Quick and easy ways to add fruits and vegetables into your diet

Add fruit to your breakfast cereal or oatmeal (not just bananas, try apples, grapes, berries, peaches, or mandarin oranges).

Snack on mini-carrots or dried fruit at work instead of candy.

Add to your take-out dinner with fruits and vegetables from home.

Microwave a vegetable to add to your dinner or eat some fruit for dessert.

Some quick and tasty ways to prepare fruits and vegetables.

Salads and Sides:
Open and rinse cans of kidney beans, wax beans, chickpeas, and green beans, and toss with a low-fat or fat-free vinaigrette for an ultra-fast bean salad.

Try adding fresh herbs to vegetables before you roast, stir-fry, or steam them. For example, tomatoes go well with basil and oregano, and carrots go well with dill.

Broil sliced vegetables such as zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes for just a few minutes until they blacken around the edges. Serve warm with a low-calorie dressing of lemon juice, low-fat or fat-free mayonnaise, and black pepper.

Entrees:

Add 1-2 cups of frozen vegetables to canned soup before heating; serve on top of rice in a shallow bowl.

Use a 12-inch, pre-baked packaged pizza crust to create a 20-minute dinner; add sliced zucchini, fresh spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, onion, and low-fat cheese and bake at 400 F until the cheese bubbles.

Add grapes, sliced apples, and pears to a chicken salad made with low-fat or fat-free mayonnaise.

Add tomatoes, radishes, and green bell peppers to a tuna salad made with low-fat or fat-free mayonnaise.

Top broiled lean meat, chicken, or fish with salsa. Each 1/2 cup of salsa counts as a 1/2 cup of you daily vegetable needs.