Forgot the Fruits: 5 Fruity Ideas
I made a goal. A few goals, in fact. One of them was to eat more fruits & vegetables.
So I made a list. A list of all the easy vegetable dishes I could think of that I might actually make – and eat. I stuck it on the fridge along with my other list. The one with the reasons I need to get healthy.
But in the midst of all this list-making, I forgot: it’s FRUITS and vegetables. Duh. This is why I can’t leave the thinking to mealtimes. And I like fruits. What’s more is my 3-year-old likes fruits, and getting vegetables into her is like, well, I don’t know what it’s like. Because it doesn’t happen.
So here is what I was able to think of to get more fruits into my day:
- Cottage cheese and canned mandarins. Yeah, you can do better than canned. But it’s fast, and it keeps.
- Keep a fruit bowl on the table. It’s easy to slice up an apple and share it around, or cut open a kiwi and scoop it out with a spoon, if it’s sitting right there in front of you.
- Buy more and more bananas until I actually have some that are old enough to make bread. This doesn’t happen very often – they get eaten too fast.
- Frozen-then-zapped berries on the greek yogurt (a nod to Katie for this one). I’ll bet this would work on the oatmeal, too.
- Apples and cheddar. Best. snack. ever.
Any other ideas?
What are your favourite fast-fruits?
image © Michael Geipel
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12 Comments
Sometimes I’ll nuke a chopped banana, apple, or pear to make a fake cobbler. Add some cinnamon, vanilla yogurt or whipped cream, and/or chopped nuts. The banana is actually my favorite.
This sounds delicious! And easy, too. I will have to give it a try. I love how you can add decadence with yogurt that makes it feel like heavy cream, greek yogurt takes it a step further. Yum!
Frozen grapes – I cut them in half (they’re a choking hazard, ya know), put them in a bowl in the freezer for about an hour. Delish.
Really! I will give that a try. I wonder how long they’ll keep in there? Grapes are one of those things I always seem to forget are in the fridge until they’re no longer tasty looking (doesn’t help that I’m picky).
I must confess to not being a huge eater of fruit. I used to try to make banana smoothies for breakfast – with skim milk and honey… though gagged if I got chunky bits of banana (don’t actually eat bananas) so had to sieve it into my glass!
I do eat apples, though not enough. Sliced green apples with a sprinkling of sugar on top were my favourite.
Deb
That’s interesting – do you like vegetables? I’ve heard that there’s actually a genetic component to fruit/vegetable preference, and some people do actually prefer vegetables.
my mother used to do pineapple and cottage cheese all the time – I will definitely have to try mandarin oranges!
for some reason, I am eating more apples now that we have an apple slicer. I don’t know – they seem to be more of a treat all pre-cut like that! : )
I totally get the apple thing – I only eat them sliced (sliced the old fashioned way
). And now that I’ve found a use for the peels, I even treat myself to peeling them! (Recipe coming soon!)
Apple sauce mixed into oatmeal is really good. I also love sliced strawberries with peanut butter on toast. People think I”m crazy but it’s ten times better than strawberry jam – and healthier too!
My husband doesn’t eat fruit at all. Claims he can’t tolerate the texture. He does eat vegetables though (not a huge amount but a good enough variety). Me – well, I like everything except cooked celery and kiwi.
Hey Mel. I’ve heard that fruit vs. vegetable preference is actually a genetic thing – although I’ve never met anyone who liked vegetables better! I like the applesauce idea, I’m kinda picky about my oatmeal, but I’ll bet applesauce would mix in nicely.
I like to buy a melon and a pineapple and make a giant fruit salad (you can put about 1-2 cups over frozen berries over the melon, and the next morning the flavours blend to something amazing) …
Sounds yummy! And it’s always nice to find a use for frozen berries, so easy to make sure you’ve always got some on hand. Thanks!