NOW CLOSED Share your thoughts on eating your 5-a-day with innocent and win a £150 Amazon voucher

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

We've been asked by innocent, the smoothie makers, to find out how you hit the five portions of fruit and veg a day goal. Do you religiously munch on carrot sticks and apples or do you rustle up more imaginative healthy dishes? Or does the whole thing pass you by and you want to find out how to fit the recommended five portions of fruit and veg into your diet?

innocent want to hear your hints and tips on how to pack the fruit and veg in, whether it's recipe ideas or quick and easy snacks. They'd also love to hear how you go about getting your DCs to eat their 5-a-day - have you emerged victorious from any difficult battles with veg? Do you have any top tips for sneaking fruit and veg into what they eat? What hints/advice can you give other MNers facing the same problems?

Everyone who adds their comments to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win £150 Amazon vouchers. Your hints and tips may feature on innocent's mini-site on Mumsnet here.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

Two additional tips:

1. We've been growing our own veg (in pots...we only have a very small london garden!) for a few years....we don't get much out compared to the effort we put in, but the dcs get really stuck in, from negotiating and selecting what we're going to grow, to getting the seeds sprouting, repotting, weeding, watering and, of course, picking and eating :) Their enthusiasm for the whole process definitely helps with their whole approach to veg on their plates through the year.

1. 'Minestrone' soup....we get a veg box every week and usually end up with a large pile of unidentifiable sprouting green stuff in the garage every few weeks...the whole lot gets chopped up small and sauteed through with carrots/onions/leeks, a couple of tins of beans, some garlic, some pasta, some tomatoes/passata and (if there's any room in the saucepan) some veg stock. I make an enormous batch, and the whole family wolf it down with large amounts of bread...its a great way to use up all the oddments of veg languishing in the back of the fridge!

(or you can do the same thing, but omit the pasta and stock, possibly add some quorn mince and call it 'pasta sauce')

My children will eat anything from graze box, which is one of the ways I get my children to eat dried fruit

Dh firmly believes that lemon Yumyums count towards his five-a-day. His reasoning is that lemons are fruit, flour is made from wheat, which is a sort of vegetable, and sugar is made from sugar beet - also a sort of vegetable. Irritatingly, he can get several of his five-a-day in this manner, yet still stays slim.

We're quite lucky in that both DSs like veg and fruit, so there's no cajoling or hiding veg needed. I seem to neglect myself though - all our meals are cooked from scratch so contain veg or have veg on the side, but I keep forgetting to eat fruit myself . Never seem to have time. I do try and snack on dried fruit instead of biscuits.....

Juice is useful, and the odd smoothie.

Fruit is the easiest to give to my dts (age 10) as they will happily try anything and will go pick tangerines or melon from the fridge as snacks.

I don't make an issue with veggies. They prefer broccoli and carrots raw, what is the point of cooking them then, I give them raw along with sliced peppers and they munchy crunch away!

There are some really good pasta sauce recipes that make use of plenty of vegetables - in fact I got one from the recipe section on Mumsnet that I use constantly and dts love it better than anything I've bought. I cook in batches so there is plenty in the freezer to use.

I also don't have the 5-a-day in my head, I've just gotten into a routine of supplying good, healthy food without making a fuss - dts have never noticed that they're not supposed to like veg. If they have their preferences then go with that and the rest will follow.

I have juice with breakfast, and fruit on my cereal.
Fruit as a snack, and then a portion of veg with lunch (if not two) and another with my evening meal.
Variety isn't great though - OJ, blueberries, carrots, peppers, brocolli, satsumas, bananas, grapes and the occasional apple are about it. I'm not including potatoes/parsnips/swede in this as they always seem more carb than veg to me.

Best thing I've found for uping fruit/veg is to bring out a bowl of veg sticks/chopped fruit when watching tv. It get's eaten without much thought, and better healthy stuff than the biscuits and crisps we would eat otherwise.

I'm a bit too slack with my 5 a day for myself, more on the ball with the kids.

Two toppest top tips are:

• Peas and sweetcorn in a packet of instant noodles as a quick lunch
• Puree lots of healthy veg and add to spaghetti bolognaise/ chilli con carne. They'd never eat green cabbage, celery, courgette, mushroom, but these with carrots, tomatoes etc. pureed into a sauce and they LOVE it.

Fresh juice / smoothie with breakfast.
Sliced banana with weetabix or pancakes.

Apples / oranges for snacks.

Brocolli / green beans with hot meals. More variety with roasts.
Sliced peppers on home made pizza.
Mozarella salads (greens / tomato / grilled peppers) with olives in pitta bread.
Home made cottage pie crammed with veg and lentils to bulk it out.

Grated carrot mixed with cream cheese as a sandwich / wrap filling.

If you have space, growing veg, fruit in the garden in the summer months. My raspberries are at more at risk from the children than the birds .

I normally manage 5, sometimes 4.

I find it harder to take a fruit/veg heavy based meal as a packed lunch than a sandwich - salads don't stay very nice for very long, or there isn't anywhere to heat up a veg soup etc. It means I get nearly all my fruit/veg in the evening. I worry about sugar content and I do find the cost makes things difficult.

I also have a "thing" about buying fruit from somewhere like Pret. I KNOW an apple from Pret is as good/bad for me as an apple from home, but I just get all funny buying fruit if I can't wash it first. This makes it tricky to eat more fruit during the day.

I generally get 3 portions of veg into the evening meal, then fruit for breakfast and a snack and I'm there. I find it a bit tedious though sometimes.

I eat far too much fruit and not enough veg. don't like cold food and dislike salad as much as I dislike the Coalition government intensely. I usually eat a fruit box from Sainsburys with juice and veggie soup for lunch.

I am hopeless at eating fruit. I just don't enjoy snacking on it and finding it filling. Its a new years resolution to eat fruit as a snack. Veg is no problem.

My DD (20 months) loves fruit. It was winter when we started weaning so not a lot of fresh fruit around. Fruit purees were a hit especially apple and pear with pinch of cinnamon. We found fruit pouches very good as well to introduce other fruits that weren't in season. She currently loves snacking on dried apple and banana slices.

Best way to get veg into diet was stews, shepherds pie, soup, lasagne and pasta sauces. She loves roasts, especially roasted potato, sweet potato and butternut squash.

Forgot to add, cannot wait to take her to a pick your own farm. We don't have enough room to grow fruit but she loved helping her grandparents pick their blackberries and strawberries.

I try to hit 5 a day, mainly through having lots of veg in curries, stews or pasta dishes.

I'm not mad about fruit myself but DD1, who isn't a great eater, loves fruit so most of her snacks are fruit which really helps, she hits 5 a day easily just through snacking on fruit.

DD2 will eat anything and veg goes in everything...even macaroni cheese which she loves is loaded with peas, sweetcorn, carrots etc. so it's not just pasta and cheese.

Thanks everyone for adding your comments, innocent will find this all very helpful and keep an eye here to see if your comments are used.
We have also done the prize draw, and congratulations go to.......
Queenmarigold
You've won £150 worth of Amazon vouchers, I'll PM you to get your details.

I was inspired a few years ago by M&S kids' meals with "hidden vegetables". I have always made sauces in bulk to freeze for later - especially tomato and bolognese. Now I add some puréed greens - peas, broccoli, whatever's handy - into the sauce and hey presto. It improves the sauce and means my son eats vegetables he wouldn't normally agree to.

I think maybe fruit, vegetables, root veg especially, and a healthy soup. Vegetable crisps are good too. It is good to take snacks on long journeys - oranges and apples and plums and pears. And I love peaches and berries. (Dictated by DD, age 6)