
5) Fruit "syrups" -- like blueberry, raspberry, or cherry -- in yogurt or oatmeal, or on top of pancakes/waffles or ice cream
6) Berry/Fruit Crisps or cakes (blueberry, cherry, raspberry, peach)
7) Homemade yogurt and fruit popsicles
8) Replace oil in recipes with applesauce!
9) Frozen grapes
10) Muffins -- raspberry, orange cranberry, lemon blueberry


And for veggies:

1) Steamed carrots and apples with a hint of brown sugar and cinnamon
2) Broccomole Dip
3) Puree beans with a couple T milk, and use as a sauce in place of whipping cream... when combined with a little Parmesan cheese this makes an amazing sauce (e.g., Penne with Broccoli and Sausage recipe)
4) Throw zucchini into breads/muffins, cake and even chocolate cake -- the moisture in the zucchini makes these baked goods delicious
5) Make a veggie sandwich!
6) Sweet Potato Fries
7) Cauliflower as a side dish
8) Carrot and zucchini quesadillas
9) Soups -- we love veggie-filled soups, even in the summer time!
10) Add veggies to pasta... better yet, add pasta to veggies (making the veggie the main portion)


How do you like to eat your fruits and veggies? Check out Laura's link-up for more great ideas!