Tip #23: Take the Fruit and Veggie Challenge!

We all know that fruits and veggies are fantastic for us...but most of you don't eat nearly enough of them.  So, I want to challenge you to eat either a fruit or veggie with every single meal for the next 7 days.  Change it up a bit--stop by the grocery store and give yourself some variety.  For those of you who really struggle with swallowing some of your fruits and veggies, try some V8 Fusion juice.  It's not as good as plain fruit and veggies, but it does have a full serving of fruit and vegetables in one serving!  For the record, corn dogs do not count as a vegetable!  (that's for my Facebook friends :))

Here are a few ideas to get your fruits and veggies in this week:

1.  Make a fruit smoothie with bananas, strawberries, peaches (or with whatever fruit you like)
2. Replace your french fries with a fruit cup if you have any fast food
3. Make homemade banana chocolate chip muffins (recipe below)
4. Carrots and ranch dressing
5. Sliced apples and peanut butter
6. Sliced tomato on sandwiches
7. Spinach leaves on sandwiches
8. Saute' sliced zucchini and yellow squash in some olive oil with garlic and favorite seasonings
9. Throw some blueberries, bananas or strawberries in your cereal or oatmeal
10. Make guacamole!  If you're not up for making homemade, buy a guacamole seasoning packet and mix with 2 avocados.  It actually tastes really good.

Those are some ideas to get you started, but there are endless ways to make fruits and veggies a large segment of your daily diet.  One of the great things about challenging yourself to do this is that the fruits and veggies, along with being so nutritious, will replace a lot of the "junk" that you typically eat.

If this is not already the norm for you, I can assure you that at the end of the week, you will find eating this many fruits and veggies to be refreshingly delicious!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
2 ripe bananas
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup oil (OR replace with 1/2 cup applesauce)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
dark chocolate chips

*Combine wet ingredients.  Add dry ingredients.  Stir in chocolate chips.
*Bake @ 350 degrees for 14 minutes (for mini muffins).  For regular size muffins, bake until "springy" on top.
*This is one of my family's favorites!

Let me know how your 7 day challenge goes!