14%

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 14 percent of American adults eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Health experts recommend five servings of fruits and veggies a day.

I try to sneak fruits and veggies into my main meals, such as today’s lunch… a big fat BBQ chicken salad!

Many people find other foods more convenient and easier to eat, allowing fresh fruits and vegetables to fall to the wayside. It’s easy to grab a granola bar, pour a bowl of cereal or cook up some pasta.

Chopping, roasting or sauteing veggies seems like work! To me, the extra effort is worth it, and doesn’t really feel like work at all anymore. Sure dicing up the veggies for my salad wasn’t amazingly fun, but with Ryan in the kitchen quizzing me on questions out of the 1,000 Questions to Ask Before You Get Married book (a lovely gift from my friend Laurel), it didn’t seem so bad.

I like to incorporate veggies into my meal staples… adding strawberries or fresh fruit to my Greek yogurt enhances my morning breakfast. Adding tomato slices, spinach or broccoli slaw to a pita pocket or wrap makes my lunch more filling. Enjoying roasted brussels sprouts, spaghetti squash or steamed green beans adds beautiful color and taste to my evening meal.

Today’s salad was full o’ veggies! I topped a bed of broccoli slaw and fresh spinach with diced carrots, celery, plum tomato and leftover BBQ chicken from last night’s dinner.

The serving size for most fruits and veggies is a half of a cup (or a piece of fruit), or one cup for leafy greens such as spinach or lettuce.

This salad probably contained almost a full day’s worth of veggies! I had two cups of broccoli slaw as the base for the salad and with all the other veggies as my toppings, hitting the recommended serving of veggies wasn’t too hard.

My salad was topped my salad with balsamic vinegar (love this stuff) and I shook it up so everything was evenly dispersed.

I love a good veggie-full feeling. There’s just something about knowing your belly is full of fresh, healthy and nutrient-rich foods.

Don’t worry, I didn’t neglect my fruits today.

I added some fruit toppers to my mid-morning Greek yogurt snack.

I topped the thick yogurt with strawberries, Brothers-All-Natural apple crisps, honey ‘n’ flax Pumpkorn and slivered almonds.

Also, in case you were wondering, Washington, D.C. residents apparently eat the most servings of fruits and veggies while poor Mississippi ranked last for produce consumption. Eek!

Question: What are your favorite ways for sneaking fruits and veggies into your diet?