4 Easy Ways to Add Fruit to Your Meals

Your mom or grandma often reminded you to eat your fruit and veggies when you were younger, and there are reasons why. One of the reasons why fruits should be included in one’s balanced diet is because they are suitable for you! They also taste good and they are rich in vitamins, minerals, fibres, and antioxidants. Unlike some vegetables that could be an acquired taste, fruits are generally liked by many, and if one doesn’t like a specific fruit, mixing it with other ingredients can be easily done to make it more palatable.  

4 ways to add fruit to your meals

Fruits’ adaptability and flexibility make them great culinary ingredients. You can create anything out of it, from appetisers to desserts and even smoothies. If you wish to try yummy exotic fruits as smoothies, check out https://www.lifessmoothe.com.au/.

What are the health benefits of fruit?

As mentioned, fruits offer numerous health benefits. Here are some of them:

  • It improves heart health by helping in lowering cholesterol and blood pressure.
  • It helps manage diabetes by slowing the absorption of blood sugar.
  • It helps prevent cancer through the presence of antioxidants that fight free radicals in the body.
  • It helps in treating kidney stones by preventing their formation and enlargement. 
  • It helps strengthen the bones by improving their density.

Add fruit to your meals

If you want to incorporate fruit into your meals and make them healthier, you may do so by following these suggestions:

  1. Make delectable hors d’oeuvres

Hors d’oeuvres, also commonly known as appetisers, are typically served at the beginning of the meal to tickle and prepare the palate for what’s to come. Contrary to common practice, they don’t have to be savoury all the time. In fact, you can make fruit appetisers to prepare the taste buds for the heavier part of the meal. 

Popular appetisers with fruits include:

  • Goat cheese, honey, and fruit crostini – crunchy bite-sized toasted bread topped with creamy goat cheese, your choice of fruits in season, and drizzled with organic honey.
  • Fruit and cheese kebabs – you can skewer grapes, strawberries, and kiwi together with Swiss cheese or cheddar. This is always a big hit with kids too.
  • Watermelon caprese skewers – make the summer fruit watermelon stand out with ribbons of prosciutto and slices of pepperoni skewered with creamy mozzarella, or grill the watermelon and serve with a crumbled feta cheese.
4 ways to add fruit to your meals
  1. Mix them to your salad

It is more fun to eat your greens when they’re mixed with something sweet and familiar. Additionally, especially when you have kids, you can introduce fruits and vegetables to them in a fun way by mixing the two with a salad dressing, while giving them the proper nutrients they need. There are several salad fruit cutters on the market to make fancy shapes and save time whilst adding fun to the dish. Here are some salads you can serve with fruits:

  • Waldorf salad – apples, celery, greens, and walnuts with a mayo dressing.
  • Summer salad with vinaigrette – any fruit in season, mixed with an assortment of greens like arugula, romaine, butter lettuce, and your choice of cheese and nuts added. Our refreshing minted goatcheese salad is a perfect example.
  • Spinach and peach salad – spinach tossed with creamy blue cheese, walnuts, and grilled peaches
  • Asian salad – give our Thai style grapefruit salad with succulent king prawns a try.
  1. Add fruit to your baked goods

Fruits are also great when used to make bread or incorporated into recipes of loaves or cakes. No one could resist the tantalising aroma of banana bread baking. Mixed with dark chocolate and nuts, overripe bananas, and those that aren’t too appealing to eat anymore because of their dark patches on the skin will be put to good use. Lemon is another great fruit to use when baking. Lemon bars, meringue pie, torte, loaf, and lemon cake are only a few to name. Lemon’s versatility can be used to transform many yummy pastries. 

orange cake with icing
  1.  Layer fruit on your breakfast jar

Fruits are a popular addition to overnight oats. A great power breakfast treat that you can prepare ahead so you’ll be up and running in the morning. Typically, overnight oats contain rolled oats, your choice of seeds, nuts, fruits, yoghurt, honey, and milk. You layer them in a mason jar and leave them inside the refrigerator. The next day, they’ll be delicious and make you feel full until lunchtime. Many who watch their weight consider this recipe very effective since it doesn’t make you feel hunger pangs. A few popular combinations are:

  • Blueberry chia
  • Banana chocolate
  • Strawberry and peanut butter
  • Peaches, walnuts, and flax seed

What’s essential to remember when making overnight oats is to soak the rolled oats in enough liquid like milk so they will soften and be ready to eat the next day. Adding sweetener like honey is optional since the fruits are already sweet. Greek yoghurt will make the oats creamy, so it would be great not to omit this since it’s also good for you because it’s high in protein and calcium.

Conclusion

Adding fruits to your daily diet is not so difficult to do, especially if you live in a location where these are abundant all the time. In case you can’t access fruits easily, you may try to look for alternatives like frozen fruits and ready-to-prepare fruit smoothie packs that are all-natural and loaded with essential nutrients and vitamins.

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