Women at work and their tips, challenges, advice, complaints, and experiences

Remember how the USDA updated the food pyramid a couple of years back and re-emphasized the importance of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in our diets?  It's important to note that it's not always easy to incorporate that many servings of anything in our own diets, and it can be even more difficult if you're dealing with kids.  After all, what constitutes a serving, anyway?  And exactly how many servings is each member of your family supposed to be devouring? 

When it comes to fruit, you can figure a toddler should be eating about a cup of fruit a day; preschoolers and elementary-age kids around 1 - 1 1/2 cups, and preteens and high schoolers 1 1/2 to 2 cups.  And it sure won't hurt us grown-ups to eat at least that much fruit either!

Granted it's easy to figure out that a medium apple counts as a serving, but what if you're not that "into" raw fruits?  Here are eight ways to toss in a little variety and maybe mix up the menu plan a bit too.

1. Make one night a week "Family Pizza Night".  Make homemade pizza for dinner (add lots of veggies, another important serving!) and then build a fruit pizza together.  Yum!
2. Grab frozen blueberries, raspberries and the like, let them defrost, and drop spoonfuls into vanilla yogurt to make a tasty parfait.  (Woohoo!  Calcium too!)
3. Blend up your favorite fruit and berry mixtures and make frozen popsicles.
4. Toss a handful of Craisins, raisins, dried blueberries or other goodies onto the top of your oatmeal.
5. Ready for a refuel?  Slice up an apple and serve it with peanut butter, Nutella, or your favorite yogurt for dipping.  Looking for something more exotic?  Try dried mango and papaya dipped in yogurt or melted carob.
6. Wash and freeze a bunch of grapes.  Sooo cool for older kids and adults during the dog days of summer!
7. Make your own fancy chocolate dipped fruits.  Lay out a cookie sheet or some waxed paper first.  Then melt some dark chocolate squares (antioxidants, right?) and dip dried apricots, pineapple chunks, strawberries, or other faves into the chocolate.  Let cool on the waxed paper and chow down!
8. Mix up the old standby: smoothies.  I'm sure you can find all sorts of recipes for making smoothies with your favorite fruit(s) online!

Here's a bonus idea: try serving fruit with meat.  Yes, really!  You can bake tilapia, chicken, and many other things with mandarin oranges and other treats.  Toss burgers on the grill and make up some fruit on skewers to grill as kabobs too!  Something to consider the next time you're trying to use up what's in the pantry or freezer, stretch the grocery budget, and stay healthy.  (Can you tell I've done all three with tilapia filets and oranges?)

(Image courtesy of Jacci Howard Bear http://desktoppub.about.com/)