Tips and Tricks to Eating More Fruits and Veggies

If your family was anything like mine, the veggies of our childhood were overcooked and bland. I am still traumatized by the way my dad cooked zucchini. He would cook it on the grill in tin foil until basically there was nothing left. You have to give him credit for trying but the zucchini was so overcooked that it was pretty much inedible.  I still have a hard time eating cooked zucchini because of it.

Fast forward to when I met my husband, the contents of his fridge was only string cheese and beer. And he hated vegetables, he even took the lettuce off of his hamburgers because he said he didn’t like the taste (like you can even taste that!)

Me on the other hand, I love the freshness and crispness of fruits and vegetables so I try and get as much in as I can. I currently have a 5 mandarin a day habit, which might be overdoing it slightly.

Over the years I have discovered a couple keys to getting your loved ones to eat more fruits and vegetables, (more so vegetables for me at least). The obvious answer is to properly cook them but even more helpful is adding a ton of flavor to them. One of the ways I love to do this is through sauces and dips. I have teamed up with Bolthouse Farms and their incredible variety of salad dressings to show you how to get even the pickiest of eaters to eat more fruits and vegetables.  

Enter the first recipe, sweet potato nachos. Who can resist any dish with the word nacho in it, right? I swapped out the corn tortilla chips for sweet potato wedges and topped the sweet potatoes with avocado, radish, sprouts and black beans. I also threw on some some fried eggs, because a perfectly runny egg yolk will convince even the pickiest of eaters that this dish is worth eating. I added a little cheese to keep them similar enough to real nachos, but the real key to this recipe was adding a ton of flavor by drizzling the Bolthouse Farms Cilantro Avocado Yogurt dressing on top. Just because the bottle says salad dressing, doesn’t mean you only have to use it on salad. This cilantro yogurt situation is the perfect creamy addition that creates a super flavorful and much healthier version of nachos that you can feel good about eating.

Another way to get more fruits and vegetables is to use a salad dressing as a dipping sauce. In these fresh spring rolls, I loaded them with lots of fruits and veggies like radish, yellow bell peppers, mango, and spiralized zucchini. I also think people are more likely to eat more veggies when they don’t look like a boring salad. Spring rolls are a little more unique of dish and the rice paper wrappers makes them seem a little heartier.  I paired these spring rolls with Bolthouse Farm’s Mango Chipotle Yogurt dressing as a dipping sauce and it was a total winner.

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Here is how you make these fruit and veggie filled recipes:

Sweet Potato Nachos

  • 2 lbs. sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 cup sharp white cheddar cheese, grated
  • 1 cup black beans
  • ½ cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  • 3 radishes, sliced thinly
  • 1 avocado, skin and pit removed and sliced thinly
  • 3 eggs
  • ¾ cup Bolthouse Farms Cilantro Avocado Dressing
  • Garnish with jalapenos, sprouts, green onions and lime wedges

Pre-heat oven to 400°F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl toss to combine the sweet potatoes, olive oil and a big pinch of salt and pepper.

Roast sweet potatoes for about 35 to 40 minutes or until fork tender and the edges are golden brown. (The cook time for this will depend on how thick the wedges are.)

Carefully transfer sweet potatoes to a casserole dish and top with cheese and black beans. Bake the sweet potato, cheese and black beans for about 5 to 7 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Top the sweet potato with the tomatoes, radish and avocado.

In a large non-stick pan, fry the eggs for about 2 to 3 minutes over medium heat until the whites are just cooked through. Carefully transfer the eggs to the top of the sweet potato nachos.

Drizzle nachos with the Bolthouse Farms Cilantro Avocado dressing then garnish with jalapenos, sprouts, green onions and lime wedges. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls

  • 12 rice paper wrappers, about 6” in diameter
  • 1 watermelon radish, thinly sliced
  • 1 zucchini, spiralized
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, seeds removed, thinly
  • 1 mango, peeled and pit removed, thinly sliced
  • handful of fresh mint leaves
  • 1 cup Bolthouse Farms Mango Chipotle Yogurt Dressing
  • Garnish with lime wedges and sesame seeds

Fill a medium sized bowl with warm water. Place two rice paper wrappers in the water and let them soak for about 30 seconds to 1 minutes or until soft. Place wrappers on top of each other on a clean kitchen counter.

Arrange a combination of the radish, zucchini, bell pepper, mango and mint across the center of the rice paper wrapper; fold the ends in over the filling and then roll up tightly from the edge closest to you. Repeat the process to make the remaining rolls.

Serve spring rolls with the Bolthouse Farms Mango Chipotle Yogurt dressing and garnish with sesame seeds and lime wedges.

Makes 6 spring rolls.

 

**This post is in partnership with Bolthouse Farms. All opinions stated are my own and I only promote products I love and use. Thanks so much for supporting the brands that support me! 

 

FoodAmanda Frederickson2 Comments