(BPT) – Most Americans understand the importance of including a variety of fruits and vegetables into their diets, but finding inspiration and fresh ideas for incorporating them into everyday meals can be challenging.
Research shows that only 10 percent of Americans are meeting the MyPlate recommendations for daily intake of fruits and veggies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a rule of thumb, half the foods you eat for any given meal should be made up of fruits and veggies – preferably ones incorporating a range of different colors and nutrients.
Daily meal planning is made easier if you turn to your freezer for a little help. Balancing your plate with frozen meals and pizzas and adding fresh side dishes is a simple solution that can help make you feel good about what you’re eating, even with a hectic schedule. Choose your favorite frozen prepared foods and pizzas as the foundation, add side dishes made with fresh fruit and vegetables and you have a balanced meal that is both delicious and nutritious.
Nestlé’s Balance Your Plate educational program aims to help you put together delicious and nutritious meals that incorporate frozen and fresh foods. The website, www.nestleusa.com/balance, provides information, tips and recipes to help consumers create easy, balanced meals that meet dietary guidelines.
Here are some quick and easy tips for including more fruits and veggies in your diet:
1. Chop, eat, repeat. Not into cooking? Simply buy whatever looks good, wash it, cut into slices and enjoy, perhaps dipping it into salad dressing or a yogurt dip.
2. Shop the frozen-food aisle. Delicious and easy-to-prepare frozen foods such as DiGiorno pizzeria! thin Margherita pizza or Lean Cuisine Ricotta Cheese & Spinach Ravioli provide your family plenty of wholesome meals without requiring lengthy prep time. Simply pair with tasty side dishes made with fruits and vegetables for a balanced meal.
3. Divide and conquer. Each Sunday night mix your favorite veggies into a big salad bowl with a cover, combining Romaine and iceberg lettuce with darker green varieties and throwing in other tasty ingredients that will motivate you to want more; consider slices of grilled meat or shrimp, boiled eggs, or small amounts of nuts, cheeses, dried fruit, etc. Then divide the mix into individual plastic containers for the week’s lunches.
4. Top it off. As soon as your favorite frozen pizza comes out of the oven, boost its nutrient punch by adding pieces of fresh tomato, basil, pineapple, spinach or arugula.
5. Stir it in. Add complementary veggies to your favorite comfort food, like Stouffer’s Mac & Cheese. Suggested stir-ins: roasted broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, carrots or butternut squash.
Nestlé’s Balance Your Plate offers two delicious side dish recipes that, when served with your favorite frozen prepared foods, create a perfectly balanced meal you and your family will love.
Arugula and Roasted Pear Salad with Toasted Walnuts
Pairs well with DiGiorno pizzeria! thin Margherita
(Recipe from Hungry Couple of Tasting Spoon Media)
Recipe
4 cups arugula
2 pears
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
* Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
* Slice the pears vertically and scoop out the seeds with a spoon or melon baller. Spread the walnut halves on one side of the baking sheet and layer the pear slices on the other. Place in the oven for about 5 minutes, toss the nuts and flip the pears. Continue roasting for an additional 5 minutes.
* Make the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, lemon juice, honey and mustard until fully combined. Season with salt and pepper.
* Assemble the salad by adding the arugula to a large bowl or platter. Top with the roasted pear slices, sprinkle on the walnuts and drizzle with the dressing.
Simple Kale Salad
Pairs well with Lean Cuisine Ricotta Cheese & Spinach Ravioli
(Recipe from Loop88)
Recipe
2 medium bunches kale, stemmed and roughly chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup feta cheese crumbles
Sea salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
Dress kale with olive oil, apple cider vinegar and sea salt, then top with red onion, feta cheese and toasted walnuts.
For more recipes, information and meal ideas, visit www.nestleusa.com/balance.
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* Why would someone eat raw foods? What’s the point of it, isn’t a calorie just a calorie?
This is a no BS/ no gimmick approach to health and fitness. Are you ready to make the changes necessary in your life to attain the goals you desire? Look at your own health in an objective way, don’t worry about what others may say, follow your heart and be honest with yourself.
Rememebr that high carb low fat vegan diet is where it is at. Eating 80% of your total calories for the day are coming from carbs, 10% or less from fats, and 10% or less from protein. This vegan diet is the optimal diet for humans and is proven to work. You don’t have to have a lot of money to eat an 80/10/10 diet. Eating healthy aka eating a high carb raw vegan diet will get you healthy in no time and having the weight just melt off of you! It is easy to eat healthy when you don’t have a lot of money. Eating 80/10/10 diet was super easy when I was wwoofing in hawaii as well. I would buy 15 papayas for and 80 bananas for . There are ways to eat healthy, you just have to do some planning and think about the best way to go about it.
Basically eat until you are full whilst also making sure you get enough cals. So in other words being objective about how many cals you are getting is critical to realizing how much you need to eat, generally how much more you need to eat. This means that you may be full eating a veggie sandwich that you get from a vegan cafe. That’s because the veggies are coated in fat (oil) and the sammy was drenched in more fat. So if we look at the profile of a human stomach and we see 200 cals worth of oil, it only takes up a small portion of the stomach, whereas 200 cal from, say, mango, will take up far more room because it is a complete food full of fibre, water, etc. The oil is devoid of these things and is a pure, refined fat which is extremely hard for the body to use, so it just throws it in your ass, gut, thighs, etc.
I just say unlimited so that people get out of this calorie phobic, carbohydrate phobic mindset that is perpetuated though the mainstream media. For a typical human they need no less than 3000 cals a day, I always say if you are an olympic athlete you need to eat more, if you are a mom with 3 kids, you need to eat more. If you have a stressful job and commute, you need to eat more; life is a sport and if you want to live a passionate life, drug free, energy filled, and disease free, then you need to eat more, more fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens.
If you want something, you will always find a way. If you don’t want something, you will always find an excuse. Any and all excuses stem from a lack of desire and any and all great accomplishments stem from a great desire. Well said, Ted. If you want it, go get it!
Sleep
Water
Sugar
The three elements to healthy living
Just some quick tips and tricks on the high carb low fat vegan diet. When I started out on the high carb vegan diet I was pretty lost without any guidance. So here I am to show you that it is not only possible but definitely certain that you will get slim and your optimal size on a high carb vegan diet. Bring on the carbs and lay off the fat because a high carb low fat diet is where it’s at!
1) Lose the animal fat and protein and get off the cow nipple
2) Eat as many ripe, juicy, organic fruit as you possibly can, I do!
3) Make sure you are getting enough calories, about 10g of carbs per kilo of body weight
4) Get some blood work so you can see (after eating right for a while) if you are lacking any nutrient
5) Supplement only on a case by case basis and never longterm
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Really i saw somehting were it said meat is bad and now its saying vegiabals and fruit is bad what the heck?if everything is bad what eere we ment to eat?what monkys eat or what?
But you didn't answer the question! Are Fruits and Vegetables Bad for You?
Im not completely raw or vegan although that would be a goal, but with the changes i have made people are almost nervous for me…lol i get the mentality as i didnt know anything one year ago until i started researching. Its nice to have peoople like you putting it out there for people like me who are just learning. Thanks
of course people say that all the time, does not mean they are right though. I find that people say that when they are ignorant of health and nutrition in general. Look at all the long term fruit/ carb munchers; there are people that have been doing it for 30, 40 years. Look at all the long term "paleo" low carb atkins dieters longterm….NONEXISTENT 🙂
im going to get blood work done soon so stay tuned for a vid of the results!
Oops thats love the message..lol
Do people ever try to tell you that you will cause long term damage? Im new to this kind of lifestyle although im not a raw vegan but i kove the message and it make sense to me although sometimes it seems a bit overwhelming. When you get blood work your b12 ect is good?
yes, I like avo on my veg tacos, veg sandwich, even potatoes. Coconut milk is super good with frozen bananas. Then I do put mac nut with lemon blended up in a sauce on my tacos. Tortillas are gmo free handmade locally and bread for sandwiches is just garbanzo bean flour cooked up like pancake. I even crack my own mac nuts ; D
Same here…I wouldn't be too worried about it, just make sure you are listening to your body, I mean an avocado a few times a week isn't going to make your ratios go all haywire. I would eat the low fat fruits like mad but if your diggin' a coconut, don't go nuts, just eat the coconut 😉
What about it? Is it natural? Are we apart of it? Is it extinct? What about nature do you want me to talk about?