45 Easy Ways to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables (with recipes)

Trying to eat healthy shouldn't feel like a full-time job. If you're struggling to fit enough produce into your diet because you're short on time or watching your budget, you're in the right place. I've rounded up 45 easy ways to eat more fruit and vegetables without spending all day in the kitchen.

Whether you are following Weight Watchers or just looking for clever pantry hacks to sneak more nutrients into your family's meals, these recipes and tips make hitting your daily requirements a breeze. Ready to simplify your healthy lifestyle? Let's dive in.

🍓🥕Benefits of Eating Fruits and Vegetables 

According to Harvard School of Public Health, a diet rich in vegetables and fruits can play a major role in disease control, lowering high blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke, preventing some types of cancer, lowering the risk of eye and digestive problems, and having a positive effect on blood sugar, keeping you sated.

Eating non-starchy vegetables and fruits like apples, pears, and leafy greens may even promote weight loss. Clearly, there is a good reason to be eating more fruits and vegetables. This is good news because lifestyle is something you can control. You can read more about fruits and vegetables benefits here.

🥞Start early in the day - at Breakfast!

Start early- at breakfast. That way, you'll be well on your way to meeting your daily intake requirements, especially if your meal planning gets highjacked (for whatever reason) later in the day!

1. Smoothies and smoothie bowls - Make a breakfast smoothie or smoothie bowl with bananas, berries, or mango (I add Greek yogurt for protein.) Try my Vegan Blueberry Cookie Smoothie or my Raspberry Gingerbread Smoothie
2. On your toast - Avocado toast is my fave breakfast - take a piece of rye bread, toast it, mash ½ an avocado on top, sprinkle with Everything Bagel Seasoning, top with a sunny side up fried egg, then drizzle with sriracha sauce.

1. Toppings: You'll love my Apple Cinnamon topping on pancakes and waffles! And it's a great way to use up a lot of apples that would have otherwise gone bad.
2. In pancakes: my Sheet Pan Pumpkin Pie Pancakes are fast and easy or they can be made ahead. And my Healthy Red Velvet Pancakes (with Sweet Chocolate Cream Cheese Butter (shown below) are easy to make with canned beets.

5. Omelettes: try a quick Microwave Omelette in a Mug for your morning omelet and add veggies like spinach and mushrooms to it!
6. Make Overnight Oats: These Healthy Bananas Foster Overnight Oats are a great way to use up ripe bananas! Or add fruit to your morning oatmeal!
7. Biscotti: try my Pumpkin Biscotti or my Chocolate Zucchini Biscotti for the ultimate dessert breakfast!
8. Breakfast Burritos: My Vegetarian Mediterranean Breakfast Burritos (shown below) have spinach and sun-dried tomatoes!
9. On the side: Opt for fresh fruit on the side, instead of an extra piece of toast. It doesn't have to be time-consuming. Grab a piece of fruit, eat the fruit whole, slice it up or make it a garnish* Find out how to make an easy and fun kiwi flower garnish in seconds! (pictured below)

🥪Lunch (at home or on the go)

Vegetables for lunch

10. Wraps-add veggies like shredded/grated raw carrots. You'll love my 5 Minute Turkey Bacon Ranch Wrap *And you can buy pre-shredded carrots at the grocery store.
11. Add frozen vegetables to frozen microwave lunches: cook up a cup or two of mixed frozen veggies in the microwave and add them to your frozen microwave meal. You'll get that extra boost of vitamins and it will be more filling.
12. Stuff it! Try my Tuna Stuffed Tomatoes
13. Make a Salad in a Jar to go - try my No Cook Mason Jar Chicken Taco Salad (shown below).
14. Add veggies to your sandwiches: Cucumbers are easy to add to sandwiches, like in my Buffalo Chicken Panini and a Chicken Breast Burger.

15. Side of veggies and dip: I bring along a little side of baby carrots and sliced cucumbers with dip (I like Litehouse Ranch dressing) with all my sandwiches. That way I can eat them anywhere (in my car, at my desk at work etc...)
16. Add fruit to your yogurt. It can be fresh, canned or frozen. I also add my Apple Cinnamon Topping to my yogurt.
17. Add avocado to one side of your sandwich, instead of mayonnaise: this works especially well on turkey bacon BLT's!

🍌Snacks

18. Eat it on the go! Homemade Energy bars are a great way to eat fruit on the go! *This recipe is no bake and uses dried fruit.
19. Make it fun! Make a banana man by adding chocolate chips to a banana (3 for eyes and nose and 3 for buttons). I used to do this for my kids when they were young and I was trying to get them to eat more fruit (shown below). I still do it for myself when I'm torn between eating healthy and wanting chocolate (which is pretty much all the time) :). You can also make a quick, easy and healthy shredded carrot and apple wrap with raisins into "sushi" . Or add fruits and vegetables to Jell-O and cut it into fun shapes like hearts! (This is also a great way to sneak veggies into food for toddlers)

20. Raw veggies with healthy dip. My fave is Hummus !
21. Make your veggies into chips! Instead of eating potato chips, try my Parsnip Crisps. You can use an air fryer (instead of deep frying them) and they make a wonderful topping for salad, as well as a snack! Or try my Air Fryer Parsnip Fries!
22. Add healthy sprinkles: Sprinkle apple slices with cinnamon or unsweetened coconut.
23. Dip your fruit too! Dip your apple slices or other fruit in vanilla or chocolate yogurt, Dark Chocolate Hummus, apple butter, peanut butter, Nutella, almond butter or Oatmeal Raisin Edible Cookie Dough Dip
24. Add fruit on top: Take a healthy snack like rice cakes with peanut butter, almond butter or chocolate cream cheese and add sliced bananas on top (shown)

25. Drink your veggies- drink vegetable juice, in the form of tomato juice or V8 (but be careful re sodium) or make fresh fruit juice (if you have a juicer). You can also add frozen strawberries to punch (instead of ice) or make a fruit punch ring.
26. Make healthy appetizers out of vegetables: Try my buffalo chicken zucchini pizza, celery sticks, stuffed mini peppers, and my Air Fryer Potato Skins!
27. Add fruits and veggies to your muffins. Try my Healthy Carrot Muffins with Pineapple, Healthy Rhubarb Muffins , Chocolate Weight Watchers Zucchini muffins, or my Healthy Pumpkin Bran Muffins

🍽️Dinner

How to incorporate fruits and vegetables into dinner

28. Get your veggies in your soup! I've got lots of soup recipes loaded with veggies that are easy and can be made ahead: Carrot soup, Italian wedding soup (with frozen spinach), Borscht (made with quick canned beets), Easy Healthy Minestrone Soup, Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup, and Pumpkin soup (you can use fresh or canned pumpkin).
29. Hidden veggies - increase your vegetable intake by sneaking veggies into other soups and sauces. When I make Shredded Zucchini & Feta Sauté (shown below), I grate extra zucchini and freeze it. Then I simply add it to my hamburger soup or spaghetti sauce/pasta sauce right out of the freezer. Other veggies, like carrots, can also be puréed in sauces as well and added to pasta dishes. Even my Zucchini Lasagna tastes like regular lasagna!

30. Make a healthy dinner wrap with lots of veggies and turkey or chicken (or leftover turkey or chicken)
31. Add fruit to main meat dishes: You can use a fruit salsa that pairs well with meats, or try my Apple Sage Pork Chops or Grilled Glazed Maple Cranberry Chicken (with Cranberry Salsa)
32. Make the vegetables the star of the show! Try my Perogy Zucchini Boats, Honey Sriracha Lettuce Wraps (shown below) for an irresistible main dish!

33. Make a casserole (in advance!) Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole, Turnip and Apple Casserole or Potato and Ground Beef Casserole (with spinach)
34. Make your veggies on the side! Side dish ideas include: Green beans and mushrooms, Healthy Roasted Carrots, Artichoke and Red Pepper Coleslaw , Sweet potato fries or Quick Cucumber Kimchi or a simple side salad. You can also add a simple sauce to your vegetables (such as a cheese sauce on cauliflower).
35. Substitute healthy stuff for carbs (rice and noodles): Use cauliflower rice instead of regular rice or zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash in place of noodles.
36. Make a healthier pizza crust: try cauliflower pizza crust!

🍨 Dessert

37. Add veggies to your cookies! These Spinach chocolate chip cookies, Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies and Beet Red Velvet cookies are sooo good you'd never know they had vegetables in them!
38. Make your ice cream NICE CREAM (shown)- it's made with bananas! Or make Potato Ice Cream ("Cookies N' Creamers No Churn Ice Cream")
39. Bake your fruit and veggies in! Carrot bread, Apple Bread, Pumpkin Bread, Carrot cake, Banana Bread (with Lime Glaze)and Spinach brownies are all great ways to add vegetables and fruit to your baking!

40. Add dried fruit to desserts. Try them in muffins, rice krispie squares or chocolate cereal clusters and chocolate energy bites. My favorite dried fruits to use are: dried apricots, dried cranberries and dried cherries,
41. Eat it straight up! Make a Fruit salad.
42. Use frozen fruit in recipes: Try frozen raspberries on my Raspberry Frozen Yogurt Bark (shown) and in my Blueberry Cornbread Recipe.
43. Make Fruit Popsicles! You'll avoid food waste and get a healthy, delicious dessert! Try my Pure Fruit Popsicles or Frozen Fruit Cubes or my Chocolate Banana Popsicles.
44. Make a Quick Mug Dessert with fruit: You'll love my Apple crisp in a mug and my Microwave Chocolate Banana Mug Cake for a quick and healthy dessert.
45. Make mousse or pudding out of avocado: Avocado Chocolate Mousse is delicious, quick and easy to make and no one will know there are veggies in it!

❔FAQ's

🍽Equipment

Need an Air Fryer and not sure which one to buy? Check out my What to Look for in an Air Fryer article.

I have the Ninja Foodi dual drawer air fryer (affiliate link) and love it!

⭐ Reviews

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