How to Improve Your Families Eating Habits

Did you ever wish that you could snap your fingers and instantly make your family eat more fresh fruit and vegetables? The truth is that you cannot use magic, but there are ways that you can use to improve their eating habits.

As we all know, the general rule of thumb is that we all should be eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each and everyday, but we all know that is easier said than done.  We all have hectic schedules and sometimes it seems nearly impossible to meet our daily quotas. One of the reasons why we do not eat enough of these foods is that we all enjoy stopping into the convenience stores and filling up on junk food and what type of child would prefer a piece of fruit over a bag of chips? This is why you have to be creative to come up with some new ideas to help your family eat more fruits and vegetables.

A good idea is to start the day with a breakfast smoothie and they are simple to make cause all you have to do is to add some fruits, low-fat yogurt and ice to your blender and if desired, you can also add a scoop of protein powder. Blend it for a few seconds and it makes an excellent breakfast to go. If you want to make it more appealing to your kids, add some frozen yogurt or a scoop of ice cream to it. They will be amazed that you are letting them eat ice cream for breakfast.

Dried fruit is an excellent choice as it makes a great snack anytime of the day. Raisins are great for your child’s lunch pail and you can try yogurt covered ones for your husband’s briefcase. You should always keep some trail mix close at hand for snacking throughout the day. If your family enjoys eating cereal or oatmeal, add some fruit to it to spice it up.

You can also add fruit and vegetables to sandwiches that you make for your family. Try adding a slice of banana to peanut butter sandwiches or top a chicken sandwich off with lettuce and tomato or a piece of cucumber. Try creating your own veggie sub sandwich and use vegetables that your family like and make sure to add some mayonnaise and cheese to the bread.

Another good idea is to set up your own salad bar for dinner. You can use a variety of chopped vegetables along with cheese and croutons and your family will be able to create a salad tailored to their likes.

Make sure to keep plenty of fruit and vegetable drinks in your fridge and encourage them to drink them when they want a snack and that way, they can drink their fruits and vegetables. Have a family time and have everyone drink some juice while you are discussing how everyone’s day went.

Be creative with desserts. Try putting a scoop of frozen yogurt or ice cream in a bowl and top it off with some fresh or frozen fruit.

You can use a variety of snacks for your family such as apple slices topped with peanut butter or cheese. Take cheese and cube it up and serve it with grapes or cut up some fresh vegetables and serve them with ranch dip.

Do not serve the same fruits and vegetables day in and day out. Try something new and exotic that will hold your family’s curiosity such as artichokes, plantains, papaya, mangos, star fruit or anything else that you can discover in the produce department in your local market.

Cook plenty of vegetable soup or other stews and do not spare the vegetables, but make sure to not get carried away with the meat. Soups are great especially during the colder winter months.

If you are able to apply some of these ideas to your family, they should be on their way to eating more fruits and vegetables which will allow them to live a more healthy balanced life.

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