Fresh Friday – Fruit and Vegetable Tips

Our Fresh Friday challenge of the summer is to get five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables in during the day.

Whoa – fresh fruits and vegetables. Not dried, not juice, not fried and turned into chips. Well, unless you are maybe baking your own kale chips.

Five servings is not really all that much if you know your serving sizes.

Serving sizes for fresh fruits and vegetables are:

• One baseball-sized fruit (for fruits like apples, oranges, pears, and plums – it should fit in your hand but fill up most of your fist at least)
• 1/2 cup of berries, grapes, or cut fruit OR fresh vegetables except…
• Leafy greens, because their serving size is one cup, which is about one really big handful.

So, for example, you could get your five servings of fruits and vegetables for fresh Friday in like:

1. 1/2 cup of berries with breakfast
2. One piece of fruit with your morning snack
3. Extra veggies on your sandwich at lunch
4. A very small side salad at dinner that consists of one handful of greens topped with…
5. … Some chopped cucumbers, olives, diced tomatoes, and a sprinkle of oregano.

Or, if that combination of five servings of fruits and vegetables seems too simple and straightforward for your taste, you could up your game like:

1. A smoothie with 1/2 cup peaches,
2. 1 cup of kale or romaine and
3. 1 small banana, Plus enough water and non-dairy milk of your choice to help it blend smoothly into a smoothie.
4. Then, mash a small avocado with some lime juice and salt (bonus points if you also stir in some cottage cheese) and
5. Stuff that mixture into a medium- to-large tomato as a snack or side dish.

Not satisfied with those five fruits and vegetables? Well, you could:

1. Add 1 cup of spinach and
2. 1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes to your morning scrambled eggs (basil is also great with this!).
3. Slice a sweet potato into thick fries and drizzle of the slices with a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt before you bake them at 350° until golden.
4. Freeze banana slices and blend them or whiz them in the food processor with
5. 1/2 cup strawberries or mango to make “nice cream”. Add toppings accordingly.

So, how will you make your Friday extra-fresh?