10 Easy Cooking Tips for Healthier Eating

Most people have heard that you should eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. While that may seem like a lot, it is actually easier than you think to consume all the fruits and vegetables you need each and every day.

Learning to cook with the many fruits and vegetables available at the local grocery store is an essential skill, and it is very important for those who hope to reach the five a day guideline set down by the USDA.

1. Use a Microwave: Just about everyone uses a microwave these days, and microwave ovens can make cooking with vegetables and fruits easy and fun.  Using a microwave pressure cooker or microwave proof bowl is a great way to quickly steam veggies. Cooking vegetables this way allows them to retain their all important nutrients.  The microwave is also a great way to cook baked potatoes, and microwaved baked potatoes retain more of their natural moisture, therefore needing less of that fat-laden butter and sour cream. Combining free-steamed broccoli with a delicious baked potato gets you almost halfway to your goal of five servings of vegetables and fruits per day. 
2. Throw Some Fruits & Veggies On The Grill: The grill is another easy way to add flavor to your fruits and vegetables. Why not use green peppers, red peppers and pineapple chunks to create delicious and colorful vegetable kabobs?  Whether served with lean cuts of beef or by themselves, vegetable kabobs are a great treat for the whole family. Vegetables are best grilled over medium hot coals.  
3. Mix Things Up With a Blender: Those with a blender handy can make some wonderful smoothies with fresh fruit from the grocery store.  Delicious smoothies can be made using peaches, nectarines, crushed ice and fruit juice.  
4. Make Fruit Skewers: Fruit skewers are even easier to make than grilled vegetable skewers. Fruit skewers can easily be made by stacking strawberries, melon slices, grapes and chunks of pineapples.  A great dip can be made using nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt.  
5. Make a Healthy Salsa: Try your hand at making your own healthy salsa with fruits and vegetables. There are some great salsa recipes for beginners on the internet, using simple ingredients like tomatoes, avocados, red onions, mangoes, cilantro and lime.  
6. Make Popsicles: For those looking for a fun way to enjoy fruits and vegetables, why not make some popsicles?  Popsicles are not just for kids anymore, and pouring fruit or vegetable juice into a popsicle mold is a great way to make a delicious and nutritious snack.  In addition, these healthy popsicles are a great way to get the kids interested in eating healthy at an early age. This is especially important because eating habits picked up in childhood can last a lifetime.  
7. Add Color To Your Pasta Salad:  Adding broccoli florets, slices of carrots, cucumber slices, green peppers and red peppers is a great way to add crunch and zest to a bland pasta salad.  
8. Add Drama To Your Salad: A plain old green salad can be perked up by including colorful fruits and vegetables like carrots, spinach leaves, tangerine slices, nectarines, grapes, slices of apples, pineapples and raisins.  Not only is it delicious, but it also adds beauty and drama to any salad.  
9. Try Your Hand At Homemade Salad Dressings: For a simple, inexpensive and nutritious salad dressing, try such novel approaches as fruit juices, flavored vinegars and home grown herbs. Creating great tasting salads is very important for healthy eating, and avoiding high fat salad dressings is an important consideration for anyone concerned about their health.  
10. Add Fruit & Veggies to Your Favorite Food: Try adding  your favorite fruits and vegetables to the foods that you already eat.  That can be as simple as adding green peppers and red peppers to your pizza, adding pineapple chunks to your shish kabobs, adding bananas to your cereal or adding blueberries to your daily serving of yogurt.

For more simple, easy and tasty tips to meet your 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, join our free, private Healthy & Happy by Body Wisdom community on Facebook.