Taste the Rainbow – National Nutrition Month

March is National Nutrition month so I’m going to share ways for planning meals to “eat right with color.”  When I plan meals color is a part of the process; I like the meals to be visually appealing.  I’ve found that, for my family at least, having fruits and vegetables cut into bite sized pieces makes it more likely that they will be eaten.   If I put whole apples on the table at lunch – no one seems interested, but if I slice apples and fan them out into a circle?  Gone.  Extra work, yes, but it’s good work.

Make Breakfast Healthier

Put blueberry topping on pancakes, waffles, or french toast.  Serve orange juice (100%, please!), chop sausage links and fry them with onions and red and green peppers.

Add a Punch to your Lunch

This is the easiest!  Load your sandwich with romaine lettuce and or spinach, tomatoes, avocado...  Pack some carrots, and and a piece of fresh fruit.  Add a small container of dark juice (again, 100%).

Extra Vegetables Make Dinner a Winner

A lot of time dinner ends up being a meat, a starch, and one vegetable side.   You can easily make it more colorful and nutritious!  Spaghetti sauce counts as a vegetable – just make sure your brand isn’t loaded with sugar.  Make a salad of romaine and spinach and toss in diced yellow bell peppers, cucumber, tomatoes  and shredded carrot.  Micro-steam broccoli by cutting it into florets, rinsing them, then microwaving in a covered dish for 6-7 minutes. 

Don’t Forget Dessert!

Dessert is another way to enjoy fruit (just watch the sugar)  Some ideas are: apples with caramel dip, ice cream topped with fresh fruit, fruit smoothies,  and apple cobbler (less caloric than pie). 

Plan your meals so you don’t waste food and money.

Fresh produce is expensive in many parts of the country right now, and much of it isn’t even tasty because it’s been shipped across the world.  Don’t overlook frozen or canned – as long as it’s not packed in heavy syrup or lots of salt it’s good stuff.

Here at MealMixer, we don’t just talk the talk – we plan our meals using the local grocery fliers and the on-hand feature of the planner to make sure that we use what we have, and get everything out of what we buy.